COAXING CHRISTIANS OUT
OF THEIR HIDING PLACES
DESPITE THE DANGER
THEY MIGHT FACE
November 13, 2002
by: S.R. Shearer
"Things are not always what they appear to be."
|
- Paul Neuman to Sally Fields
in Absence of Malice |
 |
|
Don't pity the
poor soldier
who has tried
and failed, save
your pity for
the sucker
who has never
had the guts to
even try.
|
Adapted from a saying by -
Pete Seeger |
|
INTRODUCTION
I
think that a great deal of you might be surprised to learn that our
website here at Antipas Ministries - i.e., www.endtimesnetwork.com (now
www.antipasministries.com) - gets over 1.6 MILLION "hits"
a MONTH. Our other website - www.isrp.org - receives a
similar amount of "hits." Now that's quite a lot of "hits" - especially
considering the fact that we have done NOTHING at all
to advertise the website. NOTHING! - the fact is, we've
never really had enough money to do so.
That
makes Antipas one of the most visited CHRISTIAN websites
on the internet. That's simply amazing, especially since our "popularity"
(if that's what it could be called) is a word-of-mouth "popularity"
based simply on the fact that one reader has told another reader about
us, who in turn has told another, and so on, and on, and on.
Moreover, this is all the more amazing when one begins to comprehend
the notion that this enormous readership has been largely generated
out of the very community that supposedly forms George Bush's CORE
political constituency.
What
does all this suggest? Well, for one thing it seems to suggest that
at the "RANK-AND-FILE" or "GRASS ROOTS"
level of the evangelical community there is a lot of latent misgiving
about the connection the church's leadership has been promoting with
George Bush and his AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM - and that
there is a willingness to listen on the part of "ordinary Christians"
to what we are saying in opposition to what the church's leadership
has been promoting. [Please see our article, "George Bush, the Promise
Keepers, and the Principles of Messianic Leadership; please also see
our article, "Inside the American New World Order System."]
A GROWING DANGER
Now
this could be a very dangerous thing for us and, frankly, not only for
us, but for all those who associate themselves with us - and we are
not kidding around here! The fact is, those who oppose the self-righteous
and sanctimonious "hard-right" in this country have a way of "disappearing,"
having "accidents," and/or being jailed on "trumped up charges" of one
kind or another. [Please see our articles on this matter, "MK-Ultra:
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, A Study of the Mindset Behind
Today's New World Order;" please also see "MK-Ultra and the Assassination
of John F. Kennedy - More Evidence," and "Conspiracy Theories;" finally,
please see our articles, "Apostasy: Christianity in the Service of a
Religio-Political-Corporate-Terrorist State," "John Ashcroft, Theodore
Olson, and the New National Security State," and "Ashcroft: Making a
List of Dissenters."]
While
we have no interest at all in the politics of what's happening here
[by that we mean, we are not interested in building a political
challenge against Bush, we are only interested in breaking the connection
between him and the church (and not out of any political concern for
the nation as such, but because of the spiritual concern we have for
the church)], we understand that is probably not the way Bush and his
sycophants in the leadership of the church are going to view matters.
And in connection with this, it probably has not gone unnoticed by the
"powers that be" that our readership has grown to the extent that it
has, which, of course, does us no good from a "personal security" standpoint.
THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
The
fact of the matter is, these men have no interest in spiritual matters!
Their only interest is in using the church in furtherance of their own
political, military, and economic goals, and they cannot help but view
us as a hindrance to what they are trying to accomplish - BECAUSE
IN CHALLENGING THE CHURCH'S CONNECTION TO GEORGE BUSH'S NEW WORLD ORDER
SYSTEM, WE ARE - IPSO FACTO - CHALLENGING THE VERY BASIS OF HIS
HOLD ON POLITICAL POWER. STRIP BUSH OF HIS EVANGELICAL FOLLOWING, AND
WE WILL STRIP HIM OF HIS POWER; OR - PUT ANOTHER WAY - STRIP THE CHURCHES
WHO SUPPORT HIM OF THEIR "PARISHIONERS," AND WE WILL RENDER HIS BASE
IMPOTENT.
Moreover,
the threat we represent to Bush and his flunkies in the leadership of
the church is made all the more dangerous by the fact that in challenging
the connection the church has with Bush and his political cohorts, we
are doing so NOT on the basis of any kind of liberal
sociological or political standpoint, but from a BIBLICAL
standpoint, AND IN A MANNER THAT MOST "RANK-AND-FILE" EVANGELICALS
CAN UNDERSTAND.
As a result, resistance to what we are doing from both the Religious
Right and the Political Right is inevitable; and believe me, it is there,
and it is growing in more ways than we could ever say! - and IT'S
FOR THIS REASON THAT IT HAS BEEN SO EXTRAORDINARY THAT SO MANY CHRISTIANS
HAVE "TUNED IN" TO WHAT WE ARE SAYING. It proves that they are not
quite the "PAVLOVIAN" automatons that their leaders have
attempted to make them; and that they might NOT be as
willing to act as "boot-lickers" and "fawners" to the rich as their
leaders had hoped.
