Christianity – Page 7 – slaveofjesuschristdotme

Little Horn Pt. 3

The kingdom of the “little horn”, which came after the rise, and fall, of Medo-Persia, Greece, and pagan Rome, which are the kingdoms of silver, bronze, and iron, of Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel 2:27-45), is the Holy Roman Empire. The capital of the empire is Rome, which has been known as “the city of seven hills” throughout history. The religion of Rome, which is Roman Catholicism, ruled over the empire, and was used by Satan as a weapon against the gospel of Jesus Christ, his church, and the Jewish people, throughout its reign. This religious persecution has killed approximately fifty million people by way of its inquisitions, and crusades against Jews, Christians, and everyone who refused to submit t0 the religion of Rome.

Daniel 8

9   And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.
10   And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them.
11   He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.
12   Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered.

The religion of Rome carried out the work of Satan, according to Revelation chapter 12, by claiming to be the church of Jesus Christ, and converting the European nations to a false religion that contradicted the gospel of Christ. During this time, the Bible was outlawed, and to be found with a Bible was punishable by death. The false religion of Rome was a, mystical, sacramental religion, which claimed to continue the work of Christ by constantly atoning for the people’s sins, and even claiming that the priests were able to turn the bread and wine into the body, and blood, of Christ, without changing the appearance of the sacrament. In this way, Christ was to be continually offered, again, and again, for the people’s sins. This doctrine contradicts the warning from Scripture that teaches that Christ was to be offered once, and for all, for the sins of the people, and those who attempt to offer him up again cannot be forgiven, or restored to repentance. Therefore, this heresy of Rome serves to harden people to the true gospel, and prevent them from being saved by it.

Hebrews 10

4   For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5   and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6   if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
7   For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
8   but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

Hebrews 3

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Galatians 5

19   Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20   idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21   envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Rome’s religion has not only redefined Christ’s atonement, but it has changed the gospel of salvation by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, to a works based religion, which also prevents people from believing the truth. This is done by redefining the order of salvation, and justification by faith. The Biblical order of salvation, and justification by faith is stated below.

Election by God, the Father, before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-11).

Called, and drawn, by God, the Father, and taught by him, through the preaching of the gospel (John 6:44-45, Matthew 11:25-27).

Regenerated by the word of God, and the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8, Romans 10:14-17, Ephesians 2:1-6, John 15:3, 1Peter 1:23-25).

Justification through repentance & believing the good news of salvation (John 6:34-40, Romans 3:19-26, Mark 1:15, Romans 10:6-13).

Sanctification through abiding in the teachings of Scripture, and not the Old Covenant law, nor man-made traditions (John 15:1-17, Galatians 3:22-27, Colossians 2:4-23, 2Peter 1:16-21).

Glorification when Jesus returns to raise his people from the dead to reign with him forever (1Corinthians chp. 15, Romans 6:3-8, 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 20:4-6).

Rome’s false order of salvation does not justify sinners until the sinners have finished paying of their sins in purgatory, as seen below.

Baptism removes original sin from converts, and puts them in a right relationship with God.

Confirmation is when converts receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and is also when they receive a patron saint into their lives, which is the equivalent of a spirit guide in occult religions.

The Eucharist is the sacrament, which is stated above, that converts partake of for the purpose of receiving forgiveness for venial sins, which are slight and pardonable sins.

Penance is confession of sins to a priest to receive forgiveness or punishment for sins.

Extreme unction is the anointing of dying converts for the purpose of preparing their souls for Heaven.

Cleansing by fire is purgatory, wherein the converts are to have their sins purged for an indefinite amount of time before entering Heaven.

Justification is when the converts finally is released from purgatory, and enter Heaven.

The religion of Rome has made its priests modern day pharisees throughout the church age by way of its false teachings, its hypocrisy, its exaltation of priests, and its greed.

Matthew 23

4   For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5   But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.
6   They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
7   greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
8   But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.9   Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
10   And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.
11   But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12   And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13   “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
14   Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16   “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’
17   Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18   And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’
19   Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20   Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.
21   He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.22   And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
23   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
24   Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
26   Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
28   Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29   “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous
,30   and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31   “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32   Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.
33   Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
34   Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35   that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Related articles are listed below:

“Little Horn Pt. 1“
“Little Horn Pt. 2“

Radical Takeover Pt. 7 – Cult of Green: UNEP’s Sabbath & Global Ethic

Worldview Weekend –

Cult of Green:

The United Nations Environmental Sabbath and

the New Global Ethic

By Carl Teichrib (www.forcingchange.org)

NOTE: This essay was first published in Forcing Change back in 2007. It is being reprinted here as an informational/educational service. If you appreciate the depth of research and scope of this essay, please consider an annual subscription/membership to Forcing Change for your subscription support is what enables this research to continue. Go to Apply For Membership and check out the many options available. As a member you will receive each monthly edition of Forcing Change and have access to six years of back issues and reports.

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“Christianity rescued the world from this lunacy. Today, Christian Churches may be in need of rescue.” – Robert A. Sirico.[1]

   Environmentalism and religion are indelibly linked. At times this connection is subtle, such as when it’s clothed in the often-bureaucratic language of sustainable development. Other times this marriage is openly acknowledged. The late actor James Coburn, in an Earth Day interview with Caryl Matrisciana at Malibu Beach, enthusiastically proclaimed,

    “Mother Earth is the Mother. She’s the Mother Goddess. She’s the one we should be praising rather then raping.

   I mean, all of these people here today are here for one reason, because they are concerned about what’s happening to the Earth, what Mankind is doing to the Earth. I mean the negative emotion we carry around a lot of us is another contributor to it. It all feeds the Moon. What we have to do is be true to ourselves, if we are true to ourselves we’ll be true to Mother Earth.

Mother Earth is going to be bountiful. She’ll give us everything we need. She has for a long time.

We’ve lost our way. The pagans used to know how to do it. And the Indians, some of them still remember how to do it.

The Earth is a living organism. We’re killing the one we love the most, and she loves us. We’ve got to praise our Mother Goddess!”[2]

At the world’s political gathering place, the United Nations, eco-spirituality has been embraced in a variety of forms. One example is the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a short document hardly amounting to twenty letter-sized pages. Taken at face value, the CBD appears benign in almost every respect, with little in the text that could be construed as religious-in-nature.

   Yet when the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) interpreted the CBD, resulting in an oversized 1100+page work titled the Global Biodiversity Assessment, eco-spirituality was included as a global asset. In fact, eco-spirituality was deemed so important that a second massive volume was published, aptly titled Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity: A Complementary Contribution to the Global Biodiversity Assessment (700+pages on oversized paper).

   So why would the CBD, a minuscule document with no real reference to religion foster such a huge interpretive response, including one text specifically on the spiritual aspects of biodiversity? UNEP published the answer,

“the UN has turned increasing amounts of time and energy to articulating practical measures for meeting the global environmental crisis and to forming an international consensus around a global environmental ethic. Much of this effort came to fruition at the 1992 Earth Summit through the passage of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration, and the Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD].”[3]

   In case you missed it the answer is found in the middle of the above quote; the formation of “a global environmental ethic.”

   Elaborating on this point, J. Baird Callicott, a UNEP contributor and Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion Studies at the University of North Texas, writes in Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity,

“With the current and more ominous global dimension of the twentieth century’s environmental crisis now at the forefront of attention, environmental philosophy must strive to facilitate the emergence of a global environmental consciousness that spans national and cultural boundariesIn part, this requires a more sophisticated cross-cultural comparison of traditional and contemporary concepts of the nature of nature, human nature, and the relationship between people and naturea new paradigm is emerging that will sooner or later replace the obsolete mechanical world-view and its associated values and technological esprit.

   What I envision for the twenty-first century is the emergence of an international environmental ethic based on the theory of evolution, ecology and the new physicsThus we may have one world-view and one associated environmental ethic corresponding to the contemporary reality that we inhabit one planet”[4]

According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary, the term “ethic” means “a set of moral principles.” Ethics, and its twin sister, Morality, historically turn on the hinges of religion and philosophical thought. Hence, if a new set of global ethics is to arise, religion as a whole and spiritual leadership in particular must be included in this transformative process. But which religions and spiritual practices are deemed valid in creating a new global, Earth-centric morality?

   By seeing which religions are vilified in the United Nation’s system, and by examining which worldview the UN deems important, the answer avails itself. A glimpse of this exists in the two aforementioned CBD interpretive texts. In these volumes Christianity is castigated, while pagan practices and Eastern religions are upheld as positive models.

