Abomination Nation

Ken Silva on Perry Noble for Iron Sharpens Iron

2009-12-11T13:29:00.006-05:00

Last night Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries was again invited to appear on the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program hosted by Chris Arnzen. The topic concerned Perry Noble, lead vocalist pastor of NewSpring Church who says that the Christian who wants to go deeper into God’s Word is a “jackass.”

In a video clip, which you can see in Perry Noble Says You’re A Jackass, Noble also quotes John Maxwell telling us the following pietistic foolishness that supposedly “most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience anyway.” Silva also briefly mentions the controversy as outlined in the AM post Dr. James Duncan On Pirate Christian Radio To Discuss Issue With Perry Noble’s Newspring Church.

Therein Duncan, Associate Professor of Communication at Anderson University, lays out what he first told us about in Holy rage at the ‘Spring over at his Pajama Pages blog concerning:

how NewSpring insiders attempted to corrupt my family, sabotage an adoption, destroy my career, and ruin my reputation. This campaign, which became the subject of a police investigation, was conducted with the knowledge and encouragement of NewSpring’s senior leadership. (Online source)

Interestingly enough, just today Silva himself received an harassing phone call from someone, who may be aligned with Noble, accusing him of “pastor-bashing.” Also in this edition of ISI Silva talked about an upcoming conference called Radicalis at the Saddleback Church of Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, discussed in Rick Warren Now Openly Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism.

Radicalis, which also happens to feature Perry Noble, gives Warren the opportunity to promote the ministry of another of the speakers by the name of Pete Scazerro. Warren tells us:

Pete, along with his wife, Geri, are co-founders of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking ministry that integrates emotional health and contemplative spirituality to pastors, leaders and local churches. (On file at AM)

Silva and Arnzen also talk about the coming ramifications within mainstream evangelicalism now that someone who has the stature within the visible church that Rick Warren enjoys is recommending pastors begin practicing corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster—and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard.

ISI is the only show in English on a Spanish-speaking radio station, and unfortunately, the final few minutes of this edition of ISI were lost. However, you can download and listen to the program right here.

Quinn's Laws of Liberalism

2009-10-19T21:16:00.007-04:00

(Note: Jim Quinn is a nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host. He has developed a set of rules that define liberals and liberalism. To visit his site, click here.)

QUINN'S FIRST LAW: Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.

1. We believe the solution to the human condition is Liberty. Three hundred years of the most successful country the globe has ever seen is proof enough. No government program created this country, free people created this country.

2. The unspoken Bush doctrine is this, the decades of the dictators are over. We had a parade of them for a hundred years. They have killed one hundred million of us. We have learned our lesson. UPDATE SINCE NOVEMBER: MAYBE WE HAVENT.

3. America is not an Imperialist nation despite what your professors tell you. We are not shoving our way of life down anyones throats, we are shoving freedom down the throats of tyrants so other people can chose their own way of life. That is the answer to the question "What is the role of the worlds only superpower?".

4. Marxism is the greatest threat to human freedom and growth. It has never worked anywhere it has been tried, but it is still taught in every college. Its time to drain the swamp of these 1960s reprobates and charge them with selling a defective product. UPDATE: RADICAL ISLAM NOW JOINS MARXISM, AND LIBERALS ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO ENABLE IT. NOW THE MSA IS ON EVERY COLLEGE CAMPUS AND LIBERALS ARE FALLING ALL OVER THEMSELVES TO KOWTOW TO IT.

5. America is not the world largest polluter because a) carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it is plant food. b) In terms of wealth versus tons of pollution we are the cleanest country on earth because we are free and have the disposable income to clean up after our selves; something the vaunted Soviet block never had.

6. The environmental movement uses the environment and animal species as an excuse for putting the means of production (the land) off limits to the American citizen. Putting the means of production off limits to the citizen is the definition of communism. UPDATE: PUTTING GAS AND OIL OFF LIMIITS TO THE CITIZEN IS THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY.

7. We have a highly progressive income tax. The tax code rewards bad choices and punishes good ones. Russia has moved to a 13% flat tax. So we have Karl Marxs tax system and Russia has Steve Forbes. If you dont see a problem here, you are probably a registered democrat.

8. Abortion is the Sacrament of the Feminist Church. It is the ultimate celebration of the separation of a woman from her nature. Feminists like this will go to any lengths to protect this so-called right. There is no abortion argument that is not rooted in feminist rage, personal inconvenience, or self loathing.

9. The fundamental difference between Liberals and Conservatives is - Liberals see every new life as a potential problem and a burden. Conservatives see every new life as a potential source of creativity and wealth. Allow me to elaborate a little bit on that: When your view of your responsibility to your fellow citizen is to take care of them through government planning and government force, every new person born becomes another mouth to feed another person to educate another burden on the states resources. If you are a liberal you believe that resources are limited and there is only so much to go around. You see yourself or government policy as the arbiters of who gets what. A conservative understands that new wealth is created every time human creativity acts on a resource and is unlimited. To a conservative, life is a blessing. To a liberal life is a curse. (Does this clarify their love of abortion and euthanasia?)

10. There is no conclusive evidence that humans have caused global warming. It is the hoax of the century, and it makes a lot of people a lot of grant money. It also makes a convenient excuse for putting a global governor on capitalism to make the world fair for dictators and socialist welfare states. So, why not teach it to our kids and lets pretend that its true? UPDATE: EVEN THE UN IS NOW HAVING DOUBTS AND SCIENTISTS ARE WARNING THAT WE MAY BE RETURNING TO THE MINI ICE AGE OF THE 16 AND 1700s.

11. No-one had ever died trying to paddle a rubber boat from Miami to Cuba.

12. Racial profiling is what groups pejoratively call common sense when they have a problem that they dont want to talk about. When you notice that several Middle Eastern men boarding an airplane are acting strangely, you yank them out of line and your airline gets sued for 1.2 million dollars. You were engaging in common sense, but they say you were engaging in racial profiling. And so racial profiling is what groups call common sense when they have a problem they dont want to talk about. And when they say they do want to discuss it with you they really dont they just want to shut you up.

13. To a Conservative adversity is indistinguishable from opportunity.

14. The United Nations is an expensive farce that allows tyrants to park illegally and pretend that they are legitimate World Statesmen - they are not They are thugs in $4000.00 suits.

15. Wahhabist Islam is a global mental illness. It is a sickness, it is a cancer and it is evil.

16. There is such a thing as Evil, and you cannot negotiate with it.

17. Common sense and government are mutually exclusive. Government is what you do when you've decided that you cant trust the citizen to use their common sense. So, when you as an elitist and one of our betters notices that not all of us out here are perfect, and not all of us make the right judgments about everything, you then impose your bureaucratic rules upon us and we cant use our common sense any more. Dont ever let a politician tell you that he is going to bring common sense to government. The only way to bring common sense to government is to get rid of government and allow people to use their common sense instead.

18. Reganomics is the only economics that works. Lowering tax rates increases wealth to everyone, including the government because there is no limit to wealth. New wealth is created where wealth did not exist before when a human acts on a resource and humans can only do that when they are free. (see: North Korea and Palestine) Taxes are restrictions on freedom.

19. The Second Amendment [to the US constitution] is the essential counterbalance to the fearsome power of lawmaking, and it means exactly what it says. ["A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."] If you are a lawmaker and this amendment makes you nervous; good! As long as you stay nervous you have nothing to fear.

20. In our Republic, God is a necessary legal concept. This is not a Democracy, it is a Representative Constitutional Republic and there is a big difference. In case you are wondering why so many of the Socialists out there want God out of everything in our public life there is a real utilitarian reason for this. It is not just that the idea of God makes them uncomfortable personally. God is a major speed bump on their super highway to their super state. Why? Because our founding documents set forth that our rights as humans pre-date the government of men, those rights cannot be abridged (at least easily). They come from God and are inalienable. Drive God out of the mix and rights will flow from government. Once that happens government will alter and abridge those rights because they can. Whether God exists or not he is necessary for the maintenance of freedom.

21. There is no such thing as the separation of church and state. That is a trick to intimidate people of faith. The founders feared a Church of the United States, not a manger scene outside the courthouse or red and green cookies in school. In using this canard as a tool to drive all God centered religion out of public life, the secular humanist actually establishes an official state religion. That religion is Atheism.

22. Rules of war: War is the only effective means for defeating evil.

23. In war there is no such thing as excessive force.

24. Using only the amount of force necessary to win, insures that you will lose.

25. The U.N. does not prevent war. It prevents war from working by stopping it before there is a definitive result. (see: Korea, Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah) In doing so it invalidates the sacrifices of blood and treasure.

26. You cannot legalize gay marriage because there is no such thing. Its like legalizing the square wheel. There is no such thing as that either. Marriage as a concept was created so as to give a name to an arrangement between a man and woman that has the potential to create the lives of the next generation of citizens. If sex between a man and a woman didnt create the next generation of citizens there would be no need for a word to describe their relationship since civilization would have no interest in it. We would just hook up with each other and when we got bored move on. Gay activists understand this and it explains the headlong plunge into gay adoption as an attempt to legitimize the oxymoron, Gay Marriage.

27. White privilege is a mythical advantage attributed by progressives to white people to explain away the social and economic failure of minority group politics.

Is Being Gay a Gift from God?

2009-10-19T20:26:00.006-04:00

The video below features "Pastor" Ed Bacon on one of Oprah's spirituality shows claiming that being Gay is a Gift from God. There are plenty of problems with this statement coming from a supposed 'Christian' pastor. Let's list a few.

1. There is NOT ONE ONE verse in the Bible that says that being gay is a gift from God.

2. There are plenty of passages that say that homosexuality is an abomination that merits God's present and eternal punishment.

Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Timothy 1:8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

The bottom line is that in order to believe that homosexuality is a gift from God you have to rationalize and explain away every passage of scripture that clearly says it is a sin and an abomination and instead believe something that the Bible NEVER says.

People who say and believe things like this "are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity." (Eph 4:18-19)

The tragedy is that Christ died for homosexual sins as well as heterosexual sins. Christ is offering homosexuals a full and complete pardon and forgiveness for their sins. As the Lord said, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezek. 18:23) But, when satanic lies like this do their work the homosexual doesn't see himself as a wicked sinner in need of Christ's forgiveness for his homosexual sins but instead is given a false sense of hope and pride believing that homosexuality is a gift from God. When a person believes this lie, Satan has done his work by making his victim comfortable while they snub and pay no attention to God's coming judgement. Unfortunately, when Christ returns the homosexual who fell for this lie will not hear "well done thou good and faithful servant." Instead, they will hear the most terrifying words any human could ever hear from Jesus Christ, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

Source: http://www.alittleleaven.com/liberalism/

Embedding disabled: Go here to see video

"The Shack"

2009-04-14T12:15:00.005-04:00

Global Warming Links

2009-02-02T01:54:00.005-05:00

Here is a website that does an excellent job with text and charts of making the case that there is no significant man made global warming:

http://www.global-warming-and-the-climate.com/

Friends of Science is an excellent group. Their papers are very informative. Here is the link:

http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?id=196

The EPA (Enviromental Protection Agency) of the U.S. Federal Government is proposing rules to regulate Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions because CO2 is regarded as Greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming. Dr. Craig D. Idso, Chairman of Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Climate Change has submitted a detailed comment to the EPA. Here is a link to his excellent document:

http://www.co2science.org/education/reports/epa/CO2ScienceEPAComments_Full.pdf

JOHN COLEMAN WAS INTERVIEWED BY NEW AMERICAN MAGAZINE. THE 30 MINUTE LONG VIDEO IS AVAILABLE AT THIS URL:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/videos/weather_channel_founder_coleman_interview.html

THAT SAME VIDEO, CUT INTO FOUR PARTS IS POSTED HERE:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING COMPANY'S CABLE NEW CHANNEL PRODUCED AN EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY TITLED "DOOMSDAY CALLED OFF". YOU CAN WATCH IT IN FOUR PARTS AT THESE LINKS:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

PROFESSOR BOB CARTER DELIVERED A 35 MINUTE LECTURE ON GLOBAL WARMING. HERE ARE THE LINKS TO THE FOUR PARTS:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC RADIO NETWORK DID AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW ON GLOBAL WARMING. HERE IS THE LINK.

Click here

A NICE QUIZ ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING IS HERE:

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/GlobWarmTest/start.html

THERE ARE SEVERAL WEBSITES THAT PROVIDE ARTICLES, BLOGS, PAPERS AND LINKS TO SCIENTIFIC REPORTS THAT ALL DEBUNK GLOBAL WARMING. I CHECK THEM ALL REGULARLY. YOU CAN USE THE ARCHIVES AT THESE SITES TO FIND ALL THE SCIENCE YOU COULD WANT TO TOTALLY EDUCATE YOU ON THE GLOBAL WARMING SCAM. HERE IS A LIST:

ICECAP.US

http://www.junkscience.com/

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

http://www.co2science.org/index.php

http://www.climateaudit.org/

http://surfacestations.org/

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/

http://www.sciencebits.com/CO2orSolar

http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm

http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/new_page_1.htm

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/

http://epw.senate.gov:80/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.SenateReport

THE ULTIMATE PAPER THAT DEFLATES THE MYTH THAT INCREASES IN ATMOSPHERE CO2 (CARBON DIOXIDE) FROM THE BURNING OF FOSSIL FUEL IS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING IS AT THIS URL:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/other/Robinson_Soon.pdf

THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHER LINKS AT THE END OF MY SPEECH FROM THE NEW YORK CONFERENCE ALSO POSTED ON COLEMAN'S CORNER.

Source: http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/11159136.html

The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam

2009-02-02T01:35:00.005-05:00

By John Coleman

The key players are now all in place in Washington and in state governments across America to officially label carbon dioxide as a pollutant and enact laws that tax we citizens for our carbon footprints. Only two details stand in the way, the faltering economic times and a dramatic turn toward a colder climate. The last two bitter winters have led to a rise in public awareness that there is no runaway global warming. The public is now becoming skeptical of the claim that our carbon footprints from the use of fossil fuels is going to lead to climatic calamities.

How did we ever get to this point where bad science is driving big government to punish the citizens for living the good life that fossil fuels provide for us?

The story begins with an Oceanographer named Roger Revelle. He served with the Navy in World War II. After the war he became the Director of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla in San Diego, California. Revelle saw the opportunity to obtain major funding from the Navy for doing measurements and research on the ocean around the Pacific Atolls where the US military was conducting atomic bomb tests. He greatly expanded the Institute's areas of interest and among others hired Hans Suess, a noted Chemist from the University of Chicago, who was very interested in the traces of carbon in the environment from the burning of fossil fuels. Revelle tagged on to Suess studies and co-authored a paper with him in 1957. The paper raises the possibility that the carbon dioxide might be creating a greenhouse effect and causing atmospheric warming. It seems to be a plea for funding for more studies. Funding, frankly, is where Revelle's mind was most of the time.

Next Revelle hired a Geochemist named David Keeling to devise a way to measure the atmospheric content of Carbon dioxide. In 1960 Keeling published his first paper showing the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and linking the increase to the burning of fossil fuels.
These two research papers became the bedrock of the science of global warming, even though they offered no proof that carbon dioxide was in fact a greenhouse gas. In addition they failed to explain how this trace gas, only a tiny fraction of the atmosphere, could have any significant impact on temperatures.

Now let me take you back to the1950s when this was going on. Our cities were entrapped in a pall of pollution from the crude internal combustion engines that powered cars and trucks back then and from the uncontrolled emissions from power plants and factories. Cars and factories and power plants were filling the air with all sorts of pollutants. There was a valid and serious concern about the health consequences of this pollution and a strong environmental movement was developing to demand action. Government accepted this challenge and new environmental standards were set. Scientists and engineers came to the rescue. New reformulated fuels were developed for cars, as were new high tech, computer controlled engines and catalytic converters. By the mid seventies cars were no longer big time polluters, emitting only some carbon dioxide and water vapor from their tail pipes. Likewise, new fuel processing and smoke stack scrubbers were added to industrial and power plants and their emissions were greatly reduced, as well.

But an environmental movement had been established and its funding and very existence depended on having a continuing crisis issue. So the research papers from Scripps came at just the right moment. And, with them came the birth of an issue; man-made global warming from the carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

Revelle and Keeling used this new alarmism to keep their funding growing. Other researchers with environmental motivations and a hunger for funding saw this developing and climbed aboard as well. The research grants began to flow and alarming hypothesis began to show up everywhere.

