Posted in bible jesus, chastity bono, chaz, God, homosexuality, transgender

Transgendered Chastity Bono and "Dancing with the Stars", God, and culture

Chaz. Chastity Bono. Sonny & Cher’s daughter…who chose to reject her biologically determined gender as a woman and surgically become a man.

Chastity as a child:

Chastity as a woman:

Chaz as a man:

Cher’s celebrity daughter was tapped to become a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, a long-running successful reality game show. The outcry was immediate. AFP reports, “The 42-year-old LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activist formerly known as Chastity Bono is the first transgender contestant on the US version of the globally popular reality television series. He’s the only child of entertainers Cher and the late Sonny Bono, and his debut on prime-time television comes hard on the heels of the release of his autobiography “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man”. “I’m an activist, first and foremost,” said Bono when ABC television, part of the family-oriented Disney media empire, introduced its 12 couples who will tackle the tango, the foxtrot and samba when the series begins September 19. “I will look at this as just a wonderful opportunity to kind of bring my message to even more people than I’ve had the chance to.”

The backlash against this decision to place a transgendered person front and center in prime time apparently stunned Hollywood. There were immediately over 1000 comments on the show’s website. Most of the comments accused the show of pushing a homosexual agenda in prime time. Chastity’s eagerness to visibly tout his transgenderism as stated above belies the show’s denials of having an agenda. GLAAD also says that the inclusion of openly gay judge Carson Kressley and the lineup of dancers including Bono is a ‘major step forward.’ Step forard in what? In pushing the agenda. In this article, the show’s producers seek to address the backlash, unsuccessfully. One commenter said,

RACAsper said, “I fully respect ABC’s Freedom of Speech. They are free to choose whomever they want for whatever reasons they want. I am also free to turn off the show. I am free to state that I am tired of their never ending assault on moral values. I am tired of hastily flipping the channel when ABC and the other networks show a ferociously violent, sexually charged, or deviant clip from their latest show. They keep pushing the envelope and now they’ve gone too far in my book.”

Why is presenting gay, lesbian, and transgendered people ‘an agenda’? Because the attention paid to their agenda, or as it is defined, ‘set of goals of an ideological group’ is disproportionate to their population number. There are only 400,000 people in the United States who define themselves as biologically born in the “wrong” gender. The population in the US is 300 million.

More to the point, the issue isn’t just numerical, it is moral. People intuitively react negatively when confronted with the sexual sins of homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism, because they’re gross. They defy God’s plan. He foreknew each person He was going to make, and he formed us in the womb (Jer 1:5;  Psalm 139:13; Ephesians 2:10). He doesn’t make creative mistakes. If He knew us before He made us then He knew whether we were going to be a woman or a man. If we emerge from the womb and then grow with the mindful decision that we are not the gender we are then it is our mistake, not God’s.

This is not to take away a person’s pain as they grow and feel they are trapped in a wrong body. That struggle may indeed be real to them. But just as many people have struggles, such as unwanted sexual urges toward an opposite or the same gender, toward a desire for alcohol, or for material things that eventually swamp them (Hoarders) it just means they must work harder to resist these urges and wants. The flesh wants what it wants but that does not mean that it should get what it wants. People who succumb to these fleshly desires are to be looked on with compassion, for we all sin. But when looking upon these sins, we exclaim and cry out that God is not to be mocked, and the distortion of transgenderism is an affront to many people who love God and His sovereignty.

In old, staid Maine, a transgender argument is bubbling up now. A family who has a transgendered boy-to-girl is suing the public school system for denial of bathroom access.

The child, who is a twin, was said to have started playing with ‘girl things’ at age three. At age nine, he called himself a boy-girl. The next year, at age ten, he said he was a girl trapped in boy’s body. Eventually, the adjudicating panel ruled against the school district.

How does a child that young know what it feels like to be the wrong gender, or to know what is good for them? We don’t let a ten-year old cross the street by themselves, let alone decide to cross their gender! Allowing a child to distort their God-given biology is a recipe for disaster!

In this Bangor Daily News article accompanying the transgender article above, this doctor (who is the doctor for the aforementioned transgendered child), says “The attempted suicide rate for people who go untreated and unsupported is 45 percent. This population has one of the highest suicide rates of any population in the world. Once they walk in the door for treatment that kind of depression ends.” The implication is that because this small population of transgendered folks is so highly depressed, due to the denial of their expression of their switched gender, they commit suicide. Might I suggest the opposite: they are suicidal because they are living a life that is contrary to their intended gender and satan has instilled in them this dissatisfaction with God’s plan?

The article goes on to interview Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist at the Boston Gender Management Service Clinic. He says, “Gender identity typically is formed around age 3,” he said in a phone interview in August. “It usually presents when a child makes it known that how he or she expresses gender does not match society’s expectations of how that gender should behave.”

Society DOES have expectations of how a gender should behave, and that is for a reason. God’s reason. He made man to be have dominion over the animals, and to provide for the family. He made the woman to be the helper of the man in those endeavors, and to keep the home. He made children the product of their union. When someone chooses not to behave according to their God-given gender, society reacts negatively, and rightly so. As evidenced in the Chaz ‘Dancing With The Stars’ debacle, we are revolted.

In this Christianity Today article, “Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council (FRC) vice president for policy in Washington, D.C., says, “The pressure for acceptance is ultimately a challenge to the authority of Scripture and a violation of natural law. In the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender movement there is a tendency to continually push the envelope in trying to demand the acceptance of what most people perceive to be unusual behavior.”

