In his latest "Fire In My Bones" column, J. Lee Grady asks some needed questions of his faith family ... but I've grown weary of reporting on the embarrassing lives of the Pentecostals and the Episcopalians, so go to Grady's column and read it for yourselves.
I will, however, post the questions so you'll have them in your mind before you get there.1. Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?2. Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comments Bentley made about William Branham?3. Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?4. Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?5. Can anything good come out of this?Grady answers his own questions but they leave me as repulsed as did Bentley's original snake oil pitch.
The answers to these questions won't be found in Grady's article, they are simple answers and are found elsewhere! Do you know where?
Showing posts with label Spiritual warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual warfare. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
PENTECOSTALISM: Some needed questions are asked about Todd Bentley!
SHARIA: Arriving on your doorstep soon!
This is the kind of subtle change that is taking place all over the Western landscape, as Islam continues to find lackeys and capitulators among the leftists of the world.
We can look but we will not find any academics or activists crying "censorship" here (see also here).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!
CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!
A British Lord takes issue with the Church of England's main man, who happens to be Anglicanism's main man as well. He says,
Who am I to criticise the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matters of theology, doctrine or what the scriptures mean? [...]And oh how they have been leaving. The issue of ordaining non-celibate gay & lesbian priests has fractured the Worldwide Communion of the Anglican body ...
I am, however, a 'fellow traveller' and it is fellow travellers, whether of political parties or churches, whose opinions should be listened to most carefully by the powers that be. If the politicians or bishops offer confident, reasonable leadership, we follow them. If they look lost, confused and out of touch, we leave in droves.There is, of course, nothing new about homosexuality or homosexual priests and I suspect that most people these days will say 'so what?'I'll not waste your time with theological nit-picking here, but our "fellow traveler" does go on to make several excellent points.
But the Church of England still has a role to play in upholding the standards and beliefs which have shaped the society in which we live. And for the leader of that institution to appear confused by his moral standpoint is surely disastrous.I fear that the leaking of Dr Williams' letters [revealing a bifurcated theology on the issue], even if they are from eight years ago, will give more comfort to those who see the church as a leftover from the past than to those who would like to see it stand up boldly for the values on which it was built. For a while, the traditionalists will rally ... but the fellow travellers will drift away leaderless, with neither a church nor a political party prepared to champion their views and beliefs.And we see it in the visible church everywhere; the Emergents and the Seekers being two not so wonderful examples.So who is left? Watch out for the challenge from the mosques. An Islam with a modern face will soon begin to present itself as the natural home for those who long for moral certainty and a new sense of discipline within society. [...]The task for the imams will be to exploit the fatal weakness of the multicultural society and replace a Christian church that has lost its sense of history and direction with a Mosque that has a strong, ingrained sense of both.Once again I am led to prophetic implications ... what about you?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
ONE WORLD: A religion for all - the complicity of world leaders!
Madrid: World Capital of Dialogue and Religious Pluralism | The Brussels JournalSoren Kern writes what must be a tongue in cheek summary of The World Conference on Dialoque in The Brussel's Journal today.The conference is being organized by the Muslim World League (also known as the World Islamic League) following an initiative by King Abdullah, whose country is the birthplace of Islam, a religion of peace. The Muslim World League also happens to be the principal agent for the propagation of Wahhabi Islam in Europe. In 1987, it was elected as a “Messenger of World Peace” by the United Nations.The WCD is a self-absorbed orgy of self-important global personalities and philosophies, so clueless, so misguided, and so ignorant of eternal truths they're capable of doing lasting damage to this world, unknowingly introducing the system necessary for a global government, and setting the stage for a faux-messiah to reveal himself.
I'm uncertain if Kern is aware of the implications of his terminology and phrasing but if so, it is a masterful turn on globalism and its prophetic implications.
No matter what we do, the "one world" prophecies of the bible will take place ... God has ordained it and that's all that can be said about them.
Some generation of humanity will be alive when sin's gestation is complete and the Great Tribulation is birthed. Sadly, some apostate incarnation of "the church" will exist as well.