BEING HONEST WITH REGARD TO THE
PLAIN TEACHING OF THE SCRIPTURES
All
this suggests that there remains a vast residue (a REMNANT,
so to speak) of "born-again" Christians "out there" who are resisting
the perverse notion that spiritual success with God can be measured
by the material things one possesses; that there are a lot of "rank-and-file"
Christians who are refusing to "buy off" on the freakish belief purveyed
by the leadership of today's evangelical church (e.g., Kenneth Hagin,
Kenneth Copeland, Bennie Hinn, Cindy Jacobs, Bill Hamon, John Eckhardt,
Bobbie Byerly, Dutch Sheets, Jim Goll, etc.) and their allies in the
Economic Right THAT HALLOWS THE HUMAN QUEST FOR PROSPERITY AND SANCTIFIES
GREED AS A MORAL IMPERATIVE - AN IMPERATIVE THAT CYNICALLY AND VERY
PERVERSELY JUSTIFIES THE DISGUSTING ALLIANCE THEY HAVE MADE WITH AMERICA'S
NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM. It proves that there are Christians left
- despite the APOSTASY and DECEPTION of
the "end of the age" - that are still capable of reading the Scriptures
for what they really say, and understanding
the plain meaning behind verses like Matt. 6:19-21:
"Lay NOT up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal:
"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal:
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt.
6:19-21)
These
are Christians who take seriously the plain warning of the Scriptures
that says:
"... THEY THAT WILL BE RICH FALL INTO TEMPTATION AND A SNARE,
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which DROWN MEN IN DESTRUCTION
AND PERDITION.
"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some
coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6:9-10)
THERE REMAINS A REMNANT
Yes! There is, indeed, a "REMNANT" out there! - and a
much larger one than even I had at first anticipated, so that we can
all say with joy concerning the church as Paul said so many years ago
with regard to his kinsmen in Israel,
"God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not
(i.e., Don't you know) what the scripture saith of Elias? how he
maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
"Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars;
and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
"But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to
myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image
of Baal.
"EVEN SO THEN AT THIS PRESENT TIME ALSO THERE IS A REMNANT ACCORDING
TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE." (Rom. 11:2-5)
UNDERSTANDING WHAT WE
ARE STRUGGLING AGAINST
ONE MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND "hits" a month! Yes, there
is, indeed, a "REMNANT" "out there." The question is,
how do we coax all these people out of their "hiding places" and into
the open in order to take a stand against what's happening? - and, again,
we do not mean so much taking a stand against what's occurring politically,
as we mean taking a stand against the SHAMEFUL propensity
of the church's leadership to link the Christian community with the
moneyed elites of this present evil world (Gal. 1:4) - and most especially
with that ignoble and utterly depraved subset of humanity: The country
club patricians of the Republican Party. Listen, brothers and sisters,
Jesus wasn't kidding around when He said:
"The love of money is the root of ALL evil." (1 Tim.
6:10)
And
these people (i.e., the moneyed elites) do love their money! Indeed,
they are the very people about whom the late Professor C. Wright Mills
of Columbia University wrote,
"The pursuit of the moneyed-life is ... (their) commanding value,
in relation to which the influence of all other values has declined,
so ... (that they have) become morally ruthless in its pursuit ...
They have narrowed the meaning of 'success' to big money and in these
terms condemn (financial) failure as the chief vice, raising money
to the plane of absolute value."
What's that say, then, about these so-called financial "worthies" and
their flunkies in the Religious Right -
"... who like to walk around in long robes (i.e., in elegant clothing),
and (like) respectful greetings in the market places,
"And chief seats in the ... (churches), and places of honor at
banquets,
"Who devour widows' houses (i.e., evict them from their homes),
and for appearance's sake offer long prayers ..." (like Bernnie
Ebbers of WorldCom, Kenneth Lay of Enron, Archie Dunham of Phillips
Petroleum, the Hunt brothers of First Baptist Church in Dallas,
Texas) [Mark 12:38-40 (NASB)] ?
Plainly
it says that they are all EVIL men, despite their labored
pretense at decency and virtue - and for you to think otherwise is to
prove that you are not a "Bible-believing" Christian at all (despite
your protestations to the contrary), because that's plainly what the
Scriptures are suggesting here! - i.e., that all these men and women
are EVIL; that they are nothing more than -
"... HYPOCRITES! ... (who are) like unto whited sepulchers
(graves), which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
"Even so ... (they) also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within ... (they) are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matt. 23:27-28)
Concerning such people, Jesus said:
"... Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God." (Matt. 19:23-24)
WHAT HAVE THE RICH TO DO
WITH THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
What
then does the Kingdom of God have to do with such people? - the kind
of people who somehow or other actually believe that CAPITALISM
IS "GOD ORDAINED," and that Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas
Malthus are Biblical figures on a par with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel;
the kind of people who think it is appropriate to employ the routine
and methodical use of TORTURE to enforce compliance on
recalcitrant client-state populations to the brutish dictates of America's
economic elites; the kind of people who actually think that they are
"doing service for God" when they run death squads in Central and South
America in order to prop up the American New World Order System there.
[Please see our articles on this subject, "The Death Squads: Bringing
in the Kingdom of God Through Terror, Torture, and Death;" please also
see "Christian Evangelicals and the Death Squads: Oh What a Tangled
Web We Are Weaving for Ourselves" and "Pat Robertson, D'Aubuisson, and
the Death Squads;" please also see our article, "The American Empire:
The Corporate / Pentagon / CIA / Missionary Archipelago."]