“God planned for me to be a man before I had ever been created,” Jerry Leach, director of Reality Resources, a ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, to people dealing with gender confusion says. “There was not a woman inside my body longing to be expressed. There is no human condition outside the redemptive circle of God’s love and power.”

The question is often asked, ‘is homosexuality a greater sin than others?” It is answered in a Q&A session by John MacArthur this way:

“Categorically, no, and I’ll tell you why. Because when you have any listing of sins in the Scripture; for example, in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6, he says in Verse 9, “Do not be deceived,” 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Categorically, you’ve got everything in the same list, … Some would even use those words to refer to people like transvestites or what are they are called today, transgender people, but when you look at a list like that, you see that they’re are all outside the kingdom, so, categorically, they’re all in the same situation. They’re defined by their sin. ”

Then he goes on to describe five kinds of wrath related to sin, especially the sin of homosexuality, and one of them is a kind of wrath that is the wrath of abandonment to a reprobate mind:

“Well, there are five kinds of wrath. There is eternal wrath. That’s hell. There is, I guess what we could call eschatological wrath or the wrath of the last days, the wrath described in Revelation 6 to 19 … so there is eternal wrath; there is eschatological wrath.”

“There is also what I could call cataclysmic wrath, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, … and in history, God has judged whole civilizations through cataclysms that took unbelieving people and catapulted them into eternity, such as Pompeii, which was a city literally notorious for its vice, so you have eternal wrath; you have eschatological wrath; you have cataclysmic wrath.”

“Then you have what I would call natural wrath, and that is the wrath of God that comes in a sowing-and-reaping fashion. If you are a drunkard all your life, you may die of cirrhosis of the liver. If you live in sexual sin all your life, you may shorten your life and die of some venereal disease, including AIDS, so there are certain things built in. “Whatever a man sows, he reaps.” That’s another kind of wrath, but the wrath being spoken of here [of homosexuality] is the fifth kind. It’s the wrath of abandonment.”

“It is that judicial act of God, whereby He lets the sinner go. In other words, He stops convicting. He stops calling.” In other words, he gives them over to their reprobate mind, defined in today’s language as “to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil”.

It seems to me that it is a terrible kind of wrath to be abandoned by God to one’s sin. There does come a time when He stops calling a person toward repentance, and there comes a time when he stops calling a nation toward repentance, too. As we see the warped agenda from a tiny minority of transgendered people has become loomingly disproportionate in secular culture, we must wonder how long the Lord will continue to bestow mercy and how soon He will give us over to our refusal to accept His ways.
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Posted in bible jesus, prophecy, psalm 83

If Syria’s regime fails, what happens to its chemical weapons?

The bible prophesies that a certain battle will occur and that prophecy has not been fulfilled. It is parked intercessory prayer for Israel’s victory in a battle against her neighbors, and it is in Psalm 83. We know that it has not occurred yet because the specific line-up of nations participating in the war has never happened.

In this battle, Israel is soundly vanquishing attacking enemies Palestinians, Syrians, Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, and various terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda. The victory Israel execute is firm, these nations and organizations do not rise again.

People who watch the prophecies and know the bible wonder what it will take for Israel to go into a battle such as the one described in Psalm 83. Would she be defending herself after a heinous attack Would she be executing  pre-emptive attack because of imminent threats Would it be a retaliation for an accumulated drip-drip of constant rocket and terrorist attacks unknown. But we watch and we notice what is happening int he Middle east from the vantage point of knowing the end and living it in the present. Some things are happening in the Middle East that have me concerned.

Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal
“The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future. A sudden collapse of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could mean a breakdown in controls over the country’s weapons, U.S. officials and weapons experts said in interviews. But while Libya’s chemical arsenal consists of unwieldy canisters filled mostly with mustard gas, the World War I-era blistering agent, Syria possesses some of the deadliest chemicals ever to be weaponized, dispersed in thousands of artillery shells and warheads that are easy to transport.”

Dr. Jill Dekker is a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism. Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit. She gave an interview to the New English Review in December 2007. In it, she said,

“Contrary to how the US State Department and other agencies tend to downplay the sophistication of the Syrian biological and nuclear programs, they are very advanced. Syria has always had the most advanced chemical weapons program in the Middle East. The US and other western agencies have in a sense been distracted by this, but their biological programs and the “concept of use” are robust. Syria’s biological weapons capability today is closely tied to the former and current Soviet and Russian programs respectively, the DPRK, Iran and the former Iraq regime. A major concern is their strategic concept of use – which has gone from one of ‘special weapons’ to incorporation into their ‘conventional arsenal.’ That is a significant shift and one that seems to have eluded the US. The Syrians run their biological programs out of the Syrian Scientific Research Council (SSRC) in Damascus.”

“They have separate wings for separate pathogens. They also have a number of programs running in Aleppo. The Syrians are 100% committed to deniable operations as their modus operandi. Biological weapons, particularly those which might occur naturally, are the ultimate in deniability, for example, their cryptosporidium program for force reduction. The Wednesday Report noted a few years ago that in terms of the Syrian anthrax program, Syria has extensive expertise in the industrial cultivation of germs and viruses for the civilian production of anthrax (and smallpox) vaccines. It also noted that Russian experts, contracted by Syria, are apparently helping them to cultivate a highly virulent anthrax germ for installation in missile warheads. Their pharmaceutical infrastructure is fully integrated with their defense structure. Syrians cannot reach parity with US and Israeli conventional weapons. However, they view their bio-chemical arsenal as part of a normal weapons program. This is a huge shift in thinking by the Syrian military. It means they condone the use of biological pathogens as ‘offensive’ weapons. NATO and the United States should be very concerned about that re-designation.”

