Posted in doctrine, scripture, theology

Is your doctrinal screw loose?

Posted on by elizabethprata

The tiny screw fell out of my glasses this week. I was standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden the lens to my glasses popped out and fell to the rug. I took off the frames and saw that the screw at the end of the bow had come out. This released the frame to widen itself, and they no longer held in the lens.

It is a very, very tiny screw. I got on my hands and knees with a flashlight and used my other hand to gently sweep all over the entire rug. Of course the screw is the same color of the rug, and it’s about 1/32nd of an inch long. I never found the screw.

Without the screw that holds the frame together that holds the lens on the glasses that go on my head that allow me to see…I can’t see. I have severe astigmatism and I cannot see things even a few feet away. I’m not allowed to drive without glasses, either. I have a spare pair but the lens prescription is a bit outdated, but they had to do until the next morning when I went to the Dollar Store and bought an eyeglasses repair kit.

I got to thinking about the small, tiny thing that holds it all together. Once you take the small thing out, it all starts to unravel.

I’d written about this concept in March 2011 but from a different angle I am taking it today.

The pair of glasses are a system, unified, whole, and each part of it depends on the other for its entire integrity. When all parts are there, the whole thing works

The glasses are like the bible.

If you remove part of it, the whole thing falls apart.

I am NOT saying that the Word of God is in any way insubstantial, tenuous, or will falter. “Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ” (Jeremiah 23:29)

His Word upholds the universe and it will ever pass away. (Matthew 24:35).

I am talking about OUR belief in the Word. When you start picking and choosing this little part to believe and that little part not to believe, the unity and perfection of the word is such that each verse relies on the other. Your belief will start to crumble the moment you say something like this (and a church leader actually said this to me:)

“I’m not sure about the whole Jonah and the fish thing. As a matter of fact, I just take the whole Old Testament with a grain of salt!”

Picture the story of Jonah being swallowed by the whale as that little screw. Initially, you might think that not believing that small section of scripture won’t harm your entire theology. It’s just a few verses in a very short book after all. But if you doubt the Jonah story, then what about this:

“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40).

Do you doubt what Jesus was saying? If you doubt the verse in Jonah 1, then you must doubt the verses in Matthew 12. And now your theological hold just got wider, and the screw in the glasses frame just got looser.

(Depiction of Jonah and the “great fish” on the south doorway of the Gothic-era Dom St. Peter in Worms, Germany.)

You might give room in your mind to the possibility of theological evolution – as Billy Graham does – and that ultimately to settle that belief in a literal version of the creation story “makes no difference.” But oh, it surely does. Graham said:

“I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being and made him a living soul or not, does not change the fact that God did create man. … whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man’s relationship to God.” – [Billy Graham: Personal Thoughts of a Public Man, 1997. p. 72-74]

Because Graham gave room in his mind for the possibility of evolution, then he made his hole bigger because Paul said “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; in 1 Corinthians 15:45, and in 1 Timothy 2:13 Paul said “For Adam was formed first, then Eve;”. Does a person discount those verses, too? One must, if he believes God could have evolved man and not created him, as Graham does.

In the end, Graham decided that all people go to heaven, even those who never heard about Jesus, as he told Robert Schuller and Larry King at different times. His slide away from the faith was long and slow, but just as damning.

Noah’s Ark, by Edward Hicks, Wikipedia

Some people say they do not believe the ark story, the animals could not possibly have fit onto a boat. But then one must discount what Peter said in 2 Peter 2:5- “if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

The point is, you must believe all of it, or none of it.

I can’t afford to go get more glasses. I decided it is more prudent to periodically make sure my glasses frames don’t have a screw that’s loose. If I have a screw loose, it could all too easily come breaking apart, and we would not want that to happen, would we! I’m pretty fond of seeing.

Henry II suit of armor,
Wikimedia Commons

Same with our doctrine. Periodically check to make sure you are using proper discernment. Pray to God for Him to sanctify you daily. Put on the full armor of God and pray ceaselessly (thus oiling the armor) so you will be protected from satan’s screwdriver that will try to find a loose screw to unhinge it.

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1)

“John Jefferson Davis writes:

Even though Calvin believes that regeneration is irreversible . . . he does not conclude that the Christian has any cause for spiritual complacency. Persevering in God’s grace requires, on the human side, “severe and arduous effort.” . . . The believer needs to continually feed his soul on the preaching of the Word and to grow in faith throughout the whole course of life. Since it is easy for the believer to fall away for a time from the grace of God, there is constant need for “striving and vigilance, if we would persevere in the grace of God.” Calvin thus balances his theological certitudes with pastoral warnings. . . . The believer must continually exercise faith and obedience to make “his calling and election sure.” (Davis, “The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine,” 222.)

Believe all of it. If you doubt, ask the Holy Spirit to help you. That is one of His ministries!

In the end belief in what some claim are the more the more fantastical parts of the Word boil down to this:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16)

The scriptures doesn’t say some parts are good, or a few parts, or even most parts. It says all scripture. Check to see if you have a screw loose. The lens could pop out and then you will not be seeing clearly. But regular maintenance of your eye-wear will result in seeing clearly, and beholding Jesus is the most beautiful thing you could ever hope to view. Having a right view of scripture is that beautiful perspective.

PS: I did fix my glasses. It was very difficult and it took a long time, and many tools. The screw is so small, I needed to use tweezers to even pick it up. I gripped too hard and the thing went flying off somewhere. Repeat the search on hands and knees with flashlight and hand feeling around everywhere. Not to be found.

I spent about 45 minutes reconstructing the frames, setting the lens on the thin frame just right, squeezing the clamp together, trying the different size screws, using the teeny screwdriver, had to use the tweezers again at the end to hold the clamp tight enough so the lens would be securely held. Let me tell you, the whole thing was such a pain that it is WAY easier to make sure that it is tight in the first place than to re-do the whole thing at time, expense, and frustration, and risking having to spend even more to get new glasses!

