• logo


logo

Timely and Inspiring Prophetic Analysis so you can Prepare.


  • Home
  • Monthly Messages
    • Pastor Mayer
    • Pastor Nelson
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
    • 2011
    • 2010
    • 2009
    • 2008
    • 2007
    • 2006
    • 2005
    • 2004
    • 2003
    • 2002
    • 2001
    • 2000
    • 1999
    • 1998
  • Briefings
    • Prophetic Intelligence
    • Nature Knows Best
    • Prophetically Speaking
    • Articles of interest
  • Events
  • Videos
    • KTF News
    • KTF Live
    • Interviews
    • Sermons
    • Promo Video
  • Store
  • Make a Gift
  • Slider Image 1
  • Image: RODNAE Productions from pexels.com
loading...
  • Post
  • Similar Posts
  • Post Icon
  • author
  • Pastor Hal Mayer

    Speaker / Director

Your soul or your job? You choose.

Thursday November 10th, 2022
Print This Post Print This Post

World News Group, by R. Albert Mohler Jr.: Will your church membership cost you your job? It’s not just a hypothetical question. The new chief executive of a major Australian sports franchise lasted exactly one day on the job after a hideous scandal was discovered—he attends an evangelical church and leads its board. That was enough to get him booted from his job and roundly pummeled in the press. Christians had better pay close attention to the story, for this pattern will not remain safely south of the Equator.

The executive who lasted one day is Andrew Thorburn, who on Monday of this week had taken over as chief executive of the Essendon Football Club. Essendon football is a big deal in Australia, and in the world of Australian Rules football. I know very little about sports, and it was news to me that Australian Rules football (or “footy”) is different from American football. I did learn that the Australian game is played on an oval, which makes sense to me given that the ball is a leather oval. I am told that the shape is a coincidence. Frankly, I find that suspicious.

In any event, Essendon needed a new chief executive and Andrew Thorburn seemed to be quite a catch, given that he had served as CEO of the massive National Australia Bank, known as NAB. But as soon as Thorburn was announced as executive, controversy erupted over his membership and lay leadership in City on a Hill, an evangelical Anglican multi-site church that, though relatively young, has attracted controversy over its teachings on the sanctity of human life and the sinfulness of same-sex behaviors.

Thorburn is listed as chairman of the church’s board, and the attacks came swiftly. Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, referred to the Melbourne-based church and its views by saying: “Those views are absolutely appalling. I don’t support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry. It is just wrong.” The premier was raised and educated as a Catholic, and the Catholic Church holds to the same moral teaching as City on a Hill, in this case. But Andrews, who belongs to the socialist left, has made clear that he is pretty much over being Catholic as well. He clearly wanted Andrew Thorburn’s tenure with Essendon to be over, and within hours it was.

Shortly after the controversy went white-hot, the team’s president, Dave Barnham, threw Thorburn and his church (which he misnamed) under the bus: “As soon as comments relating to a 2013 sermon from a pastor at City on the Hill came to light this morning, we acted immediately to clarify the publicly espoused views on the organization’s official website, which are in direct contradiction to our values as a club.”

Thorburn, we should note, was not exactly a profile in doctrinal courage throughout the ordeal. “My faith is a very personal thing,” he said. “I think my faith has helped me become a better leader because at the center of my faith is the belief that you should create community and care for people and help people be safe and respect them as humans.” Not quite the Apostles’ Creed.

Further, when confronted with language on abortion and sexuality from the church’s web site and archived sermons, Thorburn demurred, saying: “I’ve never heard these things expressed in my time, I’ve been on the board two years.” He went on: “I’m not a pastor, my job in a governance role is to make sure it’s run well, I don’t always agree with what’s said.”

We can hardly escape the suspicion that this executive could well lose two jobs at once. It’s a bit difficult to imagine how you stay on as board chairman after distancing yourself from your church’s beliefs.

But the point is that he did lose his job with the team, and after only one day. The signal is now sent: Be careful who you hire. Better check on church membership. Better look closely at the archived sermons. Might be dynamite there.