   According to the Global Biodiversity Assessment,

“the Judaeo-Christian tradition, set humans not as part of a wider community of beings, but apart. It came to view nature as totally dedicated to the fulfilment of human wants, at the pleasure of people. Eastern cultures with religious traditions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism did not depart as dramatically from the perspective of humans as members of a community of beings including other living and non-living elements. So Hindus continue to protect primatesBuddhist shrines in southeast Asia have temple groves attached to them, as do Shinto shrines in Japan. This does not at all mean, however, that these Asian societies have not permitted large-scale erosion of their biological diversity, whether in India or Thailand.

Societies dominated by Islam, and especially by Christianity, have gone farthest in setting humans apart from nature and in embracing a value system that has converted the world into a warehouse of commodities for human enjoyment. In the process, not only has nature lost its sacred qualities, but most animal species that that have a positive symbolic value in other human cultures have acquired very negative connotations in the European culture. Conversion to Christianity has meant an abandonment of an affinity with the natural world for many forest dwellers, peasants, fishers all over the world.”[5]

   After laying basic blame for environmental problems at the feet of Christianity, the Assessment continued its chastisement by giving the negative example of sacred grove destruction.

   “The northeastern hill states of India bordering China and Myanmar supported small scale, largely autonomous shifting cultivator societies until the 1950s. These people followed their own religious traditions which included setting apart between 10 and 30% of the landscape as sacred groves and ponds. Most of these people were drawn into the larger market economy and converted to Christianity by the late 1950s. On so converting to a religious belief system that rejects assignment of sacred qualities to elements of nature, they began to cut down the sacred groves”[6]

   The second UNEP interpretive volume, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, takes an even more challenging approach to Christianity and Western positions. It proposes that world religions, “especially those in the West,” redefine their ultimate purpose to align with a more radical Earth view; suggesting that Western religions compare their cosmology with the Assisi Declarations,[7] which propagates world unity and universal harmony as the answer to Mankind’s globally destructive tendencies.[8]

   Moreover, the “Christian philosophy of the white man” is referred to as “the ego-driven hegemony of Christian doctrine.”[9] Instead of these negative “white man” philosophies, other more harmonious world-views are to be encouraged, such as the sacredness of the soil: “The soil is our Goddess; it is our religion.”[10]

   Eco-feminism, antagonistic to Christianity and the image of “God as single, male and transcendent,”[11] is also brought to the forefront. The UNEP contributor on eco-feminism suggests a number of “interconnected transformations of our world-view.”

“A shift from a conception of God as holding all sovereign power outside of and ruling over nature; to a conception of God who is under and around all things, sustaining and renewing nature and humanity together as one creational biotic community.”

“A shiftto a view of the world as an organic living whole, manifesting energy, spirit, agency and creativity.”

“A shift from an ethic that non-human entities on the earth, such as animals, plants, minerals, water, air and soil have only utilitarian use valueto a view of all things having intrinsic value to be respected and celebrated for their own being.”

“A shiftto a holistic psychology that recognizes ourselves as psychospiritual-physical wholes in interrelation with the rest of nature as also psychospiritual-physical wholes who are to mutually interdepend in one community of life.”

“A shift from a view that patriarchal dominance is the order of ‘nature’to a recognition that patriarchal dominance is the root of distorted relations”

“A shift from the concept of one superior culture (white Western Christian) to be imposed on all other peoples to ‘save’ and civilize’ them; to a respect for the diversity of human cultures in dialogue and mutual learning, overcoming racist hierarchy and defending particularly the bioregional indigenous cultures which are on the verge of extinction.”

“A shift from a politics of survival of the fittest that allocate resources and power to the most powerful; to a political community based on participatory democracy, community-based decision-making and representation of the welfare of the whole bio-region in making decisions.”[12]

Fitting with these alternative views, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity presents the Gaia idea as a cornerstone paradigm. This “scientifically” favored hypothesis entwines various co-evolutionary and Mother Goddess concepts around a self-organizing Earth principle,[13] forming a united foundation to serve the call of planetary interdependence. Conversely, in reference to the Judeo-Christian order of nature as found in the first chapter of Genesis, the UNEP volume contends that “a culture built on ‘domination of the earth, and the animals therein’ is doomed to disappear.”

   So it’s no surprise to read,

“primitive religions and cultures, often conceived of as constituting one single and earliest form of religion, have constantly functioned as the positive or negative counterpart to Western civilization and life. In the period of environmentalism they have predominately functioned as positive, sometimes even paradisiacal, models for an ecologically sound world-view and society. The period of environmentalism coincides with a period of New Age thinking”[14]

          Obviously the religious foundation for the coming global ethic, which is designed to save the planet from calamity, must be built on pagan/Eastern cosmologies. Christianity maligned with its Western consumption and development patterns, it’s dominance over gender and nature, and its racially “superior” cultural mindset must “disappear.”

   But “Christianity,” or a form of it, can have its place at the international table. In a metaphorical way a spot for it has been set, along with place mats for the other monotheistic faiths. However two unspoken, simple requirements first need to be met.

   First, abandon the fundamentalist aspects of the Biblical faith, rife with its talk of sin and salvation, and reject the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ which separates and divides. And secondly, join the world in re-forging society so that the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God prevails. In other words, turn your back on the narrow, foundational tenants of the Bible and partner to create a unified world, recognizing that all religions are valid expressions of the Living Cosmos. And it doesn’t really matter what order this is done in, as long as the end result of a new global ethics is attained.

   And to make sure that the place at the table is filled, assistance from the international community is available.

   For almost forty years UNEP has sponsored the World Environment Day (WED). Each June 5th, a host city sponsors the WED with a specific environmental theme. This year (2007) the host city was Tromsø, Norway, with the theme: “Melting Ice A Hot Topic?”

   Other themes have included, “Give Earth a Chance” (2002), “We the Peoples: United for the Global Environment” (1995), and “Only One Earth, Care and Share” (1992). Cities that have hosted the event include San Francisco (2005), Moscow (1998), and Nairobi (1987), among others (see the sidebar “World Environment Day: Hosts and Themes” at the end of this article).

   It’s in this context of the World Environment Day that the UN Environmental Sabbath was launched, specifically designed to fall on the weekend closest to the WED. As one writer for the Earth Island Institute noted, “The approach of World Environment Day also signals the return of another unique UN-conceived event the Earth Sabbath a day of worship that transcends denominations and welcomes all faiths to participate in a day of global reverence for the Earth.”[15]

      Leigh Eric Schmidt, writing for The Harvard Theological Review in 1991, provides some of the historical details of this unique, annual Earth worship event.

“The first Earth Day in 1970 provided an occasion within the churches for expressing concerns over the environmental crisis. Religious involvement in this ecological awakening was substantial. Both the president and the general secretary of the National Council of Churches endorsed Earth Day in mailings to church leaders in March 1970; they also encouraged the observance of an Environmental Sabbath the weekend before

   Despite the call in 1970 for an Environmental Sabbath, the idea did not develop until the United Nations Environment Programme appropriated it in 1986, linking it with World Environment DayInterreligious in its construction, the Environmental Sabbath is intended to be a time ‘to contemplate our bond with nature’ and to cultivate ‘a more caring, knowing and responsible attitude toward our use of Earth’s gifts.’ With an estimated ‘25,000 groups of celebrants’ in 1990 in churches, synagogues, colleges, and youth organizations the Environmental Sabbath is explicitly liturgical and religious in its inspiration (in contrast to the more politically oriented activities of Earth Day)”[16]

   Although UNEP adopted the Sabbath in 1986, it wasn’t until the following year that the program went public. According to John J. Kirk, co-founder of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment, an organization established by UNEP in to work on the Sabbath, the target audience was initially North American churches.

   “It began in the fall of 1986 when a few of us met at UN headquarters in New York with leaders of several faith communities. With guidance and support from the United Nations Environment Programme, we began developing a project that would inform North American congregations about the serious environmental problems facing life on Earth, so we could work to protect this magnificent work of the Creator.

