The News Beats

Atlantis

 Atlanticus Awdawmonus

David Dansker

Published by TheNewsBeats.com

Copyright 2010, all rights reserved.

Introduction

In the Gap

Restoration of Earth

Race of Awdawms

Origin of Demons

Doctrine of Demons

Calling Out a People

Redemption of Satan

Cause of Strandings

Habeas Corpus

Afterword

In the Gap

Where the Bible is silent, we may speculate.  As long as that speculation does not contradict the Bible, and is consistent with the character of God and His plans and purposes for the ages; entertaining some speculations should not divide us.  There have been reputable and learned Christian expositors who have found silence between the first and second verses in Genesis chapter one.

The Genesis account that has been interpreted to be both an account of the creation of earth and the creation of man in short successive acts may only in fact be the restoration of earth and the creation of a new creature to inhabit it. 

Indeed, the first verse in the Bible identifies God as the creator, and when taken with the second verse we specifically learn that, in their respective beginnings, God created heaven and the earth, and he created man.  There is, however, something we are presented with in verse two that does not immediately follow verse one. 

When God sets about to create man we are at the same time presented with an earth in a condition that is uninhabitable.  Many have assumed that the account of earth’s condition changing from that point leading up to man’s creation was a part of the earth’s original creation process. 

Actually, the details associated with preparing the earth for habitation seem more consistent with a process of restoration rather than a process of creation.  The implication: the earth described in Genesis chapter one, verse two, is an earth which was created some time before in verse one, and it had become a desolation before being approached again in verse two:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen 1:1)

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2).

The Bible tells us that “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1).  Elsewhere in scripture we also learn the earth was created to be inhabited, and that the process of its creation did not include a period where it lay as a formless desolation:

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [to-hoo, 8414, “without form” (Gen 1:2); a desolation], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD ; and there is none else. (Isa 45:18; emphasis and Strongs added)

It does not comport with the intention of creating the earth to place it for an indeterminable amount of  time as a waste and ruin; as is described in the second verse in Genesis, chapter one:

And the earth was without form, and void [to-hoo, 8414, a desolation; bo-hoo, 922, an undistinguishable ruin]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Gen 1:2; emphasis and Strongs added)

This is the condition of the earth when God approaches it, the Spirit of God moves upon the face to the waters, and begins His work on it.  The earth and the deep were all created in another separate act back in the beginning, and here the Lord is performing a different act; one of restoration.  This is why no details are provided as to the actual creation of land, or of water (an indispensable feature for earth to support life).

The fallout over John Piper’s endorsement of Rick Warren has also revealed that people in ministry positions from where they should be able to respond decisively and expeditiously are selecting the wrong time to apply generosity of spirit and indecisiveness.  For example, Phil Johnson is executive director of Grace to You radio ministry of John MacArthur.  Johnson also writes for his own website Pyromaniacs, and his lengthy article “On the Piper-Warren Connection” would lead one to believe by its title that he is addressing the serious implications of John Piper inviting Rick Warren to speak at his Desiring God National Conference.  Actually, it does little to address the heart of the issue itself; instead, it provides evidence of an unflattering assessment of many in professional ministry.

Unfortunately, many that make their living in Christian Industry are often too far removed from real living to develop discernment.  Their problem is they are usually surrounded by admiring laity, and live a cloistered, insulated, happy little Christian life, and are too far from the front lines of spiritual warfare to discern the times.  This is demonstrated by the length Johnson goes to in his article to prove he almost knows that Piper’s endorsement of Warren is an apostate move, without being able to come out and say it is an apostate move; resulting in an irresponsible piece that flirts with the notion that Johnson knows the truth, but can’t set if free.

(more…)

Although not a surprise to most people, both in and out of the faith, Televangelist Benny Hinn has admitted to being unable to heal, according to the Los Angeles Times.  What makes this a real bomb shell is the ailment that exposed Hinn’s weakness.  It wasn’t a brain tumor, pancreatic cancer, or paraplegia that finally found Hinn out; it was his marriage.

(more…)

Brian McLaren is an infamous leader in the Emergent Church movement, which is a recent and more obnoxious outcrop of church Liberalism which spawned the Evangelical Left.  Among their many heretical takes on what the Bible teaches, they also profess that Israel is to be scorned.  McLaren is joining the cacophony of anti-Israeli voices now that he is visiting the Palestinians and has undergone an awakening from the “well-planned propaganda” he was the victim of all his life in the states.¹  This certainly brings the question of McLaren’s credibility, and even basic abilities, front and center.

