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The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been documenting the growing falling away of the mainstream evangelical community. 

And I’ve warned you that there is a tsunami of apostasy—pushed along by 1 Peter 4:17 judgments—headed toward the church visible. Not a few of these judgments have come through evanjellyfish’s foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church.

Being that the EC is simply another extention of the Druckerite selling of the church through Leadership Network this really doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

For such as these extending from the man-centered Church Growth Movement vomited out of Fuller Theological Seminary “church” is the product, and the Emerging Church is the “store” for the postmodern set, where the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven version of evangelicalism ala Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren is the outlet selling good ol’ American business savvy.

Another sign of apostasy within the evangelical community is the cavalier way the Word of God is being handled. Case in point is provided by Christian Post today who tweeted:

The link takes us to a CP report by Nicola Menzie called New Bible Set for Public Release, Changes Jesus from ‘Son of Man’ to ‘the Human One’ where we find out that the “new edition of the Common English Translation (CET)” is set to “be released in print and made available to the public for the first time on August 1″ according to “publicist Audra Jennings.” Menzie informs us:

With the complete edition of the Common English Translation arriving from the printers this week and rolling into stores starting next month, associate publisher Paul Franklyn said the goal of translators was to make the Bible accessible and more appealing to readers of various backgrounds and denominations.

“There are a number of translations available for conservative churches,” Franklyn told The Tennessean. “This is trying to make a bridge between conservatives, moderates and liberals.” (Online source)

First of all, it isn’t up to translators to tamper with the texts of Holy Scripture to make what God has said “more appealing.” They are to bring forth what the original conveys into whatever language the translation is in. secondly, with “trying to make a bridge between conservatives, moderates and liberals,” we see another attempt at Rodney King-can’t-we-all-get-along theology.

You might remember that in Supernatural Gatherings In The New Downgrade I talked about increasing syncretism in the mainstream of the church visible and an almost maniacal seeking of unity at all costs. Well, there can be none between conservative Bible-believing Christians and Bible-denying liberal unbelievers. The only way there is unity between those diametrically opposed camps is compromise.

And the ones who must do the compromising are always the conservatives; sure enough, here’s a good illustration as Menzie tells us that:

The publisher of the new version is hoping it will make the Bible understandable and attractive to as many people as possible. to that end, the new edition of the CET has made several “bold” translation choices, including changing Jesus’ “Son of Man” title to “the Human One.” (Online source)

Bold is really a gross understatement when you’re seeking friendship with the world and are arrogant enough to dare to alter one of the titles of God’s Messiah, Christ Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Son of Man speaks to the Deity of Christ; yet in an effort to please liberal unbelievers—who deny Who Jesus is—the CET translators attempt to over-stress his humanity in order to elevate the status of the self.

Son of Man is uios tou anthrōpou in the Greek and as J. Greshem Machen correctly brings out:

The true key to the title, “Son of man,” on the lips of our Lord is probably to be found in the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel, where “one like unto a son of man” appears in the presence of the “ancient of days” and receives an everlasting dominion…

the title “the Son of man” on the lips of Jesus is distinctly a Messianic title. it does not designate the humanity of Jesus as distinguished from his deity, but it designates him as being that transcendent, heavenly Person who was to come one day with the clouds of heaven and be the final judge of all the world. (Online source)

This change to “the Human One” is not a translation issue at all; rather it’s one where these “over 100 biblical scholars from across two dozen denominations” are inserting a point of teaching, as is the CET being “gender-inclusive.” And just look who was pleased by that dubious decision:

In may, Fuller Theological Seminary voted to add the Common English Bible to the NRSV and the TNIV as translations that could be required for students doing biblical studies. “We wanted something that was an academically excellent translation from Greek and Hebrew, and one that reflected our strong position regarding women in leadership,” Dr. Joel B. Green, professor of New Testament Interpretation, told The Christian Post. (Online source)

Of course Fuller Theological Seminary would be pleased with this alteration of Holy Scripture. It’s really to be expected considering their “strong position” of rebellion against the Word of God, as well as FTS promoting and using universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt and his progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” Tony Jones, two-thirds of the unholy EC trinity of apostates with the other being Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren.

