What will be the fearful judgment-seat of Him, Who, even as a Suckling, struck terror into haughty kings? How much wiser is the thought of those kings who seek Christ like the wise men, to worship Him, than of those who seek Him, like Herod, to slay Him! (St. Augustine, 6th lesson of Matins of the second day within the Octave of the Epiphany)*1
Preface
I have been planning to write some book reviews to this site, and for first one I picked Ms. Lauren Drain’s Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, which appeared today. Ms. Drain is the eldest child of the publicity coordinator of the Westboro Baptist Church Mr. Steve Drain, and she left the church in 2008. As a preview to the book I present this writing about this church of Pastor Fred Phelps. I first time heard about Phelps’ church was in the year 2000, when it announced it would come to Finland to picket our pro-homosexual President, and also that it would publicly burn Finnish flag at the center of Helsinki. After there were two school-shootings in Finland in 2007 and 2008, where several people were killed, the church praised God for killings and said it was divine revenge for Scandinavians, who were “fag-enablers” and atheists, and also that God hates Finland and Sweden, and that God had sent the shooters.*2
Westboro Baptist Church has remained faithful to its policy, and has recently gained new notoriety. People Magazine published a special issue on December 31, 2012, which in pages 52-59 presented all the children and teachers, who were killed in the Newtown tragedy. With color pictures and short biographies, the story gave really well the faces and personalities to each of the victims. It also retold many hero-stories, as when the principal Dawn Hochsprung lunged at the shooter Adam Lanza, trying to save children. On the oppose of human heroism, this blog writing shows very well how, in the light of the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade decision, a Catholic should look the massacre and President Obama’s reaction to it.
Three days after the shooting, on Monday, December 17, 2012, the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church published the following news release:
GOD SENT THE SHOOTER!
WBC TO PICKET THE FUNERAL OF SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL DAWN HOCHSPRUNG, AT WOODBURY FUNERAL HOME, 2 SCHOOL STREET, WOODBURY, CT, DEC. 19, 2:15 – 3PM
Shooter Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary, Newton, CT, killing 26: 18 children & 8 adults.
GOD WILL NOT HAVE FAG MARRIAGE!
The blood of the #Newtown dead is on the hands of every preacher, teacher, parent & leader of Connecticut.
How many more of your children will you sacrifice to your filthy fag marriage?! You prove you hate your kids by making Connecticut one of the first states to institute fag marriage. Marrying & giving in marriage. You marry wives (divorce & remarriage) and give men in marriage (same-sex marriage), just as Christ said would happen just before the time that He returns in power and glory, taking vengeance on the disobedient (Luke 17; 2 Thes. 1). The truth is, your children are better off dead, than raised for such great wrath and destruction as you have brought to this land. What sorrow! What lamentation! What woe! No hope for any child of this nation outside of Westboro Baptist Church. Teach them to fear God, or leave them to desolation, darkness & destruction. #NoFagMarriage
GOD H8S FAG MARRIAGE!
After this announcement, the Internet hacker group Anonymous took over the church’s spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper’s Twitter-account and used it to re-tweet messages supporting the hacking, as well as the new promotion of a petition to recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group. The group also successfully took down the church’s main website GodHatesFags.com and claimed to have filed a death certificate for Phelps-Roper.