   In June of 1987, our first Environmental Sabbath kit went to congregations across the United States and Canada. The goal was to create a sabbatical for our beleaguered planet an Earth Rest Day to be celebrated annually by faith communities”[17]

   Noel J. Brown, the UNEP Director during the 1990 Earth Sabbath, presents us with deeper reasons then just informing North American congregations. In a letter dated March 28, 1990, Brown wrote,

   “Once again, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is pleased to invite you to join us in celebrating the ‘Environmental Sabbath/Earth Rest Day’ in your ceremonies, rituals and prayers

   The need for establishing a new spiritual and ethical basis for human activities on Earth has never been greater as the deterioration of our Planetary Home makes the protection of the human environment a new global imperative.”[18]

   Less then six months before his letter went public, Brown was candidly seeking the complicity of religious leaders in his quest to create a new global ethic. Consider these statements made while the UNEP Director was visiting the Los Angeles Interfaith Council,

   “Now we need to work more closely with the religious and spiritual community. We need to create an ecumenical movement I call it an ‘eco-menical’ movement in the service of the Earth. It’s time for us to think again, and to think anew

We would also like to suggest other challenges that you in the religion and faith community might help us with. The first is a new vision, and supporting institutions, to help us move through this transition. We in the United Nations cannot hope to solve the problems of the future with only the institutions and the mentality of the past. We need a vision that encompasses all human rights to freedom, equality and conditions of life; and an environment that promises life, dignity and well-being. We need also a new legitimacy, a new ethic, and new metaphors.

we must create a new vision and an institution that can help us to deal with these new realities.

   One of the new metaphors that I am eager to produce and promote is that of a covenant a new covenant with the Earth. You in the religious communities can help us do that

That is the challenge facing all of us, and that is the challenge to which I ask you to work with us as allies. We can create a new order, and if we are to survive, indeed we must.”[19] [Italics in original]

At the time of the 1990 event, Christian denominations sitting on the Environmental Sabbath interfaith board included the American Baptist Church, the Protestant Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ.[20] Moreover, a special Earth worship resource book was prepared by UNEP for the Sabbath, suitably titled Only One Earth.

   Focusing on changing the current religious paradigm towards a new ecological way of thinking, Only One Earth was a source book filled with meditative readings, prayers, and songs for congregational use. Even worship service suggestions were included, such as the excerpted recommendations listed below.

             The Sermon:

“Describe the crisis. Use scientific data. Highlight the urgency of the situation.”

“Speak of the essential earth-human relationship. What is it? What is our responsibility to it?”

“Point to various sources of inspiration: to scripture, to wisdom and spirituality; and to the Earth itself. Show how they are all important, and tied together.”

The Service:

“Decorate your sanctuary with photographs of the Earth as seen from outer space, and with other Earth images.”

“Invite guest speakers or ‘representatives’ from other species, i.e. plants and animals.”

Go Further:

“In regular services, insert a portion that focuses on reverence and care for the Earth.”

“Organize an interfaith ceremony.”

“Organize an Environmental Sabbath concert or festival”

“Write letters to the national and regional leaders of your faith, encouraging them to take action.”[21]

For religious leaders who were so inclined, churches could participate through a variety of listed meditations and reflections. Hindu, Buddhist, Judaic, North American Indian, Islamic, and Christian prayers were suggested; all with an Earth-centric and/or mystical tone. Topping it off, at the back of the UNEP Sabbath worship book was the Earth Covenant, a type of “citizens’ treaty” that could be copied and distributed to the worshipers (see “Earth Covenant” sidebar).

   The response to the Environmental Sabbath of 1990, the kick-off year of Only One Earth, was noteworthy. Not only did many churches and groups embark on this Earth-first journey, estimated at 25,000 by Leigh Eric Schmidt, it added real momentum towards acceptance of an environmental theology. And over the years, the program, according to John Kirk, has spawned “more than 130,000 religion and ecology projectsworldwide.”[22]

   Granted, the Environmental Sabbath never reached the tremendous general popularity held by the April 22nd Earth Day. But it wasn’t designed for the general public. Rather, the Environmental Sabbath program was target specific: religions and spiritual leaders, churches, and entire denominations.

   In the year 2000, Only One Earth was revamped and re-released as Only One Earth: A Book of Reflection for Action. On page 3 of this new and enlarged edition, UN Under-Secretary-General Klaus Töpfer offered some words of eco-wisdom,

“We have entered a new age. An age where all of us will have to sign a new compact with our environmentand enter into the larger community of all living beings. A new sense of our communion with planet Earth must enter our minds.”[23]

   Today, New Age eco-spirituality is sweeping through the Christian community, influencing para-church organizations, local congregations, and up into the leadership of entire denominations. If one where to catalogue the situation only in North America, it would take an entire book to list all the ministries and churches that have adopted this ideology either by naivety or by consent.

   Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, penned these words regarding the Earth Sabbath, paganism, and the embracement of these ideas by religious leaders.

   “Consider the ‘confession’ of environmental sins offered by the National Council of Churches (NCC): ‘We are responsible for massive pollution of earth, water and skyWe are killing the skies: as the global atmosphere heats up from chemical gases, as the ozone layer is destroyed.’

Scientists say most of these concerns are overblown. But let’s just say these assertions are true. At most, they are technical matters to be addressed by specialists in the public or private sector. They shouldn’t have far-reaching spiritual relevance. No one is in Hell for using aerosol hairspray.

Only if we jettison traditional teachings can we agree with the words of NCC’s eco-celebrant, who says in one proposed prayer: ‘We must say, do, and be everything possible to realize the goal of the Environmental SabbathWe cannot let our mother die. We must love and replenish her.’

Describing the earth as our living mother either constitutes a pagan form of earth worship or comes dangerously close. An ‘Environmental Sabbath’ isn’t a Christian goal, even though the United Nations has a program to promote it. Neither should we attempt to create an ‘Eco-Church’

The Genesis account of creation provides enough theological evidence to counter the greening of theology. After God created man and woman in His image, He said: ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish and the sea, the birds of the air and all the living things that move on this earth’ (Gn 1:28).

The earth hasn’t been given dominion over people. We have souls which are in need of salvation; rocks, rivers, squirrels and salmon do not. We have been given the gifts of reason and revelation; plants and animals have not. There are right and wrong ways to have dominion over nature, which the well-formed conscience can discern.”[24]

   In closing this article, it would be wise to consider the words of Samantha Smith from her 1994 book Goddess Earth. A critic of eco-spirituality, she exposed the core of this issue and its disquieting implications for Christianity,

“Much of the social and environmental activism in the churches today is based on Socialist beliefs promoted in the name of ‘stewardship,’ which encompasses everything from social justice to passionate earth protection. Green theology overlooks God’s commands to fill the earth and subdue it, while caring for its beauty and resources. Instead, it would have Christians believe their noblest calling is to serve their ‘interconnected’ earth. In so doing, they play into the hands of the pagan Greens, who desire to have dominion over man.”[25] FC

Carl Teichrib edits Forcing Change, a monthly journal detailing the worldview changes now sweeping our Western culture, and the challenges and opportunities this presents to Christendom.

Test All Things Pt. 5 – Cult Leaders & their Followers

The minds of most people have not been trained to think critically about the groups that they follow, so that they are able to discern whether their group is grounded in truth, or is ruled over by error. Also most people will not think to examine the legitimacy of their group. Instead, people are prone to blindly following what seems right, and what appeals to their senses. However, mankind has been sinners since the fall of Adam, and therefore their senses are corrupt. That is why Scripture says that “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked”, and “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be”(Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 8:7). Therefore, what appeals to the senses of sinful man, and what seems right to them, cannot be trusted. Instead, whatever messenger, or message, that claims to be “the truth” must be tested by the word of God, so that people can know if what they are hearing, and learning, is true or error & deception.

Scripture is the only measuring rod for discerning truth from error. That is why Jesus, who is the Word of God, and “the Word made flesh”, said “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life”, and “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, and “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”(John 8:12, John 14:6, John 17:17). The Apostle John also spoke of God, and the word, in this way: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1John 1:5). The word of God also says “The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times”, and “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” (Psalm 12:6, Proverbs 30:5-6). Therefore, Scripture affirms itself as true, without errors, and it is not open to additions, but it exposes those who add to the word of God as liars.

2Timothy 3

13   But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14   But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15   and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16   All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17   that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

People who follow cults, and cult leaders, are not following the true God, but a counterfeit God. The cult leaders may claim to be Christians, and the cults may claim to be Christ’ church, but they deviate from the gospel of Jesus Christ, and require their followers to trust their interpretation of the gospel.