(more…)

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (Joh 8:12)

Chuck and Nancy Missler of  Koinonia House ministries have found themselves having to respond to criticism regarding their take on the Outer Darkness mentioned three time in the book of Matthew.  They have contended in the past that it is not representative of the condemnation, or the eternal state of those without Christ Jesus, the Lord.  In an attempt to understand why they would take this view perhaps something can be learned from their reasoning.  The Misslers seem to have inherited the fallacy of false dilemma on the topic from Charles Stanley; whom they reference among a few others holding the same interpretation.  All of them proceed to their position by first discounting Outer Darkness as a representation of hell.  Yet, the fact that the Outer Darkness is not a description of hell does not necessarily mean it must apply to something other than complete separation from God and Christ for all eternity.  The Lake of Fire is not a description of hell either, but that does not mean people don’t end up there, or that it is not a place of eternal torment for those who reject Christ in this life (Rev 20:15).

(more…)

Members Recast: Judas Iscariots and No-Talents

Most Life Groups are not Christian fellowships.  They are groups of people managed for their resources by church leadership teams.  The unsaved are often encouraged to join these groups where salvation is secondary, if it is that high on the list at all.  The membership drives are conducted for any and all so long as they’ll be manageable for resources.  That is the impetus behind community outreach projects, and the reason an emphasis is on the surrounding community instead of focusing on the body of Christ, the Church, as a separate entity.  That sort of divisiveness would preclude growth as defined in corporate business models.

(more…)

The upcoming Radicalis conference scheduled to take place at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, February 9-12, will include speakers Rick Warren, his ministry team, and what is shaping up to be a line-up of, well, the usual suspects for apostasy. One headliner is Perry Noble, Senior Pastor of New Spring Church where there are 10,000 members.  The arduous chore of pastoring such a large crowd means that sacrifices must be made, but not by the pastor.  Noble explained some of the sacrifices members must be prepared to make in a video-clip retrieved from YouTube, in which Noble explained: “We have people coming to this church, going: ‘I want a church where I can know the pastor.’” Noble’s admonishment to those people was: “You need to leave.  I don’t have time.”¹  The factor of time in such a large church certainly plays a role in how often a pastor can meet with the sheep, but Noble has a larger problem with shepherding. (more…)

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

Controversy and position switching are in the wake of the Miss California story that erupted out of the Miss USA pageant.  Some have been accused of giving Christian heroine status to a woman whose immodesty overshadowed her moral convictions as she competed in a bathing suit contest.  Because this drama is indicative of a spiritual battle that rages behind the vial of the flesh, it is no surprise that the salient points of the story would be artfully slighted in clever distraction.  Observations can be made on the polarization of good and evil presented on the national stage along with an assessment of the end times in terms of spiritual warfare,  without it constituting an endorsement of epidermal proselytizing.

(more…)

In establishing a new precursor to partnerships with the Antichrist, his workers of iniquity continue to pave that way for his arrival and worship. 

By an executive order, President Obama has surpassed the existing faith-based intrusions into religious freedom, which were baited by access to federal funds, and inaugurated an office to be empowered to make incursions into every neighborhood household in the land.  As of February 5, 2009, the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP) began efforts at taking control of all religious organizations, and dictating what religious tenets are legal, and which are to be outlawed.  The goal is for all churches to eventually be nationalized, and placed under the provisional license of the federal government.  This sweeping federal oversight is being ushered in under pretense averting an economic catastrophe.

(part 3) - see parts: (1) (2) (4) (5)

Partnerships: In Community 

These new faith-based and neighborhood partnerships are only a precursor to the formation of a new state religion, with world power, that Satan will use to his advantage for first half the tribulation period.  He desires to be worshiped, and even said to Jesus: “If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine” (Luk 4:7).  Eventually he will, as Antichrist, have his hour; “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).  The religious leaders who are working to forge these partnerships are preparing the way.  They represent a select group within the world’s population who are left behind when God turns his attention on refining Israel, and judging ungodliness.  They will be dealt with separately and more severely during that period, and upon the Lord’s return to earth:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jud 1:14-15; emphasis added)

These ungodly are destined to congregate in a coming world church that is described in the book of Revelation, chapter seventeen, as Mystery Babylon.  While the true Church will not see its final formation, this foreshadowing will continue in its increase as an enveloping darkness until the end of the age.  Consequently, the Church will see escalating persecution as it is marginalized out of the congealing state religion.  Under the original faith-based program the capture was congregation by congregation, wherein many dissenters could go unmolested.  By adding neighborhoods to the church-government partnerships accountability reaches down to the household level.  The implications for families and individuals are hard to over emphasize.