Posted in cooking competition, gentle speech, slander

Talkin’ smack aboutcha

Posted on by elizabethprata

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” (1 Peter 2:1).

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Ephesians 4:31)

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

The concept of slander or a lying tongue comes up a LOT in the bible. I tried to find a definitive number of how many times we read about lying, false witness, slander, or hateful speech, but I couldn’t. The number of mentions I did find ranged from 60 to 140, and I know there’s more. God is serious about slander.

I like to watch cooking competitions. I mentioned that before, recently. Regular competition shows are awful, many of them. The goal seems not to be to encourage someone in their talent or help them to improve in a dignified way, but to put them down in the most cutting way possible so as to get laughs, ratings, and to humiliate the contestant.

And the competitions where the competitors talk smack about each other are just gross.

The cooking competitions are usually rated G, that’s why I like them. Each has its own flavor, ha ha, but there are a few that are just plain mean (Hell’s Kitchen) and others that are nice. I’ve enjoyed newcomer American Baking Competition and four-year old Masterchef particularly, because they are nice.

That’s because judges seem to be encouraging and the point seems to be genuinely about food, not drama. For example on Masterchef the contestants are offered cooking lessons on days off by the famous chefs who on other days are their judges! And the judges on Masterchef do not seek to cut the heart out of the person, but build them up and let them compete with dignity and to improve their skills while they are there. If they fail a challenge and are asked to leave, they are always encouraged to keep trying and given a compliment on the way out.

But last Wednesday night was a turning point for me on Masterchef. The judges were extremely cutting (OK, just Joe Bastianich) calling one contestant a “narcissist in full denial”, and said “thanks for nothing” when presented the food. The contestant had demonstrated that he wasn’t teachable, but it is up to the teacher to maintain self-control with all his students. The contestant was humiliated on national television.

Worse, the show has added twists to the competition this year that seem unnecessarily hurtful in that they are designed to force contestants to compete in a cold-hearted, hard-boiled way.

Worst of all was the glee with which one contestant gloated over the stumblings and failings of one fellow contestant who was eventually chopped. She said nasty things about him and chortled at him in all his stress.

Once the nastiness can is opened all the worms come out. Talking smack about the other contestants only goes down hill from there.

In previous years contestants would not say such cutting things about each other. They might say “I think I am a better cook” or “I wouldn’t have handled it that way” but not to say outright “the guy is an idiot and I want him out of here.” That’s why I enjoyed the shows in the first place.

I may have said this before, but with the advent of Netflix, and the ability to engage in binge watching, I notice that year three seems to be the year that a show takes a dark turn. This is holding true for Masterchef. The program is partway through season 4. Season 3 was a highlight because gentle and positive and dignified Christine Ha (Left, who eventually won) projected a high-road respectability that seemed to permeate the competition. The judges were encouraging instead of cutting, too.

I had already opted out of Top Chef, while Food Network Star seems to be headed downhill as well. The focus is now on the infighting between contestants instead of cooking and improving cooking. Nowadays with most even G-rated competition shows, it’s as Tony Soprano said, “Always with the drama, you!“

I’ll watch Masterchef one more time, this week, because returning champion Christine Ha is making a guest appearance. After that, it’s American Baking Competition all the way. If the usual trend holds up, I’ve got two and a third years of that show before it takes its dark turn. 

If God doesn’t want us to slander and hates bitterness and malice, then we should not watch shows where the judges OR the contestants exhibit such traits. I’m careful about who to invite into my home. This includes television characters. I don’t like hate speech. God hates it. I don’t want to engage in it or encourage it by allowing its expression inside my home, because it pollutes me.

On last Wednesday’s episode of Masterchef, the fellow contestant’s gleeful hatred and persistent vocalization of a man who by all accounts seemed loyal and kind and skilled and a good dad was too gross to watch any more. This is not entertainment. It’s rebellion.

Be wary of slander. It’s bad not just when we do it. It’s bad when we listen to it in others. It’s bad when we know it will be present in a situation or a TV program but we seek it out anyway. Maybe we even laugh at the insults when they’re talkin’ smack about someone, forgetting that they are still real people even if they are on TV.

Jim Nix Photography, Creative Commons use

“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4)

This standard is getting harder and harder to apply but we know we are supposed to be having speech that builds up:

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)

Is the speech you’re listening to (and thereby accepting into your soul) on movies and TV competition shows good for building up?

Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

Sobering advice. I know this dramatically shrinks the pool of available entertainment, but… Jesus comes first. Personally, I’ve been slipping. I’ll have to more carefully monitor what I take in via entertainment by using this standard, in addition to working on making sure that I am not talking smack about anyone else!

Some days it seem as though there is SO MUCH room for improvement! Fortunately we have the Holy Spirit who helps us grow into holiness.

“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:27)

Posted in exodus international, john piper, nancy leigh demoss

Three articles showing the deep apostasy of our times

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here are some really, REALLY good articles for you.

The interesting thing to me about these end times is that many a ministry is that formerly solid people suddenly take a turn to the left and swerve away from their formerly solid position. Each of the three articles below demonstrates some sort of apostasy.

Source Wikimedia Commons

Paul tells Timothy that some “have swerved from the truth”. (2 Timothy 2:18). In the Greek the word literally means to go astray, to miss the mark, have faulty aim.

In the game of darts, you notice the highest amount of points and the most sought after section of the board is the bull’s eye. It is also the smallest part of the board. To make a bull’s eye you have to aim carefully and pay attention. Jesus said the way is narrow and few find it, (Matthew 7:13-14). In darts, the bull’s eye is small and few land there.