As I read Kern's piece I was reminded of Paul's warning "when we hear peace and safety," run like hell! Over and over the author highlights topics, papers, and quotes using the term "peace" at the conference.Also attending are leading personalities specialized in dialogue and useful topics such as “life of human societies, international cooperation, human rights, security and peace and living peacefully together.”It is a truth that the principals behind globalism know little or care little about the orthodoxy of ANY of the religions of the world.The aim of the event is to promote dialogue between the world’s main religions, and, as some observers suspect, to establish a one-world religion based on Islam.They are, for the most part, virtual atheists, mouthing spiritual platitudes to attain and retain the ears and wealth of the "unwashed" masses. Their psuedo-altruism is actually a satanic dance, choreographed to an inaudible tune, shepherding the lost to a disbelieved but guaranteed Armaggedon.The conference, which seeks to promote openness, consists of five closed-door round tables. They will be followed by a final communiqué to be issued on July 18.Click on over to TBJ to read up on the five round tables. So why is Spain romancing the Saudi stone? Because ...[Spain's president] Zapatero[,] (like his Saudi counterparts, but for different reasons) views Judeo-Christianity as public enemy number one because it is the main impediment to the realization of his vision for a socialist multicultural utopia in which everything goes. And he hopes his pact with Islam will accelerate Spanish history.
Zapatero and his socialist advisors believe Muslims are the “useful idiots” of the left. [While on the other hand] Muslims believe Zapatero and his socialist friends are the “useful idiots” of Islam. Such is the future of Spain.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
MEGA-ANGLICAN ANGST: A family reunion that's not!
When 25% of a royal family's princes stay away from a once each century family reunion ... you've got a regal knot in your imperial breeches!Church officials said that 230 of the 880 bishops in the Anglican worldwide communion were staying away from the Lambeth conference being staged in the English cathedral city of Canterbury, spiritual home of the deeply divided church.Referring to Gene Robinson, the queer Bishop from New England, who was forced to stay away from Lambeth, and remains the catalytic issue for the boycott, Reuters said ...Robinson, whose decision to be open about his homosexuality provoked so much Anglican angst, agreed it was time for the church to stop being so self-obsessed.How magnanimous!
"With young men knifing each other in the streets of London [a reference to the "growing knife" culture of the capital city] and a billion or more people going through life on less than a dollar a day, what a shame , what a waste it is for the Anglican communion to be tearing itself apart over two men or two women who want to make a Christian family together," he told Reuters.
Your denomination has just certified you a heretic in the least offensive and most unofficial-official way possible (like a director of a corporation being excluded from the firm's annual meeting by the other directors) and you wax eloquent about their corporate failure to stop English violence and global poverty. Not a word about the cause of it all: your personal failure.
Simultaneously, you reveal an extremely low opinion of Scripture's infallibility and inspiration, dissing (by extension) the Creator of the Living Word, thus disparaging the nature and magnitude of it, and ignoring two thousand years of biblical scholarship, as-well-as the collective wisdom of the men and women who were motivated to that scholarship.
Wow! What arrogance!
Apparently Robinson and the Reuters reporter did combine to forecast one likely outcome ...... it will end with a typically fudged Anglican consensus, [the Gay cleric] said "It will drive the press crazy. There will be no resolutions, no proclamations, no lines drawn in the sand."And this is a once in a century conference ... ho-boy! Forgive us all sweet Jesus, Your heart must be heavy these days.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
PENTECOSTALISM: Proof positive that being slain in the Spirit is not of God!
Man Sues Church for $2.5M After Being 'Felled by Holy Spirit' | FoxNews.ComHow can being "slain" in the Spirit be of God with results like this? Maybe when the tower fell on the 18 at Siloam it was of God, but major injuries and a million dollar lawsuit ... come on?
A man says he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while worshipping.
Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
CHARISMATICS: I see, since we fail at Spiritual War let's have Civil War!
Can We Avoid a Charismatic Civil War? - Fire In My Bones | J. Lee Grady - Charisma Magazine
Some leaders say the controversial Lakeland Revival is forcing us to choose sides. But I don’t believe God wants to split our movement.
Not too long ago I posted on a Charismatics meeting in Florida ... at the time I smelled a rat in the grain silo. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I was clearly waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Charisma's Grady not only drops the other white buck but raises the curtain on the slain bearded lady, fills our teeth with genuine pyrite, stops the spin on Pentecostal unity, and pricks Elmer's bubble while he's at it.