Some cults are more deceptive then others. Some are so extremely heretical that they are easy to fall away from. Nevertheless, people’s departure from particular cults is just the beginning of breaking away from error, because there are many cults that claim to be Christian churches. So people must be willing to examine the doctrine of every church that they attend. It is not sufficient to merely identify the heresies within other churches. Any hypocrite can do that (Matthew 7:3-5). Jesus revealed the importance of abstaining from error when he said “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Therefore, leaving a cult, and deciding to attend a church that seems better simply isn’t good enough. Those “who names the name of Christ must depart from iniquity”, because there are many false teachers, who are teaching people to follow heresies that contradicts the gospel, which is a work of the flesh, which will prevent many from inheriting the kingdom of God (2Timothy 2:19, Galatians 5:19-21). That is why Jesus said “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). In order to escape the trap of damnable heresies, believers must test their own church to make sure that it is a church that teaches, and obeys, the true gospel. There is no perfect church, but a true church teaches the true gospel, and obeys it (Matthew 5:13-16, John 8:12, Ephesians 4:1-16, Galatians 1:6-8, Galatians 5:4-9).

Whenever believers join churches that teaches the true gospel, and obeys it, the believes must also test themselves to make sure that they are following Christ, and not merely his people, nor pastors, nor their favorite teachers, because Jesus commanded every believer to follow him. He also gave this warning: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2). He also said “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:5-6). This means that those who are claiming to be believers, yet are not following Christ’s teachings, will be taken out of the congregation of the righteous, and burned by the wrath of God (Psalm 1:-6, Psalm 119:1-11, Hebrews 6:1-8).

Hebrews 6

1   Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2   of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3   And this we will do if God permits.
4   For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5   and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6   if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
7   For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
8   but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

This is the reason why many Christians will not inherit the kingdom of God. They do not endure to the end. They may be in the congregation of the righteous, and mimic the behavior of believers, and even expose the heresies of false churches, yet they, themselves, are not following Christ. They are merely indoctrinated into church culture. Though it may be a true church, God’s word has not taken root in their own hearts. They are merely following their group, or their pastor, and when their group falls into damnable heresies, they might also follow without protest. These kind of people are members of true Christian churches, yet they follow their church just as any other cult member.

There are also many professing Christians who follow their favorite teachers, whether they be local pastors, or televangelists. These are personality cults. Many of these cults are international. The danger with these type of cults isn’t merely the doctrine. The doctrine could be true, yet the cult aspect will still lead many to Hell, because the people are not following Christ, but a mere human celebrity. This cult is extremely dangerous, because it seems safe to the human senses, but it is idolatry. Idolatry is a work of the flesh, and those who practice it will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:20-21). The way to eternal life is narrow, and difficult. (Matthew 7:14). Therefore, every believer must test themselves to see if they are really in the faith, and not following, and worshiping, idols, because it does not matter if a preacher that they are idolizing is preaching the true gospel. If Christians are following an orthodox preacher, rather than Christ, then that believer will go to Hell for their idolatry.

Believers, therefore, do not need to be pointed to great preachers, but Christ, himself. He is the true God, and abiding in him will lead to eternal life. Preachers do not need to be exalted, but Jesus said “if I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

1Corinthians 1

10   Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11   For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
12   Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.”
13   Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

1Corinthians 3

5   Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6   I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7   So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8   Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9   For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.

Matthew 23

8   But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.
9   Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
10   And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.
11   But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

Luke 14

26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

John 15

3   You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4   Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5   “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6   If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

1John 2

24   Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25   And this is the promise that He has promised us — eternal life.
26   These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
27   But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
28   And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
29   If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

2 Timothy 2

19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

1John 5

18   We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
19   We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
20   And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
21   Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Authors of Confusion Pt. 25 – Oprah’s “Life Class”

Longtime talk show host, actress, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, is partnering with some of the biggest names in Christian media for her “life class“, wherein she teaches people how to live their best lives. Although Oprah has already made it clear that she doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, she is now presenting herself as a Christian, and is partnering with well known pastors, who were never known for preaching the true gospel of salvation, to help her audience believe that living the Christian life is “one and the same” with living one’s best life. This means that sin, God’s righteousness, his judgment on sinners, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ, is not mentioned in the classes. This deception is perpetrated by using Scripture out of context to affirm their messages of self-affirmation, self-exaltation, and self-reliance. Some of Oprah’s “life class” partners are T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen.

Oprah’s “life class” reduces Christian living down to being positive for the sake of being happy, and successful in life.

Nevertheless, Jesus did not come into the world to give people the joys of this world, but to take the penalty of the sins of mankind on himself, which is death, and to rise from the dead, so that everyone who believes in him would be freed from the bondage to sin, from God’s judgment on sinners, to reconcile them to himself, and to give them eternal life. This is the gospel, and Christian living is not attainable to those who do not believe this. Also, salvation will not be found by those who, knowingly, hold back the truth of the gospel for the sake of being popular, and loved by the world (1John 2:15-17, Galatians 1:7-10). Therefore, Oprah, and her partners, are deceiving millions with their man-made, and man-centered, philosophies, and they, themselves, are under God’s eternal punishment.

1John 2

15   Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16   For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.
17   And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
18   Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19   They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

1John 4

3 And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4   You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5   They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6   We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Colossians 2

4   Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
5   For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6   As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7   rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8   Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9   For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10   and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

2Corinthians 10

3   For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
4   For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5   casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

John 5

3   For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
4   For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
5   Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6   This is He who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7   For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
8   And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.
9   If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
10   He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
11   And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12   He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13   These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

2Corinthians 5

14   For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15   and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16   Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18   Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19   that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20   Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21   For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The Catholic Calvinists Pt. 1 – RC Sproul

The minds of modern day Protestants are far removed from the concept, and history, of Protestantism, and, therefore, have a poor understanding of the Protestant Reformation. For this reason, many who call themselves Reformed, or Calvinists, are not able to recognized when major offenses against the faith are being made. For example: many are not aware that the Protestant Reformation was rooted in a breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church by many of its clergy, who realized that their religion was not the gospel of Jesus Christ, and could not lead anyone to salvation. These Roman Catholic clergymen’s eyes were also opened to the fact that Rome, and it’s religious system, which, by that time, was drunk with the blood of the saints, by labeling them as heretics for not submitting to the false doctrines of the Catholic Church, and by torturing and killing many hundreds of thousands of Christians, was Mystery Babylon the Great, which was foretold in Revelation 17:1-1-6, and that it’s king (the popes) is the scarlet beast, which she rides.

This lack of knowledge allows many Calvinists teachers, with Roman Catholic leanings, to commit major errors concerning Christian doctrine. One of which is Dr. RC Sproul, because of his high regard for, and public praise of, Thomas Aquinas. Dr. Sproul’s ministry has described Tomas Aquinas in this way:

Ligonier.Org –

The noted theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) is our fourth example of faith from church history.

One of the most important contributions that Aquinas made to the church was his teaching on God’s revelation.

We have Aquinas to thank for reminding us that all truth is God’s truth and is therefore both universal and permanent.

These statements by Ligonier Ministries acknowledges Thomas Aquinas as an “example of faith” to Christ’s followers, and a major contributor of church doctrine, whom the church should be thankful for; thus acknowledging him as a fellow brother in Christ.

But, are these statements true?

Is Thomas Aquinas an example of faith to Christ’s followers?

Is he a fellow believer, whom the church should be thankful for?

This is who Thomas Aquinas is:

Wikipedia.Org –

Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the “Dumb Ox”, “Angelic Doctor”, “Doctor Communis“, and “Doctor Universalis“.

Thomas is held in the Roman Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. The study of his works, according to papal and magisterial documents, is a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (Catholic philosophy, theology, history, liturgy, and canon law).

Pope Benedict XV declared: “This (Dominican) Order … acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools.”

Thomas Aquinas was not a follower of Christ. Instead, he was a Roman Catholic, who served as a Dominican priest during the Great Inquisition, which was lead by the Dominican Order during the 13th century in which Aquinas lived.

Wickipedia.Org –

In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order. They used inquisitorial procedures, a legal practice common at that time. They judged heresy alone, using the local authorities to establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor headed each Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until the mid 19th century.

Therefore, Tomas Aquinas was not an example of godliness, nor was he a man of faith. Instead, he was a champion of a false religion that was, during his lifetime, persecuting masses of Christians.

To understand the major heretical views of Tomas Aquinas, one only has to read his contribution to the Roman Catholic Catechism.