Many of us have had sad concerns about the direction Dr. Piper has been taking in his ministry and approach to the Gospel. This truthful but gentle write-up cogently explains why, and comes with links so you can check it out for yourself. Sunny Shell: “Why I no longer follow John Piper or “Desiring God” ministry“. She says,

“I share all this to show you much Piper and his ministry “Desiring God” has, in some ways (not all), been led away from sola scriptura (Scripture alone), so that you might be more discerning about following their ministry (writings, sermons, etc.).”

The Sola Sisters are three sisters who formerly were New Age/Pagan. Their writings are about discussions regarding false teachings coming into today’s Church. Today they wrote about Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and the book The Circle Maker.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss Endorsing Chalk Circles? Mercy.
“I have never bothered to address the problems with the bookThe Circle Maker, because the whole concept of “circle making” was simply so patently pagan and ridiculous on the face of it that I assumed it would be obvious to any Christian how unbiblical this book was. When Christian apologist Chris Rosebrough and Pastor Tim Challies both thoroughly exposed the theological issues with the book (links below), I continued to assume this was a “no-brainer” for most Christians. Sadly however, I am getting more and more emails from people saying that their church leaders are recommending The Circle Maker, doing a Bible study with it, passing it out, etc.”

Erin Benziger is a Christian journalist writing about the topics of the day on her blog and at Christian Research Network. Just to show you how far the apostasy has gone, I offer this article to you in which it is reported that

Following Apology to Gay Community, Exodus International Announces It Will Close Its Doors
“Exodus International, “the oldest and largest Christian ministry dealing with faith and homosexuality,” announced late Wednesday, 19 June, that it is closing its doors. The announcement came just hours after the group’s president, Alan Chambers, issued a formal apology to members of the LGBTQ community who “have been hurt by Exodus International through an experience or by a message.”

In other words, ‘we were wrong, and being gay is OK.’

Always be girded with truth. Your aim will be true if you always keep your eye on Jesus. Stay in the word, that is how to stay aimed at the narrow road of truth we must walk until the day He calls us home. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “The first step astray is a want of adequate faith in the divine inspiration of the sacred Scriptures.” More to the point, Spurgeon said, “He is not the God of apostates, for he hath said, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38).

Our highest aim should be to please Him. Walk the narrow way solemnly and intentionally, staying focused on Him and His word. Pray ceaselessly to Him to keep you in His path, because we see above, straying can happen to anyone.

Posted in grace, mercy

We are living stones

Posted on by elizabethprata

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)

We’re living stones, being built up into a spiritual house…

I grew up in New England. When the farmers cleared the field, they dug up a lot of rocks. Rocks, rocks, everywhere. What to do with the rocks? Make a border wall out of them.

Our house was a small Cape Cod, a 100 year old cottage. The front of our house had a very long rock wall of old rocks that had been unearthed from the fields. By the 1960s the wall was falling down and it needed to be rebuilt

My father hired two old Italian guys to rebuild the wall. Italians have been masons and laying rock for thousands of years. The Appian Way is one of the world’s oldest paved roads, and it is still there, and works. Though the Italians invented cement, in our case, the wall wasn’t set with mortar or cement. It is the nestling of just the right rock next to each other, the pressure exerted of the whole structure, and gravity that keeps them all in place. (Photo, Appian Way, Wikimedia Commons)

The old guys had the rocks strewn all around. One of them would pick up a rock and test it, and look at it closely, turning it over and over. Feeling it all around with his hands, brushing off the sand and dirt, he’d put it next to the rock on the wall, and see if it fit. Nope. He’d pull it out and talk to the other Italian guy for a while, and after some talk, and laughter, taking their time, he would pick up another rock, and test it all over again.

Gradually, slowly, the wall took shape. Long and straight, it stands to this day.

In reading that verse last night at church, the picture of the old Italian guys came to my mind. I envisioned Jesus and the Holy Spirit, calmly and precisely talking, working together in perfect unity, laughing and admiring the work each was doing. Jesus saying to the Spirit, “draw that one over there to Me, I’m ready for Him… put that one here and this one next to it, ah, perfect fit…” The spiritual house is being built, in His timing, constructed to last forever, with us as the living stones. His precision is straight and true. As well as Potter and carpenter, I guess we can add Stone Mason to His construction skills, couldn’t we.

He is the Rock, the Chief Cornerstone…

“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.” (Daniel 2:35)

“For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”” (1 Peter 2:6).

He is the chief cornerstone, but having the Spirit in us, our souls are so intimately tied with Him that we also are stones. Little stones from the Rock. And here comes the pun: we are chips off the old block.

Bishop of Lincoln Robert Sanderson is said to have said it first in a 1637 sermon:
“Am not I a child of the same Adam … a chip of the same block, with him?”

We are of Adam, but our precious Lord didn’t leave us on the stone quarry floor. He picked us up, adopted us, polished us, built us up “to be a holy priesthood,” and set us in His spiritual House. Praise His merciful name, His grace is so generous!

Posted in itching ears

To those with itching ears…

Posted on by elizabethprata

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Itching ears…an itch must be scratched, right? Have you ever had an itch and tried not to scratch, just to see how long you can go? LOL, I do that. I can’t go very long in resisting it. If it is at a hard to reach place like the middle of my back I go find the screwdriver or the scissors and get back there and scratch it. It feels so good to get that itch satisfied!

Have you ever heard the phrase, “I’ve got an itch to…”? Like, ‘I’ve got an itch to drive to town and get some ice cream.’ In this sense, itch means to have a persistent, restless craving. For the ungodly whose ears itch, they have restless cravings that must be satisfied- but never are. Only the Lord satisfies. We feel full after a good meal of the word. A believer’s ears don’t itch.

Joel Osteen’s crowd stays large because though their ears were satisfied on Sunday with the feel good message, it didn’t satisfy the itch because it didn’t reach a regenerated heart. So they go back there and try to get it scratched again….and again…and again.

They’re listening to the wrong message from the wrong person at the wrong place.

“You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,” (Jeremiah 25:4).