Speaking of his personal experiences and convictions concerning false teachers and prophets (my terms), Grady reveals all is not well with the white patent leather crowd.
I was jolted into reality in May after I wrote an online column [CRIB link] in which I raised honest questions about some of Bentley’s teachings and techniques. Even though I celebrated his passion and zeal, and praised God for the healings that were reported in Lakeland, I was immediately branded a revival critic and banished to the [enemy] camp.I think many of us have been in that frying pan ... yet Christ's experiences with truth-telling exceed ours by an infinite measure.
I became the bad guy because, by asking questions, I was “relying on my intellect.”Surely, I imagined, my Christian brothers and sisters do not really think it is wrong for a Spirit-filled believer to test the spirits (which we are instructed to do in 1 John 4:1), discern truth (see 2 Pet. 3:17) or evaluate prophecies and angelic encounters (see 1 Cor. 14:29, Gal. 1:6-8).Grady recommends both sides consider three alternatives to a war ...
But now I realize that some people really want a war.This is admirable but falls horribly short of God's glory. Words like rebuke, repudiation, curse come to mind ... but then I'm a fallen man, just like them, who am I to point fingers.
- Let’s accept one another. “so that there may be no division in the body” (1 Cor. 12:25, NASB).
- Let’s admonish one another. Anything I say, even if it is corrective, must be said in love (see Eph. 4:15).
- Let’s pray for one another (see James 5:16).
Apart from a direct intervention of God, this can't end well.
SANCTITY OF LIFE: Apparently the concept of "sanctity" escapes some!
Prominent Abortionist Admits Abortion 'Cancels' Souls| Christianpost.com
I can't do this story justice, you'll just have to go over there and read it for yourself.What can we possibly say? The rest of the story is incredible.Dr. William Harrison, notable for being Hillary Clinton’s former OB-GYN as well as for performing over 20,000 abortions, has admitted in recent a e-mail exchange with a prominent Christian psychologist that abortion “cancels” a human soul.
“Anyone who has delivered as many babies as I have, and has seen hundreds of living and dead embryos and fetuses being spontaneously aborted as have I, knows exactly what we are doing when we provide an elective abortion for our patient. We are ending the life of an embryo or a fetus,” Harrison wrote in an e-mail to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of Psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
EVIL: Must the Bride fall in order to rise again?
I write this post under a deep conviction that the Bride of Christ, as she is manifested in the West, is horribly ill and perhaps terminally so!
****It is strange to realize you're a soul-brother with a man you don't know; especially on a controversial subject like evil. But that seems to be the case. Theodore Dalrymple admits to a fascination with books dealing with "evil." I too am fascinated with this subject ... even before becoming a believer.
Recently, Dalrymple read a book by Phillip Cole [a philosopher], The Myth of Evil, and was impressed with some, but not all, of Cole's arguments. The author's principle point is that the word evil is useless in a civilized society.[Cole] uses as an example the notorious and brutal murder of the two year-old James Bulger by two ten year-old children, John Venables and Robert Thomson. Both of the culprits came from highly disturbed and indeed sordid backgrounds, in which there was a lot of violence, emotional instability, excessive drinking, etc. The statistical connection between such a background and violent criminal behaviour is clear; but what the two boys did was nevertheless exceptional (murder by children, even from the worst circumstances is very rare).In Dalrymple's words ...[Cole] argues for the uselessness, indeed the harmfulness ... , of the concept of evil. And I confess that, though I have sometimes had a strong sense of being in the presence of evil, I have had some slight difficulty with the meaning of the concept myself. What exactly does it mean? Can we, ought we, or must we, do without it, philosophically, ethically, psychologically and sociologically?Notice the absence of the spiritual realm.Cole argues that the concept is redundant both as a description and as an explanation of human conduct. In fact, he says, its main use or function, when stripped of its unsustainable pretensions to describe or explain anything, is to frighten populations into acquiescence to the extension of power over them by ruling elites whose legitimacy might otherwise be called into question. For it is not common values or characteristics that unite political entities such as states in the modern world, he says, but common enemies, who are either wholly imaginary or whose power and malevolence are much exaggerated.It is true that fear, as a concept and a reality in Scripture is used to elicit our acquiescence to the person and power of God. Yet, only the fool would suggest He uses it to avoid questions concerning His legitimacy.Indeed, [Cole] continues, the concept of evil is responsible for much harm ... in the world. The reason for this is clear. When we say of someone that he is evil, we are saying that he is a being of a quite distinct category from ourselves, such that normal ethical limits and restraints do not apply in the way that we must deal with him. For evil is the ultimate – well, evil, and must be destroyed by any means possible. Without the concept of evil, then, we would be much less likely to treat people evilly.I detect a hint of Reagan and Bush bashing in Cole's argument above; remember the "evil empire" and "the axis of evil," respectively?
