Famous Lost Words - Stone The Preacher

Was Olivia Newton-John a Christian?

Aug 8, 2022Steve Sanchez4 CommentsFamous and Not-So, Famous Lost WordsOlivia Newton-John

The co-star of one of the most popular musicals of all time, Grease, lost her 30-year-long battle to breast cancer this morning.

What were her beliefs? Not much is known specifically, but it appears that she was quite spiritual and a student of many religions.

According to the HollowVerse website “she doesn’t identify with anything–or everything depending on how you look at it. Normally reputable sites claim that she’s a Christian, and that very well could be true, but it seems more that she’s multi-religious, or meta-religious. She has expressed an interest in aspects of Hinduism and Buddhism, but seems to claim neither as a whole.

In an interview with Catholic News she said, “I believe that all human beings are connected, like pearls on a chain. We have in common the search for peace, love and compassion. It is my hope that we can accept and respect each other’s [religious] traditions, no matter what our personal beliefs. This is my intention – to make music that helps to heal the heart and connect us to each other.

“Nature is my church,” she has stated, which belies a hint of pantheism.

Runnin’ With the Devil?

Oct 6, 2020Steve Sanchez9 CommentsFamous and Not-So, Famous Lost Words, Pastor's P.O.V.Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen died today at age 65. Did he go to Heaven or Hell?

Only God knows. I can never make that determination nor can anyone else; all we can do is look at his life to see if he stood for Christ or lived for himself.

Eddie did give credit to God for his amazing music ability saying, “I just believe that when you play long enough you’re able to execute with your fingers, whatever God gives you… And God’s got a sense of humor, too–sometimes he gives me s—, ’cause not everything I do I like.”¹

Is Kirk Douglas in Heaven?

Feb 6, 2020Steve Sanchez2 CommentsFamous and Not-So, Famous Lost Wordseternity, heaven, hell, kirk douglas

KIRK DOUGLAS DIED TODAY AT AGE 103. What did he believe about God? Did he go to Heaven?

In an Esquire interview in 2001 he said this:

“The more I’ve studied the Torah, the less religious I’ve become, the more spiritual. We Jews are taught to read Hebrew, but we don’t know what the hell we’re reading. At Yom Kippur services, I was reading the English translations, and it came to me: There’s so much adoration of God, but God doesn’t need us to sing his praises. He just wants us to be better people.
“Muslims follow Muhammad to reach God. Christians follow Jesus. Jews follow Moses. But it’s all the same God.
“Maybe when you die, you come before a big, bearded man on a big throne, and you say, ‘Is this heaven?’ And he says, ‘Heaven? You just came from there.’
“Religion has killed millions of people. Something must be wrong.”

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2017, he explained,

“I grew up praying in the morning and laying tefillin, but I gave up much of the formal aspect of religion. I believe in God and I’m happy to be a Jew. But I think too much religion has not helped civilization. Caring for other people is my religion.”

Caring for people is wonderful, but no amount of good deeds will get anyone to heaven. The only way anyone has a relationship with God is by putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins.

Beating the Atheist

Feb 20, 2018Steve SanchezAtheist Tuesday, Famous Lost Wordsagnostic, atheist, skeptic, unbeliever

“WHEN I SEE GOD, I WILL TELL HIM THAT HE’S A NUT JOB!” said Rich the Atheist during a conversation I had with him on a college campus.

Why would Rich utter such blasphemous words? Because he got so frustrated with the way I argued my points using what’s called “presuppositional apologetics.” Don’t be intimidated by that phrase, it simply means that I defend the Christian faith (apologetics) by presupposing that God exists and that the Bible is valid and true having the ability to change lives.

When talking with skeptics, Christians do not need to know about every scientific theory or secular doctrine that comes down the pike; they do not have to be well-versed in Quantum Physics, evolutionary biology or abiogenesis hypotheses. That’s the unbeliever’s game. All a believer needs to know is the Word of God.

David Wright from “Answers in Genesis” clarifies further: “When explaining their beliefs, Christians often feel they must first prove the Bible or prove the existence of God. This approach reveals that they do not yet understand the Bible’s approach, known as presuppositional apologetics.

“Presuppositions are simply beliefs that everyone has that affect how they think, view the world, interpret evidence, and read the Bible. Apologetics is a reasoned defense of beliefs. Presuppositional apologetics is a reasoned defense of Christian beliefs based on recognizing our presuppositions.

“For instance, my presupposition is that God exists and He has given us His Word, (the Bible), that is absolute truth. So, I use the Bible as the basis for how to think, interpret evidence, explain the world around me, and read the Bible. An atheist’s presupposition will most likely be that there is no God and that truth is relative. An atheist believes that man decides truth, and so he thinks, interprets evidence, and views the world and Bible accordingly.”

Said another way, atheists presuppose there is no God. The Bible presupposes that they do.

The Death of the Nutty Professor

Oct 6, 2017Steve SanchezFamous Lost Words, Pastor's P.O.V.jerry lewis, nutty professor

“I’ve had great success being a total idiot.”

Jerry Lewis, the great comedian, actor and telethon host passed away on August 20 at the ripe old age of ninety-one, over two decades past what the Bible says is a good, long life: “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)

When celebrities pass on, I’m always curious about whether they knew Jesus because I’d like to meet them someday in Heaven. Unfortunately, Joseph Levitch, (his real name), did not talk much about his religious beliefs or God, which may offer up a clue to his beliefs, or, non-beliefs. Where do you think Jerry was with God?

I did find an interview on YouTube where he talked quite a bit about faith with David Susskind in 1965. Concerning marrying his wife Patty, a Catholic, he said,

“I did not believe such a thing could work. I had recalled my upbringing from a very Orthodox Jewish faith. I was given to understand that you don’t even go near a Catholic Church. I married her and forced her to become a Jewess or I would not marry her.
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