May your ears never itch!

The antidote for ensuring we do not wander off into myths and have our ears become consumed with itching, is what Paul said in the verse immediately prior to the itching ears one.

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 3:2)

Study the word, preach the word, and be ready at all times, in season and out of season. That’s the antitdote!

Posted in discernment, ears tickled, faith, sound doctrine

Why Discernment is important, and what lack of discernment does to the body

Posted on by elizabethprata

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Why is sound doctrine important? At the World View Weekend conference in Branson MO, Mike Gendron explained why. A former Catholic for 30 years, Mr Gendron became saved. He left a career as a rocket scientist (really) and evangelizes widely. He is specifically ministers in bringing the Gospel to Catholics. A graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, he writes at Proclaiming The Gospel. He said at the conference,

“Why there is so little discernment in the church? Preachers preach what the people want instead of what they need. They don’t want sound doctrine, so pastors give feel good messages that tickle their ears build up their self-esteem. So without sound doctrine many in the church today don’t really think it matters what you call a Christian as long as you label it Christianity…they want to feel good, not made good by the preaching of God’s word. … So what’s at stake if we abandon sound doctrine? The glory and honor of our great Lord. The purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the eternal destiny of those who are not hearing the truth from pulpits today. … Without discernment we will not know if we are believing and proclaiming the true gospel or a compromised distortion.”

Mr Gendron’s words echo what John MacArthur said, that lack of discernment is a number one problem today. In his sermon, Deliverance: From Sin to Righteousness, Part 2, we read,

“Today, as we’ve been saying, evangelical church and leaders are saying anyone who says he’s a Christian is a Christian. Anybody who says they believe in Jesus is a Christian…liberal, Protestants, charismatic, Roman Catholic, orthodox, sort of free-floating unattached people who believe in Jesus. Anybody who claims to be a Christian can be tested by truth and virtue. This is critical. Real deliverance produces a changed life.”

Remember not everyone who says they are a Christian IS a Christian. The proof is the fruit produced from a Holy Spirit empowered changed life. In order to even see fruit (or lack of fruit) we need to be discerning.

“If there’s any problem that outstrips all other problems in the church, it is this problem of a lack of discernment, the lack of spiritual discrimination because then everybody is vulnerable. And imagine living in a time when not only is the church undiscerning, but sees discernment as a threat to its life and unity. It’s just amazing. Widespread ignorance, shallow understanding of Scripture, superficiality interpreting the Bible, faulty reasoning, bad decisions just bring horrendous agony to the church. How foolish can we be? I mean, the Bible is so consistent in telling us beware of ear-tickling teachers, beware of departing from the faith, beware of heresies, doctrines of demons, destructive myths, perverse teachings, commandments of men, speculations, controversial issues, old wives fables, deceitful spirits, worldly tales, false knowledge, science falsely so-called, empty philosophy, traditions of men, worldly wisdom, adulterations of the Scripture and on and on and on and on.” “The Responsibilities of the Church“

“As a result, evangelical Christianity, listen to this, is fighting for its very life. I’ll say that again, evangelical Christianity, in my view, is fighting for its very life. And our time cries out for people with discernment.” “A Call for Discernment, Part 1“

You can see it nowadays, can’t you. Christianity is under assault from every direction, every day. The Lord said that His church will not fail, so we can thank Him for stalwart believers. But the assaults to the faith are real and very potent.

AW Tozer wrote, “The healthy soul, like the healthy blood system, has its proper proportion of white and red blood cells. The red corpuscles are like faith: they carry the life giving oxygen to every part of the body. The white cells are like discernment: they pounce upon dead and toxic matter and carry it out to the drain. Thus the two kinds of cells working together keep the tissues in good condition. In the healthy heart there must be provision for keeping dead and poisonous matter out of the life stream.”

It’s a vivid and apt metaphor, isn’t it? I can really picture how faith and discernment works in the body. I’d like to add one more medical metaphor to the situation, Paul’s use of the word gangrene in 2 Timothy.

“But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.” (2 Timothy 2:16-18)

Paul’s use of gangrene is good here. In his time, the smallest cut could render a person dead in days. Even in the twentieth century, blood poisoning was an extreme issue. The Earl of Carnarvon died that way. George Herbert (Earl of Carnarvon) family was of the family that owns Highclere Castle, the setting for the well-known British production of the television show Downton Abbey. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon was the chief financial backer on many of Howard Carter’s Egyptian excavations, and sponsored the excavation that discovered King Tut’s tomb. While in Egypt on expedition on March 25, 1923, the Earl Carnarvon/George Herbert got a mosquito bite. He nicked it with his razor when shaving, and the bite became infected. He died on April 5th. It only took ten days for blood poisoning to kill a healthy man.

Gangrene was a worse killer in Paul’s day. It’s important to realize that the white blood cells (the discerning among the body) must leap on the toxic cell. The toxic cell is not there to unite with you, praise Jesus with you, or do good works with you. The toxic cell is there to kill you.

What does gangrene do to a body? Staying with the medical analogy for a moment, put into your mind the Tozer analogy of the white and red blood cells and the blood flowing in your veins. Blood actually flows in your body as it metaphorically flows in the body of Christ.

The medical definition states, “Gangrene is the death of tissue in part of the body.” We know the global born-again church is a body. Jesus uses the metaphor of us being the body and He being the head. (Colossians 1:18). Gangrene is literally the death of some of the living tissue by not allowing the blood to pass through. No blood means death to living tissue.

Gangrene spreads fast. Where the dead tissue exists, it must be cut out, or it will contaminate the adjoining tissue and kill it too. So in continuing the metaphor, if the infectious doctrine is not cut out  immediately, it will spread like a toxic wildfire and consume the flesh of all who come into contact with it and deny the blood. The corrupted flesh must be excised, either by a medical procedure called a debridement, or an amputation.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:8, “And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.”