We know that in Isaiah 17 the prophecy says Damascus will be destroyed. The prophecy does not say when or how, just that the city and its area will be razed and unfit for human habitation.

Israel knows that Damascus is a center for bio-warfare. Israel knows that the regime handling these deadly weapons at their abutting border is fighting for its life, gasping even today. How far will Israel demonstrate restraint in the face of these threats? This week an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post proposed that Israel should intervene in Syria.
“There is no question Israel will have to deal with a post-Assad Syria, so why not start that process now? For those who support Israel, perhaps the most ironclad principle of our diplomatic posture is non-intervention in the Arab Spring. Unless there is an active Arab attempt to drag Israel into conflict to deflect popular internal dissent – as Bashar Assad attempted on the Golan to protest Naksa Day in June – conventional wisdom has Israel withdrawn to the periphery. The argument, of course, is that a provoked Israeli response is just the tonic embattled Arab despots need to deflect attention to the old Zionist monster under the bed and stir up Iranian and leftist critiques of Israel. Further, a desperate Assad (or even post-Mubarak Egypt) might escalate to non-conventional weapons in a bid to retain power: the massive Israeli retaliation would end internal uprisings. These high-risk scenarios cultivate a conservative Israeli mindset according to which the Devil one knows is better than the Devil one doesn’t.”

More at link. The devil indeed…

Is Israel rousing herself? Today, Israel sent two warships to the Egyptian border.
“Military sources tell AP Israeli Navy sent additional warships to maritime border with Egypt following intelligence indicating viable terror threat. Meanwhile, Iran set to send 15th fleet to area as well as ‘to thwart pirate activity’. The Israeli Navy (INF) has decided to boost its presence and patrols near Israel’s maritime border with Egypt due to a viable terror threat in the area. Israeli security sources told the Associated Press on Tuesday that two additional warships have been dispatched to Israel’s Red Sea border with Egypt. Another source stressed that the operation was routine, telling Reuters that “two naval craft have been sent to the Red Sea. This is not unusual.”

Sure. Sure it isn’t. Keep your eyes on Israel and the Psalm 83 nations. We know the end. At some point, the flashpoint will be reached.
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Posted in bachmann, bible jesus

Bachmann pulls a punch: says eq & hurricane was warning from God, then says she’s joking

Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann is an evangelical conservative. This always makes the political world nervous. It makes everyone who is not saved nervous, frankly. The world does not understand our adherence to Jesus, our love for Him, and certainly does not understand submission to Him and His ways. Christians and the world are separate. (1 John 2:15; James 4:4).

We are told to be bold in declaring Jesus as savior and not to deny Him before men or he will deny us. (Matthew 10:33; Mark 8:38; 2 Tim 2:12).

Today Bachmann said the following: “While courting conservative and religious voters in Florida over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann used the significant natural disasters that recently hit the East Coast to jokingly make the case that God would approve of less government spending. “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians,” Bachmann said at a rally, eliciting chuckles from audience. “We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now… They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.” After reports of the remarks generated some criticism, the Bachmann campaign clarified the candidate was joking.”

Now, I do not believe that her comments denied Jesus, exactly. She seems to me to be a year-round believer, unlike some fair weather, political believers (calling John McCain…). But it just makes me sad to hear someone say something that’s true- God is sending warnings, and when criticized, pulls back and claims she’s ‘joking.’ That is worse. Warnings of imminent judgment are not a joking matter. Either be up front about your thoughts on God, or down’t say anything at all in the public spheres.

Just once, I’d love to hear a candidate who follows Jesus say something about Him that we all know will rile the unsaved, and stand on the comment with boldness and joy. If Bachmann had responded, “Yes, I said that and I believe it. Next question, please”, I’d be so much happier with her right now.
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Posted in beijing, bible jesus, bubble in sky, end time, unexplained phenomenon

Mysterious bubble over Beijing skies mystifies observers

Scientists are baffled as panicked Chinese upload photos of phenomenon. Report by Jeremy Barnes.

JungleApocalyse (lol) says:
“It was quite a sight over the skies of Beijing Thursday. A mysterious bubble cloud of sorts caught the attention of many in the city. The seemingly unique phenomenon has become somewhat of a hit on the Internet. Photos were posted online of a mysteriously huge bubble cloud over the skies of Beijing and surrounding areas Thursday, which raised concerns and discussions among netizens. “At first, it’s relatively small and bright, the upper part is something like a semi-circle, a spherical ring of light, it’s obviously becoming bigger and bigger then.” When the observation team set their instruments at the bubble, it gradually became bigger and thinner. The entire occurrence lasted for less than 15 minutes. Observers took pictures of the whole process and posted them online.”

More strange things in the skies. UFO’s, weird clouds, Norway spirals, and now a plasma cloud. Interesting! The signs of imminent intrusion into our lives by Jesus Christ Almighty are getting more common and more noticeable. Just like birth pangs.
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Posted in beth moore, bible, bible jesus, end time

Discernment lesson: The Shack and Beth Moore’s treatment of Paul. Part 2

I have extensively written against Mrs Moore as a false teacher in a 7-part series titled Troubled by Beth Moore Teachings. I wrote a second series of my reactions to a two-day Beth Moore conference, here. All those essays, however, were based on video and auditory presentations. I watched her online. I listened to her online. I sat through a DVD teaching. I heard her in person. How about when she writes? Is her doctrine improved when she has time to choose her words carefully over time, edit, and reflect?