By the end of December, more than 475,000 people signed petitions asking the White House to name the church a hate group or end its tax-exempt status. The requests were among the most popular on the White House site. The Southern Poverty Law Center has already named the church “arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America” because of the anti-gay signs its members have carried at hundreds of military funerals. Church members say the protests reflect their view that God is punishing America for tolerance of gays and lesbians.*3
PART I: THE CALVINISTIC THEOLOGY OF THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH
The Westboro Baptist Church (hereafter WBC) is very traditional Protestant denomination in a sense, that it follows the doctrines of many big Protestant reformers. These include the German Martin Luther, the Englishman John Bunyan, and the American preacher Jonathan Edwards, who in his time asserted that God “holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider [and] His wrath towards you burns like fire,” and that “Hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized children.”*4 Fred Phelps has from the start been the fervent advocate of the Calvinist concept of limited atonement, where Christ died for those and those only, whom He will eventually save. One of Phelps’ favorite verses are the words of St. Paul to the Romans: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”*5 He is as fiercely opposed to the modern style of preaching, where Christian preachers say to their listeners, that God loves everybody, which the Scriptures infallibly denies.*6
But in its ecclesiology the WBC differs very much from most of the free Protestant denominations. Like Roman Catholics, Fred Phelps also teaches, that in Matthew 16 Christ established one true Church, over which the gates of hell would not prevail. Phelps has stated, that there exist only two denominations, to which this statement of Christ can be applied to: Baptists and Catholics. Reason is, that the Church of Christ has to have had its existence through all the centuries. And in Baptist ecclesiology, the Church of Jerusalem was the first Baptist Church and the other churches of the New Testament were independent and democratic, which all had their commission from Christ, and which continued their existence throughout the centuries. Tendency toward hierarchy started in the third century, when bishops took unscriptural authority, and started to create gap between clergy and laity. This is why Fred Phelps does not use the title “Reverend” but only “Pastor”.*7
To express, how great weight Phelps puts on the apostolicity of the Baptists, he quotes the authority of two Dutch Reformed theologians, Drs. Ypeig and J.J. Dermont. These two published in 1819 a treatise called Origin of the Dutch Baptists for the use of the Government of Holland. In it they wrote: “The Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the Apostles; and as a Christian Society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the Gospel through all ages. The perfectly correct external and internal economy of the Baptist denomination, tends to confirm the truth, disputed by the Romish Church, that the Reformation brought about in the sixteenth century, was in the highest degree necessary; and, at the same time, goes to refute the erroneous notion of the Catholics that their communion is the most ancient.”*8
Phelps has proclaimed, that “every sound Baptist” adheres faithfully to the Baptist Philadelphia Confession of Faith from 1742.*9 That confession states in a concise manner the doctrine of absolute predestination: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.”*10 This doctrine of predestination some people to heaven and others to hell, has been taken from French Reformer John Calvin, who wrote in the Third Book of his work Institutes of the Christian Religion:
Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which he has determined in himself, what he would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestinated either to life or to death. – - Paul, therefore, justly reasons from the passage of Malachi which I have just quoted, that where God, introducing the covenant of eternal life, invites any people to himself, there is a peculiar kind of election as to part of them, so that he does not efficaciously choose all with indiscriminate grace. The declaration, “Jacob have I loved,” respects the whole posterity of the patriarch, whom the prophet there opposes to the descendants of Esau. Yet this is no objection to our having in the person of one individual a specimen of the election, which can never fail of attaining its full effect. These, who truly belong to Christ, Paul correctly observes, are called “a remnant;” for experience proves, that of a great multitude the most part fall away and disappear, so that often only a small portion remains. – - Many, indeed, as if they wished to avert odium from God, admit election in such a way as to deny that any one is reprobated. But this is puerile and absurd, because election itself could not exist without being opposed to reprobation.*11
The WBC describes itself as a very traditional protestant group, taking its doctrine from the Puritan Fathers:
The great stumbling block that God has put before this generation is that even though the doctrines the Westboro Baptist Church believes are the very same the Puritans believed and preached, they are now framed by this generation as “hate.” Every single story about the Westboro Baptist Church by supposed “fair” and “balanced” newspaper reporters (allegedly just reporting the news); every editorial by newspaper editors; and every radio talk show host, lies, frames and angles coverage of the words of Westboro Baptist Church to present them as an evil “hate” group, made up of hateful people, with a hateful message. This is a complete lie. We preach a pure Gospel, straight from the Bible. – - The people of the Westboro Baptist Church, just like our Puritan forefathers, are determined to honor God’s commandments, statutes and judgments; and like our scriptural forefathers, are determined to relentlessly remind this nation of those commandments and show America her abominations (Ezk. 16:2). This little group of people has preached and protested on the streets of this country every single day for more than 15 years to a nation that won’t hear it (Isaiah 53:1). So what is our sin in the nostrils of this apostate media? What is our sin as espoused by this filthy country? That we do not preach that God loves everyone, and that we beg you, for God’s sake, to stop all of your unrighteous sinning. The Westboro Baptist Church preaches what Lot preached to Sodom – Genesis 19:7 “I pray you brethren, do not so wickedly.” We simply ask our generation to not violate all of the Commandments of God, which this so-called “Christian” nation cannot even articulate any longer.