Vatican.Va –

460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature“:⁷⁸ “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.”⁷⁹ “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”⁸⁰ “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”⁸¹

Nevertheless, Dr. Sproul has been able to teach on the life, and teachings of, Thomas Aquinas without being rebuked for doing so. Furthermore, he does not hide the fact that Aquinas is a Dominican, when he includes Aquinas in his list of great theologians of the Christian faith. On the contrary, Sproul’s audience knows Aquinas’ membership in the order, because he taught it to them. Dr. Sproul simply doesn’t mention that Aquinas is a heretic, because he taught a different gospel, and served in the very religion that Martin Luther, whom Sproul also knowledges as a great theologian, proclaimed to be Mystery Babylon the Great. Sproul does not mention the fact that Aquinas worked, throughout his life, for the antichrist, who was murdering Christians by the masses.

The following link is a lecture by Dr. Sproul, entitled “Lecture 3, Thomas Aquinas (Part 1):” that further reveals his love for Aquinas, the heretic.

Dr. Sproul’s zealous support of Thomas Aquinas has subtly taught Christians to think highly of, and praise, heretics. It has also helped to further weaken all that was gained by the Protestant Reformation, because the acknowledgment of Roman Catholic theologians breaks down the wall of separation between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, which was built up by the Protestant Reformers.

Another offense of Sproul is his endorsement of a Bible translation (ESV; The Reformation Study Bible), which is based on a corrupt text that has various passages of Scripture missing (Codex Sinaiticus), and it is a rejection of the received text (Textus Receptus), which the Protestant Reformers used for the Protestant Reformation. Accepting this corrupt text, which was also endorsed by Rome, and encouraging others to do the same, is a direct attack on the innerancy of Scripture, and including the ESV translation in the “Reformation Study Bible” is a sad insult to the Reformers, the church, and Christ himself, who is the word of God (John 1:1). Hopefully, this last offense of Dr. Sproul was committed in ignorance. For more information on this textual controversy, click on the link entitled “War on Consciousness Pt. 25 – The True Bible – Textus Receptus vs Codex Sinaiticus“.

The public praise of Aquinas by Dr. Sproul, which he has done for years, reveals the ignorance of many of his followers, and the lack of concern for the purity of the gospel on the part of those who are aware of Sproul’s offense, yet still insist on promoting Dr. Sproul’s ministry, and on calling themselves Reformed. This ignorance, and apathy reveals the deadness of the Reformation, and its replacement, which is a counterfeit that is more consistent with Rome’s Counter Reformation.

Related articles are listed below:

Worldview Weekend’s Commentary on “Passion 2013”

Worldview Weekend.Com –

Jesus Culture and Judah Smith to Join Piper, Moore, Chan and Others at Giglio’s Passion 2013

A new year means a fresh batch of conferences. And a fresh batch of conferences means a whole new crop of questionable decisions being made by the leaders and organizers of those gatherings.

To start off the 2013 conference season is Louie Giglio’s Passion 2013. Held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, it will run from 1–4 January. Giglio aims this gathering specifically at young people, and according to the event’s website, last year saw “more than 40,000 students and leaders from around the world” at the US event. Today The Christian Postreports that 60,000 students are scheduled to attend this week’s event.

Source

Passion targets the younger generation with such high-profile names as Beth Moore, John Piper, Francis Chan, rapper Lecrae and this year, pastor Judah Smith of The City Church in Seattle and popular Christian band, Jesus Culture.

Who Is Judah Smith?

Judah Smith has been profiled briefly here before when, in May of this year, Smith invited Word Faith teacher Brian Houston of Hillsong Church (who, incidentally, just preached weekend services at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church) to preach at The City Church. Oddly enough, New Calvinist pastor Mark Driscoll was excited about the invitation, even encouraging his Twitter followers to attend.

Judah Smith co-pastors his church with his wife, Chelsea, making the Reformed Driscoll’s endorsement even more perplexing. The presence of a pastrix at The City Church ought not surprise, though, when it is considered that this church was founded by Judah’s parents, pastor Wendell and pastrix Gini Smith:

Source

The reader will note that, in the screenshot above, it states that Wendell and Gini Smith originally served under Dick Iverson at Bible Temple in Portland. According to C. Peter Wagner’s book Apostles Today: Biblical Government for Biblical Power, Iverson was the “founder of one of America’s foremost apostolic networks, Ministers Fellowship International, out of Portland, Oregon.” So it sounds as though The City Church has some rather colorful roots.

Who Is Jesus Culture?

Speaking of colorful, this leads to the concerning inclusion by Louie Giglio of the “Christian” music group, Jesus Culture. The group’s website tells us that it was spawned out of the youth group at Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church in Redding, California. For those who are unfamiliar with Johnson and Bethel, the following video shares some of the “signs and wonders” shenanigans that take place there, and also demonstrates some classic Bill Johnson Scripture-twisting:

Now, one could camp for quite awhile on some of the statements made by Johnson in that video, but since Johnson is not under discussion here, we’ll move on. The point is, of course, that this is the church that birthed the Jesus Culture phenomenon.

The entirety of Jesus Culture’s “About Us” page warrants a close examination, and will aid in understanding why Christians should be concerned that this band is being mainstreamed by men like Louie Giglio:

Source

The choice of words in the paragraphs above is curiously alarming. The language surrounding a “new breed of revivalists” emerging is of particular interest, as such vocabulary is prominent within the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

Note also that the group claims direct revelation and instruction from the Lord Himself.

The members of Jesus Culture claim that the Lord spoke to them, revealing the characteristics of their movement (which noticeably does not include repentance or sanctification, only love and supernatural experience), commissioning them to “mobilize this new breed,” and in so doing issued a mandate to Jesus Culture that cannot be ignored. Taking this to its logical conclusion, then, to question the actions or words of Jesus Culture and its members is to question God Himself.

Examination of this website further reveals that the goal of this group is to lead people into an experience or an “encounter” with God. It seems that truth may be cast aside in favor of temporary and potentially deceiving experiences.

The Music of Jesus Culture

It behooves us, then, to see just how it is that the music of Jesus Culture may lull the professing Christian teenager into a so-called “encounter” with God. Below you will witness the group leading the crowd in a repetitive mantra, followed by some singing and what appears to be tongues-speaking. The clip will close with band member Kim Walker-Smith breaking into spontaneous prayer and declaration.

The repetition of the mantra “Jesus” at the beginning of the clip, while appearing to be spiritual, actually potentially could lead a person into an altered state of consciousness. Contemplative prayer, which is little more than a “Christianized” version of Eastern meditation, often encourages such a practice, as one seeks to journey inward to discover the “divine spark” within oneself. Yet, Scripture nowhere teaches this type of praise or prayer, but rather condemns the practices of pagan religions.

Also of note in the clip above is the apparent spontaneous breakout into tongues at approximately 2:30, following the singing of the line, “Heaven beckons to me.” The fact that these were nothing more than gibberish and were not a known language, as per the biblical definition of ‘tongues,’ ought to cause concern as well.

In watching and listening to Jesus Culture, it does not take long to realize that the focus of their music and teaching is all about an experience of “God’s love.” Yet, without acknowledging the righteous wrath of God, His love can never fully be understood or appreciated. Unfortunately, a warm-fuzzy feeling up and down one’s spine does not a true Christian make.

The “Teaching” of Jesus Culture

Jesus Culture does more than simply play music, however. It seems that, at times, various members of the group also may preach or teach. Below is Jesus Culture member Kim Walker-Smith preaching to a large crowd at the Awakening 2011 event, and offering a rather detailed account of her own personal encounter with “Jesus.” This video is a bit lengthy, but the reader is urged to watch it in its entirety.

Kim Walker-Smith claims that she spoke with Jesus, that He cuddled her, and that she saw God the Father. And while she acknowledges that such visions are not regular occurrences, she nevertheless indicates that she’s had multiple encounters with Him. One wonders how many people sitting amongst that large crowd left disappointed that night that they had not “encountered” Jesus as Kim Walker-Smith claimed that she had. Walker-Smith’s recollection of the vision is natural, and seems to presume that everyone should experience such a thing. Yet, when face to face with God Almighty, how did Isaiah react?

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:1–5)

And Ezekiel?

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face…(Ezekiel 1:26–28)Moses, who we are told spoke to the Lord as a man speaks to a friend (Exodus 33:11), was not even allowed to see Him in all of His glory!

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:18–23)Not one of these men, after a brief moment of awestruck fear, “fell into Jesus’ arms” as Walker-Smith claims that she did. Not one describes God the Father running around deliriously and laughing while Isaiah or Ezekiel danced around in a music box. So to Kim Walker-Smith’s claims above that she has spoken personally with Jesus Christ and God the Father, I would like to offer this challenge: Prove it. And while you’re at it, disprove this: God just spoke to me and told me that you are lying, Kim Walker-Smith. Don’t believe me? Well, who is to say that your experience was real and mine was not?