The answer is NO.

Mrs Moore wrote “To Live is Christ: Joining Paul’s Journey of Faith” in 2001. This book is touted as “A spiritual odyssey through one of Christianity’s most fervent journeymen and one of Christ’s most passionate followers, Apostle Paul.” One would have hoped Mrs Moore would have taken the attendant time to present the man clearly and biblically, but she did not.

Some of the book is good and some is entertaining, but much of it is based on the original problem I have with Mrs Moore: she approaches her lessons through a personal lens. She admits she is insecure, and then from that humanly flawed perspective sees everyone else that way too. Worse, Mrs Moore then attempts to show that people’s subsequent actions are caused by their insecurity, including reactions and actions of biblical people. I wish she would approach her video, live, or written lessons from a biblical perspective but she prefers to look at the bible as a self-help book populated by people with flaws similar to her own. This is reason enough to reject her teachings. But I’ll be specific.

I am not saying that the people who read the bible are not flawed nor am I saying that the people IN the bible are not flawed (except for Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit). I am saying that there is a difference in noticing a biblical character’s humanness and it is quite another to see them through your own lens and expect that they have behaved a certain way because of that flaw.

Here is one example. It is actually from Mrs Moore’s book “So Long, Insecurity“, but this passage provides a basis for her approach to Paul. Who, of course, is insecure. Here, she is addressing 2 Cor 11:5-6,

“I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.” “Tell me that’s not insecurity. If you’re not convinced, take a look at what blurted from his pen only a chapter later: “I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles,’ even though I am nothing.” [2 Corinthians 12:11]. Do you think just maybe he protests too much? In all probability, he fought the awful feeling that he wasn’t as good as the others who hadn’t done nearly so much wrong. I totally grasp that. At the same time, Paul also battled a big, fat ego. He was a complex mound of clay just like the rest of us, belittling and boasting of himself in a dizzying psychological zigzag.” (source p. 56-57).

Now let’s look at how bible teacher John MacArthur explains the same verse (2 Cor 12:11). In his sermon “Signs of an Apostle“, he wrote,

“Now starting at the beginning of chapter 10 and up until now, Paul has been directly confronting the false apostles. He started that in chapter 10 and he’ll conclude it in our text. Starting particularly in chapter 11 verse 22, he has given his own credentials as a superior apostle. And as I said, in this two verses he sums that up. And basically there were three things that indicated his true apostleship. The first one he mentions here was the supernatural. He did the signs of a true apostle. The second was his perseverance during suffering, he mentions that in verse 12 when he says, “With all perseverance.” And the third was his utter unselfishness. In verse 13 he says that he did nothing to become a burden to them. When he wants to affirm the character of his true apostleship, he has them look on the supernatural power of God coming through him. He has them look at his perseverance in suffering. And he has them look at his utter unselfishness, because those are in contrast to the false apostles who are void of the power of God, who don’t want to suffer anything but get rich at the expense of the people that they deceive, and who, thirdly, are self-centered and self-focused, seeking only personal gain.”

“In distinction to them, Paul does show the power of God, willingly suffers and perseveres and is utterly unselfish, never being a burden to them in any sense at all. But as far as compared to them, I am not inferior to them in any category. But when he refers to the most eminent apostles, he’s a little sarcastic. That is the extra-super apostles, that’s what they had labeled themselves, these false apostles. They are also called that back in chapter 11 verse 5 where he says, “I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles.” It’s sarcasm. They called themselves the extra-super apostles and they demeaned Paul as a nobody. But he says you know in no category do I come behind them, though myself I am nothing. You have forced me now to this comparison. You have forced me to it because you wouldn’t come to my defense. You have forced me to this folly.” “

My, oh my, how two bible teachers can come to such wildly divergent conclusions over the same passage. MacArthur’s is biblical and Moore’s is emotional. Moore’s, therefore, is wrong.

In Mrs Moore’s book “To live is Christ” which is also about Paul, she uses the words ‘probably’ and ‘I believe’ a lot, but the dots are far from each other. However, that does not stop her from connecting them. In the chapter Idols of Athens, Moore said, “Admittedly I am speculating based on hints in the accounts.” Well kudos to her for alerting her readers that the next part of the paragraph is based on speculation. She continues,

“I suspect that Paul’s visit to Athens was affecting him far more than we realize…”
“Paul was overwhelmed by the polytheistic beliefs of the residents.” (no bible verse given to support this statement)
“During those long hours, I believe he convinced himself that every effort in Athens had failed.”
I suspect he became so focused on the negative that he lost focus of the positive.”
Then Mrs Moore goes on to explain how aloneness affects us and our state of mind. “Solitude exaggerates our negative feelings,” and concludes,
I believe the more Paul thought about his experiences in Athens, the worse he felt.
“You can imagine the beating his ego took in Athens.”
I think Paul felt like a failure.”

She finishes by saying “Obviously, Paul’s experience had a great impact on his next opportunity.”

No, not obviously. An author can spend a page and a half gleaning suspicions from the bible as Mrs Moore does here on page 132-133 but to conclude that her beliefs add up to an obvious impact on his next Godly task is more than a stretch. It is wrong.

