"YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ‘OUT OF IT’ TO BE A CHRISTIAN"

I suppose the most prominent attitude today among professing Christians is summed up by a statement on the cover of a Danny Orlis novel: "You don’t have to be ‘out of it’ to be a Christian." But may I have permission to ask a question? "What is the ‘It’ you do not have to

be out of to be a Christian?" Is not the statement intended to mean, "You don’t have to be odd, or different to be a Christian?"

Let me pose another question: "Seeing that since we are to be ‘an holy nation,’ ‘a peculiar people’, is this statement Scriptural?" "Are we not rather to be the ’ecclesia’, the ‘called out Ones?’" "Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye SEPARATE, saith the Lord." (II Peter 2:9; II Corinthians 6:17)

If we are "separate from the world," will not "worldlings" consider us an oddity? Will not honest men appear as oddities to dishonest men? And will not liberal men appear as oddities to the covetous? Will not men who are devout in their worship of Jehovah appear as oddities to those "who worship the gods of gold and silver?

May I venture a third question? "Isn’t the willingness to appear as an oddity, or better yet, to appear as ‘out of it’ --isn’t this what Scripture means by the "Reproach of Christ" and by the "Offence of the Cross?" And remember Jesus said, "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me is not "WORTHY of Me." (Matthew 10:35)

True Christians are not of this world even as Christ their Master is not of this world. Perhaps the reason why so many professing Christians are not "out of it" is due to a false profession.

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APRIL 16, 1521 --Germany. Martin Luther enters the city of Worms. When the day comes for him to approach the Diet meeting here, he is met by a valiant knight, the celebrated general George of Freundsberg. On seeing the man of God he clasps him on the shoulder as he passes, and shaking his head, he kindly says to him, "Poor monk, poor monk, you have before you a march and an affair, the like to which neither I nor a great many captains have ever seen in the bloodiest of our battles. But if your cause is just, and you have full confidence in it, advance in the name of God and fear nothing. God will not forsake you.

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IN THE CHAPEL OF THE BON AIR RESIDENTIAL HOTEL

SUNDAY- 11:00 AM, 7:00 PM WEDNESDAY-7:30 PM

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The HERALD of High Springs, Florida, for Thursday, March 1, 1979, reports:

Madalyn Murray O’Hare, whose efforts successfully eliminated the use of Bible reading and prayer from all public schools, has been granted a federal heating in Washington, D.C. on the subject of religion and airways by the Federal Communications Commission. This petition (No. R.M. 2493) would ultimately pave the way to eliminate the proclamation of the Gospel via airways of America. She took her petition bearing 27,900 signatures to back her stand.

If her attempt is successful, ALL Sunday Worship Services currently being broadcast either by radio or television would cease. Many elderly people and shut-ins, as well as those recuperating from hospitalization or illness, depend on radio and television to fulfill their worship needs every week. Her petition also protests the decision of the astronauts to read the Bible as a Christian message to the world from the spacecraft while orbiting the moon in 1963.

YOU CAN HELP THIS TIME.... we NEED 1,000,000 (one million) signed letters. This would defeat Mrs. O’Hare and show her there are still many Christians ALIVE and WELL in our great country.

The petition is number R.M. 2493. Put this number on the envelope you use to mail your letter. A letter awaiting your signature is on the bottom of this form. You may make additional copies as you wish. ONLY ONE SIGNATURE to a letter.

Federal Communication Commission

1919 M Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20036

RE: Petition No. R.M. 2493

Gentlemen:

I personally appreciate and wholeheartedly support the Sunday Worship service, plus many other religious programs that are broadcast over radio and television. Many sick and elderly shut-ins depend on radio and television to fulfill their worship needs.

I urge you to see to it that such programming continues.

Signed:

Address:

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A Recent Issue of the AUGUSTA HERALD, Augusta, Georgia reports:

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the avowed atheist who fried the suit that resulted in barring recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools, is now waging war to have "In God We Trust" removed from U.S. currency.

She lost a suit in the U.S. Circuit of Appeals in New Orleans, but she says the ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court which granted her

request in the prayer case.

Mrs. O’Hair is quoted as saying she does not know where the current status of the controversy leaves Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists.

The fact is these people, with the exception of the self-appointed spokeswoman for the atheists, seem to be unbothered by what’s printed on our money as long as it is an acceptable medium of exchange. – The Greenville News.

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ATHEISM AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

"Let’s face it," said Madalyn Murray O’Hair, speaking recently to a group of self-professed atheists in San Francisco, "There is no way we could have held an atheist convention ten years ago. Everything is much better. Part of the reason is public education."

--The Review of the News, Jan. 3, 1979.

APRIL 21, 1700 --Massachusetts. Cotton Mather writes, "This day, my servant was offered unto the communion of my church. But in the account that she gave to the church of her conversion, she declared her living in my family to have been the means of it, and that she should forever bless God for bringing her under my roof.

"Others of my servants formerly (and almost all that ever lived with me have joined unto my church while they have lived with me, and blessed God for their living in my poor, sinful family."

APRIL 29, 1559 --Eng1and. Parliament passes the New Supremacy Act rejecting all authority of the Pope over the Church of England.