The word is the answer. The word is always the answer! In order to proclaim it, one must read it and study it. Paul was speaking to Timothy as pastor, and we are all not pastors, but we are all evangelists. We must be ready in season and out of season to know our doctrine. The absence of sound doctrine means you could make a shipwreck of your faith. (1 Timothy 1:20).

When you’re at sea and in a storm, what’s the first thing they do for you? Throw out a life ring.

Wikipedia Commons
Source

If you hang on to sound doctrine, you will not be shipwrecked, you will be reeled back in. Knowing your sound doctrine means also that you will be discerning. If you think of it this way- reading your bible and studying sound doctrine is the most loving thing you can do not just for yourself, but for your brother. If you see a fellow sister or brother wandering off to myths and turning away, don’t you want to have the right tools to throw out to them?

Source

If your doctrine is weak, this is your tool-

And that’s just not helpful at all.

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)

Posted in God, raise, salvation, victory

A praise

Posted on by elizabethprata

David sang to the LORD after being delivered to a military victory.

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. (2 Samuel 22:2-4)

How much more should we sing of the Lord who delivered us from the enemy of sin, and the violence of the devil? How much more should we praise His holy name for being our fortress and deliverer, accomplished by using His own body, broken and punctured, dead on the cross while enemies mocked? How much more should we sing of Him who rose from the dead, conquering death so that we could conquer death, and be with Him forever? How much more should we sing of Jesus who is our shield and is the very horn of salvation?

Praise our Lord today! Sing, laugh, praise, and proclaim His goodness for all His works! I pray you are victorious in Jesus today!

Posted in brazil, dmitry orlov, one world government, protests

Uprising in Brazil: what does it mean?

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is a lot going on in the Eastern part of the world. Uprisings and police action in Turkey, election in Iran, pressure on Israel for peace talks, Russia and US at odds…and a lot going on in the US with wildfires, storms, and our own political problems (Obamacare, PRISM, IRS spying. etc).

There is a lot going on inside the church, too with apostasy and false doctrines popping up everywhere. It is really like a tsunami of falling away right now and keeping up with what is happening in the global church and from what direction is enough to give a watchman whiplash and nausea.

A kind reader let me know that there is stuff going in in South America. Let’s take a look at a different hemisphere for a moment. Brazil is currently having the biggest protests that nation has seen for 20 years.

“As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption. The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil’s Congress building and then stormed it. Monday’s demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil’s sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime. While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.”

On reddit we read, Brazil is under Siege: Protest in all Major Cities. Rio 100 thousands, Sao Paulo, 65 thousands. Brasilia, Capital: Congress was invaded.

The citizens on reddit who post there, insist that the protests are for the most part, peaceful. One reader answered, “Since a lot of people are asking why the people are upset: It began with a raise on Bus Fares, and now it’s growing to corruption and the world cup bill. We have really bad public services, and we pay a lot of taxes.”

On the video above, the citizen journalist says that the protests in Brazil are not being reported in the West, and that admittedly “you may not have heard of this with Turkey and Syria’s uprising, it is difficult to keep track with everything that goes on in the world. Eventually, international news outlets might report what is happening down here, but they might portray the protesters as criminals and vandals and delinquents. It is of extreme importance that the truth reaches you before they do.”

His channel is called #ChangeBrazil. He goes on to say specifically of the current protests (he recorded it on June 14, 2013), and note his perception of the wealth and social gap, which I’ll go back to in a moment-

“This is what happens when a society is forced to put up with ludicrous and nonsensical laws that are created only to only benefit the lawmakers themselves, and which results in wealth and social gaps so outrageous it would be cause for hilarity if they were not not so true.”

The rise in bus fares for the poor in the face of a wealth gap; plus excessive government spending to prepare for the World Cup, is inflaming the beleaguered hearts of the Brazilian populace. In another video a woman named Carla said of the World Cup, that the spending to prepare for this year’s World Cup of 30 Billion dollars by building a new stadium is more spending than the last three World Cups put together, which was about 25 Billion.”

Her concern is that in a country where illiteracy can reach 21%, and averages 10%, and which ranks 85 in the human development index, where 13 million people are underfed every day, “does that country need more stadiums?”

The BBC reports, “Brazil protests spread in Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio“

“As many as 200,000 people have marched through the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities, as protests over rising public transport costs and the expense of staging the 2014 World Cup have spread. The biggest demonstration was in Rio de Janeiro, where 100,000 people joined a mainly peaceful march. In the capital, Brasilia, people breached security at the National Congress building and scaled its roof. The protests are the largest seen in Brazil for more than 20 years. … The way these initial marches were policed – with officers accused of firing rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful protesters – further incensed Sao Paulo residents and shifted the focus from rising transport costs to wider issues. “For many years, the government has been feeding corruption, people are demonstrating against the system,” Graciela Cacador told Reuters news agency.”

“The underlying frustration people feel about their lives runs deep. A specific frustration (bus fares, World Cup stadium) once expressed in a civic demonstration of whatever kind, often touches off the general dissatisfaction a person feels about the injustice of life in general. It’s the same thing as when we argue with our spouse over who drank the last of the milk and put the empty carton back in the fridge. He or she asks, “what’s the matter? and you get a churlish “Nothing” in response, and after further pressing, the argument explodes. As the argument goes on, you hear “Yeah? And another thing…remember that time you…!!” Once you give voice to the frustration past frustrations pile on and angrily come out.

CBS News

I am posting the following excerpt because I want to go back to the concept of a tired society in a moment.

Julia Carneiro of BBC Brazil reports,

The mass of people gathered at Sao Paulo’s Largo da Batata was impressive – but more impressive was that after the demonstration began, thousands more kept arriving, streaming peacefully towards the city’s main avenues in a constant flow. Their bright banners bore diverse demands – but all reflected a fatigue with what people here get from the state. I repeatedly heard the word “tired”: protesters told me they were tired of corruption, of nepotism, of high taxes paid for poor public services. … This protest was mirrored on the streets of Rio, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and other cities. Brazilians are asking for change – in a scale the country hasn’t seen for decades.”

