These days several global warming scientists are probably wishing they could get a way for a while.  Since the scandal of the global warming hoax broke, warming conspirators have been taking a lot of heat, and some who have been complicit in the cover-up are even considering suicide.  Before doing anything rash, scientists should take time to relax and, like the earth has been doing, cool down.  Now would be a good time for them to take a second look at the Maldives.  The Maldives are a collection of beautiful islands in the central Indian Ocean.  The shimmering coral sand beaches and the turquoise waters have made them a popular destination for vacationers for years.

The Maldives also became popular some year ago with global warming scientists.  The reason they became enamored with the islands was not for their tropical paradise, few actually visited the islands themselves, but it was their topography which interested them.  The islands at their highest elevation above sea level are only just over 6 feet.  This geological detail proved irresistible for scientists seeking to prove anthropogenic global warming, and several years ago they trained their complicated, though inaccurate, computer climate models on the islands.

The scientists comfortably nestled in their armchairs thousands of miles away easily tweaked the data for their models and got the results that they wanted.  Their findings were then published in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2001.  What the scientists determined was that the sea level had been rising around the islands, and they predicted the Maldives would disappear in the near future due to flooding as a consequence of global warming.  Some scientists claimed the islands would be gone as early as 2030.

They based their claim for rising sea levels on two effects of global warming temperatures: 1) thermal expansion of the sea water, and, 2) melting glacial ice adding to the sea volume.  Clearly, something had to be done to save the world from global warming, and that meant that something had to be done to save the Maldives, too.

The remedies that were suggested are two in the standard global warming playbook. They are: 1) the discontinuance of fossil fuel use, and, 2) the imposition of global restitution taxes on industrial nations who caused global warming in the first place.

To stop fossil fuel use, Jim Hansen of NASA called for taxing the oil companies out of existence.  Hansen played with our expensive equipment over at NASA, and he was sure sea levels were rising even faster and higher than the IPCC report forecasted.  Only last year, Hansen gave an interview in which he claimed President Obama had only four years to save the planet by following Hansen’s advice.¹

To make reparations to the citizens of the Maldives for sinking their islands, an organization by the name of Bluepeace called for all industrialized nations responsible for global warming to pay to build new islands for the Maldivians (no kidding).²   These are examples of how ridiculous and absurd the policies of global warming theorists are; aside from the ludicrous notion that humans can actually control the climate.  It seems, however, that the only problems facing the theory of global warming are the facts.

The sea level at the Maldives isn’t rising; it’s falling.  A particularly large sea level fall took place in the late 1970s early 1980s.  The scientists who discovered this were not relying in computer models, but actually spent time accumulating field evidence on the Maldives.  The main reason for this sea level fall is an “exceptionally high rate of evaporation” over the Indian Ocean.³ Interestingly, this evaporation is linked to the monsoon rains that can bring up to 60% of India’s annual rainfall.  One might expect such a strong climate correlation to be accounted for in original climate models relied upon by global warming researchers, but significant climate data is always missing from models when it doesn’t support warming theory.

While it can’t be said the warming scientists are quick to acknowledge evidence that falsifies their theory, they can be very swift to spin that evidence if it somehow leaks out.  After the Maldives hard evidence study on falling sea levels was accepted in 2004, warming scientists soon adopted regional evaporation and falling sea levels as proof, again, of global warming.⁴ The incredible interpretation these scientists posit is that two opposite reactions, one predicted and the other actually occurring, that happen in the same place simultaneously, prove global warming.  What this really proves is that warmists live in a parallel universe with laws that are opposite of reality.  If they would confine themselves to its vacuum we could spend less time ridiculing them, and less money suffering them.

Notes:

^1. Robin McKie, ‘We have only four years left to act on climate change - America has to lead“Gaurdian.co.uk,January 18, 2009.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/18/obama-climate-change

^2. Chris Morris, “Seeking solutions for sinking Maldives,” One World South Asia, April 6, 2009.

http://southasia.oneworld.net/opinioncomment/finding-solutions-for-sinking-maldives

^3. Nils-Axel Morner, Michael Tooley, Goran Possnert, “New perspectives for the future of the Maldives,” Global and Planetary Change 40, 1 - 2 (2004): 181.

^4. Al Gore, “We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change,” Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times, February 27, 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html

It appears that another young Christian woman is being put to the test of standing with God or seeking a way to prevaricate for the sake of her career.  Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley is now the second beauty queen of late to stand with God on traditional marriage and the role of male and female.  In a recent interview Ashley said: “The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman.  In Leviticus it says, ‘If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.  They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’  The Bible is pretty black and white.”¹  Ashley is quoting Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13; and this does accurately pronounce God’s judgment on homosexuality.

Nevertheless, we are in an age of grace now made possible by God shedding the blood of His own Son on the cross to pay for all the sins of whosoever will turn to God and repent and receive the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus the Lord.  This is, however, a limited time offer.  The sinner is limited to a certain and few number of years in this life while repentance can be made, and this age of grace is fast coming to an end.  Sinners who die in their sins, who have not been washed clean by the blood of Christ, will be damned for all eternity.  The first thousand plus years will be spent in Hell, and eternity after will be spent in the lake of fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.

As for Ashley, it sounds as if she has an eternity in heaven to look forward to.  She also said: “I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t smoke weed or cigarettes.  My definition of partying is a little different.”  Ashley added that she believes sex is for marriage.  Why such clean living?  Ashley explained: “I feel like my body is the Temple of God.”²  She intends to treat it well, and here she is quoting 1Corintians: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1Co 6:19).  As for what’s in store for Ashley in the near future, a lesson might be learned from Carrie Prejean, former Miss California.

In Beauty and the Beast Part One,³ Prejean also voiced her belief in God’s design and definition of marriage, and was immediately set upon by the homosexual lobby, and then by many Christians.  The former attack was to be expected.  The later seemed to emanate from those who, while they agree that it is good to be saved by the blood of Christ, nonetheless require a resume of complete perfection afterwards (and the persons should never have worn a bathing suit).  What will Ashley need to weather the perfect storm?  She already has it, and if she continues to hold on the word of God as tightly as she is doing now, the Lord will bring her through, and to an ever better crown.

Notes:

^{1 - 2.} Hollie McKay, “Miss Beverly Hills Lauren Ashley Opposes Same Sex Marriage,” FOXNews.com, February 23, 2010.  http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/02/23/miss-beverly-hills-lauren-ashley-same-sex-marriage-carrie-prejean/?test=faces

^3. The “Beast” is an appellation for the Antichrist, and it is the spirit of Antichrist at work today opposing the way of righteousness.

^4. Photo: Fox News. 