Of course authentic believers know the question of evil was answered by God Himself long ago:Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [Genesis 2:9]After analyzing Cole's forensic weaknesses, Dalrymple offered the following penetrating thought ...... on the larger point on [the Bulger] case, Dr Cole is surely right: to have dismissed them as irredeemably evil, or possessed by evil, would have been mistaken and cruel, as is proved by the fact that the children subsequently turned out well, much better in fact than they would have done had they never committed the murder, for they received intense and humane attention thereafter.Herein is nurture and justification for the Age of Accountability doctrine.As the writer of a book on the case, Blake Morrison, put it (I quote from memory), ‘It was a pity they had to murder James Bulger to get an education.’ I don’t think I have read a more succinct and damning indictment of a society and its educational system than that, and no doubt it does not apply only to Liverpool, England. [New English Review]This is such an excellent metaphor for the Good News. I might paraphrase Morrison's words in this way: "It is a pity we had to murder Jesus of Nazareth to get understanding." But it is true ... isn't it? What would man have learned about evil had not the ultimate innocent died?
Like Dalrymple, I don’t think we can find "a more succinct and damning indictment" of man and his systems than that.
Likewise,Dr Cole extends the lessons of [the Bulger] case to all human evil ... . Venables and Thompson were redeemable precisely because those who looked after them thought they were redeemable and did not consider them as evil by essence; by extension, everyone else who commits evil is redeemable, though perhaps with more difficulty.Sinners all (Romans 3:23), we "were all redeemable precisely because [God made us] redeemable " and considered evil as "evil by essence." I believe Dalrymple inadvertently tells us an eternal truth: "by extension, everyone ... who commits evil is redeemable, though perhaps with more difficulty."
Is that not what God put in man at his creation ... His own image? Thus the concept of "evil by essence" must be mitigated with the Imago Dei.
Monday, September 03, 2007
TERROR: I told you so!
I recently posted on the foolish, immature, short-sighted, appeasing mentality of Western bureaucrats ... and I warned that the recent release of the Korean hostages, through bribery, would only embolden the terrorists.Afghanistan's Taliban plan to abduct and kill more nationals from foreign countries whose troops serve under NATO and the U.S. military in the country, a spokesman for the Islamic movement warned on Monday."Whose troops serve"! How blind our leaders have become; how earnestly they desire to repeat history.The vow comes just days after the Taliban released 19 South Korean hostages after their government struck a deal that critics said sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings and make life even more dangerous for foreigners.The West simply doesn't grasp or understand the mind and heart of a terrorist; their juvenile, psychobabblistic thinking paints them into corner after corner. And they consider themselves educated men and women ... they may be, but they lack what I know as common sense."We consider it (kidnapping) as an arm that can help us in imparting a blow to the enemy," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.For the most part they idolize hate, and they covet the image of fear in an enemies eyes! What else could you expect from someone who has nothing but an AK-47 or an RPG to their name; and the promise of three unearned meals a day.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
MASSACRE: A Life and Death Paradox
I was long ago rendered numb to tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacre. My mind is far too conscious of the evil man can deliver to his neighbors; with each occurrence I simply see another of many more to come.
I proclaim in the name of Jesus this is a glorious week. The tragedy at VTU will pale in the light of the lives saved by our national high court's decision today.The Supreme Court today narrowly upheld a nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure, handing a major victory to President Bush and his social conservative allies.And yet the beat goes on, as thousands more die each hour from normal abortion routines.
In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which Bush signed into law in 2003, does not violate a woman's right to have an abortion, which has been the law of the land since the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Remember friends ...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
BLOGGERS BLOGGING:Black Kettle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