The Westboro Baptist Church is completely and totally non-violent. This little church does not hate anyone. We’ll say it again: We do not hate anyone, not even homosexuals, not even those that bomb our Church, vandalize our property, fire us from employment, beat us, and unmercifully libel, slander, vilify and marginalize us. We are completely and totally non-violent. We are no threat to anyone. All we have and all we ever use are WORDS, to persuade men.*12
Furthermore, because of the strict limiting of the members of the Church to God’s elect, WBC abandons all Bible and revivalist societies, because they go against the Church order of the New Testament. From its inception, WBC has opposed the evangelization method used by the Gideons, child preachers, and especially that of Billy Graham, because these do teach, that one can be child of God outside God-established church order. In WBC’s theology, one cannot be an independent Christian, i.e. not being a baptized member of God’s Church. And that’s why, the elders or rulers of God’s Church have the authority also to use church discipline against the dissenting members, which WBC has used many times, e.g. in the case of Lauren Drain.*13
The teaching of limited atonement was condemned by the Catholic Church in her fight against Jansenism, which is aptly called by French historian Louis Blanc “only a bastard Protestantism.”*14 No problem has ever so troubled philosophers and theologians in every age and of every religion, as that of a conciliation of the two great factors of human destiny: Divine Grace and Free Will. The monk Pelagius insisted that we do not inherit the guilt of Adam, that our free will is what it was in paradise, and that consequently, we need no divine grace. Its absurdities were revealed by St. Augustine of Hippo, who then came to be known as “the doctor of grace”. Pelagianism again showed itself in a modified form, so plausibly urging the needlessness of grace for the beginning of faith and for final perseverance, that many learned and saintly men thought that Semi-Pelagianism alone could safeguard free will. Finally defeated by the writings of the Church Fathers, the ultra partisans of free will made way for the diametrically opposite school, that of the Predestinationists, who taught that the Savior had died for the elect alone, and that the fall of Adam had destroyed free will.*15
When he was excommunicated, the teaching of German reformer Martin Luther was, that human nature has been totally corrupted by original sin, and man, accordingly, is deprived of free will. The religion of Luther was the religion of enslaved will, and put so much influence to the omnipotence of God and grace, that man’s liberty to perform moral and meritorious acts was completely shattered. Luther, in the words of German Jesuit historian Hartmann Grisar, treated man “like a block of wood” in matters concerning salvation, and whatever he does, be it good or bad, is not man’s own work, but God’s.*16
This teaching was contrary to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, which has vehemently defended the true doctrine of free will and man’s responsibility for his actions. Father Gregory Martin, the editor of the Douay-Rheims Bible, explained in his annotation to the passage of St. Paul:
By the same example of those twins, it is evident also, that neither nations nor particular persons be elected eternally, or called temporally, or preferred to Gods favour before others, by their own merits. Because God, when he made choice, and first loved Jacob, and refused Esau, respected them both as ill, and the one no less than the other guilty of damnation for original sin, which was alike in them both. And therefore where justly he might have reprobated both, he saved of mercy one. Which one, therefore, being as ill and as void of good as the other, must hold of God’s eternal purpose, mercy, and election, that he was preferred before his brother which was elder than himself, and no worse than himself. And his brother Esau on the other side had no cause to complain, for that God neither did nor suffered anything to be done towards him, that his sin did not deserve. For although God elects eternally and gives His first grace without all merits, yet he does not reprobate or hate any man but for sin, or the foresight thereof.