After 30 years of marriage, Hinn’s wife filed for divorce on February 1 on account of differences that Hinn could not reconcile.  According to a prepared statement from his ministry, Hinn couldn’t even see it coming.  “Pastor Benny Hinn… was shocked and saddened to learn of this news without any previous notice.”¹  That is pretty poor foresight for a man who supposedly can close his eyes and see disease in someone else’s body, but the unwitting admission is far worse.

“Although Pastor Hinn has faithfully endeavored to bring healing to their relationship,” the statement continued, “those efforts failed….”² While it is very sad for a marriage of so many years to end in divorce, the damage Hinn has done to the simple in the faith over several decades is far more tragic.  Perhaps now, fewer will be victimized by this false prophet.

Notes:

^{1 - 2.} Gillian Flaccus, “Wife of prosperity gospel televangelist Benny Hinn files for divorce in California,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2010.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-televangelist-divorce,0,2770235.story

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.

Firstly, exactly how sophisticated was the campaign that kept McLaren wrongly supporting Israel, if he ever really did so, for his whole life until now (his born in 1956)?  He could not have been misled by the U.S. media all these years.  They consistently portray Israel as an evil aggressor any time they take a defensive action.   McLaren certainly was not misled by others of his liberal church collogues such as the Presbyterian Church USA.  The PCUSA claimed that Israel was erecting an obstacle to peace by building a security wall to keep out homicide bombers, and they called for financial divestment from companies doing business with Israel in order to punish it for pursuing self-preservation.

If McLaren is the self-described dimwit he claims he was for making “basic assumptions” in which he allowed his understanding to be “skewed from a lifetime of half-truths, unfair and imbalanced news…, and misinformation,”² how does he account for his sudden clarity?  If it truly takes a change in geography and first-hand observations to enable McLaren to clearly evaluate events and accounts, is the level of McLaren’s perspicuity actually worth any serious consideration whatsoever?  These are very pressing concerns because of other claims McLaren makes about himself.

McLaren claims to evaluate Christian doctrine and weigh the minds of the Apostles to prescribe new applications of scripture, based on his wisdom and insight, as he applies himself to the documents.  Astoundingly, he now admits to being unable to sort through the products of basic journalism and ferret out facts from fiction.  Obviously, his preexisting premises of being easily fooled and misled invalidate any claim he now makes to sound reasoning.  But he’s not appealing to reason.  McLaren is playing to small-minded anti-Semitism, and working for the spirit of Antichrist.

Notes:

^{1 - 2.} Mark D. Tooley, “The Anit-Israel Revelation,” FrontPage Magazine, January 27, 2010.  http://www.thenewsbeats.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=482

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).

Expositors are prone to error when they attempt to assign a stationary or geographic location to something that is only representative of a state of existence; just as they are likely to error by treating as permanent a location that is only temporary.  Outer Darkness is representative of the condemnation, and is the state of damnation; and even hell is a temporary abode which, after fulfilling its purpose, will itself be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:14).

In their latest installment,¹ the Misslers contend that the Outer Darkness is “a place of restoration, renewal and reinstruction in the ways of the Lord” in the millennial kingdom.²  They claim it is a place for saints who will go to heaven, but who aren’t quite ready to be there, or are not fit to hold down a job in the millennial kingdom until they are “reestablished in holiness” by spending time in Outer Darkness.³  For a proof they reference the processes of chastening and scourging we undergo here on earth as sons, and which are means our heavenly father uses to perfect us.  This is true to scripture, but there is no scriptural support for the continuing of this refinement process once we are in our glorified bodies (1John 3:2).

There is, however, scripture that refutes it: “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away…. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1Cor 13:10, 12).  When we see our Lord, we will no longer be encumbered by flesh, and the hindrances of our fallen natures will be removed; our minds will then perfect, and we will be perfect in our knowledge of God, and his plans and purposes throughout the ages.  Again the Bible tells us: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn 3:2). The entire transformation takes less than the twinkling of an eye. There will be no need for remedial classes in heaven, or the millennial kingdom, for resurrected or translated saints.

The Misslers would do well to jettison this misinterpretation and absorb any costs to their ministry now while such are easier to be borne.  If they continue to argue for it, they will come to find themselves arguing that the very wicked generation Christ condemned for rejecting Him is yet to be found in a rehabilitation center in the millennial kingdom.  They will not be there.

When the Pharisees questioned Christ’s authority (Mat 21:23) they were rejecting Him (Mat 21:42).  Christ then responded to their rejection by directing three parables to the Pharisees with each one becoming more exacting in its severity until the final point was driven home.  In the first, they are superseded in their entrance to the kingdom by those outside their religious order (Mat 21:28-31).  In the second, they are supplanted in their title to the kingdom by a new nation of saved Jews and Gentiles (Mat 21:33-43).  In the third, they are finally sentenced to an eternal destiny outside the kingdom (Mat 22:2-13).  If any doubts were to remain as to their damnation, Christ made it clear in his pronouncement of the eight woes following the three parables (Mat 23:13-39).

In the eighth woe Christ pronounced on the Pharisees He made it clear that they were representative of all who rejected God in the history of humanity, past, present, and future; and as a composite “generation” none of them would escape the “damnation of hell” (Mat 23:22).  Earlier in the third of the three parable to the Pharisees, Christ made it clear that this damnation was in effect being bound “hand and foot” in their sins for all eternity (Mat 22:13), and being cast into “outer darkness” where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”  (Mat 22:13).  Those Pharisees, and everyone else of their wicked generation, will not inhabit heaven, nor the millennial kingdom of Christ.

The Outer Darkness is representative of final and eternal separation from God and Christ, the “light of the world” (John 8:12).  It is regrettable that the both Charles Stanley and the Misslers are in error on this point.  While the Misslers take pains to separate their doctrine from that of the Catholic purgatory,⁴ and deny that weeping and gnashing of teeth denotes punishment,⁵ they nonetheless portray by it the same place in Greek mythology known as the Elysian Fields.⁵ These, and their precursor from Egyptian mythology’s Reed Fields, gave rise the that doctrine of purgatory, and the idea of second chances after death for the lost and unrepentant.

Notes:

^{1 - 5.} Koinonia House, “The Kingdom, Power, and Glory: How Secure Is our Salvation?” Personal Update: The News Journal of Koinonia House 20, no. 1 (2010) 31.

^{5. Ibid, 32.}

^6. The Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians’ Reed Fields in composing their Elysium where souls who survived journeys of purification through the fields  were able to spend eternity in happy circumstances.  Several variations of this exist in literature.  Originally, only the mortal relatives of the king of the gods made it to Elysium and a blessed after life, and later lessor souls were portrayed making a frightful journey of  to an area of remorse and suffering, but heroes and the virtuous fared better.