The world is in a stage of collapse.

I’ve written before about former Soviet Union citizen Dmitry Orlov, who emigrated to the UN after the collapse of the USSR. An acutely perceptive writer, he took his first hand observations of his home society’s collapse and wrote a blog and then a book, called “The Five Stages of Collapse.” He began his public writing on this topic in 2008, when the world collapse was just gathering steam. Note Mr Orlov’s concept of the ‘mental flip’ another thing I’ll get to in a moment. He wrote,

“In this article, I proposed a taxonomy of collapse, splitting it out into five stages—financial, commercial, political, social and cultural—and tied each of the five collapse stages to the breaching of a specific level of trust, or faith, in the status quo. Although each stage causes physical, observable changes in the environment, these can be gradual, while the mental flip is generally quite swift, because it is something of a cultural universal that nobody (but a real fool) wants to be the last fool to believe in a lie.”

As social relations disintegrate their effects are felt most profoundly at the psychological level. (source)
Stage 1: Financial collapse. Faith in “business as usual” is lost.
Stage 2: Commercial collapse. Faith that “the market shall provide” is lost.
Stage 3: Political collapse. Faith that “the government will take care of you” is lost.
Stage 4: Social collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost.
Stage 5: Cultural collapse. Faith in “the goodness of humanity” is lost.

To hone in on the last two stages, Orlov wrote,

“Stage 4: Social collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost, as local social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush in to fill the power vacuum run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.

Stage 5: Cultural collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for “kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity” (Turnbull, The Mountain People). Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes “May you die today so that I die tomorrow” (Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago). There may even be some cannibalism.”

Interestingly, there has been come cannibalism. The face chewing incident in Miami, the heart eating incident in Syria, these and other examples are being reported more frequently now than in my entire lifetime.

OK, let’s go back to the three things I noted in the articles:

1. wealth and social gap
2. a tired society
3. the mental flip

The one without Christ has the spirit of antichrist. (1 John 2:22-23). John wrote in that verse that the spirit of antichrist is already in the world. And so it is.

It is constantly being revealed that the world is a disbelieving world, and is against the true God. This means that the world has the spirit of antichrist. Indeed, satan is the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4). The world has always had the spirit of antichrist, but we didn’t notice as much because for the most part societies seemed to behave. They seemed to be satisfied with their lives. Unless you really think about it and then you see this is not so. The world has always been in turmoil, and it shows.

The scars from war after war and uprising after uprising is the constant in history, not peace. French Revolution, American Revolution, WWI, WWII, killing fields, pogroms, concentration camps, atomic wars, protests, Occupy Wall Street, collapse of Soviet Union, Arab Spring, all these are the constant. And I haven’t even gone back very far in time, nor touched all the uprisings on other continents. As Mr Orlov wrote of the five stages of collapse, “A casual perusal of history books will show that these various stages of collapse occur with great regularity.”

It is a wheel that is spinning faster and faster. Let’s look at this diagram of the cycle put up by Health as a Bridge for Peace (HBP) project illustrating their view of the stages of conflict:

It’s an endless cycle of peace, frustration, war, reconciliation. This, of course, mirrors the life of Israel as described in the Old Testament, which in itself is a picture of man’s war with God due to sin.

The difference today is not that these protests are happening, because they always have, but that the pace of the protests in one country after another is quickening.In other words, that wheel is spinning faster and faster.

As the spirit of antichrist reveals itself more and more, and as more and more people fall away from the faith, things will get worse in every aspect of our lives, especially government. Can we expect godless leaders to be moral, just, and compassionate? In the short term, maybe for a little while. In the long run? No.

The bible says that government is supposed to serve. (Matthew 20:25-28). Government is supposed to treat us fairly and justly but sometimes it doesn’t. When that happens, we Christians are still supposed to obey because God set up all authorities on earth. (Romans 13:1-2).

An unbelieving beleaguered world population tired of the same old corruption (which is really corruption of the heart) and is calling for change, will get it. The world will be ready to submit to the antichrist’s government because as Orlov outlines, the changes that lead to external societal change happen slowly, but the mental flip happens fast.

Can you see that happening now, biblically? The antichrist will be revealed when the falling away is complete. (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Pulpit Commentary says of the falling away, that it is a religious falling away and not a political one. The verse “is to be taken generally to denote that remarkable “falling away” from Christianity concerning which Paul had instructed the Thessalonians (comp. 1 Timothy 4:1-3).”

But the religious falling away feeds into the political one. If men do not have God, they do not know how to behave. This lack of a moral structure and an unhitching from a higher power of accountability will only lead to rampant sin. And we see that it has, all over the world. As the falling away increases, sin rises, and bad behavior deepens. In other words, the feeling is, “I’m in power, I can do what I want, so why not?”

Brazilian powers-that-be have been acting this way for a long time and the people are “tired” of it. Tired of the same old lies, oppression, greed, and self-absorption. It’s the same everywhere. Is there anything more egregious than an IRS that steals from the working man with “ludicrous and nonsensical [tax] laws” as the Brazilian man said, and spends our money to stay in $3,500 a night hotel rooms? Is this a government that serves? That is fair and just?

As society is collapsing all around the world, what can’t be seen is the mental collapse. Weariness, anger, frustration, despair characterize those who are being governed. There is no relief any more from the periods of corruption in government to release the citizen to secular hope. After WWII in America, the fifties and early sixties was a period of great hope, but then there came the gender and sexual revolution, and culture radically shifted. Now we don’t catch a break for 20 years or even 10, but every five minutes it seems, some place is going bananas.