When the newly fashioned church bells toll in neighborhoods everywhere it will mean “we need all hands on deck, ” as Obama puts it,^10[3] so that they may bow before the new potentate, and swear their allegiance to the new green religion of “saving our planet”.^11[3]   Those not willing to renounce Christ, not willing to have their faith based in everyone else’s faith in order to do the real work of this new ministry, are going to be labeled heretics.  Anyone not standing at the curb saluting the passing PBS van and listening to their instructions for community service over the loudspeaker will be dealt with swiftly.  In the not too distant future, the van will be followed by trailer on which will be mounted a guillotine.^12[6]

While no one knows the day or the hour when the White House Office of FBNP will be absorbed by the United Nations, or other world governing body, to act as enforcer of the coming world religion for Antichrist, fangs are showing over at the Justice Department.

In a speech to Justice Department employees decrying unresolved racial issues, new Attorney General Eric Holder lambasted Americans as a “nation of cowards,”^13[7] and demeaned them for having private lives and personal pursuits outside the work place.  Reportedly, “Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.”^14[7]  These are not careless remarks, but evidence of carefully designed strategy.

Of course, Americans are not cowards, and any Attorney General holding that view disqualifies himself for service.  Holder is willing to bet that he won’t get ousted from his office by the outcry over his remarks of disdain for his countrymen on the hopes that Americans will be cowering on at least two fronts.  As the first black Attorney General, Holder is gambling on the fear people will have of being called a racist for criticizing him for calling Americans cowards and racists.  He is also riding in on the wave of the new collaborative.

After years of groundwork laid by communitarians in the work place, and apostates in the worship place, Americans by and large are ‘in community’ under some Soviet hierarchy somewhere.  They are increasingly being attached in their private lives during evenings and on weekends by employers who are both secular and faith-based.  A charge that can now strike terror in many a small group gathering, who are in community, is not being in authentic community. This state is reached only by members continually divulging secretes about themselves in the form of confessions on the pretense of identifying and dealing with their inadequacies as a process of perfecting themselves in the incubus of the group; and which then allows the group to attain the coveted seal transparency.  Implicit in the word “authentic” is not only that it be genuine, but also that it be authorized.  The Attorney General has his sights set on the private lives of Americans to assess them, and to grant or withhold the federal seal of authenticity based on their activity in federally approved associations and pursuits.

[ Next: “Partnerships: Transparency”]

Notes:

^3. Karen Travers, “Obama Names 26-Year-Old Director of Faith-Based Office: White House to Broaden Religious and Community Outreach,”ABC News, February 5, 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/President44/story?id=6806913&page=1

^7. Devlin Barrett, “Holder: US is nation of cowards on racial matters,” Breitbart.com, February 18, 2009. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96E53483&show_article=1

In establishing a new precursor to partnerships with the Antichrist, his workers of iniquity continue to pave that way for his arrival and worship. 

By an executive order, President Obama has surpassed the existing faith-based intrusions into religious freedom, which were baited by access to federal funds, and inaugurated an office to be empowered to make incursions into every neighborhood household in the land.  As of February 5, 2009, the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP) began efforts at taking control of all religious organizations, and dictating what religious tenets are legal, and which are to be outlawed.  The goal is for all churches to eventually be nationalized, and placed under the provisional license of the federal government.  This sweeping federal oversight is being ushered in under pretense averting an economic catastrophe.