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.

In Life Groups, members are confronted with Christianity-by-the-numbers, or with formulas for Christian living, designed by the leadership.  The leadership’s goals for growth and perpetuity of the organization are more attuned to self-preservation than they are to edification of the saints.  It follows for leaders to assess group members as potential capital. They are to be utilized for their labor, in volunteering; for their facilities, using homes; and for their money, collected in tithes, offerings, and sales for church products and productions.  There are several tactics employed to obtain these resources, and Life Groups provide an opportunity to work over members more personally in an intimate setting until they conform to the vision.

Many churches publish their Life Group resources online making it possible to obtain examples of human capital management in rather sordid detail.  Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, California applies a particularly shameful example of coercion for raising finances from group members in its Life Group curriculum the “ABC’s of Financial Success.” In one lesson from the program Judas Iscariot is psychologically examined in such a way as to make it possible to negatively profile some members of the group.  After guided reading in the gospel of John, chapter twelve, group members are asked to share what they think went though Judas’ mind at the pouring of the ointment from the alabaster box onto Jesus.

We know what Judas said because it is recorded.  Judas protested that the ointment should have been sold, and the money given to the poor (John 12: 5).  The group members are prompted for their answer this way:

Often time [sic] we think of Judas just as an evil traitor but we must remember that he was not always thinking of betraying Jesus.  He left everything he had to follow Jesus and as far as we know he followed faithfully until his betrayal.  Based upon this information…share your answer.¹

The surface lesson might be that the love of money can cause one to miss sight of what is most important, but there is an obvious attempt at subliminal stimulation here that is atrocious.

The ulterior design of this prompting seems to be in persuading individuals to presume themselves candidates as likely as Judas to betray Christ.  The unraveling of their faith made possible by their retaining any reservation in turning over their finances in the percentages prescribed by the church, Satan was sure to enter into them effecting their eternal damnation.  The way in which these scriptures are handled in this exercise reveals both a gross manipulation of people, and the facts.

As far as we know, Judas was not faithfully following Jesus up until the betrayal.  The text tells us very plainly that Judas cared not for the poor, a fact others might have suspected and that John already knew, and an attitude opposite what one would expect from a person who had faith in Christ.  Furthermore, the same text reveals Judas was the one in the group who carried money purse, and it is clearly pointed out that “he was a thief” (John 12:6).  For how long Judas had been stealing we are not told, but he already had been stealing by this point, and had probably been doing so for a long time.   Contrary to what’s being implied, there was no sudden incident of a born-again Christian coveting a fortune affixed at his numerical breaking point and losing his salvation on account of it.

In another exercise, Life Group members are guided in reading the parable of the talents in Matthew, chapter twenty-five.   The facilitator is supplied with leader notes that correctly interpret what the parable represents, and the identities of the persons in the parable; except for one tragic error.  The leader notes bunch all the servants in the parable into one category, and instruct the facilitator to proclaim: “The servants represent us.”² A cursory examination of the details of the parable shows clearly that the one-talent servant was not one of us, that is he could not be considered a true Christian, but was in fact a professor only. In spite of this, group members are asked “Which one of the servants do you most relate to? Why?”³  Here again, the underlying motive for blurring the lines between the saved and the lost can be traced to raising capital.

The parable runs from verse 14 to verse 30, but the guided reading stops at verse 26, and this seems to be purposely guided so as to obscure, for the moment, the unsaved character of that one-talent servant, and his doom. The end of the parable reads:

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 25:28-30)

The fact that the parable is short, and human nature is inquisitive, means that it is a safe bet to assume that many readers will, on their own, find out the fate of the one-talent servant.  By not covering it in the group, leaders can avoid fielding the salvation issue, and can instead let the implication stand that this fate awaits those who refuse to tithe to the church.

The one-talent servant buried his talent in the ground thus showing that he did not have Christ.  Those who have not Christ will lose even the life that they have.  There is no defense for such scandalous mistreatment of persons and misapplication of scriptures.  Nowhere in the leader notes is there any instruction or caution for ensuring the salvation issue in a group member’s life who identifies himself as the one-talent man upon examining this parable.  So it cannot be said that by identifying all the servants as “us” in the parable the church was merely acknowledging the saved and unsaved mixture of their Life Groups; else it is horribly negligent in the care for souls, and in the proclamation of the gospel. The reason for the church identifying all the servants of the parable in the same group is to use fear of cursing to motivate group members to give money.

Notes:

^1. Shepherd of the Hills Church, “Bondage,” ABC’s of Financial Success. (Leader Notes) http://www.4lifegroups.org/leaders/leader-notes/abc-s-of-financial-success-leader-notes/bondage. (accessed January 14, 2020).

^{2 -3.} Shepherd, “Funding,” ABC’s of Financial Success. (Leader Notes) http://www.4lifegroups.org/leaders/leader-notes/abc-s-of-financial-success-leader-notes/funding. (accessed January 14, 2020).

MORE ARTICLES ON LIFE GROUPS

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.

He went on to explain in the video: “I love my wife, and I love my kids, and I will not sacrifice my family on the ministry altar so I can come eat food that I won’t like, and hang out with people who make me feel uncomfortable.”²  Clearly, Noble does not like the sheep, and even finds them repugnant (and seems to possess a prejudice that Christians possess no culinary art).  Noble is simply not going to sacrifice as a pastor, or be troubled by ministry, and he is “dead serious” about it.³

To prove that point, Noble also informed members that they better be prepared to tough it on their own in sickness and disease.  Addressing the idea that he should visit members in the hospital, Noble clarified that his visits to the sick were strictly limited to a last-rites scenario of seeing a person just prior to them expiring, or as Noble delicately phrased it: “The guy behind me has the bag you’re leaving the room in.”⁴  Why Nobel would visit the sick at this juncture, and not in the intervening time for prayer and the laying on of hands for the sick to recover, might be further affirmation of how little he really cares about them; unless he somehow believes he really is empowered with special authority to ensure transition from earth to heaven for the dying.

A church of 10,000 is far too large for a pastor who can only find room in his heart to love his wife and kids, and not the sheep, but it is the perfect situation for a hireling, a stark contrast from a true shepherd:

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. (Joh 10:11-13)

This hireling is among several that will be merchandising the sheep at Radicalis, under Rick Warren. In order to get an idea of what Noble will be selling, a look into his own product line will be helpful, but first a key term must be defined.