There
is NOTHING God ordained about capitalism! There's NOTHING
holy about such a mean-spirited system of economics. (1 John 5:19) The
Bible says that anyone who will be a friend of the kind of brutish,
unfettered capitalism that the American New World Order System is promoting
is -
"... the ENEMY of God." (James 4:4)
GETTING "REAL" ABOUT THE ALLIANCE
BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE CHURCH
There
are, of course, some people - mainly our detractors - who insist that
our critique of the alliance the moneyed elites of the Republican Party
have made with the church's leadership "smacks" too much of "conspiracy
theory;" that the rich do not act so deliberately and in such a calculated
way. By this view, the seeming convergence of the interests between
the church and the ultra-rich in such matters as abortion, prayer in
the schools, vouchers, support for Israel, etc. is little more than
a series of innocent happenings having nothing to do with the need of
the rich to secure a "mass following" to act as a "rubber stamp" for
their miserly economic policies, or the perceived need of the church
to secure funding for its own "pet projects" - not the least of which
is the destruction of their hated adversaries in the "public arena,"
the so-called "secular-humanists." Certainly this is the impression
leaders in both "camps" want to create - i.e., that their alliance flows
out of nothing more than the desire of both parties to "do good."
Michael Parenti, commenting on this kind of naiveté, writes:
"I recall a cartoon of two steers in a meadow. One has an anguished
look on its face and is saying, 'Good grief, I just found out how
they make hamburgers'! The other steer is saying. 'Oh, you leftist
paranoids with your conspiracy theories'.
"Those who are victimized by the policies of the ... (ultra-rich)
should start recognizing, lest they be turned into hamburger, that
the conditions they endure are something more than the result of innocent
folly and unintended consequences."
And
the same is true of Christians who wonder why the church in recent years
has become so devoted to the economic policies of this country's patrician
class. It's not just coincidence. Why, for example, does the leadership
of the church feel compelled to speak out in favor of NAFTA, the WTO,
the murderous policies America is pursuing in Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala,
Angola, Indonesia, etc. the way such Christian luminaries as D. James
Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc. are doing? None of these
policies have much to do with religion per se, or any other such
thing. The only possible answer is that these leaders are doing the
bidding of their masters in the Economic Right - mobilizing their following
in the interests of the rich against the poor of the world, all for
the sake of a few dollars the rich dole out to them from time to time.
TRYING TO DENY THE OBVIOUS
For ordinary Christians to say that there are no such calculations
being made between the rich and the leadership of the church insofar
as their dirty, vulgar alliance is concerned is so disingenuous that
it borders on the absurd. To DISMISS as "conspiracy fantasy"
the assertion that the alliance between the church and America's New
World Order System has been consciously and intelligently arrived at,
and that ordinary Christians are being deliberately turned into "toadies"
and sycophants in the service of the rich, is - as Parenti suggests
- to arrive at the implausible position that in the evil world we live
in, there is no self-interested planning, no secrecy, no attempt to
deceive the public, no suppression of information, no deliberate victimization,
no ruthless policy pursuits, no intentionally unjust or illegal gains.
The very sad truth of the matter is, the perverse alliance between
the American elites and the leadership of today's church is no accident;
it has resulted from very deliberate policies pursued not only by the
American elites, but the leadership of the church. To think otherwise
is just plain stupid! AS A RESULT, WE AS CHRISTIANS FIND OURSELVES
IN JUST ABOUT THE SAME SITUATION SPIRITUALLY THAT THE JEWS OF
EUROPE FOUND THEMSELVES IN PHYSICALLY BETWEEN 1880 AND EARLY
1933 (the year Hitler seized power in Germany). The very real truth
of the matter is, Christians are caught today in a system of Christianity
that has become so contaminated and defiled by the world that it has
the effect of "killing" spiritually all those who really want to go
on with Christ, just as the Jews were caught in societies in Europe
that were seeking their destruction.
THE HOPELESSNESS OF THE JEWISH SITUATION
AT THE TURN OF THE LAST CENTURY
The Jews' situation among the nations to which they had been dispersed
had never been a comfortable one; but in the thirty or so years preceding
the First World War, it had turned from bad to worse. As Amos Elon writes
in his wonderful book, The Israelis; Founders and Sons, the crisis
that confronted the Jews - especially the Jews of Eastern Europe - was
one of abject poverty and oppression interspersed by systematic, government-sponsored
pogroms that routinely swept through their communities killing off hundreds
and even thousands each year. Moreover, there was a sense among Jews
everywhere that their situation was set in stone; there was nothing
they could do to alter it - at least not in the lands to which they
had been dispersed.
As a result, in the 1880s Jews began to be attracted to Palestine,
their hearts filled with a fervor for Zion they had not felt for almost
two thousand years. It was a fervor born of the physical despair that
gripped them. Elon describes the grim and dreary circumstances of their
situation - and he does so by mirroring their gloomy state of affairs
to their dreary physical surroundings. He writes:
"A traveler making his way through European Russia during the last
half of the nineteenth century viewed a strangely gray, desperately
backward, sorely depressing, monotonous land. Human habitations were
pitifully squalid. The traveler might also have noticed the fabulous
homes and careless abandon of the ruling feudal aristocracy, or the
intense intellectuality, rarer in the West, of a few well-to-do. But
these lucky few lived lives apart, on a different star. The fundamental
and most enduring feature was, as Leon Trotsky has written, the slow
tempo of development; it led to economic backwardness, primitive social
forms, and a low level of welfare.
"Nor was nature more inviting. The northwestern belt between Warsaw,
Minsk, and Vitebsk, which at that time was one of the main population
centers of world Jewry, was an immense lowland of forest and marsh
with patches of primitive cultivation in between. As it rose almost
imperceptibly toward the Urals in the east, it was all flatness and
seemingly unlimited space, dull and inert; only where the sullen monotony
was broken by a sudden profusion of lakes, rivers, and thick forests
of spruce and Scotch pines was there a certain somber beauty.