She asks, “Does seeing Paul’s experience in this light help you to relate to him as a fellow struggler on the road to serve Christ?” Frankly, no. The struggle she presented was based on her admitted speculations.

Blogger Kim at The Upward Call wrote of Mrs Moore’s approach, addressing Moore’s speculative approach in her lessons on The Patriarchs,

“Speculation doesn’t introduce me to God. It may get my imagination going, and it may engage my emotions, but it does not help me understand God. The appeal to emotions and imagination is popular in “women’s” bible studies, and it is understandable: women like that kind of thing. Emotions and imagination can be set apart for God, but to use them as bible study tools just does not sit well with me. My emotions and my imagination are frequently mistaken.”

If Mrs Moore wants to show Paul as a struggler then she should show his actual struggles from the bible. He had plenty.

Back to choosing certain words. Do you believe that Paul engaged in a ‘dizzying psychological zigzag’ because of his struggle with insecurity and a damaged ego? Presenting him this way does him, and the bible, a disservice. When we get to heaven, we can ask him directly. Meanwhile, gleaning speculations from the bible based on her personal struggle with insecurity is just another in the long line of ways Mrs Moore disrespects her pupils, readers, and the bible itself.

The most egregious effect of the words chosen in So long, Insecurity are these, “If you’re not convinced, take a look at what blurted from his pen only a chapter later: ” She then quotes 2 Corinthians 12:11, interpretations from Moore and MacArthur I shared with you above. It is egregious because what Mrs Moore is saying is that because of Paul’s struggle with a battered ego and deep insecurity, he took out his emotions toward the Corinthians through the pen. ‘Blurted’ evokes a mindless, knee-jerk emotional reaction to a situation. Thus Moore claims that the inspired and carefully constructed words of the bible in that verse were in actuality written hastily, with Paul practically crying over his candle, tears blotting the page as he tore through papyrus to get the words down before his emotions overwhelmed him. Her interpretation is awful. But how many readers will overlook or not even notice her carefully chosen words which skew the bible’s integrity in this way? Many.

Synonyms for blurted are babble, blab, burst out with, jabber, let slip, run off at the mouth, …

Let’s substitute Mrs Moore’s word blurted with a few of those synonyms and remember, we are talking of the holy scripture, every word of which was inspired and is good for reproof, doctrine, and education (2 Timothy 3:16).

‘If you’re not convinced, take a look at [2 Corinthians 12:11] that babbled from his pen only a chapter later:’
‘If you’re not convinced, take a look at [2 Corinthians 12:11] that jabbered from his pen only a chapter later:’

Do you believe that Paul was so upset that he was babbling from a fountain of hurt ego, and that Paul’s blurted holy scripture is now good for our education? Do you believe the Holy Spirit allowed a babbling and emotional Paul to write the words that have come down to us? I do not. I also do not accept that Paul was on a ‘dizzying psychological zig zag’.

Mrs Moore chose these words to include in her book. I reject her assumptions, her lessons, and her approach based on the fact that she does not take a biblical enough approach and that her conclusions in “So Long, Insecurity” and “To Live Is Christ” are admittedly based on her speculation, personal beliefs, and suspicions. I choose not to learn speculations about the bible but rather choose to accept teachings like MacArthur’s which are based on solid biblical understanding of context, history, and scripture.

How about you?
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Posted in beth moore, bible, bible jesus, discernment, heresy, the shack

Discernment lesson: The Shack and Beth Moore’s treatment of Paul. Part 1

Writers live with words. We are immersed in them, basking in their variety and understanding their power. I have been a journalist, so I know this intimately. A reporter chooses words consciously because we are limited to short article lengths. We must be precise, knowing that each word must convey a certain meaning in a short amount of space. I’ve been a grant writer, and have been even more restricted to limiting the number of words we are allowed to use. I know that each word counts and is consciously placed on the technical document to convey a certain thought. I’ve been an academic researcher, overlaying words to express what the numbers are saying. When I read a book I know that the author has chosen each word, and in some cases likely has fought with an editor over them.

Therefore when I read a book like William P. Young’s “The Shack” or Beth Moore’s “To Live Is Christ: a Study of Paul’s Life and Ministry,” I know that each word is on the page consciously and for an author-chosen reason. I also know that most readers absorb information unconsciously. The most dangerous heresies come from books, in my opinion, because a speaker could possibly be forgiven for misspeaking (once or twice). An author cannot. Writing takes time, and as noted above, each word is chosen purposely.

Most people read books without thinking of the words, but they are absorbed into the mind and certain emotions the author wanted to evoke will be created in the reader’s heart. So please take note carefully when I say that discerning either Christian novels such as The Shack, or biblical non-fiction theological books as the ones Beth Moore writes have an intent. They are sharing a point of view in which the author desires to present a point and often that point is made without you even noticing it. Let’s take a look at exactly what I mean when I say words count and they shade meaning.

I wrote a few years ago in a blog entry on The Quiet Life that “The Shack is a devilish Deception. I’d said about The Shack,  “A concern is also in the sly ways the book chips away at solid biblical principles with craftily written statements such as, “the dusty old King James Bible” or church attendance is “religious conditioning” or that the term “Christian” is “outdated”, as uttered by in the book by the character “Jesus”, saying,  “Who said anything about being a Christian? I am not a Christian.” People may not even be consciously aware of having read negative intent against the bible or Jesus but they are influenced by them anyway.”