In the nomenclature of compromise there is an important thing to understand about the stampede to be relevant by these men; it is not to reach the modern world with the gospel, it is to emulate the modern world for profit.  Consequently, they don’t build churches, or even houses of worship.  They construct civic auditoriums for the purpose of staging theatrical productions.  Admission prices vary, with usually a standing charge of ten percent of a person’s income paid for the regular Sunday matinee, and fixed ticket prices for special events. For example, Noble has been producing his “one day church conference for pastors, staff members and volunteers” since 2007, and this year the tickets for Unleash 2010 are selling $59 each.⁵  To create excitement and drive up sales, Noble warned readers at his blogsite that this “early bird rate” is only good till the end of the month, and stresses the price is “cheap” by placing the word in all capitals followed by three exclamation points.⁶  In comparison to other productions Noble markets, as we will see, here, at least, he is being honest.

The composition of Unleash 2010 is made up by eighteen different sessions with Noble only headlining one of them.  Titles for the productions include those that would be typical in a business-growth formula being marketed by a large successful production company to smaller, up and coming production companies.  Topics touch on those things vital to growing businesses such as “Hiring, Firing and Creating a Great Staff Culture,” and to maximize profits there is “The Magic Formula for Getting People to Volunteer.”⁷ That would be for keeping astronomically high salaries in the hands of that great staff culture they created.  It is tempting to dismiss this fare as the product of small enterprises attracting too few to be harmful, but these conferences (like the promoters, and much of the attendees) have been sell-outs every year.  Ticket sales exceeded 850 the first year the conference was offered.  The real money, however, is in Noble promoting himself.

One of Noble’s bigger productions is his Personal Coaching Network which he limits to “around” fifteen senior pastors.⁸  The restriction to a smaller audience is intended to imply an intimate presentation where Noble will share money making church-growth secrets, but it’s strictly marketing.  If orders kept coming in, Noble would almost certainly continue to sell tickets to fill his auditorium, and schedule additional performances if necessary.  By pretending to limit the number of ticket sales Noble is doing two things.  Firstly, he is demonstrating his knowledge of what the market will bear.  Secondly, he is manipulating one of the elements of value; in this case scarcity.  When a commodity or product appears to be scarce, people tend to assign a higher value to it.  Here specifically, Noble is looking for people “willing to do whatever it takes to grow,” and that includes agreeing that the tickets are worth the $1,500 he is charging for them.⁹   To date, Noble stages two of these networks per year. At face value, a pastor charging other pastors to discuss the ministry with them is scandalous.  As we are witnessing, though, this is not the ministry; this is apostasy.

Notes:

^1. Museum of Idolatry, A Purpose-Driven Scolding, Perry Noble (YouTube, January 31, 2009). Video-clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxkhs9×98w&feature=related. (accessed January 7, 2010).

^{3 - 4.} Ibid.

http://www.perrynoble.com/2010/01/11/unleash-6/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

7 New Springs Church, Unleash 2010, “What to Expect at Unleash,” http://www.newspring.cc/unleash/2010/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

8-9 Perry Noble, “Coaching Network Openings,” Perry Noble: Leadership, Vision, and Creativity, December 9, 2010.

http://www.perrynoble.com/category/coaching-network/. (accessed January 12, 2010).

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 Brad Powell, Senior Pastor, Northridge Church.  Powell is slated to discuss his process of successfully transitioning congregations “from static to dynamic,” and to go from “irrelevance to relevance.”¹  It is important to understand that in the nomenclature of compromise the term irrelevance means small, but faithful congregation; and the term relevance means applying marketing schemes to attract more dues-paying customers by employing sensual lures in the areas of church lighting, music, and entertainment.

For a glimpse of the marketing program Powell will be promoting at Radicalis, a look back to his marketing ideas from 2007, as originally covered here at TheNewsBeats.com, will be insightful:

Brad Powell: Holy Spirit Hot Sauce, or Marketing Genie in a bottle?

December 30th, 2006 by David Dansker

Billed as the “Change Without Compromise 2007” conference, Brad Powell, Senior Pastor of Northridge Church, MI, is marketing his church transition workshops by comparing Church fervency to a bottle of hot sauce. Referencing Revelation 3:15-16, Powell contends the comparison “isn’t that far off,” and he claims that by purchasing his hot ideas your church can “move from static to dynamic, from cultural irrelevance to relevance, and from ineffective to effective.” Of course, “20% growth annually” might also be inside the bottle too. Workshops include Marketing and Communications (or, “What’s On Your Label?”); Volunteers (how to develop and maintain them); and Programming with a Purpose. “Your services can be ‘all killer, no filler’! Experience the process… from the pastor’s series thoughts… to the final walk-out music. Hands-on training that’ll rock your programming world” (workshop, deatails).

Upon successful completion of the Powell transition, it sounds like a pastor can process attendees through church services with all the efficiency and thrills of a major theme park ride. The cost for the conference and workshops is $179. While we didn’t see a workshop on holding them upside down long enough to shake the money out, it seems safe to deduce that the mechanism is built into the package.

The-if you will excuse the phrase-selling points for this tabasco-talk are Powell’s own numbers: 12,700 people for weekend services, and 2,100 “decisions for Christ” last year alone. When considering these, and Powell’s merchandising campaign, two things come to mind. One is 2Peter 2:3: “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” The other thing is that Pilate got probably as many “decisions for Christ” in a single day; they decided to crucify him.

Notes:

Many civic minded individuals with religious convictions have joined together in the Manhattan Declaration to declare their opposition to abortion and support of marriage, among other socially redeeming values.  Except for other signers, it might be only the commendable exertion of civic duty on the part of the citizenry that could be praised much in the same way as their registering to vote, though garnering more of it from those who agree with their position.  What has turned this otherwise fair lesson in civics, however, into a debacle is the assortment of religious leaders who are now also in league together by their own declaration.

The religious signers of the Manhattan Declaration include many high-ranking officials of the Roman Catholic Church.  Present are the Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese; Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, S.T.D., Bishop of Birmingham Diocese;  Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver; Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn; Most Rev. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, etc., et al.¹  Had it ended there it would have remained only a Constitutionally protected expression of religious beliefs to be respected.

The trouble with the document is that an assortment of famous, Protestant religious leaders has also signed onto it.  This has caused many to declare openly their disappointment and disapproval, and to question the wisdom of such an act.

How can persons who conduct large ministries which include study in the scriptures be so very ignorant of the implications of their endorsements? When they sign the Manhattan Declaration they affix their seal of recognition that legitimizes the views and positions of other signatories.  This writer has yet to discover that heretofore Kay Arthur, of Precept Ministries International, and Chuck Colson, of Prison Fellowship; have renounced their view of salvation through Christ alone and have joined the Catholic Church to obtain it.