Christian, herein lies the grave danger of such claims of personal revelation and visitations from God. They cannot be proven and they are not Scriptural. If they are to be found in Scripture, they appear to be more indicative of the deceptive angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14–15) than anything else.

Parents, if your teenager is attending Passion 2013 this week, this is the type of so-called Christian leaders to whom they are being exposed. This is the type of music that will bombard their eardrums during these four days. If your impressionable teen is wandering in the crowd of Passion 2013, it is my prayer that you will pray mightily for his or her protection.

What Happened at Passion 2012?

As a reminder, last year’s Passion Conference saw the featured speakers lead the humongous crowd in a troubling display of “Lectio Divina-lite.” In the post, “Biblical Silence vs. Mystical Silence and What Really Went On at Passion 2012?” the topics of contemplative prayer and lectio divina were discussed more thoroughly. The following videos of Session 5 of the Passion 2012 conference also were shared in that article.

Here is popular New Calvinist preacher John Piper:

Here we see the SBC’s favorite female Bible teacher, Beth Moore:

And here is Passion founder Louie Giglio closing this session:

Of special note are the words spoken by Giglio at the close of this exercise:

How many of you heard the voice of God speak specifically, clearly, directly, and personally, to you? Can you just put a hand up? I’d like you to share it. Can you put a hand up for a minute?

Just want you to look around; that’s people saying, “God Almighty (pause) the Maker of heaven (pause) the one Who’s sitting on the only throne (pause) that’s not under threat (long pause, audience cheers)—He spoke to me. He spoke to me.”

“God spoke to me.” (long pause) Don’t let the voice of the darkness, tell you that you are not (pause) worth (pause) that God would not speak to you. (pause) Don’t let him tell you, you don’t matter. (pause) God spoke to you.

As was asked in last year’s reporting of this event: When did Protestant leaders begin to teach that we need the Bible “plus” anything? God has spoken. He has graciously, clearly, and perfectly spoken in His Word. We have no need to be still and wait for His audible voice outside of Scripture. He has not stuttered. He has not stammered. He has not whispered. If you want to hear from God Almighty, open your Bible and read.

Until Passion 2013 commences, there is no way to know if a similar exercise will be practiced again. A live stream of the event will be provided, and those who are concerned may want to take the time to watch some of the sessions.

Conclusion

It is important to note that this article is not attempting to throw anyone under the guilt-by-association bus. No one is saying that, because one of these individuals will be sharing the stage with another that they necessarily endorse that other person’s ministry. Of course, that does not speak to the wisdom of certain speakers choosing to participate in this event. What must be acknowledged, however, is that simply by extending an invitation to these individuals, Passion founder Louie Giglio is issuing an apparent endorsement of each one’s ministry. For those who maintain that Giglio is a conservative and trusted teacher, this poses a rather complicated problem.

Evangelicalism appears to be taking broader strides toward the wide road of destruction. Compromise is rampant as numbers take priority over fidelity to Scripture. These are not small issues, dear Christian. What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of movements that once existed only on the fringe of the “Christian” community, such as Word Faith and dangerous, deceptive “charismatic chaos.” In the face of the visible church’s compromise, the true Christian must stand on God’s Word alone. To ground oneself upon anything else is to guarantee a certain, perhaps eternal, collapse.

Related articles are listed below:

The New Christianity Pt. 12 – Alice Bailey & The Christian World Servers

WorldServerFoundation.Org –

Vision and Mission

Our vision

Our vision is a world where collaboration and co-operation are recognised as essential in solving the contemporary challenges – social, economic, political and environmental – facing the global community.

Mission statement

The mission of the World Servers Foundation is to highlight and facilitate the positive work of others and to promote and cultivate the inherent ability within all human beings to bring about positive change.

We believe that co-operation and collaboration are vital next steps in human history and that these will be essential features of our longer-term survival.

On a daily basis we will contribute to a more stable and co-operative world community through:

Education and Encouragement – Providing courses and retreats for people who are in a position to influence, motivate and educate others. These courses and retreats will provide a forum for fresh perspectives on the nature of education and human development and will help key decision makers and educators bring about positive change within their respective fields and to leverage this position for wider impact.

Providing a platform for global discussion and debate that enables individuals and organisations at all levels, in every country, to tell their story, express their feelings, highlight key issues and showcase work in all areas related to positive change.

Using the media and the power of the internet as a collaborative educational platform.

Creativity and Connection – Network building: locating, connecting and communicating the initiatives worldwide which are serving the good of their communities and providing ways for others to be involved and further this work.

To identify and connect groups and individuals in areas such as education, science, the arts, business, charity and politics who are aligned with this vision and mission, making their service more visible and tangible.

To provide platforms for practical expression, action, creativity, discussion and collaboration.

Neutrality – To maintain religious, social and political neutrality, free from the influence of any particular country, organisation or group.

This mission stems from our desire to make visible the power of the human spirit and goodwill by highlighting those thoughts and actions that go beyond individual interests and serve the good of the whole.Through this work we aim to educate and encourage others and therefore increase the pace and volume of positive change around the world to meet our core vision.

Continue Reading…

The herald of the “world servers” was occultist, Alice Bailey, who was the founder of Lucis Trust, which was originally founded as Lucifer Trust in the early 1920’s. Bailey was a Luciferian, a the herald of the New Age, and she wrote extensively about the coming new world order, and its “world servers”. She described the world servers in the following:

Lucis Trust –

The “world servers” are people who seek to serve the good of the whole, share the same consciousness, carries out every activity which forwards, and fosters, good will and right relations. They seek to be harmless, constructive, and inclusive, in their thinking, and in their actions. World servers are active in all fields of life, and all countries. They are laying the foundations for right relations, and world unity. The new group of world servers is a living organization. It is not an organization. It has no headquarters, or official representatives. Every person, in every country, who is living a life of service to the good of the whole, is a member of the group. Every man, and woman, in every country, who is working to heal the breeches between people, to evoke a sense of brotherhood, to foster a sense of mutual interrelation, and interdependence, and who sees no racial, national, nor religious barriers, are part of the new group of world servers, even if they never heard of it by name. Members of the group are active in all branches of human enterprise. They include creative workers, psychologists, teachers, scientists, political workers, religious workers, business people, financiers, labor & management, environmentalists, and human rights workers.

For more information on Alice Bailey’s description of the “world servers”, click on the link entitled “The New Group of World Servers“.

Tony Blair, who is a member of the Fabian Society has established the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which includes Pastor of Saddleback Church, and author of “The purpose Driven Life”, Rick Warren, as one of the members of its religious advisory council. Rick Warren has been highly involved in working for world peace & security by his humanitarian work in countries around the world through church planting, and has even signed a document which affirms the Universalist’s claim that the God of Christians and the god of Islam is the same god, who they both serve for the sake of world peace, called “A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word between Us and You’“. According to the statement below, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is geared toward the same agenda as Alice Bailey’s “world servers”, by using religion as a tool to secure, and sustain, world peace.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation –

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation promotes understanding and respect between the world’s major religions. We believe this is central to a policy to secure sustained peace.

The world continues to become increasingly interconnected. Old boundaries of culture and identity are being eroded. However, faith has remained at the core of life for billions of people. It underpins systems of thought and behaviour.

Faith can be used to unite people around a common cause. But too often, faith can also be distorted and used to fan the flames of hatred and extremism.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation supports and collaborates with those who seek peace. We educate and develop understanding about religion in the modern world by promoting leadership, literacy and lives.

Leadership: we seek to ensure that current and future leaders understand the role religion plays in the modern, globalising world.

Literacy: we educate and support young people to help them become global citizens.

Lives: we help religious communities in 140+ countries work together to save lives.

We do this through three innovative programmes Faith and Globalisation Initiative, Faiths Act, and Face to Faith.

The Christian “world servers” can be seen in world-wide church planting initiatives that seeks spiritual, social, and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions, which is not evangelism, but the changing of various people’s world views for the purpose of uniting the church with the secular communities of the world. Below is an example of global church planting of Christians, who’s, ecumenical, dominionist’s agenda, reflects the agenda of the “world servers”.

Global Church Advancement –

This GCA Church Planting and Renewal Conference is an inter-denominational training event designed to equip church planters, pastors, and lay-leaders to start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions.