PART II: THE ORIGIN OF THE WBC
Some conservative media spectators sometimes present WBC as a “leftist” group, and as surprising it is, the origin of the group lies in the civil rights battle of America’s black population in the 1950’s. And Pastor Phelps has decades of experience in facing controversy and persecution. In the times before the civil rights battle, the attitude of the people of Topeka was: “I got nothing against black people. I think everyone ought to own one.” Although US Supreme Court had in 1954 made its landmark case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, which declared state laws establishing separate public schools for blacks and whites unconstitutional, Topeka was still very much racially prejudiced city. Already when studying at Bob Jones University, Fred Phelps had had problems concerning racial discrimination, for it didn’t suit his understanding of the Scriptures. After establishing Westboro Baptist Church in 1955, Phelps noticed that no lawyer was really supervising the establishment of Brown decision and civil rights for blacks. So Phelps himself went to law school, although he was advanced age and graduated having already ten children. He established his law firm Phelps Chartered to work for the effectuating of the civil rights act. Fred Phelps represented the repressed blacks in the courtrooms, even if they didn’t have any money to pay his lawyer fees. He identified himself as a civil rights attorney to the extent, that he received the deep hatred of those who would later be called white supremacists. He was called “nigger lover” among other kinds of trash talk and his son Timothy was once beaten by white kids because of Phelps’ work of effectuating Brown.*17
When Phelps started his WBC in 1955, he, in the words of Steve Drain, “kicked the Southern Baptists in the chin.” The main-stream Baptists disowned him, not only because he was for the civil rights for blacks, but also because of the issues of God’s election and the absolute predestination, which were strange doctrines to the Southerners, who are free will Baptists, and follow Arminianism, which denies double predestination and unconditional election.*18 Phelps has since hit the Southern Baptists back hard, as is obvious from one of his videos:
Billy Graham: hell-bound false prophet. I’ve known Billy Graham more than fifty years, since my ministerial days as a student at Bob Jones University. I helped him with his crusades at Charlotte and Los Angeles. I admired him – until he quit preaching the Gospel, quit believing in and preaching about Hell. And he began preaching sugary lies about man being his own savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ being kind of a super bellboy, to help you with your baggage through life, but only if you let Him, says Graham. – - Billy, you are heading straight and irreversibly for Hell. You are lying, money grabbing, Arminian heretic. And you will soon believe in Hell, fire and brimstone again my friend, like you used to. You’re an old man now. When you die, and split Hell wide open, you believe in Hell again. – - Does God send the sin or the sinner to Hell? Does the judge send the crime or the criminal to jail? C’mon Billy! You know the Bible says God hates people. What is the matter with you, perverting and corrupting the word of God? “Walking in craftiness,” “handling the word of God deceitfully.” [2. Cor. 4:2; KJV]. – - Why are you lying on God Almighty, sending millions to Hell by your false doctrine? God hates and abhors people. – - At 88, Graham will soon die, and split Hell wide open. And Westboro Baptist Church will picket your funeral! Amen.*19
Being permanently drifted away from main-stream Baptism, the WBC was bound to be left as a small footnote in the big pool of American Protestant churches. But eventually Phelps would hit the mainstream media by starting his nation-wide, anti-homosexual picketing. All started at Gage Park in Topeka, which was notorious of being a place where homosexuals met. Young boys were being propositioned and situation got worse and worse. Finally when one man in 1989 tried to lure the then five-year old Phelps grandson Joshua into bushes, he had had enough. After all the official ways, letters and appeals to city authorities had failed, the members of the WBC held their first public demonstration in June 1991, protesting against gay activity and pedophile predators in the park. And already at the first time they received angry reproaches and even death threats from enraged citizens.*20
Originally Phelps had not even mentioned the Bible, he just wanted to make the park safe for children and adults for safe recreation. He was also confident, that with approximately 400 churches in Topeka, the Christians would rally to defend the rights of ordinary citizens against the predators. He sent the informative letter to every church in town. Instead the whole Topeka clergy condemned his demonstrations, or pickets. WBC members started to go to the park every day, and threatening letters, phone calls and visits started again to pour to the church. All of the Topeka churches, Episcopalians, Catholics, Methodists and rest condemned the actions of the WBC. In those demonstrations were used for the first time the signs “God Hates Fags,” and “Fags are worthy of death.” WBC actually welcomed the controversy, because Fred Phelps knew, that through the publicity, everyone in the country and in the world will see their signs, and they have to pick their side.*21
PART III: THE PICKET SHOW