Make no mistake—this is the shape of the future. This canceling of Christians because of church membership will not be limited to Australia, to “footy,” or even to sports. Law firms and other professional organizations have been doing such checks for years already. You can count on the fact that the media, old and new, will be looking for incriminating evidence in the form of church membership disclosures.

And don’t miss the other big message. Trying to distance yourself from your church will not work unless you are willing to renounce your preacher and your church’s teaching. Now, that’s a bit harder to accomplish when you are listed as chairman of the board on the church’s website. In any event, renunciation and denunciation will be the new demands, if you get caught as a member of a “wrong” kind of church.

If you want safety in your job, you had better join a liberal Episcopal church that flies a rainbow flag out front. On the other hand, if you care about the safety of your soul, you will have to care much less about the safety of your job. God honors those who are faithful to Him, but you had better decide now which you will choose.

Our Comment:
The enemy is developing persecution of Christians in our day as he has done in previous ages.

Prophetic Link:
“The persecutions visited for many centuries upon this God-fearing people were endured by them with a patience and constancy that honored their Redeemer. Notwithstanding the crusades against them, and the inhuman butchery to which they were subjected, they continued to send out their missionaries to scatter the precious truth. They were hunted to death; yet their blood watered the seed sown, and it failed not of yielding fruit. Thus the Waldenses witnessed for God centuries before the birth of Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the Reformation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those who also are willing to suffer all things for ‘the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 1:9.” Great Controversy, page 78.1.


Source References

  • Your soul or your job? You choose.

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings are provided to show a link between current events and Bible prophecy only. The reposted articles, which are not intended as a commentary in support of or in opposition to the views of the authors, do not necessarily reflect the views of Pastor Mayer or of Keep the Faith other than to point out the prophetic link.

Comments

    • Robert Owino

      Thursday November 10th, 2022 at 11:41 AM
    • Reply

    Right now we’re about to be excommunicated for our Biblical interpretation… especially on the Godhead… trinity to be precise .
    We hold a stand that it’s God the Father who calls the shots; Has bestowed all excecution of all aspects of our lives in heaven and earth on His begotten Son.
    Christ, though in heaven still run errands for His Fther,our Father in heaven .see John 14:1,6, 9, 10, 12_17,1823; Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:1_3; Hebrews 1:2.


    • Andi

      Saturday November 12th, 2022 at 03:00 PM
    • Reply

    Be strong in the Lord Robert. Ask God to help you surrender all to Him and give you the strength to say not my will but thine be done oh Father.



Post a Comment!

Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


  • Request your free subscriptions now

    • English
    • Deutsch
    • Español
    • Português
  • Latest Message

    Request CD | View Transcript
  • Make a Gift

    Or click here to send a check
  • Prophetically Speaking…

    “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.” more…

  • Recent Posts

    • What we know about the Morocco earthquake
    • Prophetically Speaking…
    • Brazil advances digital currency with asset-freeze capability
    • Prophetically Speaking…
    • Climate Scientist: Leave Out ‘the Full Truth,’ and 3 Other ‘Tricks’ to Get Published in High-Profile Journals like ‘Nature’
  • Tags

    Catholic Church church and state Donald Trump government LGBTQ natural disaster politics Pope Francis Prophetically Speaking Quote of the Day religious freedom religious liberty United States Vatican
  • Recent Comments

    • KTF News - Jewish Leadership, Vatican Collaboration - Jewish Dgital times on Jewish Leadership, Vatican Collaboration
    • Maureen Shima on Atheist Group Demands Ohio School Districts Block Off-Campus Bible Study
    • Maureen Franklin on A Discussion with Ganoune Diop, Director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department, Seventh-day Adventist Church
    • William Stroud on Pope at Audience: WYD in Portugal was ‘an encounter with Christ’
    • Will F. on The Chinese Communist Party is rewriting the Bible
  • Follow



logo
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Store
  • About KTF
  • Meet the Team
  • Terms of Use
  • RSS Feed
  • Contact
top

© 2022 Keep the Faith. All Rights Reserved.  Webmaster »



Share
Send Email
  • Send
close