"The climate made it even worse ... For most of the year it meant
either ice, snow, slush, mud, or dust. Winter lasted up to six months,
with snow covering the land and severely limiting human activity.
Spring set free the frozen rivers, swamps, and lakes and simultaneously
spread seas of deep heavy mud and slush, which added further hardship
to outside movement. The briefest of summers could bring days as stiflingly
hot as a southern desert; dust storms and huge dust clouds hovered
low in the air, covering the meager crops and often ruining them.
Autumn meant violent winds; it saw the reappearance of the mud.
"Nature itself joined forces with the STERILE APPARATUS OF CZARIST
OPPRESSION to inflict a terrible punishment on people and country
alike ... SURVIVAL WAS AN ACHIEVEMENT."
THE HOPELESSNESS OF TODAY'S CHRISTIANITY
Now
stop and think about what Elon is describing. More than most of us care
to admit, what he is describing here insofar as the physical hopelessness
the Jews were confronted with in the late nineteenth century is not
that much different from the spiritual hopelessness and "poverty of
soul" with which we are today confronted in the churches we "are being
held captive in." Add to that the "STERILE APPARATUS OF ... OPPRESSION"
that the "APOSTLES AND PROPHETS MOVEMENT" has introduced
into the church in recent years (which is analogous to the Czarist oppression
the Jews labored under in Eastern Europe), and one is left with a sadness
that is almost too great to bear.
Is this what Christianity is all about? - going to church Sunday after
Sunday to sit silently in a pew while some proud peacock "struts his
stuff" on a flower bedecked stage pretending to have a "corner on God"
that you not only do NOT possess, but NEVER
can hope to possess, and spouting out sermons you've heard so many times
before that you're barely able to keep your eyes open. The monotony
and heaviness of it all is killing!
And
when he's not telling you what a sinful wretch you are and proposing
some new spiritually nauseous nostrum that he has "cooked up" back somewhere
in his "spiritual laboratory" that you can use to remedy your pitiable
situation with, he is trying to "drive the demons out of you" that seem
to continually draw you - secretly, of course - to the sin that haunts
you in the hidden places of your life. And the message that is drummed
incessantly into your head? - "YOU'RE NO GOOD! YOU'RE NO
GOOD! YOU'RE NO GOOD! - AND UNTIL YOU ARE, YOU DON'T HAVE
A CHANCE WITH GOD!" [Please see Chapter XVII of the Antipas Papers,
"An Ominous New Direction for Western Christianity" for an excellent
discussion of this kind of thinking: "Grail Christianity."]
So forget about the "higher calling of God" on your life, stop concerning
yourself with the misdirection of the church, and concentrate instead
on "straightening yourself out."
In fact, you're so "bad" that's it's best for you not to even preach
the Gospel. Better for you to sit quietly in your pew, try to stay awake
and learn from your "spiritual betters," smile, put money in the basket
when it is passed, and just shut up.
LOOKING FOR A BETTER WAY
Now that's a pretty deadening form of Christianity - the kind of Christianity
that would make one say with Peggy Lee, "Is this all there is?"
This is the kind of question (i.e., "Is this all there is?") that the
Jews confronted insofar as their lives were concerned in the late 1800s.
There had to be something more; something better! And so some of them
- a very, very, very few of them - began to meet
in order to find "a better way" - a "better way" that they thought they
might find in Palestine away from the oppression of the nations to which
they had been driven.
These few - these infinitesimal few - called themselves the "LOVERS
OF ZION," and as they met in obscure, little discussion groups
scattered throughout Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania,
Estonia, etc. they began to think the impossible - of returning to Zion,
and in doing so, they revealed themselves as irrepressible romantics
- dreamers: all of them. After all, only dreamers could entertain such
madness. Their detractors called them Luftmenschen - "people
who live in the air" or in the clouds, and they were mercilessly made
fun of and even persecuted by the Jewish religious establishment which
was bitterly opposed to what they were doing. As a result - as Amos
Elon explains - only a tiny number of these very few managed to actually
translate their dreams into action, and in fact emigrated to Palestine.
Those tiny few who finally went possessed a unique ability to focus
their dreams into a CAUSE to which they totally dedicated
themselves - and so much so that they had little time for their families;
their wives were often engaged in similar work. Some directed the fiscal
affairs of their settlements, managed workers' sick funds, or purchased
land for resettlement. They farmed hard, dry, seemingly arid ground.
Others tirelessly toured Jewish communities in America and elsewhere
collecting the huge amounts of money it took to keep their CAUSE
alive. They lived frugally, and their salaries were tied to the wage
scale of common workers and graded not according to rank, but according
to the number of dependents one possessed. Only occasionally were salaries
augmented by expense accounts, and even then tastes remained modest.
A ready-made suit in New York, purchased at a discount from a sympathetic
Jewish tailor, a few nylon shirts, a small radio or electric hand-mixer
were their most cherished possessions. But when it came to the CAUSE
their capacity to raise money knew no boundaries. To this end, they
developed fund raising to an art both rare and fine.
INDIVIDUALISTS
Finally, there is something else one should take note of in studying
these "Lovers of Zion." They were INDIVIDUALISTS capable
of taking action on their own without waiting for others. In other words,
they were not afraid of starting off for Zion alone - and in the end,
unless one possesses this "individuality of spirit" - so depreciated
in today's Christianity which favors the "clump" or "group" or "BORG"
mentality that the Apostles and Prophets Movement so assiduously promotes
- one can never be at the "cutting edge" of what God is doing in this
or any other age. Take the way David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister
of the state of Israel (born David Grien in 1886) became a Zionist.