The Keeling curve showed a steady rise in CO2 in atmosphere during the period since oil and coal were discovered and used by man. As of today, carbon dioxide has increased from 215 to 385 parts per million. But, despite the increases, it is still only a trace gas in the atmosphere. While the increase is real, the percentage of the atmosphere that is CO2 remains tiny, about 41 hundredths of one percent.

Several hypothesis emerged in the 70s and 80s about how this tiny atmospheric component of CO2 might cause a significant warming. But they remained unproven. Years have passed and the scientists kept reaching out for evidence of the warming and proof of their theories. And, the money and environmental claims kept on building up.

Back in the 1960s, this global warming research came to the attention of a Canadian born United Nation's bureaucrat named Maurice Strong. He was looking for issues he could use to fulfill his dream of one-world government. Strong organized a World Earth Day event in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970. From this he developed a committee of scientists, environmentalists and political operatives from the UN to continue a series of meeting.

Strong developed the concept that the UN could demand payments from the advanced nations for the climatic damage from their burning of fossil fuels to benefit the underdeveloped nations, a sort of CO2 tax that would be the funding for his one-world government. But, he needed more scientific evidence to support his primary thesis. So Strong championed the establishment of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This was not a pure climate study scientific organization, as we have been led to believe. It was an organization of one-world government UN bureaucrats, environmental activists and environmentalist scientists who craved the UN funding so they could produce the science they needed to stop the burning of fossil fuels. Over the last 25 years they have been very effective. Hundreds of scientific papers, four major international meetings and reams of news stories about climatic Armageddon later, the UN IPCC has made its points to the satisfaction of most and even shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

At the same time, that Maurice Strong was busy at the UN, things were getting a bit out of hand for the man who is now called the grandfather of global warming, Roger Revelle. He had been very politically active in the late 1950's as he worked to have the University of California locate a San Diego campus adjacent to Scripps Institute in La Jolla. He won that major war, but lost an all important battle afterward when he was passed over in the selection of the first Chancellor of the new campus.

He left Scripps finally in 1963 and moved to Harvard University to establish a Center for Population Studies. It was there that Revelle inspired one of his students to become a major global warming activist. This student would say later, "It felt like such a privilege to be able to hear about the readouts from some of those measurements in a group of no more than a dozen undergraduates. Here was this teacher presenting something not years old but fresh out of the lab, with profound implications for our future!" The student described him as "a wonderful, visionary professor" who was "one of the first people in the academic community to sound the alarm on global warming," That student was Al Gore. He thought of Dr. Revelle as his mentor and referred to him frequently, relaying his experiences as a student in his book Earth in the Balance, published in 1992.

So there it is, Roger Revelle was indeed the grandfather of global warming. His work had laid the foundation for the UN IPCC, provided the anti-fossil fuel ammunition to the environmental movement and sent Al Gore on his road to his books, his move, his Nobel Peace Prize and a hundred million dollars from the carbon credits business.
What happened next is amazing.

The global warming frenzy was becoming the cause celeb of the media. After all the media is mostly liberal, loves Al Gore, loves to warn us of impending disasters and tell us "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". The politicians and the environmentalist loved it, too.

But the tide was turning with Roger Revelle. He was forced out at Harvard at 65 and returned to California and a semi retirement position at UCSD. There he had time to rethink Carbon Dioxide and the greenhouse effect. The man who had inspired Al Gore and given the UN the basic research it needed to launch its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was having second thoughts. In 1988 he wrote two cautionary letters to members of Congress. He wrote, "My own personal belief is that we should wait another 10 or 20 years to really be convinced that the greenhouse effect is going to be important for human beings, in both positive and negative ways." He added, "…we should be careful not to arouse too much alarm until the rate and amount of warming becomes clearer."

And in 1991 Revelle teamed up with Chauncey Starr, founding director of the Electric Power Research Institute and Fred Singer, the first director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service, to write an article for Cosmos magazine. They urged more research and begged scientists and governments not to move too fast to curb greenhouse CO2 emissions because the true impact of carbon dioxide was not at all certain and curbing the use of fossil fuels could have a huge negative impact on the economy and jobs and our standard of living. I have discussed this collaboration with Dr. Singer. He assures me that Revelle was considerably more certain than he was at the time that carbon dioxide was not a problem.

Did Roger Revelle attend the Summer enclave at the Bohemian Grove in Northern California in the Summer of 1990 while working on that article? Did he deliver a lakeside speech there to the assembled movers and shakers from Washington and Wall Street in which he apologized for sending the UN IPCC and Al Gore onto this wild goose chase about global warming? Did he say that the key scientific conjecture of his lifetime had turned out wrong? The answer to those questions is, "I think so, but I do not know it for certain". I have not managed to get it confirmed as of this moment. It’s a little like Las Vegas; what is said at the Bohemian Grove stays at the Bohemian Grove. There are no transcripts or recordings and people who attend are encouraged not to talk. Yet, the topic is so important, that some people have shared with me on an informal basis.

Roger Revelle died of a heart attack three months after the Cosmos story was printed. Oh, how I wish he were still alive today. He might be able to stop this scientific silliness and end the global warming scam.

Al Gore has dismissed Roger Revelle’s Mea culpa as the actions of senile old man. And, the next year, while running for Vice President, he said the science behind global warming is settled and there will be no more debate, From 1992 until today, he and his cohorts have refused to debate global warming and when ask about we skeptics they simply insult us and call us names.

So today we have the acceptance of carbon dioxide as the culprit of global warming. It is concluded that when we burn fossil fuels we are leaving a dastardly carbon footprint which we must pay Al Gore or the environmentalists to offset. Our governments on all levels are considering taxing the use of fossil fuels. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of naming CO2 as a pollutant and strictly regulating its use to protect our climate. The new President and the US congress are on board. Many state governments are moving on the same course.

We are already suffering from this CO2 silliness in many ways. Our energy policy has been strictly hobbled by no drilling and no new refineries for decades. We pay for the shortage this has created every time we buy gas. On top of that the whole thing about corn based ethanol costs us millions of tax dollars in subsidies. That also has driven up food prices. And, all of this is a long way from over.

And, I am totally convinced there is no scientific basis for any of it.

Global Warming. It is the hoax. It is bad science. It is a highjacking of public policy. It is no joke. It is the greatest scam in history.

To email John Coleman, click here.

For more info on the global warming scam, check out Coleman's Corner.

Source: http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html

Feng Shui

2009-01-25T16:53:00.008-05:00

Feng Shui EXPOSED!

By A.R. Hari

"Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain..." -Jeremiah 10:2,3

What is Feng Shui?

To understand Feng Shui, you need to understand Yin Yang.

Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese philosophy, which believes that the positioning and physical characteristics of a home affect the fortunes of the owner...

The objective is to achieve harmony with nature by positioning objects and structures such as buildings, rooms, furniture and gardens to be in sympathy with the flow of earth's energy. Practitioners search for lines of Qi (chi) in the environment, and use these lines to enhance the balance of nature in the area for the benefit of the people there, who should enjoy increased prosperity, good health, and happiness. -Source: Peter Gravett, Making Sense of English in Alternative Medicine, Chambers Harrap Publisher, Edinburgh, 1993

Feng shui is a Chinese version of Vaastu. The word fengshui which is normally pronounced as 'Foong' means 'Wind' and 'Shui' is pronounced as 'Shway' and means 'Water.'

Feng shui is reportedly 4000 years old. Some historians believe that it was born in 600 A.D. Originally it was practiced by the Emperors and members of the Royal Families. It was also held in great secret. Slowly the knowledge spread out and today feng shui is widely practiced in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and to a lesser extent in the Europe and USA.

There are two schools in feng shui one is called the Compass School and the other is called the Farm School. The Farm school is not particular about directions and is more visual in approach. The Compass school stipulates what should exist in which direction.

As per fengshui, there are three components on which universe is made of. Every living being, every plant and every object is supposed to represent one of the three. These are the Yin, Yang and Chi. Yang is male in nature where as Yin is female in nature. Basically Yin and Yang are two forces which are responsible in creation and sustenance of all living and non-living objects on earth. Chi is the force which is produced due to the interaction of Yin and Yang.

The understanding of Yin, Yang and Chi is essential to understand the concept of feng shui where Yin and Yang are in balance, Chi is also balanced. There is no plant, animal or object which cannot be classified under Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang interaction brings about energy, alertness, health, strength as well as sound sleep and relaxation.

Chi is dynamic force and it is Yin, Yang, and Chi which dynamically balance in the whole universe. However, a landscape can alter the composition of Yin and Yang and therefore alters the quality of Chi.

Manipulating the landscape to get the best form of Chi is the science of fengshui. Feng shui believes that all the four directions should have different levels to create excellent Chi. They prefer the turtle mountains at the back, the green mountains representing the dragon on the left and the white tiger mountain on the right. The plain open land should be in front of the plot. This is supposed to be the best landscape where Chi is liberates in plenty.

Unlike vaastu, feng shui does not stipulate where your master bedroom should come and where your kitchen should come. On the other hand they believe that depending upon the various directions, a good form of Chi should be allowed to enter and move in coily movements to occupy the structure.

As per fengshui, not only the landscape should liberate good Chi but the building should be such that the Chi moves slowly to continuously move towards the various directions in the building. The characteristics of Chi in every direction is different and can give you a particular gift which is necessary for the enrichment of life. Thus family, happiness, relationship, name, fame, children etc. are all possible when good Chi circulates in a related direction.

Fengshui also believes that gadgets can be of immense help in verifying and altering the characteristics of Chi. Wind chimes, crystals, Pa Kua mirrors, fruits, plants, colors, lights are all used to change the characteristic of Chi.

What the Word of God teaches

The Bible clearly condemns Feng Shui, and all other forms of occult witchcraft. Witchcraft is seeking spiritual guidance, power, or information from sources apart from God. There are only 2 sources of spiritual power: God and Satan. Ultimately, there is only one source of power, God, but God has given power to Satan (Luke 4:6). The Word of God forbids anyone from dabbling with the occult powers of darkness.

"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee." -Deuteronomy 18:9-12

Notice the words above describing Feng Shui...

"Thus family, happiness, relationship, name, fame, children etc. are all possible when good Chi circulates in a related direction."

The preceding statement is witchcraft because it seeks to control the demonic powers of Yin and Yang. "Yin and Yang" are nothing less than Satanic powers. The Bible teaches that ALL good things come from God...

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
-James 1:17
The whole concept on "Yin and Yang" excludes the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is Almighty God. It is the Lord God Who gives us everything that is good. To no surprise, Wiccan witches also adhere

to the forces of Yin and Yang. In fact, the entire New Age religion is composed of all sorts of occult practices based upon the demonic forces of Yin and Yang. From Tarot card readers to holistic practitioners, you'll find the Yin-Yang symbol everywhere. "Yin and Yang" are believed to be the two great opposing (but equally complementing) forces of the universe. If Yin and Yang are in balance, then harmonious flow of the energy "chi" is produced (and vise versa). It is upon this concept that Yoga, martial arts, holistic health, acupuncture, hypnosis, and many other occult practices are based...trying to bring "chi" back into a state of harmony.
The Word of God teaches no such nonsense, but rather reproves such foolish heresies. We read in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is "quick" and "powerful." If pagans want real power, then they need to learn about the promises of God (2nd Peter 1:3,4). There are several thousand promises made to mankind in the Word of God. The power of God rests in the promises of God. If we do our part, then God will do His. A good place to start is with Romans 10:13..."For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord SHALL be saved."
Source:http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Other%20Pagan%20Mumbo-Jumbo/feng_shui.htm

Indigo Children

2009-01-25T15:31:00.005-05:00

The term "Indigo Child" comes from psychic and synesthete Nancy Ann Tappe, who classified people's personalities according to the hue of their auras.*

Usually each universal age is accompanied by a preponderance of people with that life color. For instance now most adults are either Blue or Violet, the two colors with the attributes most needed in this the Violet Age of transition. During the next age, the Indigo Age, Indigo colors will be the norm (Understanding Your Life Through Color 1982).

According to Tappe,

The Indigo phenomenon has been recognized as one of the most exciting changes in human nature ever documented in society. The Indigo label describes the energy pattern of human behavior which exists in over 95% of the children born in the last 10 years … This phenomena is happening globally and eventually the Indigos will replace all other colors. As small children, Indigo’s are easy to recognize by their unusually large, clear eyes. Extremely bright, precocious children with an amazing memory and a strong desire to live instinctively, these children of the next millennium are sensitive, gifted souls with an evolved consciousness who have come here to help change the vibrations of our lives and create one land, one globe and one species. They are our bridge to the future.*

According to Peggy Day and Susan Gale, the emergence of the Indigo children was foretold by Edgar Cayce long before Tappe's aura labeling.

The Indigo Children is a book by Lee Carroll, a channeler for an entity he calls Kryon, and his wife Jan Tober.

Carroll was an economics major who ran a technical audio business for 30 years until a visit to a psychic prompted a New Age midlife crisis. He found religion and started traveling around the world giving "self-help" seminars. Accompanying him was Tober, a practitioner of metaphysics and hands-on healing as well as a jazz singer who had toured with Benny Goodman and Fred Astaire (Krider 2002).

Kyron has revealed such important messages as "love is the most powerful force in the entire universe." Carroll and Tober travel the world putting on Kryon seminars. Kryon has many interests, including the Universal Calibration Lattice and EMF Balancing (empowerment through knowledge of your electromagnetic nature, i.e., how to manage your energy field which consist of "fibers of light and energy").

One thesis of The Indigo Children seems to be that many children diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD) or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) represent "a new kind of evolution of humanity."* These children don't need drugs like Ritalin, but special care and training. The book consists of dozens of articles by authors from many walks of life. It is, accordingly, inconsistent and uneven in quality of analysis and advice. Nancy Ann Tappe is a contributor. One of the authors is Robert Gerard, Ph.D., whose piece is called "Emissaries from Heaven." He believes his daughter is an Indigo Child. He also thinks "Most Indigos see angels and other beings in the etheric." He runs Oughten House Foundation, Inc., and sells angel cards. Another contributor is Doreen Virtue, an advocate of angel therapy who has found an even further evolved generation of children is now emerging: the Crystal children.

Not all the contributors are on the fringe of New Age metaphysics, however. For example, Dr. Judith Spitler McKee is a former preschool and elementary teacher and retired Eastern Michigan University professor. She spends her time trying to interest children in reading.

how to recognize the Indigo Child

The Indigo Child is recognizable by his or her aura and by certain other traits, according to The Indigo Children website (owned by Kryon Writings).

They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)

They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.

Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."

They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).

They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.

They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.

They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).

They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.

They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").

They are not shy in letting you know what they need.
Click here to read more.

ACLU Fulfilling Communist Agenda

2008-11-16T13:30:00.006-05:00

By Devvy Kidd

The ACLU was founded in the 1920s by Roger Baldwin and Crystal Eastman, described as a "progressive" and "the perfect feminist."

Every day, the headlines scream with some new threat from the American Civil Liberties Union. I believe it's important to look behind the curtain and discover the origins of groups and organizations to better understand their activities.

Earl Browder was general secretary of the Communist Party of the United States from 1930 through its dissolution in 1944. When the party was reconstituted as the Communist Political Association later that year, Browder was chosen as its president. Browder proudly proclaimed that the ACLU functioned as "a transmission belt" for the party. To deny the ACLU's founding was attached at the hip to communist organizations is to deny what can easily be proven as truth.

For the past few decades, the ACLU has been on a major crusade to destroy Christianity in America, promote filth under "freedom of speech and expression," and of course, vigorously defend the homosexual culture of death. On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr., D-Fla., read a list of 45 communist goals into the Congressional Record

. Below are the communist goals being implemented by the ACLU in their quest to destroy America's culture and traditions:

Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings," substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.
Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and television.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural and healthy."
Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of "the big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the communists took over. Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Anyone who has been following the destructive path of the ACLU can easily see how effective these communist goals have been implemented to "promote democracy" and protect your "civil rights." Lenin stated: "Communism alone is capable of providing really complete democracy." (See Tucker, "The Lenin Anthology"). James Madison, known as the "Father of the Constitution" had something different to say about a democracy:

Democracy is the most vile form of government ... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

Perhaps it's time to recognize the ACLU as the American Communist Lawyers Union instead of their disingenuous "civil rights" stage name.

No organization can exist without memberships and funding. It is inconceivable to me how anyone who claims to be a Christian, lawyer or layman, could belong to such an anti-American organization as the ACLU. Burn your card and get out. Organizations like Working Assets, tobacco companies and big corporations all donate to the ACLU, which in turn uses that money to buy the favors of those who serve in Congress – who vote to unconstitutionally fund the activities of the ACLU under the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976.