(part 2) - see parts: (1) (3) (4) (5)

Partnerships: Being Conscripted

It will be a priority of the new White House Office of FBNP to ensure that newly created laws, which will supersede any religious and constitutional laws, be dictated to the partnerships so they can “learn their obligations under the law… and make the most of what the federal government has to offer.”^7[1]  Now we need to understand that any groups of religious people who dissent from these partnerships out of allegiance to God and his word will not make the list of Obama’s ‘great religions’ (q.v.).  They will eventually be outlawed by the Attorney General, White House Counsel, and the Executive Director of the White House Office of FBNP as they work through those difficult constitutional safeguards that are in the way of the new state religious partnerships.  In this effort, UN and international law, which most often represses religious freedom, will be consulted and touted as superior to our outdated colonial ideas of freedom.  The Supreme Court is already on record for consulting foreign law to decide matters brought before it, and Justices have gushed with pride over their dereliction of duty, and treason.^8[5]  It has never been more important to keep separate that which is to be rendered unto Caesar and that which is to be rendered unto God.

It is critical to understand that these new partnerships are not being recruited, but drafted.  Any house in the neighborhood or church  that dose not evidence total compliance by being conscripted will be subject to penalty.  Things that the federal government has to offer will be taken away.  For the family, that could mean forfeiture of the right to purchase state regulated utilities because they refuse to sign stewardship pledges that cite responsibilities to mother earth as superseding those due to God alone. For churches, the first to go will be tax exempt status.  This will be used as leverage to bring churches into line, and to compromise preaching from the pulpit to sell the Obama partnerships to congregations.

The process of eviscerating churches will be easier than ever before now due to Rick Warren’s success at decimating, first the Baptist’s memberships, and now, nearly all protestant denominations with soviet-style small control groups of micromanaged social workers (earning their salvation one neighborhood at a time).  It has also never been easier to see that Warren is Satan’s plant in the Church; as it is clearly revealed that the two trees, Warren’s and Obama’s, bear the same thorns.  Warren also works to deny Christ, and equated him to nothing more than a dead Islamic prophet, by the name of Isa, in his inaugural prayer on Obama’s behalf.^9[4]

While having the endorsement of apostate Rick Warren will bring many unsuspecting souls into national servitude, Obama must consolidate all the visible church into a kingdom building army before taking the next important step.  A very successful tactic used to bring opponents into fellowship is to invite prominent members from their respective camps to set on a committee established to address some social cause that can unite them.  If the personality be reluctant to compromise, the asp of flattery still proves fatal to all but the most steadfast in the faith.  Former Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page is one of the most recent and unwitting persons to prove this truth.  Joshua DuBois, executive director of the FBNP, prevailed upon Page to sign on to the FBNP panel by persuading him the President of the United States wanted to hear his views.  Very haughty stuff, being summoned as a presidential adviser.  Even though Page knew the FBNP was overwhelmingly made up of compromised liberals, the flattery made him think that he could nonetheless bring to the table a biblical viewpoint; something they long ago abandoned as too grievous to bear.

As a lame cover for unequally yoking himself together with unbelievers, Page requested that Baptists pray for him as he set down with the rapacious and the covetous despite clear biblical injunctions not to do so (1 Cor 5:11; 2Jo 1:10-11; Rom 16:17). No doubt in some quarters prayers ascended that the chair brake in two. This may seem un-Christian like to some, but the supplicants of those prayers know the purpose behind the FBNP panel, and what persecutions will be unleashed upon the real church when those who are called brothers are compromised. Common ground will be sought for the sake of the good cause so that the extreme position of biblical Christianity can be eliminated, and this sanctioned by its supposed spokesmen and leaders. After enough of these accomplishments at the executive level, it is not long before biblical views become illegal, and the holders of those views become outlaws.

[Next: “Partnerships: In Community”]

Notes:

^1. Sarah Pulliam, “Obama Signs Executive Order on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” (press release) Christianity Today, February 5. 2009. (citation 6; emphasis added) http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/02/obama_signs_exe.html

^4. “Warren Ends Inaugural Prayer with ‘Jesus’,” CBNnews.com, January 20, 2009.http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/524368.aspx 

^5. David Dansker, “U.S. Supreme Court Out of Order: ‘Will Almost Certainly Cause More Americans to be Killed’,” News Snippets From All Beats, June 13, 2008. http://www.thenewsbeats.com/news/?p=118

In establishing a new precursor to partnerships with the Antichrist, his workers of iniquity continue to pave that way for his arrival and worship. 

By an executive order, President Obama has surpassed the existing faith-based intrusions into religious freedom, which were baited by access to federal funds, and inaugurated an office to be empowered to make incursions into every neighborhood household in the land.  As of February 5, 2009, the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP) began efforts at taking control of all religious organizations, and dictating what religious tenets are legal, and which are to be outlawed.  The goal is for all churches to eventually be nationalized, and placed under the provisional license of the federal government.  This sweeping federal oversight is being ushered in under pretense averting an economic catastrophe.