He was a native of Plonsk, a small town some forty miles northwest of
Warsaw in Czarist-ruled Poland. He was the sixth child of Sheindle and
Avigdor Grien. The mother died while the future premier was still an
infant. The father was a provincial lay lawyer and notary public. His
main task was to write petitions for illiterate peasants and to act
as a go-between on affairs with the authorities.
As Elon tells it, in 1906, seized by an irresistible urge, the young
David Grien left his father's house. He was twenty at the time and already
transfixed by a dream that would not leave him his entire life. With
only a small knapsack on his back, he traveled ALONE by
fourth-class train to Odessa, and then continued in steerage across
the Black Sea and down the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Three
weeks after his departure from Plonsk, travel-stained and weary, he
was finally rowed ashore onto the rocky port of Jaffa. The promised
land, as it appeared to him that day, was a small dusty town of some
15,000 Arabs and 3,000 Jews engaged in petty business. Ben Gurion did
not like Jaffa; he found it filthy and depressing. He did not even stop
overnight when he came off the ship after his long journey. He continued
on foot across barren and swampy sand dunes which would subsequently
become the traffic-choked metropolitan area of greater Tel Aviv with
a population in the millions, to the nearby Jewish settlement of Petach
Tikva.
Petach Tikva was at that time a small village of a few hundred souls.
A muddy path led through its single street. Economically, Petach Tikva
was still a shaky enterprise and was kept afloat only because of the
generosity of wealthy Jews living abroad. Ben Gurion spent his first
night in a workers' hostel, a wooden shack with straw mats. But he didn't
seem to recognize the hardship that surrounded him. He was free of the
Czar! He wrote his father, saying: "Who is to complain, to sigh, to
despair? In twenty-five years our country will be one of the most blooming,
most beautiful and happiest; an old-new nation will flourish in an ancient-new
land. Then we shall relate how we fevered and worked, hungered and dreamed."
The next day he hired himself out as a field worker to farmers.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we would all do well to take a lesson
from these Jews AND BEGIN OUR OWN EMIGRATION OUT OF
TODAY'S CHURCH: A MODERN-DAY VOLKERWANDERUNG OF CHURCH OUTCASTS
AND EXILES WHO REFUSE ANY LONGER TO ACQUIESCE TO THE PROFANE ALLIANCE
THE CHURCH HAS MADE WITH GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM
- a system that habitually, regularly and with rigorous
intent OPPRESSES and ABUSES the poor
of this earth (James 2:6).
ÉMIGRÉS FOR CHRIST
Émigrés for Christ! - THAT'S WHAT WE MUST BECOME;
people who refuse any longer to believe the fairy tale that there is
any coincidence in the alliance their leadership has made with the American
New World Order System; that it was in fact entered upon by their leadership
as the result of self-interested scheming in pursuit of "filthy lucre;"
and that the rich, for their part - who own and control so much, and
who are so well-schooled in business and politics, so at home in the
circles of power, so completely aware of where their interests lie -
do not make such alliances without knowing EXACTLY what
they are buying: THE CHURCH'S SOUL.
The fact is, the rich have purchased the services of the church as
one would purchase the services of a WHORE, and in doing
so, they have reduced her to nothing more than a "camp-follower" (a
woman who follows an army into the "field" and sells her sexual "favors"
to the soldiers) in their wars of conquest which aim at spreading the
so-called "American Free Enterprise System" into every "nook and cranny"
of the world.
But the Kingdom of God is NOT about war and conquest;
NOT about subjugating nations and peoples to "client-state"
status in the service of America; NOT about the WTO, the
World Bank, and the IMF; NOT about oil concessions in
Central Asia and the Middle East in favor of Exxon-Mobil, Phillips,
Haliburton, Chevron Oil, etc. It's about love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, equity and so forth (Gal. 5:22-23)
- and this is so obviously the case from the standpoint of the Scriptures,
that in pointing this out, one cannot help but reveal the John Ashcrofts,
the Pat Robertsons, and the D. James Kennedys of this world for the
irascible APOSTATES they really are - and not only these
leaders, but whole denominations like the Assemblies of God, the Southern
Baptists, the Vineyards, etc. who it seems have pretty much gone over
to Bush "lock, stock, and barrel."
HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO
STAY TIED TO SUCH A SYSTEM?
How is it possible for us to stay under such circumstances? It's NOT
-- at least it's not if we hope to maintain a shred of personal
integrity and not bring more shame on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ
who - if one listened to what today's church leaders say about Him [e.g.,
church leaders like Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Bennie Hinn, and
the other purveyors of the Green Gospel (which itself is nothing more
than an offshoot of the squalid theology being pushed in the "Apostles
and Prophets Movement")] -- would be more at home in the boardrooms
of Ford Motor Company or General Motors than where He really was at
home with: the poor of this world. These are apostates who somehow or
other think God must have made a mistake when Christ wasn't born in
Herod's palace rather than where He actually was born: in a stable to
a poor peasant woman.