It is clear to all secular people now, that there is no hope. Yet they still look for it. They’ve tried communism, dictatorships, kings, capitalism, fascism, feudalism, papacy, socialism, every -ism possible.

Philosophers have tried their hand, too. Aristotle thought that the highest form of community is the political community because public life was more virtuous than the private. The Pharisees would eventually come to emody Aristotles’s false notion, to the disaster of Israel. Kant wrote his essay called “Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch” in 1795, describing three basic requirements for organizing human affairs to permanently abolish the threat of present and future war, and, thereby, help establish a new era of lasting peace throughout the world. It didn’t work. Joseph Smith, the Mormon, tried to usher in a theo-democracy. It didn’t work. Karl Krause suggested in his essay titled “The Archetype of Humanity”, that all the world needed was to form five regional federations: Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia, aggregated under a world republic. Hasn’t happened.
 
They are running out of ideas as to what will make the world work. The world is getting tired of trying and failing to govern itself. This pace will quicken eve faster as each day falls below the horizon and the next day arises. It is all happening so fast now.

The antichrist will have a solution for the world’s despair and frustration, and the world will buy it, to the disaster of the globe.

In the end, Jesus will show via His wrath that only He is the solution. After that, He will usher in the final government!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6).

Posted in chaos, charismatic, dreams, faith, miracles, pentecostal, strange fire

Charismatic manifestations & excesses of the Pentecostal movement is a global phenomenon

Posted on by elizabethprata

The universe exists so that God will accomplish the redemption of man.

It’s that simple.

“As we read in Colossians, “All things created by Him and for Him.” And what is this grand design? What is this grand purpose? What is God doing? Why did He create this universe? Why did He create the earth? Why did He put on the earth all these creatures? Why did He make man? What is the point of all of this? (Colossians 1:16).

“And the answer is, “The grand design is redemption.” The grand design is the gathering of a redeemed people into eternal glory for the purpose of worshiping Him forever and ever.”
~John MacArthur, “The Theology of Creation”

To that end, Jesus commissioned emissaries to go forth with the message of redemption, AKA the Good News AKA the Gospel. Some proclaim it nearby and others go far afield. The ones who go far are missionaries, bringing the good news to every nation, tribe, and tongue. (Matthew 18:16-20; Acts 1:8).

God will sovereignly ensure all will occur as He designed it to occur as He said in Isaiah 46:9. It will happen. He said in Isaiah 46:9. “Remember the former things long passed. I am God, there is no other. I am God, there’s no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying, ‘My purpose will be established, I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’”

However, that is not to say that from our one-dimensional view down here on earth, that there won’t be heartbreaks, apparent setbacks, and distress among us as His plan is being carried out from above.

I keep up with a couple of missionaries who our denomination supports, via the Southern Baptist Convention and International Mission Board. The couple is in Central America, in the jungle. They have worked with a local man for a year who is a Pastor. This pastor travels over rough jungle roads to reach a family who lives in the jungle who had opened their home to the Pastor. He travels long to reach the place, and does the weekly bible studies. He travels so long he must stay overnight there. They had hopes to plant a church there, eventually. Above, Jungle, Wikipedia commons

This month’s mission report says that though we all expect opposition from without, the missionary couple were blindsided from within.

The local pastor who travels to the jungle there each week, “was told by the head of this family that they will no longer host the Baptist meetings. The reason: they have been led to believe by leaders of their church that Baptists do not believe in the Holy Spirit because we do not speak in tongues and have experiences like being “slain in the Spirit.” This is not the first time we have encountered this attitude from those we call our brothers in Christ.”

Until now, the worst battles had been against shamanism, Mayanism and Catholicism, all of which are so rampant in Central & South America. But now missionaries must also battle the worst examples of Pentecostalism from inside our own Protestant denominations? Sad!

The same is happening in Africa. Pastor Conrad Mbewe of Reformed Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia speaks often about evangelical issues in Africa. One of the issues with the decline of the church in his native land, he says, have also been the excesses of Charismatic Pentecostalism. Above, Africa.

This week he wrote,

“A century or two ago, Christian missionaries came from the West and taught us the Bible. As a result of this, we did away with polygamy, cannibalism, tribal feuds, etc. We were taught to put on more clothing to hide our nakedness. We learned to desist from tattooing our bodies, which were now temples of the living God. We even stopped sacrificing our babies to ancestral spirits.”

Yet this is the reality today, he wrote last May

“I am reminded of the many claims to healings that are made by “anointed” Charismatic preachers. Every week, there are tens of thousands of miracle services conducted across the country and the continent. When I say that these are just publicity and fundraising gimmicks, sincere Christians are often horrified at my saying so. When I then ask them to give me the name and address of one person whom they know who was once blind but now sees, or was a cripple (on a wheelchair or on crutches) who now walks, or was deaf and dumb but now speaks, they suddenly sober up and admit that they do not know anyone. “Sources” have told them of many people who have been healed.”

Kenya revival services, healing crusade
and pastors’ conferences.

Clint Archer, one of the team at The Cripplegate, and a pastor in South Africa, interviewed Mr Mbewe a few months ago at the African Pastors’ Conference. Archer asked,

“What information would be helpful for Evangelicals in the West to know about the state of the African church?“

Pastor Mbewe responded,

The Christians in the economically and educationally challenged areas of Central Africa are in a state of what I call “blessed ignorance.” I find that in general their hearts are with Christ and they are faithful followers of His, but they lack the theological refinement necessary to get all their ducks in a row. The people have “low expectations of their leaders’ educational qualifications to preach.” It is in these areas where rampant health-wealth-prosperity preaching and extreme charismatic practices are most common and leave the church in a state of immaturity.