If Americans really want to put the ACLU out of business, remove yourself as a member of their organization, boycott companies that donate to them and demand these public servants in Congress repeal the unconstitutional funding of this subversive organization.

There is no justification under Art. 1, Sec. 8, to steal from the people's treasury to give money to the ACLU or any other organization for "civil rights" lawsuits. Your Congress critter will be in your district during the month of December – make the most of it.

Devvy Kidd authored the booklet, "Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty," which has over 2 million copies in distribution. She has been a guest more than 1,600 times on radio shows, run for Congress twice and is a highly sought after public speaker. To learn more about Devvy, please visit her website.

Rob Bell In a Nutshell: Contemplative Spiritual/Mysticism

2008-11-16T12:57:00.006-05:00

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Aug 19, 2008 in Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, Current Issues, Emergent Church, Rob Bell, Youth Ministry

This is a companion piece to the Apprising Ministries post Rob Bell In A Nutshell: The Bible. From the article The Emergent Mystique which appeared in the November 2004 issue of Christianity Today:

Rob Bell: We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life.

From an audio sermon on “Breathing” dated 5/29/05, 17:10-17:45, transcript on file at Apprising Ministries:

Rob Bell: Central to the Christian tradition, for thousands of years, have been disciplines of meditation, reflection, silence, and breathing. It was understood that to be a healthy person, to be fully connected with God, and fully centered (pause) you would spend significant parts of your day in silence–breathing, meditating–praying (pause) allowing the Spirit of God to transform you and touch you.

This is taken from The Parish podcast, 08:46-09:38, transcript on file at AM:

Rob Bell: [The Christian tradition]; It’s symbols, it’s rituals, I think that I want to be as traditional as possible, heh, the future is behind us. Um, there’s this beautiful rich tradition of sacraments and practices and disciplines and silence . . . it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And the next section below comes from the Zachary Lind podcast at FindingRythym.com. What is important to note here is that Lind will speak of a book called Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer by Richard Rohr that ostensibly evangelical “Protestant” Bell “recommended” and gave to him for spiritual growth.

The website of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) tells us under the section Our Founder that “Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan of the New Mexico Province.”

You should also know that this Roman Catholic priest also happens to be another Living Spiritual Teacher along with Contemplative Guru Richard Foster.

You may also recall that in that same CT article referenced above that Emergent Church theologian Brian McLaren himself said that Richard Foster and Dallas Willard were “key mentors” in this Emergent rebellion against the Bible.

Well, here is where the deception received through the practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer has taken Roshi Rohr, whose “wisdom” in this so-called spiritual discipline Rob Bell recommends to his friend below.

In January of 2008 Rohr was a “presenter” at Jesus and Buddha: Paths to Awakening (Online source)—sponsored by his own CAC—where in true contemplative mystic theology he taught the equality of Buddha with Christ and the indwelling of God in all things:

The Four Noble Truths are the distilled essence of the Buddhist teaching. In this retreat, each of the Four Noble Truths will be introduced and explored, with emphasis given to the presence of each Noble Truth at the heart of Jesus’ call to awaken to God’s presence in every detail of our daily lives…

The teachings of both Jesus and Buddha call us to transformational honesty. They are both teaching us how to see, and how to see all the way through! They both knew that if you see God for yourself, you will see the Divine in all things. (Online source)

Now the following from the aforementioned Lind podcast:

Rob Bell: I stare at my wall. I stare out my window…

Lind: I don’t know what else but I mean…I just kind of find that and like the book you recommended to me a few weeks ago, Richard Rohr. It talked about contemplative prayer, and he talks about how, and didn’t really know what he meant by it, like you know…what is that? He doesn’t really…you read half of the book and still don’t really know what his definition of that is. But he starts getting into it. An’ he says, well you know you have to at least sit for you know…you have sit past 20 minutes.

Bell: Yeah, yes.

Lind: Because when you’re quiet and silent and you’re just trying to communicate with God and understand you know maybe what’s going on in your life at the time or whatever…

Bell: Yeah.

Lind: It takes a certain amount of time before you’re sort of selfish things get aired out. Like you might be all about you for 20 minutes, but then after that it’s like, you’re kind of a blank slate. You know…

Bell: uh-hum.

Lind: You’re kind of ready to intake anything. He talks a lot about in that book about a beginners mind, and you know being kind of like a child and coming up to Jesus, and really just ready to be written on. And you know, I don’t know…maybe I’m wrong, but I kind of feel like most from what I hear, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of that going on in terms of…

Bell: Yeah, well you have to essentially discipline your life around forming the depths and that takes just phenomenal discipline that I don’t even pretend to have. (23:43-25:14, transcript on file at AM)

Todd Bentley Imparts Anti-Christ Spirit

2008-07-17T21:44:00.007-04:00

(A post and study from LaVrai.com) This is long but a good read.

I am concerned about this impartation and anointing going on with Todd Bentley’s ministry. I’ve watched some of the videos and I have seen on GOD TV his service and him in action. Bentley never clearly explains what this anointing is and what it is exactly that he is imparting. He only says what its effects are, which are healings, dreams, visions, etc., and the ability for those who receive this anointing to be able to impart it to others. In this post, I attempt to understand what this anointing is and what exactly Bentley is imparting to the throngs at his services, who come from all over the world to experience him and what he has to offer.

This is the video which I base most of my observations on, and I also excerpt some text from Bentley’s writings on his Web site to gain a better understanding of what he is anointing people with and imparting to them.

Just a word of caution on watching this video (or any other Todd Bentley video): the spiritual elements surrounding this man are strong and can have quite an influence. Please be spiritually and Biblically sound, and prepared to plead the blood.

In the very beginning of the clip, you see Todd with a very young girl. He says to her, “You want some anointing?” He then places hands on her and then when he removes his hands he says, “Loose… Fill her with the Holy Ghost.”

As you notice in this video, when it comes to the really young children, like the 4-year-old and 2-year-old, it is not them being affected by Todd laying hands and blowing on them…it is the parents either standing right next to the children or holding them in their arms.

Another child is asked how she feels after being healed. She mentions something about feeling ‘heat on (her) back.’ Todd then goes on to say, “I’m gonna ask Jesus to touch you…and release dreams. How about angels, how about seeing heaven… and glory?”

Then there is a little girl, a 2-year-old…who doesn’t want to him to touch her, by the way, he says, “Lord, let her see stuff.”

As usual, he blows on her. Why? Are we to assume that something is coming out of him? If so, how is that Biblical? Is it not from GOD that everything comes? What could Todd Bentley have inside of him that he needs to blow on others to impart it to them? *** See the passage below concerning the Book of Revelation***.

Another lady comes up who has been suffering with hives. Bentley says, “Hives is a curse.” I did not know that… I thought hives, as the lady mentioned, was often caused by allergic reactions to certain things, like food and bee stings, for example.

In another section of the clip, Bentley asks, “How many of you want to see Jesus and have visions?” And again, he blows on this little girl… hard and many times…as if whatever he’s trying to impart isn’t quite catching on.

***

Let’s look at some definitions and explanations:

To Impart (from dictionary.com):

1. to make known; tell; relate; disclose: to impart a secret.
2. to give; bestow; communicate: to impart knowledge.
3. to grant a part or share of.
4. to grant a part or share; give

To Anoint (from dictionary.com):

1. to rub or sprinkle on; apply an unguent, ointment, or oily liquid to.
2. to smear with any liquid.
3. to consecrate or make sacred in a ceremony that includes the token applying of oil: He anointed the new high priest.
4. to dedicate to the service of God.

HOLY SPIRIT (from the NKJV concordance): The third Person of the Trinity; that divine Spirit, referred to in the OT as ‘Spirit of the LORD’ or ‘Spirit of GOD,’ through which men receive power, particularly effective through Jesus Christ in bringing men into fellowship with GOD.

Some pivotal verses regarding the Holy Spirit:

John 7:37-39 …He spoke concerning the Holy Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 14:25-16 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Based on the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit, the Helper, comes only from GOD through Jesus Christ. Someone praying for you and putting their hands on you cannot give you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a living being, not an inanimate object someone can pin on you. The Holy Spirit only goes where he is welcomed. He cannot be forced to commune or abide with someone of an unclean spirit (He is not a magic genie). He must be invited or sent by GOD ALMIGHTY and He cannot dwell in an unclean temple (1 Corinthians 3: 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are). Do you think the Devil and the Holy Spirit can abide in the same temple? One will have to go.

But let’s take a look at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospels we are first introduced to Him by John the Baptist, who said in Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

And in Mark 1:7 John the Baptist says, And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We may be able to submerge one in water or sprinkle water on one’s head to openly show that this person has acknowledge GOD as their Savior, but only one person is able to baptize men with the Holy Spirit. One baptism is of the flesh, the other baptism is of the spirit.

It says in Acts 19:1-7

1While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.

4Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7There were about twelve men in all.

In reading this passage, are we to assume that because Paul placed his hands on these men the Holy Spirit came on them…that Paul somehow imparted the Holy Spirit to them? Or, are we to assume that it was the Holy Spirit who moved Paul to touch them, since it says later in the passage that “GOD did extraordinary miracles through Paul…” Remember, it is not us who use the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit who works in us. This was the Holy Spirit’s will because the men who received Him were saved. If they were not saved the Holy Spirit would not have bothered with them. The Holy Spirit could have revealed himself to these select 12 at any time, but they were ignorant of him…until Paul explained the salvation of Jesus Christ to them. And remember, this was one isolated incident. Paul did not go around laying hands on people to impart anything to them.

And if you’re also tempted to bring up the disciples’ interaction with Simon the sorcerer, please take note again of the order of things In Acts 8:14-25: Peter and John “…had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. These men were baptized in the name of Christ Jesus first; and Peter and John prayed to the FATHER that HE made them able to receive. Peter and John knew they could not just lay hands on these brothers and - BAM! - they’d ‘catch’ the Holy Spirit. The temple must be clean and must belong to Christ Jesus.

And before we go on, in the case of Simon the sorcerer… consider — he wanted to pay the disciples to impart to or anoint him with the Holy Spirit, which promptly caused the disciples to lay down the Word on him. Do those who go to Todd Bentley’s revivals have to pay anything at all to get in? If so, what does Todd Bentley promise to those who attend his revivals? So to get what Todd wants to give you, one must pay for it? If this is the case, please for your own good, consider what Peter and John told Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:14-25).

Watching Todd Bentley’s service, one doesn’t know if any of those people in the room with him are born-again Christians. In this passage in Acts 19 concerning Paul, these men professed their faith in Christ Jesus and then the Holy Spirit came on them. On Todd Bentley’s program I didn’t hear anyone profess Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior…not even in their testimony about being healed did they give praise to GOD or to Christ Jesus. Are we to assume, however, that every single person Bentley anoints is saved, which Peter reiterates that one must be before receiving the blessing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-39)?

OK. I will concede that possibility. I will even hypothesize that Todd Bentley is being used by GOD as Paul was used. But what kind of works did GOD do through Paul? Paul healed the sick, cast out demons and even raised a young man from the dead (Acts 20:7-12). If you read through Paul’s letters, you will note that his greatest desire and greatest achievement was turning men to GOD to acknowledge HIS Son Christ Jesus.

When Todd Bentley approaches people, what does he say is forthcoming? - He says healing, visions, dreams, seeing Jesus, angels and glory… and most notably ‘to see stuff.’ Paul healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead. So far, Paul and Todd Bentley only have one thing in common. [And, for those of you who watch Bentley's program 'religiously' have you witnessed him casting out any demons?]

Let’s look at another aspect of Paul’s personality. In Romans 15:18-20

18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient- 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation…

In watching Todd Bentley’s program, I have not heard him glorify or praise GOD or credit Jesus Christ for the signs and wonders that are occurring through him. Why does Todd Bentley seem obsessed with ’seeing stuff’ and getting others ‘to see stuff’ and not obsessed with giving the praise and glory where it’s due? Most strikingly, when he puts his hands on people (not always to heal, but so that they can ’see stuff’), he does not say ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’ Paul mentioned up and down and left and right all through his letters that he could do nothing save for Christ Jesus working through him.

Paul was obsessed with turning souls to Christ Jesus; Todd Bentley is obsessed with getting people ‘to see stuff.’ One man was obsessed with matters of the spirit, the other man is obsessed with matters of the flesh.

As Christians, is our focus to be on the matters of the spirit or on the matters of the flesh. Is our goal to please the Spirit or to please the flesh?

***

What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives, how does He work in us? To answer these questions just look at how the Holy Spirit worked in Paul’s life, in Daniel’s and in Peter’s. The Holy Spirit gave Daniel the blessing of discernment (Daniel 4). The Holy Spirit gave Peter boldness to proclaim GOD’s Word (Acts 2:15-39; Acts 4:23-31)…and consider, Peter was the first to declare that Jesus was the Son of GOD…yet he denied HIM three times — how greatly the Holy Spirit works in us!

How special and important is the Person of the Holy Spirit? In Matthew 3:28-29 Christ Jesus explains, 28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation” — 30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” So one must treat GOD’s Holy Spirit with the utmost respect, and be quite careful what works we attribute to Him and be mindful not to grieve Him with unrighteous

On Bentley’s Web site, the statement of belief addresses things like:

8. THE LAYING ON OF HANDS

We believe that the laying on of hands, as practiced in the New Testament, is an operation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit for:

- healing the sick
- baptism of the Holy Spirit
- receiving spiritual gifts

- dedicating children

- ordaining ministries
- and sending out ministries (Acts 13:3)

Bentley and those who follow him may believe that they can baptize someone with the Holy Spirit by laying hands on them, but the Holy Bible, GOD’s indisputable Word, says otherwise. I shouldn’t need to say it, but I will — Todd Bentley is wrong. And how can one lay hands another and give them a spiritual gift? No spiritual gift comes from man. Spiritual gifts come from the FATHER GOD ALMIGHTY. Will you dispute this? Will you dispute that GOD is the only One who decides what blessing HE will bestow upon one of HIS servants? Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and you will learn that it is the Holy Spirit who “works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

The prophetic verses concerning the Spirit of GOD being poured out on HIS servants…they say explicitly that GOD HIMSELF will be doing the dispensing of HIS Spirit on all of HIS servants. For example, please take a look at Isaiah 44:3 and Joel 2:28-29. Note that GOD does not say HE will be doing this through HIS servants, but to HIS servants.

I also came across this post supposedly written by Todd Bentley titled ‘Manifesting The Anointing.’ In it he writes:

CHRISTIANS RECEIVE AND DISPENSE GOD’S GLORY

What amazes me is that the tangible presence of God manifests on man’s flesh as well as in his bones! So I want us to consider just how much of God’s glory we can receive and manifest in our flesh as we look at this aspect in the life of God’s servant, Moses. After Moses encountered God’s Spirit (for 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai) he had to put a veil over his head because the radiance of God’s glory shone through his face so brilliantly the people were afraid to come near him (Exodus 34:29-35).

We need to remember that Moses was a human being (just like us) who carried the manifest glory of the Lord because he had an intimate relationship with God and he was continually in His presence. He is such a great example of someone who manifested the glory of God. And, today, I believe there is a place being prepared in our hearts to receive and manifest the glory of God in a much greater capacity than ever before.

Listen! The glory of God will also be seen on our flesh, if we’re serious about seeking the Lord concerning this. I believe our capacity to receive and manifest the glory of God on our flesh is increasing. As our faith for this manifestation intensifies, there is great potential for God to touch us mightily with His glory on our flesh. When God’s glory shines in us and on us, we’ll be like lights shining in a dark world.
I would like to know where in the Holy Bible it says that GOD wants to manifest HIS glory in our flesh? I thought the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY was concerned about our spirit, since the flesh and spirit are always in contention. As explained in Romans 8, the flesh must die and the Spirit must give us life for us to be acceptable to the FATHER GOD ALMIGHTY.

I would also like to point out that in this writing Todd Bentley reveals his intentions and possibly the intentions of those who come to him. As it says above, “As our faith for this manifestation intensifies…” As a child of the LIVING GOD, where should our faith lie? Should our faith or hope be in the manifestation of signs and wonders, or should our faith be in the saving grace and mercy of GOD’s Only Begotten Son, Christ Jesus?

Again, Todd Bentley seems really concerned about things of the flesh, as opposed to things of the Spirit.

“THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD”

Listen, the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 10:7). And when we look at the world and the world system, we need to understand that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ (Revelation 11:15). It’s done. The world just doesn’t know it yet.