Christian leaders from more than 50 countries, representing over 300 denominations and mission agencies, have taken this church planter training.

Our Plan –

In order to best accomplish our strategy, GCA has designed a tactical plan to equip church leaders to start, grow and multiply Gospel-Centered Churches that intentionally form Church Planting Networks and Alliances that will, by God’s grace, birth Church Planting Movements and Gospel Renewal Movements. This is the strategy through which we pray that God’s invisible Kingdom will be made visible among all nations—resulting in the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20). This plan includes starting, growing and multiplying:

Churches

A Gospel-Centered Church focuses its ministries primarily on: 1) Evangelism (good news for the lost), 2) discipleship (good news for the found), and 3) societal transformation (good news for the community). A Gospel-Centered Church shares a Kingdom vision for the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of its community, region, nation and the world through starting, growing and multiplying churches by the power of the gospel in word and deed. The plan is not merely to start Gospel Centered Churches but also Church Planting Networks.

Timothy Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, who also teaches this false gospel of cultural renewal, described his approach to proclaiming the gospel of cultural transformation below, which also reflects the agenda of the world servers, but on a city-wide scale, instead of nation wide.

ChristianityToday.Com –

First, that Christ changes the way we use wealth and power. Our understanding of work must reflect what Robert Bellah (from his book, Habits of the Heart) describes as a contribution to the common good. Along this line, I’d express a desire to populate the city with people who embody this vision. I’d want to see an explosion of philanthropy, in which we don’t spend money on ourselves, but instead cooperate with others who want to make the city a desirable place to live. Much like Wilberforce did in the early part of 19th-century England, we would pursue healing and redemption.

Second, I would address artists and thought-leaders, emphasizing that Christians have a positive outlook for the future over and against the dystopian pessimism that so often characterizes evangelicals. We are not naïve about suffering and evil, but we have a long term hope for society that can seize an ordinary life.

Third, we’d like to encourage growing civility and true pluralism in our society, that is, to counteract anger and contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of mutual respect among people of differing beliefs.

What makes the Christian “world servers” different from the secular “world servers” is their traditional views on morality, such as their opposition to same sex marriage, and abortion. Nevertheless, each younger generation becomes more liberal, due to the culture’s secular education, the influence of the secular media, mainstream arts & entertainment, and the growing liberal Christianity. The result of the growth in liberal Christian views will cause the true followers of Christ, who strictly adhere to Scripture, and separate themselves from the world’s herd mentality, to seem like a strange fringe group among Christians, who are out of touch with, what the world is now learning to believe is, Christ’s work of redemption, and Christian love, peace, unity, humility, and godliness. But this false Christianity cannot put out the light of the gospel. Instead, it will only cause its proclamation to shine brighter by way of the church’s love for one another, and through the boldness of their preaching in the midst of persecution.

Matthew 5

10   Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11   Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12   Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
13   Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14   Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15   Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16   Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

John 13

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Matthew 10

34   Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35   For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36   And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
37   He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38   And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39   He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

2Thessalonians 1

3   We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
4   So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
5   Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
6   Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
7   And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8   In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9   Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10   When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
11   Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12   That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Thessalonians 5

1   But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2   For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3   For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4   But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5   Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6   Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7   For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8   But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9   For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10   Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11   Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

John 16

1   These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
2   They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
3   And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4   But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
33   These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

1John 5

1   Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2   By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3   For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
4   For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5   Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
6   This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
18   We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
19   And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
20   And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Revelation 1

7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Revelation 2

24 I will put upon you none other burden.
25   But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
26   And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
27   And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
28   And I will give him the morning star.
29   He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Revelation 22

11   He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12   And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13   I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14   Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15   For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
16   I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
17   And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
20   He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Related articles are listed below:

The New Christianity Pt. 11 – Commentary by Ken Silva on the Modern Church

SAIDRadio.Net –

Today we were blessed to interview Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries and Pastor of Conneticut River Baptist Church Claremont, New Hampshire. Today Ken will give us some background on how Apprising Ministries got started, comment on modern day christian worship, the emergent church’s impact on today’s church, the connection b/w the word faith / seeker driven movement among many other topics. We hope you are blessed, let’s listen in.

Click here to listen or right click to save an mp3 of our interview:

http://ccodtruth.org/InterviewSAIDRadioKenSilva.mp3

Ken’s Website:
www.apprising.org

Book Review #4 – Beth Moore’s “The Beloved Disciple”

Beth Moore’s book, “The Beloved Disciple”, is up for review due to her many claims of “God spoke to me“. These claims need to be examined due to the fact that when God gives commands to his church, it is authoritatively binding for the whole church, and equal with Scripture (2Peter 1:19-21, James 1:21-25). However, if God has not spoken to a person, who claims that God did speak to them, and told them to give commands to his church, then that person is guilty of taking the Lord’s name in vain by adding to the words of God to his church.

Exodus 20

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Proverbs 30

5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

The Beloved Disciple , Pg. 220

Beloved, I am convinced one of our severest needs is pure rest. Not only sleep, but refreshment and recreation. Recently God spoke to me about capturing what He and I are calling “Sabbath moments.” Like many of yours, my schedule right now is particularly tough, and I see no time in the near future for a number of days off. God spoke to my heart one Saturday morning while I was preparing for Sunday school: “My child, in between more intense rests, I want to teach you to take Sabbath moments.” I wasn’t certain what He meant. Just that morning God confirmed His desire for me to drive all the way to the other side of Houston to the medical center to visit a patient with brain cancer. I was very thankful for the privilege of visiting this patient, but I knew in advance it would be tough emotionally and far from restful.

I fought the traffic across Houston, then visited with my new friend and her husband while choking back the tears. They have two young sons, and unless God performs a miracle, their mother will go home to be with the Lord before they are grown. I got in my car and prayed. I pulled out of the parking garage, fighting the tears. A few blocks later as if on autopilot, I turned my steering wheel straight into the parking lot of the Houston Zoo!

Christ seemed to say, “Let’s go play.” And that we did. I hadn’t been to the zoo in years. I heard about all the improvements, but I never expected the ultimate: Starbucks coffee! (OK, so I don’t have all my health issues down pat.) Can you imagine watching a baby koala take a nap in a tree on a rare cold day in Houston with a Starbucks grande cappuccino in your hand? Now that’s a Sabbath moment! God and I had a blast.

Beth Moore’s god cannot be recognized as the God of Scripture, since nowhere in Scripture has the God of glory ever invited his servants to “go with him to play” (Psalm 29:3, Acts 7:2-3). Instead, he invites his people to delight themselves in him, which is done, not by focusing on the earthly affairs, and pleasures of this life, such as going to Starbucks, and enjoying a cup of cappuccino (1John 2:15-17, Jude 1:16-19). God’s instruction, from Scripture, is to delight one’s self in the Lord, by meditating on him, his word, his goodness, his loving kindness, his work of redemption…etc. which are Heavenly blessings, and not superficial, and earthly, as Beth Moore’s god is (Psalm 1:2-3, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 37:4, Psalm 118:1, Psalm 119:13-20, Romans 11:33-36, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 15:17). God has given all things under Heaven for man’s enjoyment, but delighting oneself in the Lord should not be confused with earthly pleasures. Scripture does not direct the church to focus on delighting themselves in regular earthly pleasures, but on things that are above (Colossians 3:2).

Furthermore, Christ’s commands to his church must come from the Bible, because “The Lord spoke to me…” is a breeding ground for heresy, and it is the foundation which cult leaders build on to take, from the church, a following after themselves. Therefore, to allow the church to be in the habit of listening to teachers who frequently make the claim of God speaking to them, and giving them commands for his church, which cannot be found in the Bible, is to tear down the wall of defense for the church that would have protected Christ’s sheep from deceivers, who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the gospel, and do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (Romans 16:17-19). This is made evident by Beth Moore’s “vision of the church“, and her “acknowledgment of Roman Catholicism as just another Christian denomination“.

Therefore, teachers like Beth Moore must be marked, and avoided. This means that their books should not be read, and they must not be welcomed into the church as believers, because their authoritative commands, which, they claim, were given by divine revelation from God, cannot be affirmed by Scripture (2John 1:8-11).

Christ gave his Apostles, and prophets, to the church for the purpose of building up his church in their knowledge of the gospel, until the New Testament was written by them. Now that the church has the New Testament, it no longer needs the presents of Apostles, and prophets. Nor does the church need the constant claims of God giving people visions, and extra-Biblical messages, because Scripture alone is sufficient to make the church wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, and it was given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the church may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2Timothy 3:15-17). This is why it is said “whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1Corinthians 13:8-12). Therefore, the need for tongues, prophecy, and words of knowledge, were present because the church was still immature in it’s development. Now that the church has God’s written word, which is the mirror of the perfect law of liberty, they only need Scripture to instruct them in Christian living. The written word of God is the more reliable word of prophecy, because “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2Peter 1:19-21).