As for what’s happening in Asia, there is a terrible influence of the healing-miracle-prosperity church there, too, especially in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, thanks to a charismatic South Korean named Pastor Lee at Manmin Church. We read,

“Abundant Fruit of the Holiness Gospel Has Been Borne in Thailand “
“Amazing works of the Holy Spirit unfolded and abundant fruit of the holiness gospel was borne even in Thailand where the 95 % of population is Buddhist. … Additionally, Thai Com 5 satellite TV has broadcast GCN TV programs, such as Dr. Lee’s sermons and the programs on the works of God’s power, nationwide. Since innumerable people watch the programs, the holiness gospel is being spread rapidly. Amazing works took place through the handkerchief prayer on which Dr. Lee had prayed. Even sorcerers and shamans accepted the Lord through the handkerchief prayer (Acts 19:11-12). Pastor Sungchil Lee has given glory to God by holding meetings in many areas of Thailand in September 2009, November 2010, and February 2011. Countless people were healed of their diseases in the meetings.”

The book by Candy Gunther Brown titled Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing, was published 2011 by Oxford University Press. The abstract says,

“This book explains why Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity is a rapidly growing global phenomenon. Although often caricatured and reduced to speaking in tongues (glossolalia), prosperity, or snake handling, this volume reveals that the primary appeal of pentecostalism is divine healing and deliverance from demons. Globalization heightens the threat and fear of disease, fueling growth of religions that are centrally concerned with healing. In Latin American, Asian, and African countries where world Christianity is growing most rapidly, as many as 80 to 90 percent of first-generation Christians attribute their conversions primarily to healing for themselves or family members.

Even in the United States, 62 percent of Pentecostals report healing experiences. Contrary to popular stereotypes of flamboyant, fraudulent, anti-medical “faith healing” televangelists who preach a materialistic, “health-and-wealth gospel” or sensational “exorcism” of demons, this book offers a more nuanced portrait. The chapters illumine local variations, hybridities, and tensions in practices, depict human suffering and powerlessness, and explain the attractiveness to many of a global religious movement that promises material relief and empowerment by invoking “miracles” and spiritual resources. Achieving the twin goals of thick description and comparative analysis of global practices is best achieved by bringing area experts into conversation. Sociologists, anthropologists, historians, political scientists, theologians, and religious studies scholars from the United States, Europe, and Africa write about illness and healing on six continents. Read together, these chapters generate and set the agenda for a new program of scholarly inquiry into some of the largest forces of change reshaping today’s world—globalization, pentecostalism, and healing.”

I’ve striven to show you both personal and widespread examples of the worst excesses of the

Source

Charismatics that are happening in Latin America, Asia and Africa and the devastating impact on the church. The tomfoolery you view each day on TBN is not just contained in American broadcast media and a few churches at the fringes of the faith. It is a widespread, global phenomenon that is killing the church.

“However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” (Luke 18:8b).

The answer is yes, because God purposes to bring a group He’s selected for His son to redemption as His Son’s bride. It will happen. But the falsity of the false church which abuses the Holy Spirit is daily being revealed and the stain of is is spreading.

When I refer to the excessive charismatic aspects of Pentecostalism, I’ve said “fringe” or “excesses” etc, so it is clear to you that I do not indict an entire denomination. As John MacArthur said in his essay, “Encouragement to Faithful Pentecostals,”
“There are those in charismatic and Pentecostal churches who love Christ, serve His people, and—like John—are disturbed by the sinful excesses they see dominating the charismatic movement.”

He said, however, that they need to speak up against the abuses against the Holy Spirit with the ridiculous excesses of tongues, slain in the spirit falling down, toking the spirit, laughing in the spirit and so-called miracles and alleged healings. Speak. Up.

John MacArthur and colleagues are speaking up. He has organized a conference called Strange Fire. The Strange Fire conference “will boldly and thoroughly deal with prosperity preachers, faith healers, and many of the other familiar charismatic aberrations and blasphemies of the Holy Spirit.”

MacArthur, along with Phil Johnson, RC Sproul, Conrad Mbewe (I mentioned him up above), Tom Pennington, Steve Lawson, Nathan Busenitz, Justin Peters (I refer to him frequently regarding his monumentally helpful series “A Call For Discernment”), Todd Friel, and Joni Eareckson Tada. These speakers’ bios can be read here.

He said,

“If you believe that the baptism of the spirit is subsequent to and separate from salvation, you have now created two classes of believers. If you believe in mystical experience, transcendent esoteric kinds of supernatural things, then what you will do is depreciate study, spiritual discipline, and the means of grace by which you grow. If you exalt feeling you will denigrate reason and open the mind and the spirit, the powers that people cannot understand or deal with. And as long as these kinds of things lie at the core of Pentecostal tradition, the potential for disaster is there, and if you believe that God is still giving revelation of any kind, the lid is off.” (source)

It’s as if satan had said, “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war,” as Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar. “Dog has its ordinary meaning; havoc is a military order permitting the seizure of spoil after a victory, and let slip is to release from the leash.” (Wiki)

The lid is indeed off, and nobody likes what was released. Fortunately, in this long essay for the third time, I refer back to Isaiah 46:9. “Remember the former things long passed. I am God, there is no other. I am God, there’s no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying, ‘My purpose will be established, I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’”

His good pleasure is to bring a Bride to His son- us, believers in the resurrected, holy and divine Jesus. As our wedding day approaches, please pray for your own church to withstand this worldwide onslaught of Holy Spirit perverted-charismatic excess, and pray for those who are caught up in it. There are many, and we weep for them as much as we do the lost in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, atheism…

Won’t you be glad when satan is thrown into the Lake of Fire to deceive the nations no more! (Revelation 20:3, 10).

Amen!

——————————
Further reading:

Strange Fire conference website

Charismatic Chaos sermon series

Discerning Angus Buchan’s ‘Faith Like Potatoes’

What is the Charismatic Movement?

Drive By Pneumatology: Correctly Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit (purchase CD lectures)

Justin Peters ‘A Call For Discernment’ Overview, updated