Pastor Walter Henegar at the blog byFaith wrote of the sly craftiness of Young’s choice of words in The Shack, and their cumulative effect: “[D]isdain is conveyed early on: “God’s voice had been reduced to paper. … Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?” (p. 65-67). … More significant, when Mack [the main character] mentions biblical events or concepts (often in gross caricature), “God” promptly brushes them off and glibly explains how it really is. Unlike the biblical Jesus, who constantly quoted the Old Testament and spent many post-resurrection hours “opening their minds to understand the scriptures,” The Shack’s Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu turn Mack’s attention away from Scripture, coaxing him to trust instead their simplistic lessons set in idyllic, Thomas Kinkade-like scenes and delivered in the familiar therapeutic language of our age. … The result? To the extent that you trust The Shack, you will distrust your Bible—including huge chunks of the Old Testament and at least half of the red letters. Few errors are more corrosive to vigorous Christian faith. Some will plead that there is enough meat for careful readers to spit out the bones, but sadly, this yeast leavens the whole loaf.”

Mr Henegar makes a good point about the leaven. A leavening agent is used in recipes where the desired outcome lightens and softens the entire batch. Yeast is a common leavening agent. The dough rises upon foaming bubbles as carbon dioxide is released, making air pockets. However, since leaven is an ingredient, it is mixed thoroughly in the batch, and no part of the batch is left untouched by it. If the leaven is bad, the whole loaf will be spoiled.

That is a good metaphor for bad doctrine. No part of the church will be left untouched by heresy coming from the pulpit. No part of the mind will be left untouched by a false doctrine when reading it in a book. Such use of sly language is highly corrosive. Avoid The Shack. And when reading any book that alleges affiliation with Christianity, be mindful of the words the author chooses. Young says the bible is dusty, old, and outdated. I say the bible is fresh, living, and inspired. The difference in the words we choose reveals a point of view. Don’t absorb Young’s.

To those who dismiss any criticism of The Shack because it is ‘just’ a novel, Mr Henegar explains, “Of course, not every detail is worth dissecting; a novel is not systematic theology. Yet it’s clearly more than just fiction. Mack’s conversations with Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu make up the bulk of the book, with his questions serving as little more than prompts for their extended divine speeches. Though never citing Scripture directly, the characters make enough allusions to biblical content to imply fidelity to orthodox Christianity.”

Of course if Young has written, “Don’t believe the bible because it is old and outdated” you would spot the heresy easily. The craftiest heresy doesn’t announce itself. It lays lurking in the negative words authors use to describe holy things.

I feel so strongly that The Shack contains crafty heresy, that not only did I write about it on my secular blog, but also on this blog, The End Time. Four times in all.

Burning Down The Shack

Why Christians Should Not Read The Shack

The Shack is a Doctrine of Demons

In the next blog entry coming up momentarily, let’s take a look at a book that is not a Christian novel but a biblical exploration of the life of Paul from Christian speaker Beth Moore. We’ll look at how Mrs Moore uses words to shape your perspective of Paul away from the biblical presentation of his character and toward her own skewed and emotional point of view of the man.
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Posted in bible jesus, end of days. prophecy, God

Is today the day?

Is today that day that You will call for your church to heaven?
Is today that day You will present a bride to Your Son?
Is today the day You will deal with sin in the world?
Is today that day You will send another warning to the unrepentant?
Is today the day You will quicken the Spirit inside me to grow in Christlikeness?
Is today the day You will send the Spirit to draw my family to the cross?
Is today the day You will grow me in the spiritual fruits?
Is today the day You will chasten me, your child?
Is today the day You will send ministering angels to help me?
Is today the day You will give this land to Abraham and his offspring forever?
Is today the day You will bring Your people out from under the yoke of oppression?
Is today the day You will show Yourself in glory and power?

Today could be the day. For many of these, today IS the day. For others, soon will be the day. The Lord’s promises are true. They will be fulfilled. May His name be forever blessed.
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Posted in bible jesus, day of rage, peace, prophecy

Arab Spring in America?

Did you know that there is a planned “Day of Rage’ here in the US? It is planned for September 17 and targets Wall Street, but sister cities are planning their Day of Rage also. The point is supposed to be a protest against despots, dictators and cronyism in the White House, Congress, and Wall Street. Here is what the Arab Business and Banking journal Zawya wrote about it:

“Arab Spring-style protests are apparently being planned in the United States as the richest country in the world teeters on the edge of a ‘lesser depression’. Things are so bad in the U.S. that disenchanted, non-partisan citizens are planning to occupy Wall Street reportedly on September 17, according to media reports and vent their fury at Wall Street banks and policymakers.”

“The “U.S. Day Of Rage” echoes the massive protests undertaken by citizens in various Middle East countries to demonstrate against despots, dictators and cronyism in the Arab world. Similar to many Arab Spring movements, the organisers are leveraging social media website to gain some traction. Nearly 4,800 people ‘like’ the main US Day Of Rage Facebook page and it has nearly 6,000 Twitter followers. According to its social media feeds, it is planning peaceful civil disobedience across many American cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Idaho, Oklahoma and Hawaii, among others.”

“While the movement may well fizzle out, it does point to an extreme reaction to the complete and utter disappointment of American citizens with their governments especially as they watched in horror the debt debacle, the subsequent Standard & Poor’s downgrade and the ‘correction’ in American stock markets wiping out trillions of dollars in a matter of weeks.”