Instead of looking at how defeated the world is, let’s look at the potential there is for the world to become the kingdom of God. We need to understand that it’s the knowledge of the glory of the Lord released through us as sons and daughters of God and the dispensers of His glory that will cause His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The world as we know it now is not the kingdom of our LORD and Savior Christ Jesus. According to the Holy Bible, the kingdoms of this world belong to Satan. And the kingdoms of this world will be done away with when Christ Jesus comes to separate the wheat from the tares (Matthew 13). Unless Todd Bentley is calling Satan his Lord and Christ, he is absolutely teaching a lie. If he is saying the prophecy of Revelation 11:15 has already come to pass, he is mistaken. If that is the case, I would like to know how I missed the Two Witnesses, the acts of whom precede Revelation 11:15.
In the Gospels, after Jesus is baptized and is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan, we see that Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world and their glory (Matthew 4). How can Satan offer someone something if it does not belong to him? Yes, everything is ultimately under GOD’s authority, but it is Satan “who deceives the whole world.” Take the story of Job, for example. Job was a servant of GOD and Satan could not come against him unless GOD had given him permission. Job belonged to GOD, so Satan could not touch him unless the LORD permitted.

Also, it is not by any works of mankind that ushers in Christ Jesus’ royal and divine Kingdom on earth. It is the Holy Spirit of GOD in us who does the work and will of the FATHER. We must not give ourselves credit for anything. All glory belongs to our GOD the CREATOR.

***

Based on this ‘Manifesting The Anointing’ article by Bentley, he thinks he is dispensing ‘the manifest presence of God’ which, according to him, is another reference for the Holy Spirit of GOD. Todd Bentley is not imparting the glory of GOD’s Holy Spirit. Todd Bentley is imparting and dispensing an anti-Christ spirit when he does these anointings. How do I know? Because what Bentley says, does and teaches is contrary to the Word of the LIVING GOD. If one’s works are contrary to GOD ALMIGHTY, then one’s work is not of GOD. If one’s work is not of GOD, then it is of Satan, as explained in the Holy Bible. I am addressing the works of Todd Bentley.

Let me say this again. The Holy Spirit only comes from GOD the FATHER through Jesus Christ the Messiah. Todd Bentley cannot give you the Holy Spirit. Your pastor cannot give you the Holy Spirit. Nor can your dear Spirit-filled granny give you the Holy Spirit. This is not my opinion. This is Biblical Truth, as given to us by GOD the FATHER. And if you feel tempted to say, ‘But Paul did it!’ please think again. Paul nor Peter nor John nor any other man imparted…He is not transferable. Imagine if He was? Imagine if the disciples bumped into anyone by accident… but that would be making the Holy Spirit a thing and denying his Personage.

Based on the Holy Bible, Todd Bentley could not be imparting the Holy Spirit of GOD, since one human cannot impart the Holy Spirit to another, nor anoint one with the Holy Spirit. It shows in the Holy Bible, however, that one can impart demons. In Revelation 16:

12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
As I thought and thought about why on earth Todd Bentley would blow on people when he does this impartation…this verse soon came to mind. What on earth is in Todd Bentley that he not only wants to touch you to give it to you, but needs to blow it on you, too? My guess is that unclean spirits have possessed Todd Bentley and are spreading themselves among the willing. What on earth could all of those convulsions be about. Does Todd Bentley want us to believe that when the Holy Spirit manifests, He makes you shake your head from side to side, swing your arms wildly and fall backwards seemingly unconscious? [Might I also mention the uncontrollable laughter, twitching; literally behaving like an animal and making strange, guttural sounds?]

In the Holy Bible, these are the only manifestations of the Holy Spirit that I have come across in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 …for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

And in Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.

I don’t see listed in the passages concerning the manifestations and fruit of the Holy Spirit anything about coming into a relationship with your own personal money angel or being able make other people ’see stuff’ or feeling fire or a warmth. If I make mention of that ‘to see stuff’ phrase often it is only because it expresses quite clearly Bentley’s attitude and intentions in this ministry of his. ‘To see stuff.’ What man of GOD talks like that. “Lord, let this little girl see stuff.” Todd Bentley is only interested in catering to your flesh, if he was interested in catering to your spirit, he would give you some meat — the Word of GOD and how it works in your life. Remember, Christ Jesus and the disciples did preach the Kingdom and heal people…but they did one way more than the other… and none of the miracles they did were done so that people could ’see stuff.’

D.A.R.E.

2008-07-13T22:45:00.010-04:00

Experimental Mysticism in the Classroom

- Based on the idea that education can cut into the drug cartels' sources of revenue, there have arisen several programs aimed at instructing young people about drugs and the consequences involved in using them. The reasoning is that if people can be induced to make informed choices from an early age, the number of drug users will dwindle sufficiently so as to make it less profitable for drug dealers to operate. The most well-known drug awareness program is D.A.R.E. -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education (hereafter referred to as DARE).

Since DARE has become a regular part of today's education scene, knowledge of DARE's operation is of vital importance to Christian parents. What is DARE? Does DARE really work in preventing children from becoming involved in drugs? Should Christian children be involved in DARE?

- DARE was conceived in 1983 by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Daryl Gates. He believed that if the system could get to the kids while they were still young and relatively unexposed to drugs, especially by a credible role model such as a police officer, fewer would choose to do drugs when they got older. The DARE program quickly got spread to other school districts throughout the nation through DARE America, a private funding arm put together by the LAPD working with major corporate sponsors. Now most every state has its own DARE training center. Having established its programs in the elementary grades first, DARE has expanded to Junior High and High Schools.

- DARE takes an approach designed to present children with informed decision-making opportunities. DARE's stated strategy is one of prevention, teaching social skills such as how to resist pressure from others, and consequential thinking which presents options and their consequences if followed. However, there is more to DARE than meets the eye. Charges from credible sources are correct: DARE is not a drug prevention program, but rather psychotherapy with a basis in values clarification and self-esteem enhancement.

A basic premise of the DARE Program is that low self-esteem is a principle cause of drug abuse. Therefore, DARE attempts to raise childrens' self-esteem by helping them think of themselves as worthy of a good life and capable of achieving whatever they desire. Thus, only positive individuals are presented as role models.

- DARE utilizes what is known as "affective education." Children are subjected to psychotherapy as a means to condition them to think critically and to establish their own set of values in their relationships with others. This is actually "Experimental Mysticism," a name attributed to psychologist Joseph Hart, and is a blend of "meditation psychotherapy and encounter techniques." Synonyms for affective education were called by Dr. Hart "humanistic," "circle-based," "process education," and "experiential education"; i.e., experimental mysticism was developed atop a foundation provided by client-centered psychotherapy. (This is nothing other than Rogerian Psychology, which teaches that one's values should be discovered within oneself -- they should not be imposed from without.) Thus, it is Joseph Hart's experimental mysticism that is the basis of all affective education programs in today's schools. It incorporates group therapy, values clarification (now referred to as "critical thinking"), deep breathing exercises (yoga), meditation, and myriad other means by which intuitional, non-objective reasoning is reached. It affirms that there are no right or wrong choices; what is wrong for one individual may be right for another individual. Therefore, in drug awareness programs for example, children are not instructed to abstain from drugs because they are harmful and illegal. Rather, they are instructed only to weigh the consequences of any action to determine whether or not that action is right for them, with the hope they will choose not to use drugs.

- This values clarification approach, rather than an approach of teaching right from wrong, was made very clear by Dr. Jerold Greenberg at the State University of New York:

"I propose that the objectives of health education not be decreasing the incidence of smoking, drug abuse, or any other health-related behavior. Rather, the objectives should be to improve self-esteem, decrease alienation, help students realize the effects of peer group pressure, learn health knowledge and skills, and so on. [It should] free people to make their own decisions."

Greenberg has classified the "student in school" as a "client" for this experiment in psychotherapy -- the client is your child in the classroom!

Currently, every approved sex-education program in American public schools implements Greenberg's strategy -- the psychotherapeutic approach to education. Most drug-awareness programs also utilize this approach; some of the more well-known are Quest, DECIDE, Project SMART, Here's Looking at You 2000, and DARE.

- In the early 1970s, a Stanford University research team, headed by Dr. Richard Blum, began testing affective education on school children. His intention was that his experiment would keep kids away from drugs; he learned instead that "it guided them toward early use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana; and he knew that, as 'gateway drugs,' these could lead to amphetamines, hallucinogens and heroin." Blum concluded that less time should be given to "process," as it is called, and "more to content ... it is clear that slighting content and substituting a psychotherapeutic style of classroom management turns out to hurt good children." In other words, feeling-oriented, affective education, not only fails to achieve the desired results, but actually induces undesirable results. (In yet another study, USC's Project SMART for alcohol prevention, found that "significantly more members of the experimental group [those involved in Project SMART] than the controls [those not involved in Project SMART] imbibed alcohol. 'It was as if we had driven them to drink!'")

One must, therefore, always remember that to the "social scientists" who promote these programs, success does not lie in reduced aberrant behavior, but in free choice, whether for or against that behavior. Even the study offered by DARE as evidence of its success in combating drug use has mixed results. While in some local DARE groups there has been a modicum of success, overall these programs are either ineffective or detrimental. None of the programs, some in operation since the early 1970s, can point to any outside, objective study to prove their effectiveness in sufficiently diminishing the involvement in traditionally undesirable actions by their subjects. This is exactly what one would expect to find since by affective education standards, the only result considered undesirable is for a child to make a decision based upon learned values (especially values learned from parents), rather than upon his own self-determined values.

- DARE was created using the formulas of previous affective education programs, but with a new twist. While other programs utilize classroom teachers as "facilitators," DARE utilizes uniformed police officers! The DARE curriculum incorporates seventeen classroom sessions conducted by a DARE-trained police officer. Included are a variety of activities such as question-and-answer, role-playing, group discussion, and DARE Workbook exercises. (Not being familiar with psychotherapy, the DARE officers think nothing ill of the affective education approach.) These exercises are disarming because they are "fun." They bring out the emotions and soften attitudes toward others. And since DARE considers instruction on the dangers of drugs to be "scare tactics," enhanced self-esteem is assumed to be the answer instead. Not once in the course of seventeen lessons does the DARE officer ever say, "Don't use drugs." DARE works on developing the self-esteem that supposedly makes it easier to say "no." And it works on the specific ways to say "no." (See next section.)

- One of the key elements in the DARE program, and in any "affective education" program, is the assumed positive relationship between self-esteem and decision making. In actuality, the emphasis is nothing but neo-paganism -- a religion based on worship of self. DARE teaches children that self-esteem means being one's own person, developing one's own values apart from values of others, especially the values of one's parents. The only outcome of such a philosophy is a generation of selfish, defiant, and rebellious people who put themselves before others. Children are being taught that they are worthy of self-esteem regardless of their behavior.

No true believer in Jesus Christ should buy the humanists' lie that low self-esteem is the reason for man's problems. The best Christian parents can expect from a program such as DARE is that the children will become well-adjusted humanists. (DARE officers are quoted as saying: "We have a course of 17 lesson plans. One is presented each week. It deals with the ways to feel good about themselves.") The idea that high self-esteem will keep kids off drugs is bogus. Some of the most well-publicized users of illegal drugs are famous entertainers (especially rock stars), well-heeled politicians, and high-society darlings. Who has higher self-esteem than these people?! Most are super egotists. Drug abuse extends across the full spectrum of human economic, social, and political strata. Why? Because man is plagued with self-esteem. It doesn't take a mental giant to see the results of "feel good" psychotherapy in the schools for the past three decades or so.

- Another key element in the DARE program is Values Clarification, a process by which children are reprogrammed to set aside their parent's values and determine for themselves the values in life they wish to hold. It was the brainchild in the mid-1960s of social "scientists" -- in particular, Louis E. Raths, Merrill Harmin, and Sidney B. Simon. The Wall Street Journal clearly defines what is meant by values clarification:

"Teachers should never try to teach children correct values. To tell a student stealing is wrong or that kindness and loyalty are good values, would be, according to Values Clarification, to manipulate and coerce a student. Teachers should help students discover and clarify their own personal values instead of trying to force someone else's values on them."

But values clarification presupposes very specific views about human nature and society, it becomes a kind of "religious" position in its own right, which then competes directly with other religious views.

Values Clarification goes by many different names: "critical thinking," "decision-making skills," "situation ethics," "personal choice," and others. The meaning is the same: there are no values outside of yourself; you must determine what is right for you; what's right in one case may be wrong in another; values change with new understanding. It is strongly implied that to adopt one's parents' values is to fail to come to full self-actualization. In the process, however, children are reinforced with the new values of the education system -- the state's concept of what constitutes right and wrong. In the case of DARE, Values Clarification is openly espoused as a means to enhance one's self-esteem. (One must remember that "success" in affective education does not necessarily mean that fewer kids use drugs after going through the program; it means that the goal of getting kids to make their own choices has been met!)

For Christians, God's Word should establish the values by which we are to believe and act. Values Clarification by nature puts barriers between God's authority and the "self-actualized" child. It also puts barriers between parents and children. Values Clarification is a tool of Satan to take children from under the authority of their parents and place their decision-making in the hands of a godless, mindless, state-mandated educational system. One might just as well send his child to a Buddhist temple as to a public school where values clarification or any element of affective education is implemented!

- A third key element in the DARE program is Group Therapy and Role Playing. DARE proposes group discussions and role playing as teaching strategies. The term "group discussions" can be misleading when applied to in-depth discussions of participants' personal lives. At that point the discussion transcends into group therapy, particularly if the motive is to help "actualize" participants, or to help them change or resolve attitudes and behavior. As stated in An Invitation to Project DARE, group discussions and role playing are used for exactly that purpose: Self-Esteem Enhancement; Risk Assessment; Decision-Making Skills; Interpersonal and Communication skills; and Critical Thinking. In child group discussions, Christian children do not belong in such groups with non-Christian children. The danger of conflict with the Biblical values that Christian parents want instilled in their children is just too great.

Role playing is another method used in DARE, and is merely another term for psycho-drama (i.e., spontaneous, dramatic role-play), a device used in psychotherapy . Such psychotherapeutic devices can break down inhibitions and result in the children revealing things that, in normal situations, they would not want to reveal. In some cases, this has resulted in police action against families and in children being separated from their parents.

- Perhaps the most disconcerting definition of child abuse involves "mental abuse." This vague term has been used to justify the state's intrusion into the family for reasons as minor as depriving one's child of television viewing or other expressions of the child's personal will. Child abuse is so vaguely defined as to give the state absolute power to enforce its will in any circumstance that suits its globalist atheistic policy. Though rarely implemented as yet, child abuse may also include parents teaching their faith to their children. How would DARE fit into this scheme? The DARE officer is instructed that, while he or she is not acting in the role of a police officer, but as a facilitator, any revelations of illegal activities or suspected child abuse are to be reported to the principal, and appropriate action is to be taken. The psychotherapy of role playing and group therapy are specifically designed to break down inhibitions and cause children to reveal the secrets they would not normally reveal. The DARE program promises to be an ideal tool for the implementation of such a police state, and especially a means to gain information from children against their parents.

- The problem with the whole DARE program lies in the methodology and the system devised by the Los Angeles Unified School District, a government agency long steeped in humanistic psychology. The police officers are as much victims of the psychotherapeutic approach as are the students; their training requires them to undergo the same therapy as they use on the students.

DARE is only one affective education program among many being implemented through virtually every educational district in the United States and in many foreign countries. It probably isn't the worst, simply because at least the kids see a uniformed police officer who attempts to gain their respect for law enforcement. Beyond that, however, DARE fits into the same category as all other such programs. Because Christians have lacked discernment for failure to study Scripture, Christian children are being sacrificed to Baal on the altars of education. Unless their parents take the time and effort, and are willing to suffer whatever is necessary to preserve their children from this evil, they will bear the guilt along with those educators into whose hands they placed them.

Source: http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/dare.htm

Lakeland "Revival" - Todd Bentley Articles

2008-06-18T17:18:00.017-04:00

The source for these articles are from filesfromtoni
Thank you Toni!

A Pastor's Eye Witness Account of the Lakeland Revival Angel Worship At

Lakeland Revival False Healing Revival in Lakeland, Florida Update on False Healing Revival In Lakeland

An Angel Called Emma

Todd Bentley and the False Lakeland Revival Todd Bentley, Lakeland Revival and Apostasy

Todd Bentley and "The Glory Cloud of Revelation" Link Disappears

THE LATTER RAIN REVIVAL

Todd Bentley-SUNDAR SINGH VISION

Todd Bentley's Angel Emma Disappears

Todd Bentley Imparts Anti-Christ Spirit

Who Is Sundar Singh?