Certainly it is a logical step to take after joining with its representatives in religious pursuit of ideals based on a common understanding of the scriptures.  The Protestants who signed would do well to understand what the Roman Catholic Church understands about itself:

This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour [sic], after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd…. This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church.²

This tenent of the Roman Catholic Church, found in the Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, simply means that if one is not in the Catholic Church, one is not in the body of Christ; as the Catholic Church is the only true Christian church.  It follows that the Catholic Church would conclude the obvious about those who left it, or remained outside of it, in regards to salvation.  What the Catholic Church still affirms as its position on salvation, “basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the [Catholic] Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation.”³

In light of these things, should we now expect future study programs from Arthur’s Precept Ministries instructing on how recant Protestantism to join the Catholic Church?  Will Colson’s Prison Fellowship be disturbing Bibles and rosaries to inmates?  While offerings that could be forthcoming from such popular ministries would probably not be so blatant, but of a more subtle nature; such a change in directions could have ill effects on many who subscribe to those ministries.  That makes the nature of these questions, if not their substance, serious; and among others that should be answered by the signatories:

Jack Graham - Will Dr. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, perform the Mass when fellow signatories such as His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida come to call on him?

Josh McDowell - Is author Josh McDowell, founder of the ministry by the same name, soon to release a book titled: New Evidence that Demands a PAPACY“?

Chuck Swindoll - More to the point, and at the foundation, can Chuck Swindoll, pastor and founder of Insight for living, lend any insight as to why he now accepts the organization which claims exclusive sacerdotal powers and that conversely finds his Pastoral Office illegitimate and ungodly?

That last question should also be answered many other signers, including:

Randy Brannon, Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church;

Rev. Jonathan Falwell, Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church;

Dr. Jim Garlow, Senior Pastor, Skyline Church;

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary;

Dr. Michael Youssef, President, Leading Way;

Ravi Zacharias, Founder and Chairman of the board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

(There are others of notoriety who signed the Manhattan Declaration, but who have already proved they cannot be taken seriously in the faith.) What say you?

Notes:

^1. List of Religious Leaders Signatories, “Manhattan Declaration,” Manhattan Declaration.org,  http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/sign/list-of-religious-leaders-signatories(accessed December 5, 2009).

^2. Pope Paul VI, Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, (Lumen Gentium) November 21, 1964. Ch 2, 14 (emphasis added).  http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

^3. Ibid. Ch 1, 8 (emphasis added).

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

(Joh 3:19)

The Bible is nothing if it is not provocative.  It describes not only the human condition, both cause and remedy, but it also tells of the time before the human race, and the universe after the race ends.  The Bible also reveals information about other supernatural beings, and their interactions with humans throughout time.  In fact, some things the Bible reveals about the unseen world seem so fantastic and dreadfully fearful that many down through history have chosen to interpret much of the Bible metaphorically, or otherwise spiritualize certain scriptures in order to fit them comfortably within the viewfinder of empiricism. Over the years Chuck Missler, of Koinonia House, has displayed no such temerity.

Several years ago Missler was the only other Bible student that this writer knew of who also came to the conclusion that the toes of Daniel’s Image comprised of both iron and miry clay signified the disharmony between two separate species.  Where one new spices will mingle itself with the “seed of men” at the end of the last worldly kingdom indicates the tribulation period will witness a return of the Nephilim from Genesis, chapter six (Dan 2:43).  Again, the sons of God will take wives of the daughters of men, and superhuman monstrosities will result; neither fully human, nor angelic. The Lord said that one effect of this would be: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Lk 21:26).¹

Alternately, and of late, Missler appears to have adopted a seemingly more liberal biblical interpretation on another subject brought into controversy.  It is this: that the prospect of finding oneself consigned to Outer Darkness is not the dreadful condition previously associated with it.  The reasoning Missler uses is to disqualify Outer Darkness as a description of hell, but this alone will not significantly recast it as more palatable, or make it any more desirable than hell itself.

If any think that Outer Darkness is anything but complete and final estrangement from Christ, the light of the world, for eternity; they have stopped paying attention where attention should be paid. The scriptures are clear, speak for themselves, and require no preconceived ideas about hell to conclude that Outer Darkness is eternity without God. In the Bible Jesus is portrayed as the antithesis to darkness and those who dwell therein:  “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Mat 4:16).   The shadows of darkness are where we find evil deeds, death, and alienation from God.  In contrast, Jesus is the light who can reconcile man to God and grant them eternal life with Him (Col 1:21; Joh 17:3), and those who have Him have light: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mat 5:16).

The Term Outer Darkness is found only in book of Matthew where Christ used it three times.  In each of these instances there is no compelling scriptural support to interpret it as anything other than complete and final separation from God.   The scriptures need only be examined in their turn.

The first verse is found in Matthew, chapter eight:

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 8:11-12; emphasis added)

The rightful children of the Messianic Kingdom are the Jews.  Though God always has his remnant, the history of Israel is one of idolatrous hypocrisy were most of the Jews reject God to worship other gods and idols.  They rejected the King who came in the name of His Father, who was foretold to them by Moses and the prophets, and Christ said they will accept another who will come in his own name during the tribulation: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (Joh 5:43).   At that time, the spiritual condition in Jerusalem is compared to that of Sodom (Rev 11:8), and fully two-thirds of the children of the kingdom will be cut off just prior the Christ’s return to Jerusalem to set up the Messianic Kingdom (Zec 13:8-9).  This verse in Matthew is taken from the incident of the centurion’s request for Christ to heal his servant, and Christ marveled at the Gentile’s faith, and prophesied salvation to the Gentiles.

The second verse is found in Matthew, chapter twenty-two:

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Mat 22:11-14; emphasis added).

The Gospel of the Grace of God is gone out over the world and it calls men to repentance to receive the gift of salvation though Jesus Christ.  Many have been called, but many also reject the offer.  Nevertheless, we who are chosen by the Father and are delivered into Christ’s hand (Joh 10:27-29) will attend the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven as the Lamb of God’s bride, the Church (Rev 19:7; 21:9).  We are to be clothed in white robes signifying blood-washed purity (Rev 19:8); and none other attire except that which Christ only can provide for His Church will be permitted there. Here it is shown that mere professors of Christ who do not know Him are not part of the true Church who will spend eternity with Him.  Further, note that the man who is bound and cast out of the heavenly scene does not even remain as a friend of the Bridegroom.²

As the phrase weeping and gnashing of teeth is always associated with Outer Darkness, and is used only one other time where it does not accompany the term, it would be profitable to examine it where it is used to see if it carries any other meaning except that which supports the interpretation that Outer Darkness is complete separation from God.  Here it is used in Matthew, chapter twenty-four:

But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 24:48-51; emphasis added)

This weeping and gnashing of teeth is to be found in Outer Darkness.  It is the anguish of those whose punishment is the portion of the hypocrites.  These are part of those whom God will eventually send Antichrist against to cut them off (along with a hypocritical nation; Isa 10: 6, 12-25).  There destiny is an outer darkness as compared to the light of the world reigning in the Kingdom and later in the Regeneration (Mat 19:28; 2Pet 3:9; Rev 21:1) where His brightness precludes any requirement for other illumination; including the sun: “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 22:5).