“U.S. President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to an average of 43% (including a personal low of 39% in one survey) while Congress’s collective approval rating slumped to an average of 17% (dipping to 13% in one Gallup poll, a record low).”

The website for Day of Rage says that they plan ‘civil disobedience.’ I fail to see how something called a day of rage is supposed to put enough of the brakes on so that people are only civilly disobedient and not marauding mobsters yanking people out of cars at the state fair or razing a convenience store, things which have already happened in abundance without a prompting of a Day of Rage.

Matthew 24:7 says that in the Tribulation “nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.” The word ‘nation’ in this context is the Greek word ‘ethnos’ which means people group sharing a similar culture. In other words, civil unrest. It means that there will be black against white, poor against rich, young against old performing violence against each other within the same country. These kinds of protests and violence are things the US has already experienced. The young mobs mobbing stores where older owners stand by helpless…blacks yanking whites out of cars and beating them senseless, and the poor protesting against the rich Wall Street bankster types are all things that we see already. During the Tribulation this kind of violence will get worse. Kingdom against kingdom, means for example, Lebanon fights Israel, but ethnos against ethnos is a worse kind of violence for it means your neighbor could turn on you and you may never even know why.

With food prices shooting up and unemployment rampant, the general mood in the US is tenuous at best. Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse blog wrote a recent piece titled: “16 Statistics Which Prove That The American People Are Absolutely Seething With Anger“. He wrote another piece titled “10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than Ever.” What I like about his pieces are that he uses credible sources and presents exactly what the title says. After reading the facts, you believe exactly that unrest is coming and that people are seething with anger. What are the chances that the Day of Rage will be peaceful, with polite folks engaging in civil disobedience with no harm done? Low. Very low.

The organizers of the Day of Rage say they will engage in civil disobedience, but the fact is that people are already at tinderbox temper. It would not take much to trip them over to mob mentality. As Bonnie Tyler sang in her song “Total Eclipse of the Heart,”, ‘We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks’.

I prefer the Day of Prayer to the Day of Rage. I pray that the light of Jesus will shine in the eyes of all who live in darkness. When you see the Light, you know that a perfect government is coming. It will be one filled with perfect justice, perfect peace. The government will make war no more, and all the citizens will be engaged in productive works. Their relaxation times will be saturated with harmony in worship of Jesus, songs, and pleasant conversations where there will be no gossip, agendas, or misunderstandings. In the New Jerusalem there will be no days of rage but only peace.

Proverbs 19:3 shows us that their rage comes from within their heart and it is against the Lord. “A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the LORD.”

Proverbs 29:11 – “Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.”

The calm in the end always leads back to peace, IF there is reconciliation with Jesus. Apart from Him a person is in rebellion, that is why they rage. It is the underlying reason. But it need not be so. A person need not have a day of rage, nor an eternity of rage:

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,” (Ephesians 2:14-15)

Now isn’t that much better than a day of rage?
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Posted in bible jesus, earthquake, tribulation

Major quake at Vanuatu, and earthquake data for you

There was an earthquake at Vanuatu on Saturday afternoon 1:00 pm local time. Its magnitude is classified as 7.5. Vanuatu is in the southern Pacific halfway between Fiji to its east and Queensland Australia to its west.

Any quake over 7.0 magnitude is considered ‘major’. On average, the USGS states that we can expect about 15 quakes of that magnitude each year. So far in 2011, the world has had 11 quakes of that magnitude. It is my estimate that due to the rate of strong and major quakes’ occurrence over these last five years (with those averages being regularly exceeded), the average will once again be exceeded this year as well.

As a matter of fact, the average amount of quakes in the 6.0-6.9 range is 134 and we have already had 140 so far this year in that magnitude, thus crushing the USGS average once again. In short, earthquakes are on the rise. Let’s take a look at the facts:
Source: USGS (United States Geological Survey) Where annual averages are met or exceeded the number is in red.
Magnitude / Average Annually
8+ = 1 (in 2011 we have had 1)
7 – 7.9 = 15 (in 2011 we have had 11)
6 – 6.9 = 134 (in 2011 we have had 140)
5 – 5.9 = 1319 (in 2011 we have had 1697)

Frequency of Occurrence of Earthquakes

¹ Based on observations since 1900.
These numbers have been recently updated, based on data from the Centennial catalog (from 1900 to 1999) and the PDE (since 2000).
² Based on observations since 1990.

So the USGS even updated the averages and STILL are they exceeded annually. Here is a chart I generated and updated today through Aug 20. Source USGS data.

Earthquakes have long been one of the ways God gets our attention. “An earthquake is a great teacher. It doesn’t make any suggestions; it’s making commands. It doesn’t ask for our attention, it demands it. It doesn’t just hope we’ll contemplate and act, it brings about almost instant obedience.” (source).

God is in complete control. The bible teaches that everything that happens is under His control. Nothing that happens, happens without His permission, knowledge, and sovereign plan. Satan cannot make an earthquake. But God can. All that He does is for the good.

For the Christian, we know that our eternal destiny is settled. If we die in an earthquake, it is to the good, for we will be with Him. If we do not die in an earthquake, than nothing that we have lost is of eternal value. Our possessions? We won’t need them in heaven. Our health (if we are injured in a quake) will be restored. Since we live on the earth, we are flesh and therefore not impervious to sin’s effects nor remain untainted by calamity. But what we lose is nothing. Enduring a disaster means we have an opportunity to become dependent on God. That is always a good thing because He is the source of all good things. We can fellowship with the afflicted. We can grow and mature through hardship.