Bentley: Thirteen Wise Virgins To Carry 'Revival' Forward

Jesus Death Mask-Todd Bentley-Witchcraft Tatooing-Kansas

Todd Bentley Video: "Get The People To Believe in "The" Angel Video

Todd Bentley, Fires of Kundalini and the Demon Samuel

Todd Bentley Video-Kundalini Effect in Full Force

Pastor Passes Away After Deemed Healed at Lakeland 'Revival'

The Purpose Behind The Florida 'Outpouring' From A Brother in the UK

Todd Bentley's Violent Ministry - Video

Todd Bentley's Newest Gimmick-E-Mail Your Resurrection Testimony - Video

Lakeland Revival, Todd Bentley and Assembly of God Superintendent

Todd Bentley: Jesus To Make Appearance in Lakeland-Video

Benny Hinn Jesus Appearance Video

Todd Bentley, Wendy Alec & God-TV Beg-A-Thon

Lakeland Revival Tribal Dance

Paula White's Heretical Teachings (video)

2008-06-01T23:56:00.004-04:00

Paula White and Larry Huch say NOT to pray to Jesus. And Jesus is NOT the only begotten Son. (among other things)

Todd Bentley - Florida Outpouring

2008-05-28T00:02:00.004-04:00

If you don't know who he is, click here first.

Who is Todd Bentley?

2008-05-27T23:43:00.010-04:00

The newest wandering star breaking forth on the on the Signs and wonders scene is--Todd Bentley a Canadian evangelist from Abbotsford, BC, Canada. He and his team hold crusades in over 55 nations where they say, “Thousands have been saved, healed and delivered.”

“In his late teens, Todd had a dramatic encounter with the saving and delivering power of God. This experience brought Todd out of a lifestyle of drug and alcohol addiction without cravings or withdrawal symptoms. He was also delivered from a lifestyle involving criminal activity, youth prisons, drugs, sex, satanic music and bondage. Todd's miraculous conversion to Jesus was much like the Apostle Paul's on the Damascus road. Todd was instantly transformed into a radical disciple and soul winning evangelist for Jesus.” (Website- About Us Todd Bentley's Personal Profile).

“Saved” at 17, shortly after he began preaching and He also began prophesying during this time.

In his Bio- God has drawn Todd into deep and intimate places of prayer. These extended times in God's presence has released a fresh prophetic and miracle-healing anointing.

He wants to “see others set free through the anointing of the Holy Spirit and to see others come into the reality of intimate relationship with Jesus. This we are told is done as “He ministers prophetically, corporately and personally as well as brings forth the word of God with the power and demonstration of the Spirit -- God confirming His word with signs and wonders following. God has released an increase of the healing anointing into Todd's life to the point where the blind see, the deaf hear & growths dissolve as Jesus still heals every sickness and disease.”

Wow, these are just a few impressive marketing phrases that do not compare to the supernatural stories that surround him. His ministry is called, “Fresh Fire ministries International: Apostolic Network.” After a short visit to Ignited last year Bentley was invited by Strader to return. He has been conducting "healing meetings" (twice daily) in Lakeland since April 2. 2008. The 700-seat sanctuary of host pastor Stephen Strader’s Ignited Church is filled up as people have been waiting for hours for the doors to open. It has now been attended by more than 20,000. Steven Strader is the son of Karl Strader former pastor of Carpenter's Home Church that launched Rodney Howard Browne’s ministry in the US. The TBN broadcasts carried its services and the church was influenced to believe this kind of preaching and behavior is what revival is about.

Like previous revivals people from all over are willing to fly to Lakeland to catch the revival fire and bring it back to wherever they live, not knowing that if it is God, you are unable to capture Him (or His anointing) and distribute him (or it) to others. Instead of people getting saved they are getting people lost- by listening to a mans experiences of the supernatural that are both unbiblical and untrue.

This revival has all the spiritual sensations and activities of the other revivals combined: roaring, groaning, burning sensations in the body- head and stomach, shaking, jerking, spiritual drunkenness and uncontrollable laughter and then some new manifestations. People have their eyes rolled in the back of their heads. Reports of women gyrating and pulsating like they’re being ravaged from behind by some unseen force. Holy or un-holy may still debated by some but to those of us that are knowledgeable on the previous revivals and the power of the occult, the jury is in- Maximum unholiness, the source is not the God of he Bible. This may disturb some, but if they will use their Bible, pray and think it through, they will gain discernment and spiritual understanding.

The shakes, jerks, twitching, frozen stillness, laughter and falling to the floor have all been standard in revivals since Hinn passed “it” on to to Rodney Howard Browne which came through Randy Clark and filled many of the Vineyard churches. It continues today, the only difference, this time the conductor of this orchestrated supernatural hodgepodge is Todd Bentley. When it comes right down to it Todd Bentley and the Florida Outpouring is just another chapter added to the various “false revivals” of our time. This revival is a continuation of Pensacola, that came from Toronto that came from Rodney Browne that came from Benny Hinn, etc, etc.

I’m able to say this because I have studied these revivals from when the Kansas City prophets came into the Vineyard churches, which began in the 80’s … and now this.

Bentley has been doing the miracle ministry for over 8 years:

“It wasn’t long and he began to pray for people who needed fillings. Seven people received Gold teeth last night. ..One lady was standing at the front and while waiting to be prayed for received five gold teeth in a row. Not just filled, but buldging with Gold. People were being healed in there seats, others heard the instruments prophesy in an audible voice, over the two nights there were salvations and more healings (Source: Message posted on the pro-Toronto Blessing New Wine mailing list (item on file), March 22, 1999) -underline mine-

“Diamond dust manifestations of God’s presence have appeared in meetings led by Evangelists Todd Bentley in Canada and Ian Turton in Australia. There have been other places where they have appeared also, but it seems that they are not as commonplace as the gold dust and gold dental miracles. According to Todd, they look like fine sparkly ” ground glass”, reflecting light in beautiful colors”. (Message posted on the pro-Toronto Blessing New Wine mailing list (item on file), Feb. 16, 2000).

Once we identify the people Todd Bentley associates with, the angels that work among him (which he claims to have constant experiences with) we can then understand exactly what this is all about.

Bentley: “has shown no sign of leaving since an angel, he said, visited him the day after he arrived.

Prophetic minister Bob Jones told Bentley he believed the angel’s name was “Winds of Change”--the same angel, Jones said, that visited healing evangelist William Branham in the 1940s.” (Paul Steven Ghiringhelli in Lakeland, Fla. Asst News Editor, Charisma) http://www.charismamag.com/news/archives/042208d.html

…the second night of the Lakeland meetings…he said he saw an angel he described as carrying the “Winds of Change.” “Asking him to describe this angel, Bentley replied that those familiar with the life of William Branham would recognize the angel from being a relevant factor in his healing ministry. He felt that this angel’s appearance signaled a “shift in the atmosphere” for the meetings and felt that an openness for revival had been ushered in.”(Teresa Neumann, Reports of Revival Breaking Out in Lakeland, Florida
http://www.freshfire.ca/index.php?Act=read&status=revival&Id=132&pid=954&bid=923

“He has prepared you for such a time as this ... there is a Branham anointing on you and a double portion of it!” Che Ahn to Todd Bentley (Lakeland Revival -April 24 2008 - from God TV).

Bentley is well read up on Branham- he describes how he conducted his services in detail in his article ‘Living in the Supernatural” May 25, 2003. “When people would come on the platform to receive healing and Branham entered that realm, he would go into visions and tell everyone many details of their life. He did this only as a sign that the Lord would heal them. People would wait in healing lines for hours. They would have to get a card with a number to get into the healing line to even get prayer. He would wait for an angel to come and stand behind him on his left side. He would do nothing until the angel arrived.”

The beginning of the prophetic movement goes back to the 40's where there began what certain Pentecostals call the "Healing Revival." It continued from 1947 to 1957, led by Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborn, Jack Coe, A.A. Allen, and O.L. Jaggers. Gordon Lindsay's Voice of Healing magazine recorded many of their astonishing stories. And there was also William Branham who stood out among them all as “the healer and prophet.” The Pentecostal Healing Movement was transformed by a number of new teachings he introduced. It was called the Latter-Rain, which began in Canada from Branham who laid hands on the leaders.

From the beginning Branham had unusual manifestations which he attributed to his angel. “The power invested me by my commission given by Almighty God and ministered to me by an Angel, a Pillar of Light” (The Revelation of the Seven Seals p.112-113). Branham admits the angel is a pillar of light (this will become important as we look at Todd Bentleys experiences with angels and light). The angel that William Branham had was actually a powerful angel of light- a demonic entity that masqueraded as the angel of the Lord and the Holy Spirit of God. This entity appeared throughout Branham’s life from early childhood and eventually led him into all kinds of “serious error.” It is crucial to understand what Bentley is claiming, by renewing the call of William Branham. Bentley’s acknowledgement of his angel as Branham’s angel via Bob Jones (notwithstanding the many other angels that constantly visit him) puts his imprimatur on Branham being used of God. This is not that unusual, many charismatics endorse Branham, the difference is that he is saying this angel is an influence or power in his ministry.

If one examines the beliefs of William Branham that were taught by this angel there is no other conclusion but it being heresy. Branham was guided by this angel his whole life, he claimed the angel was with him night and day. He stated that he was unable to minister unless the angel was at his side (Occult Bondage and Deliverance, Kurt Koch pp. 49, 50). “I'm convinced that It's the Angel of the Lord… I'm convinced that, right now, that This is what I'm looking at, this Circle of Light before me, I'm convinced that's the Holy Spirit! (“Convinced than Concerned”, June 10, 1962). Ironically, Bentley is also Convinced than Concerned.

The healings and prophecies purportedly came through an angel that was always with Branham on stage and continually gave him counsel and revelations (William Branham: His Life and Teachings, Kathie Adler; Narrow Way Ministries, Holbrook, N.Y., 1986; pp. 3-5).

Branham claimed that he was the angel in Rev 3:14 and 10:7, from a supernatural experience he believed that he was Elijah, who would precede Christ’s return before the 2nd coming. Branham taught that the angels to the 7 churches in the book of Revelation were men who appeared at various times throughout Church history bringing new revelation, that he was the messenger of the last Church age, Laodicea. From his angelic influence, he denied the Trinity and called it a satanic doctrine: “Thus saith the Lord,” trinitarianism is of the Devil” (Footprints, p. 606). He taught the oneness doctrine of the godhead “Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the self same person, only in a different form It's three manifestations of the same Person, or you might call it three offices.... (The Revelation of the Seven Seals, pp.156-157). He at times denied the Son of God was the eternal God. In referring to Jn.1 “Now, in the beginning was the word. A word is thought expressed. In the beginning He wasn’t even God” (The Mighty God Unveiled Before Us, p.11).

Branham taught numerous other strange and heretical doctrines. That God in all ages had skin on him - even before the incarnation. That Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) was sexual sin with the serpent and that Cain was the offspring (known as the serpent seed doctrine). Branham believed in three Bibles; the Scripture, the Zodiac and the pyramids were other revelations of God. He taught that denominations were abominations, belonging to any denomination meant you had taken “the mark of the beast.” There are many others too numerous to list here. Those who endorse Branham as genuine, only implicate themselves as being ignorant and immature in the word of God. (see- Branham).

Click here to read more.

Source: Let Us Reason Ministries

Characterisics of False Teachers

2008-04-12T01:24:00.005-04:00

Knowing that false teachers pose a great danger to you, and knowing that they appeal to you in various ways, how can you know what to look for? What are the characteristics of false teachers?

False teachers distort the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Second Peter 2:1 (NASB) says, “There will also be false teachers among you…even denying the Master who bought them.” Scripture says that Jesus is God in the flesh. False teachers diminish Jesus’ deity or humanity in some way.

False teachers distort the doctrine of salvation. First Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” The end result of the false teachers’ beliefs is that Jesus’ death on the cross is not enough for salvation. Instead of simply trusting Jesus as your Lord, false teachers add good works to the saving process (see Eph. 2:8-9).

False teachers distort the doctrine of God’s Word. False teachers claim that the Bible has been distorted. Additional reading material is necessary to know God. The truth, however, is that Scripture is sufficient for us (see 2 Tim. 3:16; Jude 3; 2 Pet. 1:3).

In addition to these three key doctrinal issues, you can also identify false teachers by answering these questions:

Do they keep their destructive beliefs secret? False teachers “secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Pet. 2:1). For example, the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses who come to your door only show you what they want you to see about their religions. More about them in a later article.
Are they greedy? “In their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2 Pet. 2:3). To false teachers, obedience to God equals regulated donations to their church or ministry, which, of course, lines their pockets.
Are they living a sinful lifestyle? False teachers “indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires” (2 Pet. 2:10). Many times this is difficult to ascertain, since people hide their sins in the dark. But over time, sins have a way of being exposed to the light.
Are they rebellious? False teachers “despise authority” (2 Pet. 2:10; also see Titus 1:10). They believe they are above answering to people whom God has placed in authority. Many false teachers create ministries or start churches that offer no personal accountability to other believers. And if questioned about the lack of accountability, they will respond that you shouldn’t “stretch out your hand against God’s anointed” (i.e., “Don’t question me, you miserable little man of no faith, or God’s gonna get ya’!”).
False teachers rejoice in the fruit of their teachings. They enjoy “reveling in their deceptions” (2 Pet. 2:13). Privately, they laugh at the pain caused by well-intentioned people following their lies. When life savings are bankrupted and families destroyed, false teachers claim it is part of the cost of following God.
False teachers use arrogant speech. “Speaking out arrogant words of vanity,” they teach with the presumption of absolute authority, commanding their followers not to question their teachings. (2 Pet. 2:18). Even though they contradict the Bible, they claim their knowledge came from God. “And how dare you question God?”
False teachers are liars. They are “empty talkers and deceivers” (Titus 1:10; see also 2 Pet. 2:19). False teachers will use the terminology of the Bible (only with different definitions) to deceive Christians into following them.

Source: DavidRhoads.org

Calvinism

2008-04-11T23:50:00.006-04:00

"Calvinism" refers to five major doctrines of John Calvin.

Who was John Calvin?

John Calvin was one of the most prominent theologians of the Protestant Reformation. He was born in France on July 10, 1509 and died in Geneva on May 27, 1564.

Calvin began studying to become a Catholic priest. But being more interested in law and the humanities, he was not ordained. On November 1, 1533, Calvin gave a speech attacking the Catholic Church and calling for reforms. From that time forward, he became the most influential Reformation theologian. Today, many Protestant denominations adhere to Calvin's doctrines to some degree (some adhere to one of his doctrines, while others adhere to all five).

While Calvin was in Geneva, the Reformed Churches (Presbyterian) accepted his doctrine as though they were infallible. Calvin is, therefore, known as the founder of the Reformed Churches (Presbyterian Church).

Overview of Calvinism
John Calvin's five main doctrines were adopted as the foundation of the Reformed system of doctrine. They are conveyed in the acronym "TULIP", which was developed by adherents of Calvinism after Calvin's death.

Total inability (total hereditary depravity, original sin): man is totally depraved, the guilt of sin passes from generation to generation originating with Adam.
Unconditional election (predestination): God has predestined certain people to be saved.
Limited atonement: Christ died only for the people who had been predestined.
Infallible grace (irresistible grace): the Holy Spirit operates directly upon people, who have been predestined, to convert them.
Perseverance of the saints (once saved always saved): it is impossible for the elect (the predestined) to fall away once they have been converted.

Total Inability (Total Hereditary Depravity, Original Sin)
While John Calvin studied to become a Catholic priest, he undoubtedly learned the Catholic doctrine of original sin. Roman Catholics believe that babies are "born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin" (rf. Catechism of the Catholic Church). John Calvin's doctrine of original sin and sprinkling babies is closely related to the Catholic Church's doctrine (rf. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapters 15 and 16).

Calvin is known as the founder of the Reformed Churches (Presbyterian Church). He taught that each person's life perished, "having been extinguished by the sin of Adam" (Calvin's Commentary on 1 John 1:1), and that each person has a depraved nature (rf. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin). Therefore, Presbyterians believe that each person inherits original sin from Adam and is born lost in sin being hostile to God, slaves to Satan, and servants to sin (rf. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Book of Confessions).

The doctrine of total inability (i.e., total hereditary depravity, original sin) is not taught in the Bible. God tells us that we do not inherit anyone's sin (Ezek. 18:20; cf. 2 Ki. 14:6). We sin after being tempted when we are carried away and enticed by our own lusts (Ja. 1:13-15).

Jesus teaches us that we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 18:3-4; Lk. 18:16-17) -- we must be as infants regarding evil (1 Cor. 14:20). Babies are not born as sinners (as Calvinists would have us believe). If they die, they are safe, because they have no sin.