But
you had better understand that "in your going" (i.e., in your choosing
to emigrate) - and especially in your encouraging others to leave (i.e.,
to emigrate) with you - you will be mightily opposed. Why? - because,
as we indicated earlier, IN STRIPPING THE CHURCH OF ITS "PARISHIONERS"
(OR EVEN THREATENING SUCH A THING) YOU WILL BE - IPSO FACTO -
MENACING THE CHURCH WITH IMPOTENCE, AND IN DOING SO, CHALLENGING THE
VERY BASIS OF BUSH'S HOLD ON POLITICAL POWER. STRIP BUSH OF HIS EVANGELICAL
FOLLOWING, AND YOU WILL STRIP HIM OF HIS POLITICAL POWER in a way
that no other group - Left or Right - is capable of doing. [Please
see our articles, "George Bush, the Promise Keepers, and the Principles
of Messianic Leadership," and "Today's Church, Making Zombies out of
Christians - the Prophets and Apostles Movement."]
Not
only that, but you will be EXPOSING the leaders of the
church for what they have become: shameless toadies and flunkies to
the rich of this world - and so much so that they no longer can be rescued
from their folly.
Pretty heavy! Obviously, then, you will not be allowed to go
unchallenged. As a result, Jesus warns us,
"... they shall (in their fury) lay their hands on you, and persecute
you, delivering you up to the ... (CHURCHES), and into
prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
"... (and) ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren,
and kinsfolks, and friends; AND SOME OF YOU SHALL THEY CAUSE
TO BE PUT TO DEATH.
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." (Luke 21:12,
16-17)
Clearly, then, "emigration" out of today's reprobate church will generate
a lot of opposition, not only from your churches and the flag-waving
devotees of America's New World Order System, but also from your "parents,"
your "brethren," your "kinfolk," and your "friends." That's why Jesus
said,
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to
send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and
the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against
her mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me." (Matt. 10:34-37)
But the Bible goes on to say:
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so PERSECUTED they the prophets which were before
you. (Matt. 5:12)
MAKING
A NEW START AND
ESTABLISHING A NEW TESTIMONY
And where is it that your are to flee after leaving your churches?
- TO YOUR HOMES just like the brothers and sisters in
China have done, and just like the early church did!
It's here in your homes that you can begin to establish a TESTIMONY
against the churches! It's here - in your homes - that you can begin
to raise up a WITNESS against the churches, and in doing
so, begin a process that will culminate in God's
judgment against what the churches have done, and against the New World
Order with which they have so shamelessly allied themselves. [Please
see Chapter XI of the Antipas Papers, "Tribulation and
Judgment;" plea also see Chapter XII of the Antipas Papers,
"The Two Witnesses." As a background to these two chapters, you should
also read, Chapter III of the Antipas Papers, "The Distinction
Between Israel and the Church," and Chapter IV of the Antipas
Papers, "The Great Escape: Misconception Concerning the Rapture."]
And
in doing all this, whether you mean to or not, you will be striking
a blow against the tyrannical and dictatorial PASTORAL SYSTEM
that has - under the impress of the APOSTLES AND PROPHETS MOVEMENT
- taken such frightful root in today's church - a hard and cruel system
of oppression and rule that Jesus clearly said has NO
place in the church when He warned His disciples:
"... Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles
exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority
upon them.
"BUT
IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU: but whosoever will be great
among you, shall be your minister (i.e., your servant):
"And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of
all (i.e., your slave)." (Mark 10:42-44)
And
again He said:
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, HE SHALL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John
14:26) [We URGE you to read our small article in the
Antipas Papers on the work of the Holy Spirit entitled, "Body,
Soul, and Spirit."]
Listen,
brothers and sisters: Jesus dwells in YOU and, as a result,
YOU have NO need for any man (or, for that
matter, angel or any other such thing) to stand as an INTERMEDIARY
between you and God - and while this concept may sound REVOLUTIONARY
to you because it has been so little preached in the church (after all,
should this teaching "take hold" to any great degree among the so-called
"laity" in the church, it would destroy the church as we know it today
with its elaborate system of hierarchy), it is, nonetheless, true. It
is this great truth - the "priesthood of all the believers" (Rev. 1:6)
- that allowed people of "no reputation" like Peter, John, James, Matthew,
Paul, etc. to become dynamic leaders in the early church, and so much
so that the religious leaders of that day were astonished by their teaching,
perceiving that they were men of "no consequence" -
"Now when they (i.e., the religious leaders of the day) saw the boldness
of Peter and John, AND PERCEIVED THAT THEY WERE UNLEARNED AND IGNORANT
MEN, they marveled ..." (Acts 4:13)
TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY
Of course, "emigrating" out of the "established church" and into your
homes takes GUTS. It's so much easier to be a "salon radical"
- i.e., a "radical" ONLY "in private." There are, SADLY,
just too many things that hinder people from taking their radicalism
"into the streets" (as it were) - of "putting legs to their dreams:"
Wives (or husbands) who want nothing to do with what they are thinking;
family and business responsibilities that mitigate against the hint
of any kind of radical activity; friends and loved ones who will be
left behind, if not physically, then spiritually; the fear of losing
out financially; the fear of besmirching their reputation if they "hit
the nut circuit," etc.
But, then, all these things hindered the Jews 100 years ago as they
considered emigration out of Czarist Russia to Palestine. And plainly,
these considerations had an effect: Most "RESPONSIBLE"
Jews stayed home; only the so-called Luftmenschen (dwellers in
the sky) left - and of those who left, more than half of them eventually
returned home. Life in Palestine 100 years ago was simply too hard!