You can see for yourself in Fuller Seminary Promoting Emerging Church Heretic Doug Pagitt and Fuller Theological Seminary Professor Tony Jones And Christian Spirituality Cohort. Yes, the transition from a school once in service to the Lord into Fuller Theological Cesspool actually began many years ago as I showed you in Inerrancy Of Scripture And Fuller Theological Seminary:

Perhaps the most notable institutional example of the drift from affirming the inerrancy of Scripture to affirming the infallibility of Scripture was Fuller Theological Seminary. Its original statement of faith (written several years after its founding in 1947) contained the following article on Scripture: “The books which form the canon of the old and New Testaments as originally given are plenarily [fully] inspired and free from all error in the whole and in the part.

These books constitute the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”[1] Through the years, by hiring and attracting faculty and trustees who did not uphold the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, a revision of the original document became necessary. In 1971, the board of the school voted unanimously to adopt a new doctrinal statement in which the phrase “plenarily inspired and free from all error in the whole and in the part” had been removed: “Scripture is an essential part and trustworthy record of this divine self-disclosure.”

“All the books of the old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, are the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.”[2] Clearly, Fuller Seminary moved away from the historic doctrine of the full inerrancy of Scripture and embraced a Bible that is infallible in matters of faith and practice but which can and does indeed contain errors in matters of history, science, geography, and the like. Reaction to this shift was pronounced.

Harold O. J. Brown lamented Fuller’s disconcerting drift from orthodoxy to liberalism, following similar swings at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton seminaries.[3] Harold Lindsell, in The Battle for the Bible, denounced forcibly this development at Fuller.[4]

Gregg R. Allison[5]

________________________________________________________________________________Endnotes:

[1] Cited in Harold Lindsell, The Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), p. 107.

[2] Fuller Theological Seminary, Statement of Faith, 3.

[3] Harold O. J. Brown, “Can A Seminary Stand?” Christianity Today, vol. 19, no. 10 (February 14, 1975), pp. 7-8. When Brown positively used the term infallibility, he was referring to Fuller’s founding belief in the complete truthfulness of Scripture (or what had traditionally been called inerrancy). I have obtained personal correspondence from a key leader at Fuller (who respectfully requested that the letter not be published) that corrects Brown’s statement that “several” conservative faculty members resigned from the seminary over this issue. The corrected number is two, yet in reality Brown’s “several” is correct, because Charles Woodbridge, Wilbur Smith, Harold Lindsell, and Gleason Archer reassigned their faculty positions over this issue. Also, this correspondence demonstrates a disconcerting naiveté concerning the doctrinal drift that was afoot at Fuller.

NEW BIBLE TRANSLATION CHANGES JESUS FROM ‘SON OF MAN’ TO ‘THE HUMAN ONE’ : Apprising Ministries

Miranda Kerr thought she was “going to die” when giving birth to her son.

The Victoria’s Secret model – who is married to Orlando Bloom – delivered son Flynn naturally in January and while she has previously admitted her labour was “long and difficult” she has now revealed she struggled to cope giving birth without pain relief because the agony was so intense.

She said: “I actually thought I was going to die at one point and left my body. I was looking down on myself – the pain was so intense.

“I kept thinking, ‘How do women do this?’ but if other women have done this, I can do it too. I was determined.”

The 28-year-old catwalk beauty and her actor spouse share domestic duties, refusing to have a nanny, though they occasionally get night time assistance with the baby.

She told Australia’s InStyle magazine: “It’s whoever has their hands free. when I’m not working we don’t have a nanny. some nights we have a lady who comes in to help out but Flynn is getting better at sleeping now, so not as often. and if I need to get on a plane for one day of work, I pump my milk and put it into the freezer for Orlando.”

Miranda and Orlando divide their time between Los Angeles and London but the model wants Flynn to have some of the country experiences she had growing up so has cultivated a vegetable garden in their Hollywood home.

She added: “Flynn would love it [Australia]; I had such a wonderful childhood in the country. He is going to have a diverse upbringing.”

Miranda Kerr – Miranda Kerr Thought She Would ‘Die’ During Birth

The government is classifying more innovations as secret in the name of national security.