Unconditional Election (Predestination)
Calvin's doctrine of unconditional election (predestination) contends that God has predestined some people to be saved and some people to be lost. This doctrine maintains that man does not have a free will.

Calvin taught that God did not elect (predestine) people by just looking into the future to see who would and would not obey. Calvin taught that God literally elected some people to be saved and allows everyone else to be lost. Commenting on Matt. 11:25-26, Calvin said, "This verse is impressive in two respects. The fact that not all receive the gospel is not due to the impotence of God, who could readily make all creatures submit to his empire. Secondly, that some arrive at faith, while others remain stupefied and obstinate, is due to his free election. He draws some to himself and passes others by; and in so doing, he himself distinguishes among men, whose situation by nature is the same" (Calvin Commentary VII: Election and Predestination).

Calvin harmonizes his doctrine of unconditional election (predestination) teaching that:

Everyone is born a sinner (total inability, original sin).
God elects (predestines) those who will be saved (unconditional election).
Christ, therefore, just died for the people who had been predestined to be saved (limited atonement).
The Holy Spirit operates directly upon the people who have been predestined to salvation and converts them (infallible grace). He does not work on those who are not predestined to salvation allowing them to be lost.
It is impossible for the elect (the predestined) to fall away once they are converted (perseverance of the saints, once saved always saved).

Calvin's doctrine of unconditional election (predestination) is not taught in the Bible. God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) and does not wish for anyone to perish (2 Pet. 3:9; cf. Ezek. 18:23). God has not predestined anyone to be lost or to perish.

Correspondingly, the Bible teaches that God has given us a free will to either obey or disobey Him. Christians can sin willfully (Heb. 10:26) and are commanded to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Christians are not predestined to salvation. They can fall from grace (Gal. 5:4; Heb. 12:15).

Limited Atonement
Five-point Calvinists believe that everyone is born in sin (original sin) and that God has predestined (unconditional election) some people to be saved and allows everyone else to be lost. Since God predestined only some people to be saved, they reason, Christ's blood only atoned (limited atonement) for the sins of the people who were predestined. The people who are not predestined to be saved have no way of being saved and are eternally lost from birth.

Calvinism's doctrine of limited atonement is not taught in the Bible. God has not predestined some people to be saved and some people to be lost. God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4) and all men to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). The Bible says that:

Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6).
Christ died for us, while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:8).
Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3).
Christ died for sins, for the unjust (1 Pet. 3:18).

Jesus did not die for a limited number of people, He died for all (2 Cor. 5:14-15). He is the author (source) of eternal salvation to those who obey Him (Heb. 5:9), and invites everyone to come and be saved (Rev. 22:17). Jesus has not excluded anyone from obeying Him and being saved.

Infallible Grace
The doctrine of infallible grace (irresistible grace) asserts that the Holy Spirit operates directly upon people who were predestined, to convert them. Conversely, the Holy Spirit allegedly does not work upon the people who have not been predestined; therefore, God allows them to be lost. As a result, some denominations require people to have an esoteric spiritual experience to be saved. And, some have developed a doctrine of "praying through" to be saved.

Calvin's doctrine of infallible grace (irresistible grace) is not taught in the Bible.

First, we must remember that God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9; cf. Ezek. 18:23). God has not predestined some people to be saved allowing everyone else to be lost. So, Calvin's doctrine of infallible grace is based upon a false assumption.

Second, we must realize that God works through His word to convert people (Rom. 1:16-17; 1 Th. 2:13). The Holy Spirit does not work in some mysterious way to just convert a predestined group of people, but He speaks through the word (Acts 1:16-18; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 3:7; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). The Bible teaches that we are born of the Spirit through God's word (Jn. 3:5-8; 1 Pet. 1:22- 23). So, the Scriptures tell us that:

The Spirit gives life and the word gives life (Jn. 6:63; Ps. 119:50, 93).
God saves through the Spirit and the word (Tit. 3:5; Ja. 1:21; cf. 1 Pet. 1:22-23).
We are washed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit and the word (1 Cor. 6:11; Jn. 17:17; Eph. 5:26; cf. Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:22-23).

Lastly, we must realize that every example of conversion is ascribed to the word.

Jews gladly received Peter's word and were baptized (Acts 2:40-41).
Samaritans were baptized when they believed Philip's preaching (Acts 8:12-13).
Philip preached from the Scriptures and the eunuch was baptized (Acts 8:35-39).
Saul was told what to do and was baptized to wash away his sins (Acts 9:6, 18; 22:16).
Peter spoke the words by which Cornelius would be saved and he was baptized (Acts 10:22, 33-48; 11:14).
Lydia heard the things spoken by Paul and was baptized (Acts 16:13-15).
The jailer heard the word of the Lord and was baptized (Acts 16:31-34).
The Corinthians heard, believed, and were baptized (Acts 18:8; 1 Cor. 15:1-2).
Men in Ephesus were baptized after Paul taught them (Acts 19:1-7).

Not only is Calvin's doctrine of infallible grace (irresistible grace) a false doctrine, but it is a doctrine of hopelessness. It erroneously asserts that God only helps a predestined group of people. Fortunately, our God is a God of love and wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).

Perseverance of the Saints
The doctrine of perseverance of the saints (once saved, always saved) asserts that it's impossible for the elect (the predestined) to fall away once the Holy Spirit works to convert them. This doctrine is not taught in the Bible.

Perseverance of the saints may be the most popular of Calvin's doctrines. Yet, the Scriptures clearly teach that once someone is saved, he can be lost.

Christians can fall from grace (Gal. 5:4; Heb. 12:15).
Christians can stray from the truth (Ja. 5:19).
Some Christians will depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1-3; cf. Col. 2:16-23; 1 Tim. 6:21; Ja. 5:19-20).
Christians can fall away from God (1 Cor. 10:12; Heb. 3:12; 6:4-8 ).
The branches in Jesus that do not bear fruit are taken away, cast into the fire, and burned (Jn. 15:1-6). Because, they do not keep Jesus' commandments (Jn. 15:10).
The apostle Paul knew that he could be lost after being saved (1 Cor. 9:27; Phil. 3:12-14).
Some Christians had already turned aside after Satan (i.e., fell away) during the first century (1 Tim. 5:15; 6:21).
False prophets and false teachers lead some Christians away from God by exploiting them with deceptive words (2 Pet. 2:1-22; 3:16; cf. Act 20:28-30).

Therefore, Christians are admonished to:

Obey, and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).
Take heed lest they fall (1 Cor. 10:12).
Endure, not throwing away their confidence and shrinking back to destruction (Heb. 10:35-39).
Be nourished in the words of faith and in the sound doctrine (1 Tim. 4:6-10).
Take care that they are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin having an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God (Heb. 3:6-15).
Be diligent to enter heaven, lest they fall away (Heb. 4:11).
Be diligent to make their calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10).
Exercise their senses to discern good and evil by becoming skilled in the word of righteousness (Heb. 5:12-14).

A result of this doctrine (perseverance of the saints) is that many people believe they can do anything and still be saved. Unfortunately, the eternal result is damnation.

Source: http://www.biblestudyguide.org/articles/what-is-calvinism.htm

Additional Links:

The Calvinism Debate: Who is the Enemy?

Danger of Teaching that Christ Died Only for the Elect

Calvin's Error of Limited Atonement

What is Relativism?

2008-04-11T23:22:00.005-04:00

Relativism is the philosophical position that all points of view are equally valid and that all truth is relative to the individual. This means that all moral positions, all religious systems, all art forms, all political movements, etc., are truths that are relative to the individual. Under the umbrella of relativism whole groups of perspectives are categorized. In obvious terms, some are:

cognitive relativism (truth) - Cognitive relativism affirms that all truth is relative. This would mean that no system of truth is more valid than another one and that there is no objective standard of truth. It would, naturally, deny that there is a God of absolute truth.

moral/ethical relativism - all morals are relative to the social group within which they are constructed.

situational relativism - that ethics (right and wrong) are dependent upon the situation.

Unfortunately, the philosophy of relativism is pervasive in our culture today. With the rejection of God, and Christianity in particular, absolute truth is being abandoned. Our pluralistic society wants to avoid the idea that there really is a right and wrong. This is evidenced in our deteriorating judicial system that has more and more trouble punishing criminals, in our entertainment media which continues to push the envelope of morality and decency, in our schools which teach evolution and "social tolerance", etc. In addition, the plague of moral relativism is encouraging everyone to accept homosexuality, pornography on TV, fornication, and a host of other "sins" that were once considered wrong, but are now being accepted and even promoted in society. It is becoming so pervasive that if you speak out against moral relativism and its "anything goes" philosophy, you're labeled as an intolerant bigot. Of course, this is incredibly hypocritical of those who profess that all points of view are true, yet reject those who profess absolutes in morality. It seems that what is really meant by the moral relativists is that all points of view are true except for the views that teach moral absolutes, or an absolute God, or absolute right and wrong.

Some typical expressions that reveal an underlying presupposition of relativism are comments such as "That is your truth, not mine," "It is true for you, but not for me," and "There are no absolute truths." Of course, these statements are illogical, which I demonstrate in the paper "Refuting relativism." Relativism is invading our society, our economy, our schools, and our homes. Society cannot flourish nor survive in an environment where everyone does what is right in his own eyes, where the situation determines actions and if the situation changes, lying or cheating is acceptable -- as long as you're not caught. Without a common foundation of truth and absolutes, our culture will become weak and fragmented.

I must admit, however, that there is validity to some aspects of relativism. For example, what one society considers right (driving on the left side of the road) another considers wrong. These are customs to which a "right and wrong" are attached, but they are purely relativistic and not universal because they are culturally based. Child rearing principles vary in different societies as do burial practices and wedding ceremonies. These "right and wrong ways" are not cosmically set in stone nor are they derived from some absolute rule of conduct by some unknown god. They are relative and rightly so. But, their relativism is properly asserted as such. It doesn't matter what side of the road we drive in as long as we all do it the same way.

Likewise, there are experiences that are valid only for individuals. I might be irritated by a certain sound, where another person will not. In this sense, what is true for me is not necessarily true for someone else. It is not an absolute truth that the identical sound causes irritation to all people. This is one way of showing that certain aspects of relativism are true. But, is it valid to say that because there is a type of personal relativism that we can then apply that principle to all areas of experience and knowledge and say that they too are also relative? No, it is not a valid assumption. First of all, to do so would be an absolute assessment which contradicts relativism.

Furthermore, if all the things are relative, then there cannot be anything that is absolutely true between individuals. In other words, if all people deny absolute truth and establish relative truth only from their experiences, then everything is relative to the individual. How then can there be a common ground from which to judge right and wrong or truth? It would seem that there cannot be.
Of course, the issue that is important here is whether or not there are absolute truths. Also, can there be different kinds of absolute truths if indeed there are absolute truths? We might ask if it is always wrong to lie? Or, does 1 + 1 always equal 2? Is it always true that something cannot be both in existence and not in existence at the same time? Is it always true that something cannot bring itself into existence if it first does not exist? If any of these questions can be answered in the affirmative then relativism is refuted -- at least to some degree.

More questions arise. If all moral views are equally valid, then do we have the right to punish anyone? Can we ever say that something is wrong? In order to say that something is wrong we must first have a standard by which we weigh right and wrong in order to make a judgment. If that standard of right and wrong is based on relativism, then it is not a standard at all. In relativism, standards of right and wrong are derived from social norms. Since society changes, the norms would change and so would right and wrong. If right and wrong change, then how can anyone be rightly judged for something he did wrong if that wrong might become right in the future?

Finally, is it fair to apply logical analysis to relativistic principles? Many relativists say no. But, I do not see why not. If a relativist were to convince me that logic isn’t necessary in examining relativism, he’d have to convince me using logic, which would be self defeating. If a relativist uses relativism -- the subjective view of his own opinions -- to validate his position, he is using circular reasoning; namely, he is using relativism to establish relativism. So, either way, he has lost the argument.

To conclude, if relativism is true and all points of view are true, then is my view that relativism is false, true?
Does truth contradict itself? No it doesn't.

Source: carm.org

Tritheism

2008-04-11T23:13:00.005-04:00

Tritheism is the teaching that the Godhead is really three separate beings forming three separate gods. This erring view is often misplaced by the cults for the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there is but one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the trinity is, by definition, monothestic. That is, it is a doctrine that affirms that there is only one God in all the universe.

Tritheism has taken different forms throughout the centuries. In the early church the Christians were accused of being tritheists by those who either refused to understand or could not understand the doctrine of the Trinity. In the late 11th century a Catholic monk of Compiègne in France, Roscelin considered the three Divine Persons as three independent beings and that it could be said they were three gods. He maintained that God the Father and God the Holy Ghost would have become incarnate with God the Son unless there were three gods.

Present day Mormonism is tritheistic -- but with a twist. Mormonism teaches that there are many God's in the universe but they serve and worship only one of them. The godhead for earth is to them really three separate gods: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father used to be a man on another world who brought one of his wives with him to this world - they both have bodies of flesh and bones. The son is a second god who was literally begotten between god the father and his goddess wife. The holy ghost is a third god. Therefore, in reality, Mormonism is polytheistic with a tritheistic emphasis.

Of course, tritheism clearly contradicts the teaching of the Bible regarding monotheism.

“You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me," (Isaiah 43:10).
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me," (Isaiah 44:6).
‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none,’” (Isaiah 44:8).

Source: carm.org

Kenosis

2008-04-11T23:03:00.007-04:00

"Kenosis" is derived from the Greek word "kenoo" which means "to empty." It is used in Phil. 2:7. The text of Phil. 2:5-8 is worth recording here.

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross," (Phil. 2:5-8).

The kenosis theory states that Jesus gave up some of His divine attributes while He was a man here on earth. These attributes were omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Christ did this voluntarily so that He could function as a man in order to fulfill the work of redemption. This view was first introduced in the late 1800s in Germany with Gottfried Thomasius (1802-75), a Lutheran theologian.
Phil. 2:5-8 does not teach that Jesus gave up any of His divine attributes since it says nothing of those attributes. Instead, it is speaking of His humility that moved him, according to the will of the Father, to leave His majestic state in heaven and enter into the humble position of human nature.

There is, however, a problem the orthodox must deal with that the Kenosis theory seems to more adequately address. Take Mark 13:32 for example. In it, Jesus said, "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." If Jesus knew all things, as is implied in His divine nature, then why did He not know the day or hour of His own return. The answer is that Jesus cooperated with the limitations of humanity and voluntarily did not exercise His attribute of omniscience. He still was divine but was moving and living completely as a man.
The Kenosis theory is a dangerous doctrine because if it were true then it would mean that Jesus was not fully divine. If Jesus was not fully divine, then His atoning work would not be sufficient to atone for the sins of the world.

The correct doctrine is the Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is both fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9) and did not give up any divine attributes while as a man on earth.

Source: carm.org

Gnosticism

2008-04-11T22:57:00.004-04:00

Gnosticism traces its roots back just after the beginning of the Christian Church. Some researchers state that evidence of its existence even predates Christianity. Whichever the case, the error of gnosticism had affected the culture and church of the time and possibly even a earned a mention in 1 John 4.

The word "gnosticism" comes from the Greek word "gnosis" which means "knowledge." There were many groups that were Gnostic and it isn't possible to easily describe the nuances of each variant of Gnostic doctrines. However, generally speaking, Gnosticism taught that salvation is achieved through special knowledge (gnosis). This knowledge usually dealt with the individual's relationship to the transcendent Being.

A more detailed Gnostic theology is as follows. The unknowable God was far too pure and perfect to have anything to do with the material universe which was considered evil. Therefore, God generated lesser divinities, or emenations. One of these emanations, Wisdom desired to know the unknowable God. Out of this erring desire the demiurge an evil god was formed and it was this evil god that created the universe. He along with archons kept the mortals in bondage in material matter and tried to prevent the pure spirit souls from ascending back to god after the death of the physical bodies. Since, according to the Gnostics, matter is evil, deliverance from material form was attainable only through special knowledge revealed by special Gnostic teachers. Christ was the divine redeemer who descended from the spiritual realm to reveal the knowledge necessary for this redemption. In conclusion, Gnosticism is dualistic. That is, it teaches there is a good and evil, spirit and matter, light and dark, etc. dualism in the universe.

What we know about Gnosticism is gained from the writings of Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Origen, and some later manuscripts discovered in the eighteenth century such as the "Codex Askew, Codex Bruce, the Berlin Gnostic Codes and, most recently, the Nag Hammadi collection."¹Nag Hammadi is a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion and 13 codices discovered were discovered about 1945.