The evil servant here spoken of is an apostate.  He is the last person described by Christ in His Olivet Discourse where He explains the signs of times at end of this age. This servant characterizes the great falling away, or the Apostasy (2Th 2:3).  He is a false prophet who smites the saints by introducing damnable doctrines of demons (1Tim 4:1-2) into their congregations (this includes psychology as psychoheresy), and makes merchandise of them by marketing these heresies in the churches.  There are many of them today, and many are notorious.  Do not be fooled into thinking that their sin is only of gluttony and drunkenness.   The “drunkenness” here referred to is the same cited in Revelation where the mother of all harlots (prostitutes) is shown to John, and her sins given:  “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Rev 17:6; emphasis added).  The Greek word for drunken here is used metaphorically for one who sheds blood or murders profusely.

Today’s evil servants suck the blood out of the saints in tithes and offerings, and in programs and other merchandise.  They threaten those with cursing from the law who cannot be cursed after that Christ was made a curse for us (Gal 3:13), and they compel the Gentiles to live as did the Jews (Mal 3; Gal 2; Heb 7).  Never once are they teaching the whole counsel of God; that no man is justified by the law (Gal 3:11), and that any who are of the works of the law are under the curse, as he must continue in all things of the law to do them (Gal 3:10).  These things cannot be done in practice as the old priesthood is done away with in Christ, our High Priest, and could never be completed in principal under that Levitical Priesthood, which atonements pointed towards completion in Christ.  These evil servants will join the hordes of hell after the rapture of the church in killing all who refuse to take the mark of the beast, or worship his image; drunken with their blood.

The third verse is found in Matthew, chapter twenty-four:

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.³ And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 25:26-30; emphasis added)

Those who are Christ’s are not classified as the wicked, as this servant is, after that they are justified through Him.⁴  The parable of the Wheat and Tares further clarifies the hopeless state of Outer Darkness; the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  “So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 13:49-50; emphasis added). Here we are told that the wicked are to be cut off from the just, their actual punishment in the Lake of Fire is specified (Rev 20:15), and their eternal misery is exemplified (”weeping” increased to “wailing” for emphasis, as it is in connection with Mat 13:42).  It is true, as Koinonia House asserts, that Outer Darkness is not a description of hell, but it is not, as they suggest, just another place “within the Father’s House” where the light doesn’t shine.⁵  Remember what was said at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry on earth: “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Mat 4:16; emphasis added). The Outer Darkness, and its comparative phrase “great light” are used analogously to emphasize the complete presence or complete absence of God in Christ (Isa 9:2); especially as it pertains to the next life for those who either accept or reject Him in this life. In the three times Jesus uses the term he did so to show complete separation from God, and that the type of persons who are going to experience that separation are categorized as the wicked, and are defined by their behavior.  Outer Darkness is representative of the condemnation.  If any cannot see that, they must by needs sake move closer to the light.

Notes:

^2. Some argue that the man in this parable was not cast from the presence of the Lord for eternity for they reason he was already in the kingdom. Firstly, it should be noted that none of this has taken place yet. Secondly, it should be pointed out that this is merely a scene upon which is painted an illustration.  To see the faultiness of such reasoning one need only apply it to another such scene: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:21-23). Could it not also be argued that the ones speaking to the Lord were in the kingdom? Certainly, but not wisely.  For then would there be workers of iniquity there whom our Lord was ignorant of.

^3. Him that “hath not” hath not Christ.  The idea here is that Christ cannot remain dead in a born-again believer anymore than He could remain dead in the tomb.  A person who sets Christ aside is one among the trees that bear no fruit, and are hewed down and cast into to the fire (Mat 7:19).  “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid (Mat5:14; emphasis added) .

^5. Koinonia House, “The Shackles of Our Presuppositions,” Personal Update: The News Journal of Koinonia House 19, no. 10 (2009) 13.

Christians today are largely unaware of the communists tactics for taking over individuals and controlling populations.  They should make themselves aware because these are now being used successfully in churches to take them over, change their mission, and steal their wealth.  For a complete expose on the communist process of brainwashing the reader is encouraged to read the seminal work on the subject by the author who first printed the term “brainwashing” in the English language.   In Edward Hunter’s Brainwashing: The story of men defied it, Hunter not only reveals the process, but what has proven to be the best and most effective strategies for surviving and defeating it.  Although the threat of communism is thought to be a relic of the past that has been largely discredited, and today nonexistent, it has never been more important to understand its powerful tools and its success in enslaving  men in a false religion.

The “communist theologians”¹ are at work today in American churches and have taken most of them over without firing a single shot. The mechanism used are small groups that can collectively be referred to as Life Groups.  Understanding how church Life Groups are being used to extinguish Christianity can be demonstrated by examining one aspect of Communist proselytizing.  This one is the process for producing confessed sinners who can receive absolution from their crimes by “reform” and “rebirth” into the Communist religion.²  It is a strategy for producing offenders though a process of forced self-criticism, and confessions of the supposed crimes that surface in them, in small group settings which are all facilitated, or led, to achieve the desired result.  With the exception of changes made herein of enumerating the clauses, some bolding, and elaboration in brackets; the following is a paragraph from Hunter:

The communists have made confession the medium for their principal propaganda drive among their own subject peoples.
1. They first determine the conclusion they wish to put across,
2. then they select the details which add up to this fake hypothesis.
3. Their problem then boils down to finding people with experience approximating these details as closely as possible.
4. By befogging the minds [by facilitators leading group members in individual response-confessions through mundane, vague, and trivial agenda points to fatigue mental acuity], they endeavor to convince them that they fill the bill!³

Number three is the reason why Life Groups are segregated by age and often by sex when enough congregants are available.  All these will have similar experiences, or conditions, and have approximating details, or circumstances, to draw from.  These can be capitalized on to more easily lead small groups to predetermined positions of agreement for obtaining desired, although undisclosed, results.  The results are the desired responses the leadership wants from the congregants on varying items that present in the life of maintaining the organization and the leadership, but these are secondary to the actual purpose of the Life Group programs.  The main purpose of the process is the process; it keeps the whole groups in submission and under control of the leadership. This is why a key component of Life Groups is individual confessions of failures and short comings; to confess means to submit. The tactic for instigating confessions takes on the form of a debriefing analysis under the guise of searching for a better way a member could have performed a task, or responded to an incident in their personal life.  Certainly, members must self-criticize themselves before they can suggest an improvement.