(part 1) - see parts: (2) (3) (4) (5)

Partnerships: The New Gloden Rule

In the previous faith-based federal program, churches could obtain federal money by moving away from Christ, and towards employment as a federal agency.  Now they have been redefined as one in several categories of community secular organizations, including “senior centers and shelters, schools and hospitals, and any place an American decides.^1[1]  The discretionary purview of the average American, however, will be very narrow in scope, and must comply with the “common goals” as defined for the White House Office of FBNP by Obama and Joshua DuBois, a former associate Pentecostal pastor, who will head the office.^2[1]   All organizational efforts must give priority to being a part of the solution for the current economic situation because the “Office’s top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.”^3[1]  When the White House Office of FBNP will allow churches to return to their own priorities, such as ministering to and caring for their own congregations and preaching gospel, will be far off to never.

Terms used by the White House Office of FBNP to define success are vague and subjective; financial recovery won’t be complete until ‘fewer’ bear the ‘burden’ of poverty, but how much is fewer, and what constitutes a burden? Politically, this ambiguity always serves two designs; failure cannot be identified, and success can be claimed at any time.  Occasionally, political leaders strive to have it serve a much larger and more sinister purpose.  They will marshal general and all encompassing rhetoric to bolster their own preeminence in their quest for power over the masses.

This is the sort of rhetoric Obama is using to deny Christ and demote Christianity to nothing more that a faith-based organization to be amalgamated with all other faith-based religions that will in turn be answerable to the state above all else.  In preparing to announce the formation the White House Office of FBNP, Obama prefaced its disclosure at the National Prayer Breakfast.  There, Obama’s decree had the sweet ring of humility at its edges to disguise the clang of servitude at its center.  “There is one law that binds all great religions together,” Obama said.  “It is, of course, the Golden Rule; the call to love one another, to understand one another, to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.”^4[2]  There are a few important points which disqualify this ‘call’ from being a Christian clarion.

Firstly, Christianity is exclusive of all other religions, not bound together with any of them, in that Christ claimed to be the only way (Joh 14:6), and warned that other great religions would come along centered on “false Christs” and “false prophets” (Mat 24:24).  By this decree of one superseding and binding law the secular messiah places himself above all other religious authority, including the God of the Bible, and identifies himself as the arbiter of supreme laws all must acquiesce to, and be bound together under.  In order to sweep the nuisances of “red tape” that might get in his way,^5[1] Obama’s new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will begin legal maneuvers to chip away constitutional protections that safeguard religious freedom, and freedom of association.

The deceptive language that he chose is under the cover of federal assistance, and states that the newly established office has also been given “a new mechanism for the Executive Director of the Office to work through the White House Counsel to seek the advice of the Attorney General on difficult legal and constitutional issues.”^6[1]  The implication being proffered here is that these are difficulties impeding the dispensation of free federal money, but what the new law giver also means by that is enforcement.

[Next: “Partnerships: Being Conscripted”]

Notes:

^1. Sarah Pulliam, “Obama Signs Executive Order on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” (press release) Christianity Today, February 5. 2009. (citation 6; emphasis added) http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/02/obama_signs_exe.html

^2.  Jennifer Riley, “Obama Emphasizes ‘One Law’ that Binds All Religions,” Christian Post, February 6, 2009. http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/02/obama_signs_exe.html

A debate is a conflict which clarifies a position. A dialogue is a conversation which compromises a position.

- John E. Ashbrook

Explaining his acceptance of an invitation to serve on the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships panel (FBNP), former Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page admitted to having concerns.  He noted that there are “very few conservatives on the council,” but he is requesting prayer: “I do ask Baptists to pray for me as I try to bring to the table what I believe is a conservative, biblical viewpoint.”¹

Reportedly, Page took assurances from former associate Pentecostal pastor Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of FBNP, that President Obama really wants to hear his views.  Where do these guys hide when the expos’es are coming out?

Obama and company want to vent Page like an air bag in a small group, pretend to incorporate his suggestions into policy by using facilitators expert at recasting his words to match predetermined outcomes, and obtain his support, for things he might ordinarily object to, by arriving at consensus.  He is being used, and many will likely suffer because of his succumbing to flattery.