Nonetheless, there are some Christians "out there" - some very few
- who do possess the unique ability to focus their dreams into a CAUSE
like the Jews who emigrated to the Holy Land so many years ago; those
few who can say with Christ:
"The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." (John 2:17)
Christians who are willing to leave the "easy (if monotonous) life"
of today's Super Churches to work the spiritually hard, dry, and sometimes
arid ground of their own neighborhoods and work places in order to establish
a "house-church" in their homes the way the Jews of Petach Tikva farmed
their apparently barren land a century ago; who are willing to abandon
their reliance on today's stifling pastoral system, roll up their sleeves
and do the work of pastoring for themselves - which means tenderly being
the friend of those who have no friends and helping the helpless (both
physically and spiritually); who are willing to search the Scriptures
out for themselves and spend the time in them necessary to allow God
to speak to them.
All these things, and much more besides, are difficult to do! It's
much easier to let others do them for you. That's why the pastoral system
is so popular. But it will never work in the Holy Land to which God
is taking us! - a place where He -
"... hath made us (ALL) kings and priests unto God
and his Father ..." (Rev. 1:6)
PEOPLE OF VISION
Moreover, as we begin laboring in our own little settlement (our own
"house-church," our own Petach Tikva) we must be people of vision; for
without vision - without the ability to say with Ben Gurion as he lay
on his bed of straw in that squalid, little workers' hut: "Who is
to complain, to sigh, to despair? In twenty-five years our country will
be one of the most blooming, most beautiful and happiest; an old-new
nation will flourish in an ancient-new land. Then we shall relate how
we fevered and worked, hungered and dreamed" we will surely turn
back. After all, what is the glory of a small "home meeting" compared
to the seeming majesty of a worship-service (so-called) in one
of today's "super-churches?" Moreover, how can the "services" of a small
"house-church" compare with all the "services" that a "super-church"
can provide (e.g., Sunday schools, youth meetings, youth camps, singles
groups, etc., etc.)? It's here that one must possess vision. As the
Bible says:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish ..." (Prov. 29:18)
No! - the naked truth is, just as Petach Tikva - with its one muddy,
little path for a main thoroughfare and its small, wooden worker's hostel
for a shelter - could not compare to the seeming "glory" of Warsaw,
Moscow and St. Petersburg back home (even if the Jews had never possessed
any real access to these cities), our little "house-churches" will in
no way be able to compare to the seeming glory of today's "super-churches."
Here in the Holy Land to which God is taking us we only have our small
rather squalid-looking Petach Tikva - AND THE TEMPTATION FOR ALL
THOSE WHO DO NOT POSSESS VISION WILL BE TO TURN BACK AND "GO
HOME."
A WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE OURSELVES
AND OUR FAMILIES TO THE CAUSE
Finally, and perhaps most difficult of all, those who desire to leave
the corrupt religious system of today must - like the Jews who emigrated
to Palestine a hundred years ago - be prepared to not only sacrifice
themselves, but also their families to the CAUSE. Again,
take Ben Gurion: On a fund-raising trip to America in 1918, Ben Gurion
married a young nurse, Paula, in New York whom he had met in a small
"LOVERS OF ZION" meeting he had attended in the Lower
East Side. Soon afterward he abandoned her almost penniless and in the
sixth month of her pregnancy in order to return to the Holy Land and
defend the Jewish settlements there which were coming under increasing
attack from the Turks.
While most people would probably be stunned by the seeming callousness
and indifference of Ben Gurion toward his wife, Paula kept "soldiering
on;" she continued to faithfully attend her twice weekly LOVERS
OF ZION meeting, and did the best she could on the pennies that
Ben Gurion was able to send back to her from Palestine. A number of
extraordinary letters written by Ben Gurion to Paula during this time
reflect Ben Gurion's "strange" mixture of tenderness and cruel will
power. The letters throw a fascinating light on the motivations of the
small group of Zionist leaders who at that time were exiled or preparing
for new action in Palestine. They also supply an unusual insight into
the character of a man so totally obsessed by his dream that anything
merely human became sheer trivia outside of its assimilation into the
CAUSE.
In one letter written shortly after leaving his pregnant wife to her
own devices, Ben Gurion commiserates a bit sheepishly with her over
the "immense difficulties" and the "great suffering" he has caused her.
He assures Paula that he left her not because he did not love her enough.
"I loved you even before I married you, and you know it, even though
I never told you. My love for you has since grown ... you are my saint,
the suffering angel hovering over me unseen." Next he compliments her
on her courage:
"What you did is infinitely greater than anything which I and others
are doing and your sacrifice is so great that sometimes I want to
take off my hat to you and bow down deep ... I did what I had to do,
for your sake too, and I assure you, my dear Paula, that a time will
come - and it is not far away - when you will share this feeling and
you will understand.
"I did not want to give you a small, cheap, SECULAR
kind of happiness. I prepared for you the great sacred human joy achieved
through SUFFERING AND PAIN. To the greatest joy of my
life, I have become convinced that you were born for such happiness
... to SUFFER TOGETHER with me for a great cause and
you deserve that I bow my head before you. Therefore I love you so
dearly ... I know you were not ready for the suffering and hard test
... but I know you well enough to be certain that you will carry this
heavy burden. Dolorous (i.e., mournful) and in tears you will arise
to the high mountains from which one sees vistas of a New World, a
world of gladness and light, shinning in the glow of an eternally
young ideal of supreme happiness and glorious existence, a world only
few will be privileged to enter, for only rich souls and deep hearts
are permitted entry there. I know that your soul is rich and your
heart great enough for the superb world and the superb life that I
want to prepare for you."