If a person is not saved and endures an earthquake, they learn that life is fragile. They learn that the time to settle the earthly accounts and eternal destiny is now. Also, though living in a place where quakes are common means likely that there are strong codes for buildings, there are limits to how far one can go to protect one’s self from calamity. If a quake is big enough, the place will be razed, codes or no codes. Witness Japan. Life is fragile and there is nothing like an earthquake to reveal that to puny humans.

All this to say, that though earthquakes are in the rise and will continue to be so (Luke 21:11, Rev 6:12, Rev 8:5, Rev 11:13, Rev 16:18), the saved should fear not. That link is to a search result where ‘fear not’ is stated 63 times. There are many more ways He tells us not to fear, just not in that particular phrase. Therefore, we should not fear.

“Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.” (Lamentations 3:57)
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Posted in bible jesus, china, demons, prophecy

A Tale of Two UFOs: China and Moscow

A commenter asked me on yesterday’s blog entry if I knew about the UFO over China’s airport. I responded that I did, and that I had written about it when it occurred last year. But then another  person alerted me to the fact that this was a new UFO incident over China’s airport that happened yesterday, not last year. WOW!

I was intrigued by the last year China UFO event over the airport because air traffic controllers had spotted the ‘craft’, or the ‘thing’, whatever it was. ATC’s are trained sky spotters. They are official. They are official enough that the airport was closed, because they feared incoming airplanes would collide with the UFO. In addition, the UFO was showing up on radar.

So when Anonymous said that another incident had occurred, I read up on it. Fox News reports,

UFO Spotted Over Chinese Airport
Published August 18, 2011
“Planes were dramatically diverted away from a major Chinese airport after reports of a UFO circling a runway, the Shanghai Daily reported Thursday. The mysterious object was spotted Wednesday afternoon floating high above Jiangbei International Airport in the city of Chongqing, an important aviation hub for southwestern for southwestern China. Worried officials diverted several flights to other airports before it disappeared about 50 minutes later and air traffic was allowed to return to normal. The Chongqing government has not offered any explanation for the UFO, Shanghai Daily said. However, skeptical airport workers believe it was a sky lantern or a large balloon, the newspaper said.Wednesday’s scare mirrors an incident in July last year when Xiaoshan airport in the eastern city of Hangzhou was closed after baffled air traffic controllers spotted a UFO on their radar screens. The object vanished but footage of a strange glowing orb streaking across the night sky was posted on YouTube, sparking global interest in the supposed close encounter.”

Here is a photo that accompanied the news article:

The instant I saw that photo I remembered another incident. Get a load of this:

Mystery UFO halo over Moscow
Published: 11 Oct 2009
“THIS glowing halo in clouds over Moscow looks like an Independence Day style alien attack. The astonishing ring was spotted over the city and captured on video by stunned locals. It has been described as a “true mystery” by a UFO expert. cores of supernatural enthusiasts have been gripped by the astonishing footage and speculated it could be an ALIEN MOTHERSHIP. The sighting in the clouds is reminiscent of scenes from the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster Independence Day.”

The picture just above is a still from a Youtube video of the incident over Moscow last year. You can click on the ‘Mystery UFO’ link and see a photo of it at the UK Sun. Are the Moscow UFO and yesterday’s China UFO the same photo? Are they the same UFO? Are the demons THAT close to showing themselves? What is going on?

The world we see is not the only world there is. There is another world that is close, but hidden behind the veil that God put up. Sometimes in the bible, He lifts the veil between His world and ours and allows us to glimpse His glorious home. In one example, Elijah in 2 Kings 2:11 was taken up to heaven by a chariot of fire.

In 2 Kings 6:16, Elisha was prophesying over the war with Aram, and when Elisha’s servant admitted fear because of the enemy multitudes that had gathered around them, Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened. The servant saw the multitudes upon multitudes from God who were gathered in chariots and horses, ready to fight for God and defeat Aram’s forces.

In Luke 2 on that cold and starry night, when the veil lifted the shepherds saw the heavenly host. As Stephen was dying from his stoning by the angry mob, he looked up and saw the heavens parted, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Acts 7:56).

God’s world is real, and it is so close to us. It is only as far away as a thin curtain being lifted. It would not take much more rebellion for the demons to punch through and show themselves. They follow satan who is already god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). In other words, they already roam up and down upon this world seeking whom they may devour. (Job 1:7;  1 Peter 5:8). Are they hovering even now, ready to come through the veil and show themselves?

At some point, they WILL irrupt. (Rev 9:2-3). Whether they choose to appear as angels of light (2 Cor 11:14-15) or as terrible demons screaming in the holy places (Luke 4:33), they will return. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that the times just before the end (during the Tribulation) will be as the Days of Noah, and we know from Genesis 6:5-6 that the Days of Noah were totally evil with men thinking evil thoughts continually.

Christians need not fear. Demons, or UFOs, or whatever you want to call them, are not greater than He who is in us. When they do eventually appear, when the veil is lifted and more and more supernatural things begin to take place, as Revelation 6, Matthew 24, and Daniel 2, 7, 11 show, His children will be in heaven. We will be enjoying our awards ceremony and marriage supper. You can be part of THAT supernatural event, by repenting. Please do so soon. It seems that the veil is already starting to be lifted…
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