Bible believing Christians will be the losers, and the White House Office of FBNP will gain either way Page falls.  If he remains, they will be able to claim conservative religious support for their agenda.  If he jumps ship, they can renounce all conservatives (Bible believing Christians) as obstructionists, and they will certainly hold that over his head as leverage to keep him onboard.

The White House Office of FBNP is another effort at conscripting churches into an army of federally mandated social workers for community service (something that used to be reserved for convicted felons), under federal laws that do away with free exercise of religion.  Financially struggling churches began falling into this trap by first accepting faith-based funding, and in tying on the federal feed-bag they tied on a muzzle.  Some thought that they could use government money to finance God’s work.  They might have been innocent enough, or coned by a wolf, but certainly naive and foolish.  In this age of deception, it has never been more important to keep separate the things that are Caesar’s from the things that are God’s

Notes:

^1. Baptist Press, “Page hopeful, cautious about faith council,” February 17, 2009. 

http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=29824

[More Articles on FBNP: for series click here]

Presidential candidate Barack Obama hosted a private interview this week with several Christian leaders that some say was intended “to prompt a wide discussion”¹ on various topics such as abortion and homosexual rights. Such reaching out by politicians for the purpose of dialogue is notoriously aimed at courting endorsements from high profile personalities. Christian leaders, especially of the genuine verity, should take warning. These same leaders will find that they are expendable, and will be sheded faster than a burning shirt, should they later prove politically inconvenient. And they will be the ones worse for the wear. Just ask Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church, San Antonio Texas. Hagee endorsed Republican candidate John McCain only to be thrown under the bus by McCain when the press took Hagee out of context from sermon he preached back in the nineties on Israel. Hagee, who undoubtedly threw his support behind McCain in an effort to ward off the greater of two evils (and not on McCain’s substance), learned the hard way any compromise with reprobates is too much.In an effort to make their union work out, Hagee had been forced to write a letter of apology to the Catholic Church for his eschatological teaching which identifies it as the imitation, One World church to enjoy temporary reign and then suffer God’s wrath during the tribulation period. The letter was magnanimous enough not to retract the substance of the teaching, but Hagee’s integrity suffered damage by the appearance of a general retraction. They keep coming.

Ask Pastor Bob DeWaay of Twin City Fellowship, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He visited pastor-turned-politician Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven conference last month (at Warren’s all-expenses paid invitation) on the pretense of establishing dialogue. Dewaay has been critical of Warren’s departure from Christina doctrine and adoption of secular principals, and was solicited by Warren in an effort to woo him over. The effort failed, but ever the politician Warren tried to capitalize on the compromise visit by having his camp claim that DeWaay’s attendance at the conference evidenced his endorsement of Warren’s politics.

DeWaay was forced to spend time defending himself against Warren’s powerful PR machine, and reiterating his unchanged position with what meager resources he could avail himself of. While he probably salvaged the charge, always printed on the front page, with those who know him best; the correction, always printed on the back page, could barely be expected to reach the ones who had attended the conference and who noted DeWaay’s presence there. If nothing else, some damage was done if only in expended effort that could have been put to use elsewhere. Yet, the harder they learn, the harder they fall.

The next Christian leader in line to learn the lesson of compromise the hard way was lined up by Barack for his private interview. Franklin Graham revealed that he carries the shoehorn for his own slide by explaining why he attended the event. According to Graham’s spokesman, “He feels that dialogue with someone who may be president is useful whether or not you agree with them on everything or anything.”² Will they never learn? Couldn’t Graham take a cue form the other leaders who were present and realize that he was at Compromise Hall, and extricate himself with honor?

It was no surprise that T.D. Jakes, quoted above, was in attendance and in affirmation. Jakes has been fawning over Obama from the beginning of his campaign, and is already famous for his compromise of Christian doctrine in favor of splash and cash. Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals (also known as the Green Evangelicals), who also attended, would follow Obama anywhere so long as he continues to support the Green politics of eviscerating the American way of life and reintroducing serfdom so that the earth may be shown its proper reverence, and Gaia worship can be established as the state religion. That political plank works in fine with Obama’s Post Modern Marxism as was expressed by his wife who, while campaigning for his economic policies of, no surprise, universal distribution, said: “The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”³ Every one except the ones in charge of the pie, that is. It will be their job to oversee the revolution (change we can believe in) until everyone is freed to become a poor starving, but green, Marxist. Attention Christian leaders: Marxists and apostates are atheists, compromise at you own risk.