The danger of gnosticism is easily apparent. It denies the incarnation of God as the Son. In so doing, it denies the true efficacy of the atonement since, if Jesus is not God, He could not atone for all of mankind and we would still be lost in our sins.

There is debate whether or not this is a Christian heresy or simply an independent development. The evidence seems to point to the later. Nevertheless, the Gnostics laid claim to Jesus as a great teacher of theirs and as such requires some attention. It is possible that 1 John was written against some of the errors that Gnosticism promoted.

__________________
1. Achtemeier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.

What is a Third Day Church?

2008-04-11T22:42:00.007-04:00

Third Day theology is a prophetic movement within Christianity that focuses on biblical scriptures that mention the phrase "third day" and seeks to apply what it sees are the benefits and promises of those scriptures for our time. Adherents claim that the third day is now, the third thousand years of Christ's reign. Sequentially, the third day follows the first and second days. The first day is where we leave the old ways behind. The second day is the process of holding onto the promises of God that have not yet been fulfilled. Day three is the victory and receiving of the promises of God with an emphasis on personal development and spiritual improvement. Therefore, a third day church is a church that is looking for new ways to "do church" by leaving the old ways and moving onto the new ones that will be revealed, allegedly, by the Holy Spirit unto greater spiritual growth and prosperity. Generally, Third Day Churches are charismatic, pentecostal, emphasize present day apostles, prophets, prophetic utterances, and approve of women pastors.
Some examples of scriptures used in Third Day Churches and how they are applied is as follows:

Gen. 22:4, "Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off."
- The context is Abraham offering Isaac. Prophetically, God provided the Son, therefore, the church will see an great influx of believes.
Ezra 6:15 - "And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king."
- The Temple of God was finished on the third day; therefore, the church will experience more fulfillment of the calling of God.
John 2:1, "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there."
- In this account, Jesus creates wine for a wedding. Therefore, new works of God will develop in the church in people and in ministries.

Is this biblical?

I do believe in patterns in the Bible and at first was intrigued by the "third day" idea. However, the "third day theme" of blessing isn't biblically consistent with the use of the phrase throughout Scripture. Because it isn't, in order to maintain their distinction and emphasis, third day churches must read into the text more than they read out of it. This is a serious problem and should be abandoned by the Christian church. Compare the following verses with those above as proof that "third day" scriptures are not always about God blessing the church.

Gen. 34:25, "And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males."
Gen. 40:20, "And it came to pass the third day, [which was] Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants."
Lev. 7:18, "And if [any] of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity."
1 Sam. 30:1, "And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire."
- See also, Lev. 19:6, 7; Num 7:24; Num. 19:12, 19, 20; Num. 31:19; Judg 20:30; 1 Kings 12:12, etc., which do not support the "new works of God" idea that third day churches teach.

As you can see, these scriptures don't support the "new works of God" idea. In fact, they have nothing to do with the New Testament church at all and yet contain the phrase "third day." Therefore, quite simply, the pattern looked for is not valid. Perhaps I am being nit-picky, but when an emphasis to "doing church," is based upon a subjective observation of a group of scriptures that are not consistent with the proposed idea, I become rather suspicious -- and so should the pastors involved.

Furthermore, the idea that the "third day" corresponds to the third millennium is without biblical warrant. It is based on a misuse of the following scripture: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," (2 Pet. 3:8). Note that the verse does not say that with the Lord a thousand years is a day and vice versa, but that it is as a day. It is not a specific correlation of one day equals 1000 years, but a figurative use of the word "thousand" to express the idea that God is beyond time.

Additionally, the notion that the third millennium of Christ's rule is commenced does not take into account the fact that Jesus did not rise from the dead and ascend until A.D. 33 (give or take). We have another 30 years or so before the real third millennium arrives since Christ's victory on the cross. The emphasis in biblical theology is the cross, not the birth of Christ, though it is, of course, important. Rather, the cross is where Jesus bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24). This is the reason He came to us and it is the center of biblical theology. The charismatic and pentecostal groups often seek experience as a central focus rather than the cross. They often want new experiences, new revelations, new ideas, etc., to tickle their fancies. I have nothing against new ideas and experiences, but they must be consistent with biblical revelation and completely subject to it. I do not believe the "third day" emphasis is. Therefore, it should be dismissed.
Please understand that biblically I support the continuation of the spiritual gifts and the movement of the Holy Spirit upon and within His people, even prophetically. But, any such movement in the Christian church must be saturated in clear biblical truth, not subjective interpretations which lend themselves to more "charismania." Unfortunately, it is the non-doctrinally sound and over-emotionalism that has led to so many errors in the charismatic circles. Such errors include barking like dogs when the Holy Spirit allegedly comes over them, uncontrolled laughter, being slain in the Spirit, entire churches speaking in tongues simultaneously, etc. These things have brought ridicule upon the name of Christ by unbelievers and this very thing is warned against by Paul in 1 Cor. 14 when he discusses the proper place of charismatic experiences. The Bible teaches order and decency in contradiction to many of the experiences of charismatic churches.

I am not trying to be a kill joy nor am I saying that those involved in it are not Christian. On the contrary. I truly hope that those who emphasis "third day" scriptures, are used by the Lord to bring glory to Him and to expand the church of God, in spite of this theological "error." In all things we must remain biblically dedicated and subject all experiences and ideas to God's word no matter what we hope to experience or accomplish.

Source: carm.org

Various Links about Promise Keepers

2008-03-28T16:18:00.007-04:00

Source: Cephas Ministry

Promise Keepers Roman Catholic

Are You Really A Promise Keeper

Many Christian Leaders Warn Of Promise Keepers

Promise Keepers Bridging Evangelicals to the One World Church

Promise Keepers

Mind Control

Promise Keepers And The Forgotten Promise

Promise Keepers Lose Boardmember to Prison Fellowship

Promise Keepers the 7 False Premises

Promise Keepers And The Rising Tide Of Ecumenism

About the Promise Keepers

Promise / Beatles

The Dangers in PK's "Brothers! " Text

PK's Call to Reconciliation

Pragmatism & Psychology in "Evangelism Syllabus"

Interview with Steve Chavis

What the Bible Says About Making Promises

The Promise Keepers Satan's Latest Tool in Deception

Mormon Leaders Urging Members of the Latter-Day Saints to Participate in the Promise Keeper's Movement.

Promise Keepers and the Rising Tide of Ecumenism

What do these Men Really Mean by Unity

A Sacred Assembly of Men

The PK Scandal Re James Ryles' Comments on the Beatles

Open Letter to Bill McCartney

FAQ's Answered by Benjamin Creme

2008-03-15T00:56:00.006-04:00

http://share-international.org/background/FAQ/faq_main.htm

Who is Benjamin Creme?

2008-03-15T00:18:00.007-04:00

The Tara Center is the "press office" for one man: Benjamin Creme, the "latter-day John the Baptist." He sees himself as the forerunner of Maitreya (the New Age "Messiah"). Here is what the January 1982 issue of Emergence, the official newsletter of the Tara Center, has to say about him:

"Benjamin Creme is a 58 year old Scot, an artist by profession. Since his early youth, he has been interested in the esoteric, the area of the ageless wisdom that has been transmitted from one generation to the next. In 1959, he received a telepathic message from his Master, a member of the hierarchy - an event that came as a complete surprise to him...Later, Creme received communications that came directly from Maitreya himself. In 1975, he was given the mission of announcing publicly the coming of Maitreya..."

In an attempt to "increase the energy" that comes from Maitreya and other Masters, the Tara Centers have established something that they call "transmission groups" - meetings in which group meditation is focused as an aid in passing on the energies of the "Hierarchy" (spiritually perfected beings who rule the world) to large numbers of people, thus preparing the spiritual climate for the reappearance of "the Christ." The idea of grops receiving energy through positive mental images into the mainstream of human consciousness is obviously occult in nature. And if, in fact, spiritual energies are being transmitted through the estimated hundreds, perhaps thousands of people involved in these transmission groups around the world, there must be some purpose to it.

The Tara Centers are centers for the dissemination of information about Maitreya, the alleged "Christ," as well as bases of operation for Benjamin Creme, and headquarters for he establishment of transmission groups. They are also engaged in seeking to alleviate the problems of world hunger by promoting the idea of sharing, involving themselves closely with Share International. Share International works in cooperation with The Hunger Project, based in San Francisco, and founded in 1977 by Werner Erhard, founder of EST. (Contrary to what many may think, The Hunger Project is not just a charitable organization that feeds the poor. It is an organization that works to influence people's thinking toward redistribution of wealth.)

The concern of these people for the poor, of course, is admirable. We do not criticize them for this. However, Creme's teachings regarding the natures of God and man, the person of Jesus Christ, salvation, incarnation and spiritual matters on the whole are contrary to biblical theology and must be challenged. It's tragic, but the good works of Benjamin Creme and his associates are lending undeserved credibility to their false teachings.

Source: New Age Messiah Identified by Troy Lawrence

Who is Maitreya?

2008-03-14T23:26:00.006-04:00

He has been expected for generations by all of the major religions. Christians know him as the Christ, and expect his imminent return. Jews await him as the Messiah; Hindus look for the coming of Krishna; Buddhists expect him as Maitreya Buddha; and Muslims anticipate the Imam Mahdi or Messiah.

Although the names are different, many believe that they all refer to the same individual: the World Teacher, whose personal name is Maitreya (pronounced my-tray-ah).

Preferring to be known simply as the Teacher, Maitreya has not come as a religious leader, or to found a new religion, but as a teacher and guide for people of every religion and those of no religion.

At this time of great political, econoic and social crisis Maitreya will inspire humanity to see itself as the one family, and create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice, and global cooperation.

He will launch a call to action to save the millions of people who starve to death every year in a world of plenty. Among Maitreya's recommendations will be a shift in social priorities so that adequate food, housing, clothing, education, and medical care become universal rights.

Under Maitreya's inspiration, humanity itself will make the required changes and create a saner and more just world for all.

http://share-international.org/maitreya/Ma_main.htm

UN Undermines the Sovereignty of Free Nations

2008-03-11T18:51:00.007-04:00

UN Undermines the Sovereignty of Free Nations
The United Nations works to undermine the sovereignty of free nations�in particular the United States�while morally sanctioning slave states and dictatorships.

Playing UN "Survivor"
Survivor is a perfect microcosm for the self-destructive nature of the recently much ballyhooed foreign-policy principle that states that only the approval of others can grant a nation's actions moral virtue � the principle of 'multilateralism.' 'Multilateralism' is based on the ethics of altruism - preaching sacrifice as the supreme virtue, and self-interest as the lowest vice. Only on this code could the great nations of the world be called upon to lay themselves across the sacrificial altar. No other ethics could so completely undermine a free nation's inclination to assert its right to self-defense.

A Declaration of Independence...from the United Nations
On September 12th, we had the spectacle of an American president begging the world's favor at the United Nations.

The Corruption of the Concept Sovereignty
There is only one underlying reason why the Mandela-ites want to destroy the clear distinction between a totalitarian and a free "sovereign" state, why they want totalitarian states to be immune from attack and free states to be branded as evil for self-defensively attacking those states bent on destroying them. The Mandela-ites, too, want the destruction of the free, and subsequently prosperous, nations of the world � from Israel and Australia to Britain and particularly America.

U.S. Must Reject the Evil Doctrine of "Multilateralism"
Military decisions are decisions about life and death�about what should be done to protect us from enemies who seek our destruction. If our leaders are to fulfill their obligation to defend our country, they must�starting with Iraq�reject the poison of "multilateralism" and replace it with the virtue of independent, rational judgment.

Bureaucratic Leftism: The United Nations vs. American Sovereignty
Forwarded by progressives and garbed in post-modern lingo, bureaucratic leftism represents a throwback to a pre-modern age in Europe when rulers were unelected. Today's bureaucrats effectively fill the role of yesteryear's kings.

Source: http://www.unisevil.com/temp213.htm

UN vs. Individual Rights

2008-03-11T18:42:00.007-04:00

UN vs. Individual Rights
The United Nations works to annihilate the concept of individual rights

UN Declaration of Rights Destroys Rights
Individual rights are precisely what the UN's declaration is designed to destroy. No, it doesn't openly attack individual rights; that would be rejected outright by freer countries. It destroys rights by internal corruption � by perverting the meaning of rights into its exact opposite.

The Moral Bankruptcy of the U.N. Human Rights Commission
The re-election of Sudan to the U.N. Human Rights Commission--chaired by terrorist-sponsoring Libya in 2003--demonstrates once again the total moral bankruptcy of the United Nations.

Nations United Against Rights
Consider the meaning of the rights commission vote. The UN voted not to reappoint the United States to its seat on the commission ... but in the same vote, it gave a seat to Sudan, a country that tolerates the practice of slavery.

Another United Nations Sham: Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi to Head the U.N. Human Rights Commission
Even the most creative scriptwriter couldn't top the real-life plot twist the U.N. Commission on Human Rights will have concocted when Libya becomes its chairman.

The U.N. versus "Human Rights"
The United Nations is becoming more a danger to human rights enforcement than a defender of such rights.

The United States Should Withdraw From the United Nations
If America really cares about human rights, the best thing it can do is to take this opportunity and withdraw from the United Nations.

The Liberty League: An Alternative to the United Nations
This "Liberty League" could then know for certain that all of its member states are truly committed to the same goals, namely the preservation of their sovereignty, international free trade, the protection of private property, and the protection of individual rights.

Source: http://www.unisevil.com/temp213.htm

They Like Jesus But Not the Church (Dan Kimball's book)

2008-03-01T00:34:00.006-05:00

Dan Kimball's new book, They Like Jesus But Not the Church should really be called They Like (Another) Jesus But Not the Church, the Bible, Morality, or the Truth. Kimball interviews several young people (one is a lesbian) who tell him they "like and respect Jesus" but they don't want anything to do with going to church or with those Christians who take the Bible literally. Kimball says these are "exciting times" we live in "when Jesus is becoming more and more respected in our culture by non-churchgoing people (p. 12). He says we should "be out listening to what non-Christians, especially those in their late teens to thirties, are saying and thinking about the church and Christianity" (p. 12).

According to Kimball, it is vitally important that we as Christians be accepted by non-Christians and not thought of as abnormal or strange. But in order to do that, he says we must change the way we live and behave. He says things like Christian bumper stickers (p. 40) and Christian words like "fellowship," (p. 41) are "corny" and might offend a non-believer or seeker. Kimball insists (p. 19) that "those who are rejecting faith in Jesus" do so because of their views of Christians and the church. But he makes it clear throughout the book that these distorted views are not the fault of the unbeliever but are the fault of Christians, but not all Christians, just those fundamentalist ones who take the Bible literally, believe that homosexuality is a sin and think certain things are wrong and harmful to society ... and actually speak up about these things. Click here to read this entire book review.

Which Christ Do They Like?
An excerpt from They Like Jesus But Not the Church:

"Most people today, whether in the church or outside the church, believe Jesus is a good person who has some sort of spiritual insight. When Pamela Anderson explained why she gives money to the homeless, she answered: 'If I refuse one of them, I'd be like, 'Oh my God. What if that was Jesus?'' I have no idea what she believes, but even if she isn't following Jesus, she still has some respect for him." (p. 53)—Dan Kimball

Kimball, on using the term "pastor"—"Most church leaders now actually feel embarrassed to tell people they are pastors. Some even choose titles other than pastor so they aren't dismissed by people outside the church. Some people aren't even comfortable saying they are a Christian but come up with new terms such as "Christ follower" to avoid negative and distorted associations." (p. 15, They Like Jesus But Not the Church)

Josh McDowell endorses
They Like Jesus But Not the Church

"My father taught me that a problem well defined is half solved. It would be foolish to be in ministry to emerging generations without carefully studying this book." �Josh McDowell, author and speaker.

Source: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/theylikejesus.htm

Kong Hee - City Harvest Church

2008-02-14T12:37:00.009-05:00

Reverend Doctor Kong Hee (born August 23, 1964) is the founder and senior pastor (Honorary/Volunteer) of City Harvest Church Singapore. Kong is known throughout Singapore and Asia as a religious teacher based in the Charismatic Movement, preaching on promoting character and Charismatic Christianity. As a young man, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Singapore, and thereafter went on to obtain his Master of Divinity in 1991 and Doctor of Theology in 1995.

Kong sits on the executive committee of the National Council of Churches of Singapore and is the current chairman of the Festival of Praise Singapore. In 1992 he founded City Harvest Education Centre. Together with his wife, Ho Yeow Sun, a professional singer and recording artiste with a career based in United States and Taiwan, he is attempting to train people with the purpose of creating strong local churches everywhere in Asia. City Harvest Bible Training Center was born in 1994 to serve this purpose.