Ephesians 4

11   And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12   For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13   Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14   That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15   But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ

Romans 16

17   Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18   For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
19   For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

Matthew 7

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Related articles are listed below:

Test All Things Pt. 4 – Being “Missional”

Is the Jesus of incarnational ministry the same as the Jesus that is presented in Scripture?

This question must be asked in light of the new movement in evangelicalism, known as being “missional” and “incarnational”. Many Reformed Theology adherents are following this movement with zeal, and are even learning about it in seminaries, such as Westminster Theological Seminary. Incarnational ministry is built upon the, Pelagian, “substitutionary theory” of Christ’s Atonement, which claims that Christ came into the world to give mankind a moral example of how to live. Although this is being taught in Reformed Seminaries, it is not being taught to the exclusion of the, Reformed, “vicarious substitutionary” view of the Atonement, which rightly claims that Christ came into the world to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind (Romans 3:21-26, Romans 5:18-19) . Therefore, two doctrines are being merged as one within the minds of many new Calvinists.

This merging of the two views of Christ’s Atonement is the basis for incarnational ministry, which is an attempt to follow Christ’s example of being a humanitarian, for the purpose of evangelism, and, for some, bringing about the kingdom of God on earth, as though the church age is the thousand year reign of Christ on earth. This movement holds a promise of a better world, which will be brought about through the good works of one’s own hands, for many who follow it. This better world is to be realized by taking on the social problems of the world as though the church has been empowered by Christ to put an end to the affects of sin, such as poverty, war, and tyranny (Revelation 6:1-6). This is why many new Calvinists claim to be on a mission of reclaiming the culture, and even creation itself. Many have even taken the focus off of evangelism, and have, instead, began teaching the Jesus came to reconcile all creation to himself, and therefore, he has reconciled his church to creation. They are also teaching that God made mankind to be creators, just as God is a creator. This belief that the church will bring about the redemption of all things is consistent with the 1679 “Prophecy of the Coming Kingdom“ by the Christian mystic, Jane Lead, minus the conversion of the world through signs, and wonders, but it is inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture.

In order to believe that the church is able to bring about a better world, certain Biblical truths must be ignored, misinterpreted, and even completely thrust aside. One of those truths is Revelation 12, which teaches that Satan has been cast down to the earth, and is full of wrath, because he knows that he only has a short time to persecute Christians. Also, 2Corinthians 4:4 teaches that Satan is the ruler of this world. Daniel 12, Revelation 13, 19 and 20, shows that Christians will endure persecution, and murder, until Christ returns, and destroys this present world’s system, and sets up his own kingdom, which is the kingdom of Heaven come down to earth. These passages, and many others, prove that Christ did not send his church to reclaim, or to transformed, the culture, because it is Satan’s territory. Jesus’ return to earth, and nothing else, will transform this world.

Christ’s incarnation was not centered on humanitarianism, but saving lost souls from eternal punishment, and reconciling them to God. Jesus clearly affirms this when he said “…the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”, and “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (Luke 19:10, John 3:14-17). Also, Christ’s ministry of preaching the gospel for the saving of the lost was the same ministry that he gave to his Apostles. That is why Jesus said “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high”, “…and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Luke 24:46-49, Acts 1:8). That is why Paul said, “all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Corinthians 5:18-21).

Therefore, the Jesus of incarnational ministry, who came into the world to empower his church to teach the world how to be good people, is not the Jesus of the Bible. The real Jesus is the Savior of the world, and not a humanitarian. To merge two different teachings of who Jesus is, by teaching both the Pelagian and the vicarious substitutionary view of the Atonement, is to create a different god – a false God. According to the Apostle John, those who try to change the teachings of who Christ is, is an antichrist (1John 4:1-3).

The proof that the missional movement is not from Christ can also be found in the actions of the movement. For example: the movement is not centered on evangelism, and discipleship, but embracing the non-believing communities of the world as though it were the church; thus blurring the lines between those who are the family of God, and those who are not. This is also reinforced by applying certain passages of Scripture that only apply to the church to everyone in the community in which a local church is planted in, such as the following passage:

Matthew 25

31   When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32   And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33   And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34   Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35   For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36   Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37   Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38   When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39   Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40   And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41   Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42   For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43   I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44   Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45   Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46   And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

This passage is used to support the social efforts of the missional movement, when it is really addressing Christ command to his church to love one another, by saying “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”, and “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (Matthew 25:40 & 45). The world is not Christ’s brethren, but the church is. Incarnational ministry ignores that important detail.

Some have also used the Apostles’ charge to Paul to remember the poor, which Paul was also eager to do (Galatians 2:10). But Paul’s ministry to the poor did not reflect the missional movement, because the book of Acts, as well as, Paul’s epistles, did not mention Paul caring for the poor people of the unbelieving world. Instead, what is mentioned in 2Corinthians 8 is Paul’s collection of the gifts of the Gentile churches for the relief of the poor believers in Jerusalem, which began in Acts 11:19-20, because of a great famine that impoverished Judea. No where in Scripture has Paul reflected the work of the missional movement.

Is it wrong to meet the needs of the poor?

It is wrong to call humanitarian work “the work of God”, because believing in Jesus is the work of God in the world (John 6:26-29). To call something else that Scripture does not acknowledge as “the work of God” for the church, is to take the Lord’s name in vain, and God will not hold such a person, or movement, guiltless who does this, because it is contrary to the will of Christ (Exodus 20:7, Luke 12:47-48).

Nevertheless, it is not wrong to meet the needs of the poor “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). Therefore, it is not wrong to meet the needs of poor unbelievers, but it is wrong to call this act the work of Christ’s church, or incarnational minsitry, or being missional.

It is by the church’s love for one another that the world will know that they belong to God, because they love one another just as Christ loved them (John 13:34-35). This is one of the ways that the church allows their light to shine, so that men will see their good deeds, and glorify their Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). This love for other believers is the light of the church that has been recorded in Scripture in passages such as Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37, and Acts 6:1-6). Furthermore, this kind of love was also taught by the Apostles in passages such as Romans 12:4-16, Romans 15:1-7, 1Corinthians 13, Philippians 2:1-8, James 2:14-16, 1John 3:16-19.

Therefore, the missional movement would do well to redirect its focus from the world, and onto loving the church just as Christ loved his church. A movement such as that could indeed be supported by Scripture, but the social efforts of incarnational ministry, which is nothing more than the social gospel, is the work of a different religion. This work will only serve to cause people to hope in an earth-based/works-based salvation. Such a movement is not the work of God, but it is more consistent with the ministry of white-wash, which the false prophets of Israel were well adapt in (Ezekiel 13:4-14).

In conclusion, incarnational ministry is not the work of the gospel, but it is the work of the social gospel that is deceiving Christians into putting their efforts towards helping the world to work for, and hope in, an earth-based/works-based salvation. It is causing people to be under the same condemnation that the rich man of Luke 12:16-21, who was not condemned for being greedy, but for not preparing for the more weightier matter of being justified before God. The missional movement does this by taking the focus off of evangelism, and instead, putting the focus on earthly cares, and heart-felt needs, as though that is what matters to God the most. But Scripture makes it clear, that believers must love their neighbor as themselves, and they must love the church, just as Christ loved the church, by giving his life for them. Therefore, loving the church is the orthodox focus for Christ’s church, and not incarnational ministry. The missional movement is more consistent with Rick Warren’s world wide “Purpose Driven Emerging Church movement” than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 13

3   Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
4   O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts.
5   You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD.
6   They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.
7   Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The LORD says,’ but I have not spoken.”
8   Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord GOD.
9   “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
10   “Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace — and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar —
11   say to those who plaster it with untempered mortar, that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it down.
12   Surely, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the mortar with which you plastered it?’ ”
13   Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it.
14   So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

Luke 12

16   And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17   And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18   And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19   And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20   But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21   So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Matthew 7

21   Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22   Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23   And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24   Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25   And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26   And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27   And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Luke 12

42   And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
43   Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
44   Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.
45   But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
46   The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47   And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48   But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

1Corinthians 3

9   For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
10   According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11   For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12   Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13   Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14   If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15   If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16   Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17   If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
18   Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19   For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20   And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.