Notes:

^1. Charles Babington, “Christian Leaders Meet Privately with Obama,” Christian Post, Jun 11, 2008.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080611/32771_

Christian_Leaders_Meet_Privately_with_Obama.htm

^2. Babington, “Christian Leaders Meet Privately with Obama.” (emphasis added).

^3. Charlotte.com, “Giving Hope a Comeback,” March 8, 2008. http://www.charlotte.com/112/story/572303.html

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. (Isa 21:6)

Support for the Senate investigation into prosperity preachers’ financial dealings continues to grow. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine has gone on record welcoming a congressional-led “reformation,”¹ and now Michael Barrick of MinistryWatch.com has also joined the charge. Barrick has reportedly said of the investigation, led by Sen. Charles Grassley, that: “If the Church fails to hold its own accountable and if its most visible leaders fail to live by the very standards they purport to proclaim, then we should applaud when a leader with the standing of Grassley demands accountability.”² Yet, applause may be premature.

As members in Christian industry join the bandwagon of ministry watchdogs they may be overlooking a few key points regarding their brand of church accountability, and the means for achieving it. And these oversights raise some questions.

The prompting, in the first place, of congressional fishing expeditions into ministries that have satisfied IRS requirements calls into question the motives of those who initiate it. Are they really concerned with financial accountability, or is it because they find a particular religious teaching distasteful that they seek to punish by other means what they cannot censor?

By their use of the term “the church,” in the second place, do these watchdogs imply that these ministries they lead the charge on are congregations in the Church of Jesus Christ, the body of saints who are born again believers? Thirdly, do they also imply that they are in that body too?

The answers on these questions are important because they prescribe or explain courses of action, but no possible answer on any of of the first two questions should result in the action these watchdogs are taking.

If it is the case that these ministries’ religious teachings are the real reason behind the action of these watchdogs, that they are so distasteful to their doctrinal sensibilities, then it might have occurred to them that perhaps these are not Christian ministries. In which case, they have an obligation to expose them (Rom 16:17,18), but they have no justification to persecute them. And if any of them are Christian ministries, they have no doctrinal justification to go before the law.

These are points that Barrick neglected to take note of while applauding an onslaught of congressional oversight to ensure that those ministries follow their own catechisms. Another point he neglects is the need to abide by any instructions that would apply here to himself on this subject:

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? (1Co 6:1)

Now, Barrick and Grady and Ole Anthony of Trinity Foundation, who initiated the investigation, may say that they have aired it out with these ministries for several years and have gotten nowhere. But did any one of them actually have a matter against them, other then a disagreement over doctrine? It hardly appears that it is anything else (they question their fidelity because of lavish lifestyles which by prosperity teaching is a sign of God’s blessing), and even if they had a matter they stand to be rebuked for their action, or endorsement of it:

I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. (1Co 6:5-6)

This is a key point to consider here in determining a legal action; that it should not set unbelievers to adjudicate the affairs of the saints. These are supposed to be spiritual in their reckoning amongst themselves and not carnal (Grassley not withstanding, the House of Representatives is a secular body). While Barrick is correct to observe that: “How these televangelists respond will reflect directly upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ,”³ which has already been made a casualty on many fronts due to scandalous behavior of professing Christians, in and out of the pulpit; his scrutiny appears to fail him in close quarters.

If he and the rest of these watchdogs are themselves Christians-in-watching, they should be able assess the negative impact their own actions would have on the gospel; affixing the seal of Christianity to these organizations in question, and whetting legislative appetites to attack real gospel preachers they find offensive. Moreover, in light of that concern, they should have acted out of the knowledge that it would be better for the Church if they would suffer a matter unresolved (if there be a matter), than to take it to the unsaved:

Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (1Co 6:7)

It is one thing to be a watchman alerting the sheep to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Therein is plenty of work that will only cease when the Lord returns. Until then, the wolves, for the most part, are going to remain wolves, and sheep will be sheep; some of whom will be torn on occasion. That’s the reason for the watchman. He is to spend his time warning the sheep, not taking the wolves to court. Perhaps only two sorts of watchmen would fail to understand this. One would be too unlearned to be at his post.