Phelps started to gain infamy, when he began picketing gay-pride celebrations with his “God Hates Fags” signs. Phelps later drew nationwide attention for picketing high-profile funerals (Fred Rogers, Matthew Shepard and Coretta Scott King).*22 When USA started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, WBC got a new reason to protest. For couple of years they watched as the funerals of the fallen soldiers were turned into what they call “pep rallies.” They were dismayed and shocked, that instead of repentance, people were responding by turning those funerals into misleading celebration of a doomed nation, with clamors “God bless America”. Around June 2005 they arrived at the edge of the big crowds with their signs, like “Thank God for dead soldiers,” and “Soldiers die for fag marriage,” “Fag troops,” “Semper fi fags,” etc.*23
In recent years, Pastor Phelps has limited his activity into Sunday sermons, and one of his daughters Shirley Phelps-Roper has become the most visible member of the WBC, eclipsing her father in news stories and television appearances. She serves as the church’s unofficial spokeswoman, and before Steve Drain took over the job, answered all media calls. Phelps-Roper does more traveling and picketing than anyone else in the WBC. Unlike her brothers and sisters, she does not have full-time job outside her home, and when she does work, it’s for the family law firm, Phelps-Chartered.*24
Shirley Phelps was born in 1957 as the fifth of Fred Phelps’ 13 children. She is the only child of Fred Phelps, who has never known a life outside the church, all the others leaving for shorter intervals or permanently on one point or the other. Phelps-Roper started to work at the family firm at the age of 14. She answered phones, filed papers and memorized the phone numbers of all of her dad’s clients as well as those of the courts, judges and lawyers. She followed her older brothers and sisters to Washburn University in Topeka and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. In 1981, she earned her law degree.*25
Shirley Phelps married Brent Roper on November 25, 1983, at the WBC. Roper had been a family friend. Growing up, he had been an altar boy at St. David’s Episcopal Church. Later, he was a high school buddy of Shirley’s younger brother Tim, and eventually joined Fred Phelps’ congregation. When Roper’s mother planned to leave Topeka and Roper didn’t want to go, he and Tim moved in together. His relationship with Shirley blossomed when he started college, and after their marriage, he started to work as a director of human resources with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. They have eleven children, the biggest family of all Phelps’ children.*26 In November 2012 two of their daughters, Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper left the church. Megan, who was one of the most well-known church public figures next to her mother, issued a statement where she said: “I don’t believe any more that God hates almost all of mankind. I don’t think that, if you do everything else in your life right and you happen to be gay, you’re automatically going to hell. I don’t believe any more that WBC has a monopoly on truth.” Between the years 2004 and 2011 WBC lost 20 members, most in their teens and twenties.*27
Next to Phelps-Roper, the most visible church member in public is Lauren Drain’s father, the media consult of the WBC Steve Drain. Before joining the group, Drain had a troubled youth. He was born to a Presbyterian family, but became an agnostic, part in a rock band and rebelled against organized religion, although all the time his frustration was always with men, not with Bible. His wife Luci, whom he met when they were 13 years old, was raised among suburban American Catholics. She was always more religious of the two, and more moral person, although they both were essentially what WBC describes as lukewarm Christians.*28
Drain learned about the WBC in 1994, when he was a grad student in film school. At that time he was a former philosophy student, who was very much left-leaning in his world views. He was very interested about the Bible, but very skeptical about organized religions. He had been seen this church vilified in media, and decided to make a different documentary about them. He wouldn’t make any commentary, but would just let the church members speak for themselves.*29
When Drain was filming his movie, he conducted interviews with Phelps for four and half hours. He came to conclusion that Fred Phelps was the most hated and vilified man in the world, while in reality nothing could be further from the truth. By the end, Drain was convinced that Phelps knew the Bible better than anyone else he knew. He took his stock footage back to Florida to study it, and saw Phelps’ message as the scriptural truth. Then Drain realized that he himself was acting as St. Paul had acted during his days as a Pharisee, whose vocation was to persecute the Christians. And although he and his wife had once thought, that the last thing in the world they would do would be move to Topeka and join the WBC, that’s what they ended up doing.*30
With Steve Drain as their media supervisor, the WBC has grown its scale of slogans and picket signs. For example, when Benedict XVI gave a speech addressed to Christian youth, he called them not to be afraid and to coexist with others. He also praised the religious symbiosis of religions in Lebanon, where “Muslims and Christians, Islam and Christianity, can live side by side without hatred, with respect for the beliefs of each person, so as to build together a free and humane society.”*31 To this modern ecumenism’s call of coexistence the church answered with their mockery of religious co-existence COEXIST IN HELL. In answer to modern society’s insistence on gay rights, they created a sign: 2 GAY RIGHTS: AIDS & HELL.