City Harvest Church was founded by Kong Hee with twenty other people in 1989. Within sixteen years it has grown to a membership of more than 20,000. Today, it is the largest youth Christian organisation, with 55% of its members below the age of 25 years. It is the largest church in Singapore right now.

It is also noted that 80% of members are first time converts. The church has evangelists such as Ulf Ekman, John Avanzini, Benny Hinn, Richard Roberts etc. City Harvest became the first church in the world to be awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certification. In 2004, the church’s webcast of its services reached approximately 578,560 viewers from 131 countries, or 11,126 viewers per weekend.

Church building. The church building, eight-storey complex with four underground levels cost S$48 million. Every weekend, the church hires 286 buses to make 1,842 stops and ferry its members. However, Church has moved its weekend English services to Singapore Expo Hall 8.

(Source: http://www.mingalaronline.net/story/south_east_asia_intelectuals/kong_kee.htm)

I had a hard time finding Kong Hee's teachings and beliefs, or finding much of anything on him but I found a 4 part sermon when he was on Benny Hinn's "This is Your Day" telecast. I will be giving my personal opinions of the videos and a brief summation. I wanted to allow for comments since I gave my opinion but it wouldn't let me do it for this one post. I'd have to allow comments for the entire board and I don't want to do that.

Kong Hee on Benny Hinn's "This Is Your Day" part 1 of 4

The fact that he's on Benny Hinn and praising him vehemently for his ministry and methods tells me that I'll not have anything to do with him.

Prov 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

He's been rubbing elbows with Hinn for 30 years and accompanying him on his crusades. Hinn's tagline "Winning the lost at any cost" sounds good on the surface but is that what the Bible teaches? Are we to employ any and all methods to save people? Worldly methods? Becoming like the world until we earn their trust and then pull a switch-a-roo and present Jesus? We should always take the time to examine the implications of everything we hear.

Hee talks a lot about his church and low attendance.

Kong Hee on Benny Hinn's "This Is Your Day" Part 2 of 4

He still talks about his church not growing. So he tried a different strategy - using tambourines, dancers, flags, singing for hours, and producing a cd. That didn't work so he tried being a "teaching church." He tried to bring revival by having Joyce Meyer, Morris Cerullo, and Marilyn Hickey on his show (to name a few). Still didn't work.

Kong Hee on Benny Hinn's "This Is Your Day" Part 3 of 4

Hee seeks answers from the Lord about his dwindling church. He has an encounter with God with a "glory cloud" which saturated his balcony. The Bible records instances where the Lord manifests Himself in a visual representation but all of those instances were for everyone's benefit, including future generations and mankind. I'm finding it real hard to believe that God is going to manifest Himself to Kong Lee because he has a problem with church attendance. No one benefits except Kong Hee and the people that happen to watch Benny Hinn's show that day. I'm not saying God CANNOT do this, I'm saying that it deviates from God's historical purpose for manifesting.

So the overall message he got was to love God, and love his neighbor. Love God? If Hee loves God then why is he hanging with Benny? Why does he take part in Emergent youth conferences? Why would God help him expand his ministry if Hee can't control his own household? Wouldn't God have him work on keeping his wife, Sun Ho, in check before he tries to save the world? He should be leading his wife in all purity, making sure she's washed in the Word daily so that she is without blemish. But she is dressing like a wh0r# cutting record deals with MTV's finest vulgarians. See for yourself...

I read somewhere that SHE was an ordained pastor, but I also heard she's not so I don't know what to believe. I don't really care. Pastor or not, she is still a pastor's wife and he's got a lot of cleaning up to do in his own house before he can do anything pleasing for Christ!

Kong Hee on Benny Hinn's "This Is Your Day" Part 4 of 4

He's reaching out to be people in the red light district of Singapore which truly is great. How many people actually put their feet to work and minister to the lost nowadays? (except missionaries of course) But again, he's got to start with his own house, examine his doctrine, and truly love God because if he did, he would not be rubbing elbows with an enemy of God - Benny!

Catholic Inquisition and Torture Tools (Video)

2008-01-27T01:29:00.000-05:00

Emerging Church (Videos 1-4)

2008-01-27T00:53:00.000-05:00

1 of 4

2 of 4

3 of 4

4 of 4

Kim Clement

2008-01-27T00:25:00.000-05:00

Kim Clement is a self-proclaimed modern day prophet. The question we have to ask is: Is he real? Is he genuine? Is he actually ordained by God to profess His Word? This article will give you enough insight to make your own determination.

Clement Predicts Bush Victory

Humble, Texas, October 24, 2004 "The Spirit of God has announced that, you have looked at candidates for the next four years. I have looked at a man after my own that will pray. I am looking and have searched for a man who would pray in the house called White, and I have found that man. He shall pray. He shall pray sturdily, powerfully, until the year 2006…and a great storm shall rise upon America. But because of the prayers of George W. Bush, I will save this country from a damage and a destruction upon your economy and upon your children.

Yes, you may look at this prophet and say, what would he know about American politics? But I have taken the mantle that rested upon Ronald Reagan in the heart and have placed it upon this man—President Bush. For what purpose? To bring again honor and dignity to the office of the President of the United States of America.

Nations shall come one by one and they will say, we were mistaken. France! France…who once buried the dead of American soldiers because they fought for you. You will repent for what you have done secretly. Three things shall be exposed because of transactions that took place in France and two other nations. And they shall be repentant. And your allies will increase. Four of your enemies shall become allies, and in the Middle East I will raise up honor because of what this Nation has done. Rejoice, for I am raising up laughter and joy upon your Nation.

A record has been broken. A President has broken a record. I see headlines: Impossible! Nothing, nothing, nothing is impossible.

And they are going to say it’s impossible because of what happened in this election and what happened with the President that broke a record. Listen to me. Nothing is impossible to those that believe.” http://www.kimclement.com/words/2004/Oct242004.htm

The above prophesy given by Kim Clement was posted on his website November 3, 2004. Kim claims to have made the prophesy on October 24, 2004 but if so why wait until the 3rd of November to post it? Once again, you see subtle ways these false teachers work their magic. Anyone could have made that prediction and it be true. Kim certainly didn't tell anyone anything they didn't already know by Nov. 3rd.

Americans Will Not Be Killed in The War With Iraq. This prophecy Failed to come true!

This prophecy was made on March 19, 2003

For years, I have felt the need to prophesy about a President who would rise up against the ‘beast of the east’ and deal with him. In 1996 God spoke through me about an attack in the USA. I saw an act of violence as terrorists flew over New York. Since then, the years to follow would provoke numerous prophecies regarding a war and the fact that God would raise up a President who would be a true Christian and who would pray. He also showed me that this President would deal with four nations; nations that supported and harbored terrorists. In some of these prophecies the words “Burning Bush” were used, indicating that it would be President Bush who would be the instrument of this cleansing. On April 1^st 2001, I said “America prepare yourself, you will go to war”. Subsequently, the Spirit began to share some of the details about the possible length of the battle and the outcome. I spoke about certain attacks planned against the soldiers and the fact that God would protect them so that not one of them would be inflicted. I believe with all of my heart that America is in the perfect will of God. A tyrant lives, and yet there are people in this nation shouting the odds about the instrument that God has chosen as his battle-axe - the President of the United States of America. (This prophesy no longer resides on Kim Clements website. He claimed he took it off for security reasons. Security? What security? Was he afraid someone would realize he spoke falsely?)

Islamic Believers Turn to Jesus

Kim Clement was a guest on Praise the Lord in September of 2001 with Dean Brown. The following is a portion from the program where Kim claims that there will be a huge conversion of Islamic believers in the year 2002. This prophecy Failed to come true!

Dean Brown: What is the prophetic word concerning the Middle East? I mean, is there a specific prophetic word that you are giving now? I mean, you gave a general word that the Islamic nations would come to Christ, but is there a specific time frame that God speaks to your spirit about?

Kim Clement: Yes, well some of it I can't share now, of course, but 2002 is when I saw this huge thing happening because of something that happened between America and China, funny enough, that would take place and then - I saw that eight years ago - and then as a result of that I saw the surrender of masses of wealth coming from the East to the United States of America and the West. (Praise the Lord, 9/3/2001)

As of today's date December 1st, 2005, we have yet to see the huge conversion of Islamic believers turn to Jesus.

Another Failed prophecy from Kim Clement was his prediction that there would be a cure for AIDS by the year 2002.

Cure for AIDS

God wants us to go to the back streets. He wants to have a cure for AIDS. He said it’s going to be by the year 2002, there’s going to be a cure for AIDS.

Well, somebody said "Well, those homosexuals deserve to have AIDS." No they don’t. You deserve to die, but Jesus died for you 2000 years ago. I don’t think anybody deserves to die. There’s gonna be a cure and there’s gonna be a Christian that is a scientist that’s gonna come across a discovery. (Praise the Lord, 12/26/2000)

Unfortunately there has not been an cure for aids found as of yet.

Another Failed Prophecy by Kim Clement regards the Born Again Christian President To Be In The White House By 2000

"Somebody called the other day and said that I had prophesied that Bill Clinton would not be the president, that there'd be a new president. Well, I never said that, and I never prophesied that. I said the president of this, the final president of this century would be Spirit-filled, would be born-again and would be praying for this nation and lead them into the millennium with prayer. God has predicted somebody in the White House will do something big. Favor is coming not to the White House, but from the White House. Favor is coming towards the people of God...So, I still see a tremendous breakthrough in the White House. There is a new president coming to the White House. There is a new president coming to the White House, with a new Spirit...God said that He's coming back for a glorious church without spot or blemish. That church has been born right now. That church is being born right now. That church is in the making right now. That church is in the making, whether we like it or not."

Paul Crouch: "Also, let me ask you to repeat again: if I understood what you said, by the end of this century, the president, whoever he may be, is going to be born-again, Spirit-filled, and will be leading our nation in prayer. Now, did I understand that correctly?"

Kim Clement: "Absolutely, and I've said that all along, and I believe that with all my heart, and I've prophesied that and I'll re-prophesy that if I have to tonight." Praise the Lord, 2-4-1997

I know President Clinton attended church on Sundays while in office, but he showed no outward signs and gave no profession of being a "Spirit-filled" Christian. Maybe Kim Clement thought that just because Mr. Clinton attended church while in office he was a "Spirit-filled" Christian. That belief unfortunately is one of the biggest deceptions in our society today. Satan has convinced so many people that just by attending a church, they are doing all that is necessary to attain forgiveness and gain their salvation.

Below is a portion of the Praise the Lord show where Kim Clement explains his belief that you cannot be won to Christ by talking about the sins in ones life but by pointing out the good that is within you.

"The church, with its prophetic mantle can actually win a lot more people to the Lord because of the idea that we are presenting right now, and that is that every one of you were born and formed and sent upon by God for something great. The prophetic makes you aware of something that is already present in you that you've not seen. That's what the prophetic mantle is on the earth today - do you need to do a song or something? - when they [Adam and Eve] heard Him they ran away from Him. And that's what's happened is a lot of this is suggesting to us that, you know, we should just pack it up and give it up, when, in fact, what Jesus began is going to end with great victory and incredible victory. I mean, it's so powerful, we speak about a trumpet and all this. Can you imagine John on the isle of Patmos hearing all these incredible things, seeing this incredible breakthrough. Daniel, while he's emasculated in Babylon, he's seeing visions of the endtimes, and a lot of it's victorious. We never seem to see that. We are living in the greatest time, the greatest time that the church has ever been in, we are living right now. And a lot of people don't want to see that because they'd rather go home and be with the Lord. We don't want to do that. I don't want to die right now. I want to live and I want to see God performing what Jesus died for. That's what I want to see."

"…You know the Bible says in 1 Cor. 14 that speaks about prophecy, if all speak in tongues and they come into the church, an unbeliever, they'll think they're crazy. Okay? And then he says, but if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes into your midst, they will be, the unbeliever or uninformed person will be convinced by all and convicted by all. Now, what we've done in the old Pentecostal style was, well if an unsaved person comes in, we're going to prophesy the flames of hell into them and make them, convict them and convince them of their sin.

"Let me say something to you. Most of you know that when you were sinners, you didn't have to be told of your sin. You were aware of your sin all the time. You didn't have to be told. Every step that you took reminded you of your sin. Every thought reminded you of your sin. Every place you went to, whether it was a nightclub or whether it was a crack house, or whatever it was, reminded you of your sin. You didn't have to be told you were a sinner. We thought that they had to come to church to be told that they were sinners and so we took the Scripture in 1 Cor. 14 and said, 'Okay, if a cynic or an uninformed or unbeliever comes into your midst and all prophesy, he's convinced and convicted by all.' So I did a study on it, because it didn't make sense. And the word 'convinced' there means 'to investigate oneself,' and 'convicted' means 'to examine oneself.' Okay? Not for sin, because we've sinned - while the prophetic mantle - and so we add in the Pentecostal movement. People would stand up and say 'Thus says the Lord' and they'd start prophesying doom and judgment, hoping to get the sinner to come to the altar, and he did, because he was so afraid of hell. But that didn't work. So, the context of that Scripture is, is that when they come in and there is a prophetic mantle, which means that you have vision - without vision the people perish - so you're offering hope to that human being. He investigates himself and for the first time in his life, finds that there's something good inside of him, because the church and the gathering should be a place where you discover the greatness and the treasure of God that's inside of you, not the bad thing.

"And then it says, and then it says in 1 Cor. 14, listen to this, it says 'And thereby reveals the secrets of the heart and they falling on their knees, worship God' - it doesn't say they repent - 'worship God, saying "Truly God is in the midst of you."' So I thought, wait a minute, the secrets of the hearts, for years we've taught, that means their secret sin. It's doesn't because their sin is not secret. Their whole life they sin. They know they're sinners. They're doing sin all the time. The word "secret" there is "cryptos," which is the word "crypt," which means an armory for treasure. So, in other words, when they come into our presence, for the first time in their life they hear, they're saying 'there's something beautiful inside of me. There's something beautiful, there's something, I know there's something. I'm investigating, and for the first time in my life I'm finding that yes, there's a chance for me, there's a hope for me.' The word 'secret' there means a treasure that's been hidden, and in the presence of prophetic people, or people that see further than their noses, and have some vision and not just talking about tribulation and 666 and the mark of the beast and all this stuff. The people that are talking about God's glory in the future, covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. What about those things? And about the, you know, the destruction of the image and the beast and so on. When they hear this, when they feel the presence of that moment, for the first time in their lives they're finding 'There's something inside of me that I never knew existed,' and they fall on their knees and worship God."

"...Jeremiah said 'Before you were born, I formed you and sanctified you, before you were even born.' Everyone that's born, God has placed something special inside. It's our responsibility as preachers of the New Millennium to bring out the treasure that's already there."

"…Nathaniel says, when they said the Messiah's around, Nathaniel said 'Where's He from?' And they said, 'Well, Nazareth.' They said, 'no, no, no, nothing good can come from Nazareth' because Galileans were known as backward people, and in fact, Galileans were not allowed to read the Torah because they had an accent. So he had so much prejudice. Jesus comes in his presence, and instead of saying to Nathaniel and making him aware of his sin, He says to him, 'Nathaniel,' you know He speaks about the tree that he was under and then says, 'A man, an Israelite without deceit in his mouth' and what does Nathaniel do? Falls on his knees and worships Him because He recognized the treasure inside of him. I'm telling you there's going to be some ignoramuses coming to meetings, into our meetings, the New Millennium church, that's not focusing on the sin and trying to force them to repent and make them afraid because they're going to go to hell, and they're going to discover 'there's a glory, there's a beauty inside of me' that only Christ can bring out by the power of His breath and His resurrection. And that's what way the church is going. That's the New Millennium church. Let me tell you something. It's going to go out and when people come into their presence they're going to be aware of something that they've never been aware of in their lives. Beautiful."

Matt Crouch: "Wow. I want to mention real quickly. Wow. You know, that's basically 180 degrees from the way it's been taught."

So what we have here is a brand new revelation from the Bible that no one knew about or realized before Kim came along. How does Kim account for the untold millions of people who have come to know the Lord because they were preached to about their sins and the HOLY SPIRIT convicted them so that they ask for SALVATION through Jesus!

Below we have listed some of the Doctrinal Statements from Kim Clement. Read them and you decide.

"The idea that we have to wait until we get to heaven to get our crown is a whole lot of garbage. We will receive our crowns here on earth. How can we be kings on this earth without our crowns? ...We are meant to rule and to reign here on the earth.''