Notes:

^1. Lillian Kwon, “More Questions Raised in Probe of Preachers,”The Christian Post, December 04, 2007.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071204/30344
_More_Questions_Raised_in_Probe_of_Preachers.htm

^2. Lillian Kwon, “Grassley Still Waiting on Preachers Under Financial Scrutiny,” The Christian Post, December 19, 2007

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071219/30563_Grassley_Still

_Waiting_on_Preachers_Under_Financial_Scrutiny.htm

^3. Ibid.

Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove California is set to host a Christian conference in January 2008 that will include a gathering of assorted cultural icons. The conference, titled “Rethink: new perspectives from global influencers,” is billed as a high-level strategy session where strategic briefings will be given on geo-political trends, and where “secrets for success”¹ will be shared. The object of the conference is to glean valuable insight for determining how to “stay on the cutting edge” in this fast paced world.² The practical strategies for this edge-clinging are to be discovered in post-briefing, facilitated, small group brainstorming sessions.

There are at least two serious problems with this Christian conference. Firstly, it is amazing to find the facilitated format still purported to be a process of shared discovery after so many have already discovered that this small group paradigm means that the conclusions have gone in before the facilitators come out.

Secondly, the criterion that was used for selecting speakers for this “Christian” event has nothing to do with Christian doctrine. The qualifier is that they be successful in a given market. That is what makes them influential. The line up of guest speakers includes entertainers, filmmakers, global media executives, and a former U.S president. Speakers will be professing Christian thinkers, and non-Christian Globalist thinkers such as Larry King and George H. Bush. The question naturally arises, why would this still be billed as a Christian conference? Here is the answer Rethink provides:

We’re purposely gathering a group of speakers you wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear at a Christian conference. Our aim is to be immersed in the latest thoughts and perspectives of these respected cultural icons to tap into what’s happening in our world today and to grapple with how we respond.³

With the exception of the ignorant and the naïve, could any real Christian leaders be expected to attend this confabulation? Any Christians who are sent invitations should already know that what is happening in the world today is spiritual warfare, and that we are not to gather with the unsaved to grapple with flesh and blood for our strategies, but are instead to put on the whole amour of God (Eph 6:13-18):

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph 6:12)

Furthermore, Christians are not to be immersed in the vain philosophies of man’s wisdom, no matter how iconoclastic a particular philosopher has become by his or her success in the kingdoms of this world (Col. 2:8). Neither should we be yoked together with them in their pursuits, or adopt their methods of pursuing; whether that be for obtaining success, or gain, or for the sake of social causes (2 Cor. 6:14-18). These causes differ from faith causes in that they precede from the desires of the flesh to serve the flesh.

Campaigns to address poverty and hunger emerge to sustain a cheap source of labor to furnish goods and services to the comfortable, to circumvent epidemics before pandemics reach the them, and to gain subservience from dependent classes (they would put a labtop in their hands to get instructions to them faster). Programs to distribute medical supplies naturally follow poverty campaigns for the same reasoning. The world fight against AIDS is a fight of the flesh in response to the sinner’s desire to engage in all manner of fornication at all times despite clear and present danger to themselves and others.

Africa is the magnet for these appeals to the churches because it is the mesh where the pictures of innocent starving children can be applied to all these issues while at the point of a bayonet in a war-torn dirt land far enough from pews to invite easy meritorious sainthood and preclude the responsibilities of the priesthood of every believer. Churches like Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral and Rick Warren’s Saddleback feed on this Christian irresponsibility as much as they are the cause of it.

The Rethink conference will be about adopting key programs for influencing the world. To do this they will have to adopt the causes that feed the world’s flesh in order to win their praise, and they will have to ignore their souls in order to gain acceptance. These new programs will be carried back to churches everywhere and billed as new ways of doing church for the new century. They will be portrayed as required adaptations churches must make in order to adjust to the culture and obtain relevance. The message will play well to congregations who have for too long be fed the empty calories of whip cream in place of sound doctrine, and the tide will continue towards apostasy.

Notes:

^1. Rethink: New Perspectives From Global Influencers, Why Rethink?

http://www.rethinkconference.com/index.php?option=com

_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2 (accessed October 10, 2007).

^2. Ibid.

^3. Rethink: New Perspectives From Global Influencers, Speakers

(conference scheduled for January 17-19, 2008), http://www.rethinkconference.com

/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=3&Itemid=14.

(accessed October 8, 2007).