Usually, the targeted results revealed to the Life Group members are the completion of community service and beautification projects.  These are supposed to comprise some physical evangelistic witness of the church’s compassion for the community.  While the leadership does, indeed, hope to draw more members to feed off by these public relations exercises, the service projects are themselves part of the communist strategy of enforcing the concept of submission.  People are prodded into to ‘doing life together’ in such groups to achieve the eradication of the individual mind, development of the symbiotic thought process of conformity; and to deprive the individuals of as much of their leisure time as possible to preclude an individual mind from reemerging.

To ensure that the collective remains intact, Life Group facilitators at Real Life Church in Valencia California are instructed to focus on “application and accountability”  which fosters a tedious and time consuming process.⁴  Facilitators are to “fearlessly challenge the people” in their groups “to come up with specific ways they can act on what the group is focusing on,” and even to encourage them to “break into accountability partners for a few weeks at a time” to ensure they adhere to their tasks.⁵  Nothing is left to chance or the Spirit, or goes unmonitored.  Accountability partners are even assigned for prayer time during the week, and group members must use Bible verses to design and commit to action items  with the clear inference that their progress will be reported on to the leadership by the accountability partners.⁶ Ideally, a Life Group member will be too mentally and physically fatigued by the process to reflect and evaluate with outside information, such as the Bible, to ever get a thought or desire of breaking free from the organization. The leadership remains the leadership, with power, prestige, and salaries.

The name the Chinese Communists have for their service learning groups is the Daily Life Committee.⁷  Because the Communist government controls civil law, they can mandate daily attendance for maximum control.  All implementations of these control groups outside communists countries usually begins with weekly or even bi-monthly schedules before being ratcheted for more frequent attendance.  The Los Angeles Unified School District began their professional development meetings several years ago with approximately one meeting per month, and many sites utilized the control group model of facilitated small-group consensus. Today, those meetings are held weekly, and are mandatory.  Life Groups typically start out meeting once a week.  Part of the reason for the surge in megachurches developing satellite campuses is for the facilitation of more frequent Life Group meetings by making them logistically feasible.

The church Life Groups follow the basic pattern of the Chinese Daily Life Committees which have sign-ups for committees on recreation, sanitation, food, and study.⁸  The pretense of the concept of servant-leader, which leads Life Group members to imagine some autonomy, is maintained by giving Life Groups a predetermined list of likely community service projects as examples; with the encouragement of identifying their own community project.  In reality, this relives the leadership of duties by assigning more of the volunteer work onto the Life Groups.

Actual boundary conditions for Life Groups are tightly controlled and regulated.  For instance, in most of these Life Group programs conduct is strictly prescribed and includes pre-scripted answers to possible questions group members may encounter while performing their work, and almost always they are prohibited from any actual evangelizing.⁹  Christian evangelizing is not to be the goal of these groups because it is no longer the goal of the churches they belong to.  True evangelizing would require group members to learn more scripture and thus more doctrine, and those who were as yet unconverted would either convert, or depart, and the converted would grow stronger in the faith.  All of these results would be detrimental to the leadership.

If your church has instituted Life Groups and is encouraging you to join, they may only be innocent efforts to encourage fellowship and support. This case, however, would be one of the very few exceptions, and probably would soon succumb to the Communist paradigm.  One reason for this is that the curriculum which direct these groups is often turned to for resources, and these implement a program of brainwashing and control.  When the table is set for Satan, he usually shows up. We are warned that in the last days perilous times would come; times that would sap the strength from many.  The implementation of Life Groups is the utilization of a process to create a new organism having a form of godliness, but denying, that is disavowing by contradiction, the actual power thereof (2Tim 3:1-5).  We are also told this would be a device of traitors to the faith, and that from such we are to turn away.  What Christians need to understand is that Communism is not a philosophy or theory of government so much as it is diabolical process by which the Devil sets up his anti-church body. It has assisted him in ushering in the Apostasy.

Notes:

^1. Edward Hunter, Brainwashing: The story of men who defied it, (New York: Pyramid Books, 1958; San Francisco: American Libraries, 2006), 240. http://www.archive.org/details/brainwashingstor00huntrich/ (accessed August 8, 2009). Citations are to the American Libraries (online) edition.

^2. Ibid, 237.

^3. Ibid, 242 (bolding, enumerating, bracketed added).

^4. Real Life Church, “Session Guidelines For Facilitators And Co-Facilitators,”

http://www.reallifechurch.org/FAITHNETWORK_UserFileStore/fileCabinet/ministries/d34af287-7b8a-41d8-b4bf-84b420d6eaa7/SessionGuidelinesforFacilitatorsandCoF.pdf (accessed August 9, 2009).

^5. Real Life Church, “Session Guidelines for Facilitators and Co-Facilitators”

^6. Real Life Church, “What a Typical Life Group Looks Like,” http://www.reallifechurch.org/FAITHNETWORK_UserFileStore/fileCabinet/ministries/d34af287-7b8a-41d8-b4bf-84b420d6eaa7/WhataTypicalLGLooksLike.pdf (accessed August 9, 2009).

^7. Edward Hunter, Brainwashing, 179.

^8. Ibid, 179.

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.

The points to be draw from the story are: (1) a young Christian woman, obviously immature in the faith, refused to renounce, by acquiescence, God’s design for mankind when she was put to the test of enormous pressure and certain forfeiture of all she had, to that moment, successfully competed for; (2) the jackboot of the homosexual lobby is a temporal front for Satan’s spiritual attack on God’s word, and design for humanity; (3) the main point, upon which this drama played, that the degree of degradation in these last days is such that Satan boasts openly of his power over the kingdoms of this world on national television, causes a nation to tremble before his hoards as they steal their heritage, and is in hot pursuit of any who will not bow to him in worship.

In this story, the young Christian protagonist is not a heroine, and the homosexual antagonists is not the devil.  They are merely the unlikely fleshly tablets in which the spiritual warfare played out in this particular skirmish.  At the outset, Satan spied an opportunity to crush a young Christian, and then, as accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), ridicule Christ by it.  After the tempter failed in this, he thought he had still won a victory by robbing the Christian of an earthly crown, but he lost that battle in that the crown incorruptible received more attention than it otherwise would have had he not attacked the woman (a familiar theme).