The WBC has during the years taken even more isolationist attitude to being the true Church of Christ. They teach that USA was once a great nation, God blessed it mightily with great resources, and the pulpits used to thunder with the truth of God. But now there’s no hope for America. All nations of the world are doomed but America is worse. Downhill started from divorce and remarriage, then multiplied to many sins, and has ended to acceptance of homosexual marriage. WBC is the only true church left. There are approximately 600,000 houses of worship and two million members of clergy, who all proudly teach to masses that they can live like the devil and that God still loves them. Outside the WBC every citizen of the world has found his way to reject the humble warning of the church, so numbers are 7 billion vs. 50.*32
The WBC has become so disgusted about all the churches changing into “fag enablers”, that the members do not even call themselves Christians anymore but “Tachmonites.” They take that name from a general of King David, named in the Bible: “These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.”*33 In one of his sermons – or really in many of them – Pastor Phelps has clearly stated that no one can be saved outside the WBC:
GOD HATES FAGS and HE HATES FAG ENABLERS! If you’re not a member of the Westboro Baptist Church you’re one or the other and you’re headed straight for Hell. That’s the Gospel! That’s the message that anybody that’s preaching the Gospel will deliver. And if he delivers any other message he’s a lying false prophet headed for hell!*34
You can read my review of Ms. Lauren Drain’s book from here.
Footnotes:
*1 Roman Breviary 1908, 343.
*2 http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboron_baptistikirkko
*3 Westboro church threat to picket Newtown sparks call for action
*4 Whalen 1958, 50.
*5 Rom. 9:13; KJV.
*6 Fred Phelps Sermon 1958-09-30
*7 Fred Phelps Sermon 1959-05-31
*8 Duncan 1855, 72-73.
*9 Fred Phelps Sermon 1958-10-12
*10 Philadelphia Confession 1742, 4.
*11 Calvin 1844, 145, 148, 163.
*12 WBC 2006, 7.
*13 Fred Phelps Sermon 1959-01-04
*14 Blanc 1847, 195.
*15 Parsons 1897, 108-110.
*16 Grisar 1954, 268; Voth 2010, 12.
*17 Hatemongers, part 2.
*18 Diary of a Mad Atheist
*19 WBC Video News 2006-08-27
*20 Hatemongers, part 3.
*21 Hatemongers, part 4.
*22 Kendall 2006.
*23 Future of Man
*24 Kendall 2006.
*25 Kendall 2006.
*26 Kendall 2006.
*27 Walker 2013.
*28 Diary of a Mad Atheist
*29 Fundamentally Flawed
*30 Diary of a Mad Atheist
*31 Naharnet 2012.
*32 Future of Man
*33 2 Samuel 23:8; KJV.
*34 Fred Phelps Sermon 2005-06-19
Sources:
Blanc, Louis
1847 Geschichte der französischen Revolution. Erster Band. Berlin: Adolph Riess.
Calvin, John
1844 Institutes of the Christian Religion. Vol. II. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication.
Duncan, William Cecil
1855 A Brief History of the Baptists and Their Distinctive Principles and Practices. Part First. New York, NY: Edward H. Fletcher.
Grisar, Hartmann
1954 Martin Luther. His Life and Work. Imprimatur: + Joannes J. Glennon, Archiepiscopus. Westminster, MD: The Newman Press.
Parsons, Reuben
1897 Studies in Church History. Vol. IV. Imprimatur: + Michael Augustinus, Archiepiscopus Neo-Eboracensis. New York, NY: Fr. Pustet & Co.
Roman Breviary
1908 The Roman Breviary. Reformed by Order of the Holy Oecumenical Council of Trent; Published by Order of Pope St. Pius V; And Revised by Clement VIII, Urban VIII, and Leo XIII. Vol. I. Winter. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons.
