CN Morning Rundown: EXPOSED: Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church Had Thousands and Thousands of Dollars Hidden in the Walls

Here’s a quick summary of the top stories on cn.mycharisma.com:

EXPOSED: Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church Had Thousands and Thousands of Dollars Hidden in the Walls

Talk about your heavenly windfalls.

Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston became the fortunate recipient of a financial surprise when a plumber made a shocking discovery when fixing a toilet wall at the church late last month. The plumber discovered thousands of envelopes stuffed full of cash and checks, seven years after the church had reported nearly $600,000 stolen from its coffers, click2houston.com reported.

The plumber, known only as Justin, made the discovery public on a local radio show this week.

What Believers Can Learn From ‘Nonreligious’ Founder Benjamin Franklin

Although considered by many to be one of America’s most nonreligious founders, Benjamin Franklin exhibited a biblical literacy that would put many modern pastors and ministers to shame, especially those who downplay repentance and accommodate sin in the name of “grace.”

This is obvious in a 1735 letter he wrote to defend the young pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia who had been dismissed for allegedly emphasizing good works over faith in Christ’s atonement. Franklin was a member of this church, and in his letter defending the pastor, he made the following doctrinal statement.

Let us then consider what the Scripture Doctrine of this Affair is, and in a Word it is this: Christ by his Death and Sufferings has purchased for us those easy terms and conditions of our acceptance with God, proposed in the Gospel, to wit, Faith and Repentance: By his Death and Sufferings, he has assured us of God’s being ready and willing to accept of our sincere, though imperfect obedience to his revealed will; By his Death and Sufferings he has atoned for all sins forsaken and amended, but surely not for such as are willfully and obstinately persisted in … and that the ultimate End and Design of Christ’s Death, of our Redemption by his Blood, was to lead us to the Practice of all Holiness, Piety and Virtue, and by these Means to deliver us from future Pain and Punishment, and lead us to the Happiness of Heaven. This may (besides what has been already suggested) be proved from innumerable Passages of the holy Scriptures (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 139-40).

Is Whoopi Goldberg’s Abortion Argument ‘Transphobic?’

On Thursday morning, Whoopi Goldberg tore into men who speak out against abortion, arguing they “have no idea” what “a fetus wants.”

Goldberg launched the pro-abortion missive after playing soundbites from Wednesday’s hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, when the nine justices heard oral arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is seen as a direct legal challenge of the precedent established in 1973, when the high court granted nationwide legal cover to abortion with its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade.

The case centers on a law in Mississippi that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Hanging in the balance of the Supreme Court’s ruling, which isn’t expected until summertime, is the fate of the state’s lone abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which offers women abortions up to 16 weeks into pregnancy. {eoa}

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