Astute reporters chronicled the event in this light.  There would exist, no doubt, in an audience of several million who watched the drama many carnal Christians.  Some would even see the battle as an opportunity to have a heroine in the flesh.  Perhaps it was some of these that at first admired the young Christian’s courage, but later retracted there statements after being chided that there was too much flesh displayed.  These may have been reproved by an article in Christianity Today where, aside from its misnomer, if the sum total of its Christian fidelity were cast into lead bars it couldn’t sink a paper cup in rough waters.  It is a secular magazine for outward Christian appearances, and as such makes many compromises with the world.

In following the magazine’s cover,  Katelyn Beaty took many to task for exhibiting a double standard where they heralded Miss California Carrie Prejean for her courage under fire without also criticizing the scarcity of her uniform.  Beaty’s article “The Other Miss California Controversy” is a typical pulp-like offering on the drama.  It side-steps the spiritual dimension of homosexuality and its hostility towards Christ, uses only the euphemisms that are demanded by the homosexual lobby to describe the conflict (i.e. “gay” and “same-sex marriage” in place of the words ‘homosexual’ and ‘abomination’), and reduces God’s commands to merely “biblical sexual ethics.”¹  And under this crushing moral weight; no less than Christian pastors are crumbling.

In one ‘about face’ example, Larry DeBruyn, pastor, Discernment Ministries, led his retreat with a portion of Beaty’s article as an epigram to his own article wherein he recants his former admiration for Prejeans’s courage on account of the flesh involved.  He claims he was led to reflect that it was too much of hers, but as that means he was led by his own in the first case, and then persuaded by the superficiality of a fleshly tabloid in the second, it is probably the flesh that’s still eating pastor DeBruyn.

In his article “Miss USA Controversy - A Pastor Responds,” DeBruyn sends up lots of scripture verse on nakedness and lust, and even meanders around in the Old Testament, but even when he finds himself in Leviticus, chapter eighteen, he can’t seem to find the verse: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Lev 18:22).  Granted, that wasn’t the focus of his article, but he did ramble as far as Mecca for moral support to condemn Prejean when he speculated that:

The prevalence of nudity and semi-nudity in our culture may help explain-there is no excuse for terrorism-why fundamentalist Muslims, whose women dress in burkhas (i.e., loose garments with veiled holes for the eyes), detest the west (See “Women in Burkas: A Lesson for Christians”).²

To raise as a sceptre of righteousness what fronts for Muslim purity as a standard to be appealed to in judging the Church is more than shallow; it is reprehensible.  The explanation for why fundamentalist Muslims hate the west is Christianity.  If there be any ancillary animosities held by women in burkhas it is that they are forced to smother under burlap bags while other women lie on beaches in Malibu.  Those so easily turned on their good opinion like DeBruyn as on the edge of a dime must ask themselves what is the mint of their coinage.  Are they tokens to be spent in God’s economy, or are they slotted only for prevailing public opinion?

The mature in the faith know that this age of grace is fast coming to an end.  We must be discerning, “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). The young men need prayer so that they may be established, and slip not by cleaver diversion, and bend not when compassed about. They that be with us are more than they that be with them.  When once a servant of a man of God feared how they should make out against the hordes of the enemy, Elisha prayed that the Lord would open the servant’s eyes.  “And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2Ki 6:17).  Lord, open your servants’ eyes.

Notes:

^1. Katelyn Beaty, “The Other Miss California Controversy,” Christianity Today blog for women, April 23, 2009. http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2009/04/the_other_miss_california_cont.html

^2. Larry DeBruyn, “Miss USA Controversy - A Pastor Responds,” Slice of Laodicea, April 24, 2009. Extracted in “The Naked Slippery Slope,” Herescope, April 27, 2009.  Quotations taken from Extract. http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/04/naked-slippery-slope.html

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

It is sad that those rumored to have maturity in the faith would take the time to study under Chesterton, and cite him in their own works on the faith. At point is John Piper, who is pressed by admirers to be some Christian thinker of our times.  Indeed, Piper has authored several Christian books over the years.  Nevertheless, he remains so impressed by Chesterton’s prose lamenting mankind’s lack of conviction for the truth that he included it in his book Brothers We Are Not Professionals, and Piper quotes this from him:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.  Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition.  Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.  A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth.¹

This, for all its purported value in assertiveness training for truth bearers , is but nothing more than a self-affirmation that Chesterton was a living example of his own complaint.  It will turn out well for all those who were enamored with Chesterton, for all his sophistry, and who later discover that he was a fool; he would as soon doubt the word of God as toy with the implications of doing so.

On page 30 of Orthodoxy, Chesterton caves under the scientific evidence available to him in 1908, and joins the throngs of Darwinists happy to call God a liar:

If evolution simply means that a positive thing called an ape turned very slowly into a positive thing called a man, then it is stingless for orthodoxy; for a personal God might just as well do things slowly as quickly , especially if , like the Christian God, he were outside time.²

Appealing to the fact that God can do things the way He chooses to argue in favor of theistic evolution is asinine.  Where the Bible is silent, good men may speculate, but to contradict it where it has spoken is to wield the sting of poison.  On the subject, thus saith the Lord:  “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).

Let the writer here repeat himself from an earlier defense of the Bible where this verse was treated:

At one time, and in one instance, man was fully formed up to his nostrils before he had any life in him at all-no living cells struggling for survival, no grotesque mutating and mindless devouring as protoplasm. God completely formed him out to the dust of the ground and then breathed into him the breath of life, and by miraculous means man became a living soul; not an intermediate soul, not half a soul, but a living human soul in its entirety starting life in the image of God.³

What then of these Christian writers who fawn over purveyors of heresy?  Is it a case of much learning making them mad?  Festus leveled that charge against the Apostle Paul in an attempt to discredit him and the gospel (Acts 26:24).  Of course it was not true, but the charge itself is not without meat.

We should have discussions about what’s important, but not forget the rule and caution of discussion.  The more that we dialogue, the further away from the point we get.  This is why conclusions are necessary in writing, and, more importantly, why we who are in the faith must strive to finish well.  The Lord does not lie, though his ways are past finding out; God made man out of the dust of the ground during one day, he raised another from the dead in only three.  Let the redeemed of the Lord sing: “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Rev 15:3).  We must contend for the faith.  Let us not write so much about something that we remove ourselves from the something we’re supposed to be about.  Nor let us knowingly endorse those in our citations who deceptively plant seeds of doubt attacking the word of God.

Notes:

^1. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, (1908): quoted in John Piper, Brothers We Are Not Professionals (B&H Publishing, 2002), 162.

^2. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, (Dodd and Mead, 1908; New York: First Image, 1936), citation to the First Image edition. 

^3. David Dansker, “Immediate Man,” TheNewsBeats.com/TheBibleBeats.com, February 16, 2008. http://www.thenewsbeats.com/bible/?p=30