Editor’s note: this story appeared in the July 2009 issue.

Irving “Ward” Figge and Phillip Graham worked for Aerojet-General Corp. when they filed their patent application on July 21, 1998.

For historical reference, that was about the time the late Charlton Heston had become president of the National Rifle Association, biologists had sequenced the syphilis genome and Monica Lewinsky had handed over her infamous stained blue dress to investigators probing the Clinton sex scandal.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Figge and Graham the patent on Feb. 3, 2009. a decade and some change is a long time to wait for a patent, even by USPTO standards. what was the hold up?

The patent dealt with a way to make a rocket motor case using plank sections, which would let propellant vent or escape “in the event of propellant ignition during cook-off.” Government officials believed publicly disclosing the method through the patent process could compromise national security. So the patent application became subject to the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951.

The Act prevents disclosure of new inventions and technologies that, in the opinion of defense, intelligence or other informed agencies, pose a threat to the nation. the Act serves as the Gitmo for patents – a holding place where applications disappear, at least for awhile.

National security and intellectual property officially collided during World War I, when Congress authorized the USPTO to classify certain defense-related patents. no need to let Kaiser Wilhelm and his U-Boat boys know what we were up to, after all.

Patent secrecy enforcement lasted the duration of that war and then lapsed. it resumed in October 1941, on the eve America’s entry into WWII. the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, when the Cold War started to simmer in earnest, made patent secrecy a permanent part of U.S. law.

“War always generates people’s creativity to protect the nation,” says Mike Carone, supervisory patent examiner at the USPTO. he notes that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there has been “more awareness of the need for secrecy orders.”

There were 5,023 patents under secrecy orders in 2008, up from 4,741 in 2000. the vast majority of these were for technologies developed by or for various military branches.

Although the 2008 figures were higher than in previous years, it remains to be seen whether an increase of patent secrecy orders is a long-term trend. the early ’90s saw greater numbers of secrecy orders. the 18-year high-water mark of 6,193 occurred in 1991 – the year the first Gulf War ended.

There are several types of secrecy orders, ranging in severity from simple prohibitions on export (but allowing other disclosure for legitimate business purposes) up to classification, requiring secure storage of the application and prohibition of all disclosure.

A full secrecy order bars the award of a patent, requires that the invention be kept secret, restricts the filing of foreign patents and specifies procedures to prevent disclosure of ideas contained in the application.

The only way an inventor can avoid the risk of such imposed secrecy is to not apply for a patent.

Of course, any go-it-alone attempt to commercialize a technology that could put the nation at risk undoubtedly would draw the irate attention of various government agencies.

The government can impose these restrictions even if the application is generated and entirely owned by a private individual or company without government sponsorship or support.

Defense contractors working for the government expect their patents to get flagged as secret. Sensitive patent applications also come from smaller, independent companies or so-called John Doe inventors.

Of the 43,877 patents that fell under secrecy orders this decade, just 351 were from John Does.

The USPTO screens all patent applications. in the case of patents that may be subject to the Secrecy Act, the office asks for guidance from defense or other relevant agencies.

“I don’t know of any time when we didn’t take the recommendation” of one of the agencies, Carone says.

That’s a sore spot with Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.

“we recognize that secrecy orders may be appropriate in some instances,” he says, “but… government agencies tend to withhold more information than is justified.”

The federation has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to compel the USPTO to release the patents that the office has removed from secrecy orders.

“in other areas of national security,” Aftergood says in the studious tone of a professor, “one does find credible complaints that secrecy was used without justification or to evade public controversy.”

That said, he’s unaware that the Secrecy Act has ever shut down or otherwise derailed an inventor.

“it may be that there is no problem,” he adds. “I just don’t know.”

As for the two rocket motor case inventors from Aerojet, they’ve since retired. however, company spokesman Gerald Newman says the company continues to “play” with the technology. the rocket motor case Figge and Graham developed relieves pressure during ignition and theoretically could find a use for smaller, tactical missiles, particularly aboard Navy ships where fire safety is a major concern.

“But,” Newman adds, “it’s never been something we’ve put into production.”

innovation, patents, national security