Voth, Julian
2010 Martin Luther: The Real Story. – Reign of Mary. Vol. XLI, Number 139. Summer. Spokane, WA: Mary Immaculate Queen Press.
Whalen, William J.
1958 Separated Brethren. A Survey of Non-Catholic Christian Denominations in the United States. Imprimatur: + John G. Bennett, Bishop of Lafayette, Indiana. Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company.
Internet:
Kendall, Justin
2006 The New Fred. Shirley Phelps-Roper is just like her notorious father – except in one crucial way. – The Pitch, Kansas City. November 2, 2006. < http://www.rickross.com/reference/westboro/westboro45.html >.
Naharnet
2012 Benedict XVI Calls on Christians to Coexist, ‘Admires Courage’ of Syria Youth. – Naharnet. 15 September 2012. < http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/53726 >.
Philadelphia Confession
1742 The Philadelphia Confession of Faith, 1742. – < http://www.godhatesfags.com/confessions/the-philadelphia-confession-of-faith-1742.pdf >.
Walker, Tim
2013 Escape from Westboro: Daughter who fled Baptist Church tells of brainwashing. The Independent, February 7, 2013. – < http://www.rickross.com/reference/westboro/westboro134.html >.
WBC
2006 Letter to Earthdwellers. – < http://www.godhatesfags.com/letters/20060704_letter-to-earthdwellers.pdf >.
Radio Shows:
Diary of a Mad Atheist #3: Carbon Dated. October 25, 2012. – < http://diaryofamadatheist.com/episodes/DMA.Carbon.Dated.mp3 >.
Fundamentally Flawed #12: Westboro Special. September 18, 2011. – < http://fundamentally-flawed.com/podpress_trac/web/460/0/2011-09-17_12_episode_12__westboro_special.mp3 >.
Future of Man: A Podcast from Abnormal Entertainment. Episode Forty-Nine. Monday, December 3, 2012. – < http://abnormalent.com/futureofman/FOM_049.mp3 >.
It is true, that God wants all people to be saved. But we know from His revelation that all people will not be saved because of their unwillingness to submit under His ordinances. And Ms. Drain’s book, even though it’s a lively and tragic story about her life, ends in much more tragic manner to the result, where she has become completely one with modern, God-degrading naturalist society.
Tämänkaltaiset esitykset eivät ole yksittäistapauksia. Hiljattain U.S. News & World Report julkaisi lehtensä erikoispainoksen nimeltä Secrets of the Bible (Raamatun salaisuuksia). Lehti sisältää Jefferey L. Shelerin kirjoituksen nimeltä The First Christmas (Ensimmäinen joulu). Siinä Sheler kirjoittaa, että Jeesuksen neitseellinen sikiäminen on edelleen huomattavan kiistanalaisuuden kohde. Hän kertoo, että eläkkeellä oleva amerikkalainen episkopaalipiispa John Shelby Spong on kuvannut neitseestäsikiämistä myytiksi ja sanoo Jeesuksen mahdollisesti syntyneen seksuaalisesti hyväksikäytetylle tytölle. Professori John P. Meier puolestaa sanoo aiheesta, että loppupeleissä neitseestäsyntymisen historiallisuus on pakosta riippuvainen ”kunkin filosofisista näkökannoista koskien yliluonnollisuutta sekä siitä painosta, jonka kukin antaa myöhemmälle kirkon opetukselle.” (Sheler 2012, 43)
Näiden lisäksi Jumala, tallentamalla Pyhän Joosefin suhtautumisen ja molempien puolisoiden täyden hiljaisuuden, on esittänyt meille vastaansanomattoman todistuksen Neitsyt Marian tahrattomasta puhtaudesta, sekä hänen Poikansa jumalallisesta alkuperästä. Sillä kuka ei antaisi täyden tunnustuksen aviomiehen esittämälle todistukselle, koskien tämän puolison aviollista uskollisuutta, kun hän ensin epäiltyään sitä ja lähes lähetettyään vaimonsa pois, hän yhtäkkiä onkin täysin vakuuttunut vaimonsa täydestä siveydestä? Mitä kiintyneimmällä käytöksellään Pyhä Joosef todisti, että kaikki hänen epäilynsä olivat täydellisesti kaikonneet. (Rutter 1870, 74)
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