Wow! - only a dreamer could write such a letter! To anyone else, it
would seem to be nothing more than the product of a thoroughly self-absorbed,
totally irresponsible, and completely reckless "Utopian" who should
be stood up against a wall and shot for his thoughtlessness toward his
wife and unborn child. Amos Elon writes:
"Such sentiments - although perhaps less elitist in spirit - were
shared ... by many pioneers: disdain for 'small, cheap, SECULAR'
kinds of happiness; a desire to mount high peaks of chiliastic faith,
to open glorious vistas of a 'new superb life' in a new, vaguely autonomous
Jewish community in Palestine, based on a Messianic blend of Zionism
and socialism. The Messianic sentiments became even more pronounced
... (as the years went on)."
WHAT IT TAKES TO BUILD THE KINGDOM OF GOD
To most Christians in America, the seeming callousness with which Ben
Gurion and his peers at the "cutting edge" of what was happening in
the Holy Land treated their families and "secular responsibilities"
is beyond comprehension. Still, it's EXACTLY this kind
of zeal and dedication that it takes to build a revolution, rather than
just dream about one from the safety of one's living room. And whether
one is prepared to understand it or not, it is PRECISELY
this kind of dedication that it takes to build the Kingdom of God.
BUILDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT SOMETHING ONE DOES WHEN
ONE HAS THE TIME FOR IT, AND WHEN "OTHER DUTIES" DO NOT IMPINGE ON ONE'S
TIME! It takes TOTAL dedication, and to think otherwise
is not only naive, but absurd - even asinine. The Kingdom of God CANNOT
be built on the cheap! The Bible says:
"And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain
man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air
have nests; BUT THE SON OF MAN HATH NO WHERE TO LAY HIS HEAD.
"And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer
me first to go and bury my father.
"Jesus said unto him, LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD: but go
thou and preach the kingdom of God.
"And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first
go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
"And Jesus said unto him, NO MAN, HAVING PUT HIS HAND TO THE
PLOW, AND LOOKING BACK, IS FIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
(Luke 9:57-62)
And, again, Jesus said:
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is NOT
worthy of me." (Matt. 10:37)
In other words, if you put the welfare of your loved ones - even your
wives and husbands, your fathers and mothers, your sons and daughters
- before Christ, you are NOT worthy of Christ! Now that's
pretty heavy! Still, that's what Jesus says! If you have a problem with
this, your argument is with God, not with me. The Bible continues:
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and
sent them two and two before his face into every city and place,
whither he himself would come.
"Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the
labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
he would send forth labourers into his harvest." (Luke 10:1-2)
Now, the sequence of these sayings here is EXTREMELY
important! How so? Well, put simply, what Jesus is very PLAINLY
saying is that unless one is willing to SACRIFICE - as
Ben Gurion put it - one's "secular" happiness and indeed one's "secular"
RESPONSIBILITIES - even for such "secular" necessities
as a descent home, clothing (Luke 9:58), and taking care of one's family
(Luke 9:59-51) - one cannot have a part in the "work of the Kingdom."
And this is so much the case that ONLY AFTER warning His
disciples of this harsh reality, did He choose the "Seventy" and send
them out "into every city and place" with the words, "The
harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his
harvest." (Luke 10:1-2) Plainly, Jesus wanted His disciples to fully
understand what being His disciple was all about.
DEDICATING OURSELVES TO THE CAUSE
Only a very few possess this kind of dedication to THE CAUSE;
and only a very few can say with Christ:
"The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." (John 2:17)
What's that mean? - it means that the "work of the kingdom" has taken
precedence over one's life to such a degree that there is NO
time left for anything else.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, listen to me here: THE KINGDOM
OF GOD CANNOT BE BUILT ON THE CHEAP. Israel was not built
on the cheap, and neither can the church be built on the cheap.
Let as, therefore, dedicate ourselves to the cause of COMING
OUT of the church as it is presently constituted, and building
a new church-life in our homes. Just as the Jews came out of Europe
so many years ago and went to Palestine to build a new country, let
us free ourselves from today's hideous church and from the repulsive
alliance that this church has made with George Bush and his American
New World Order System and start anew in our homes. Listen to me here,
it's not without reason that we are warned:
"...
BABYLON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN, and is become the
HABITATION OF DEVILS, and the HOLD OF EVERY FOUL
SPIRIT, and a CAGE OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL
BIRD.
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT
OF HER, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:2, 4)
Babylon - and here we speak not only of "commercial Babylon," but most
especially of "spiritual Babylon" - has become the "habitation
of devils" and the "hold of every foul spirit" and a "cage
of every unclean and hateful bird" - and so we are told that we
MUST come out of her "that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
And
come on now, isn't that pretty much the condition of today's church?
- i.e., that she has become the "habitation of devils" and the
"hold of every foul spirit" and a "cage of every unclean and
hateful bird?" Of course it is! How else could one describe the
abhorrent and repugnant ministries of people like Benni Hinn, Kenneth
Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Richard Roberts, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs,
Reuven Doren, Paul Cain, John Paul Jackson, etc. who directly or indirectly
teach the "doctrine of human deification" - all of which are connected
to the "Apostles and Prophets Movement? [Please see our article, "The
Superman Theology of the International Christian Embassy's Feast of
Tabernacles," in the subsection dealing with "The Feast of Tabernacles
and the Doctrine of Sinless Perfection" and subsequent subsections.]
Yes, there will be persecutions! Jesus said:
"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater
than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute
you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." (John
15:20)
But if we live in the reality of the Kingdom of God, we will have the
"heavenly perspective" to persevere; the kind of perspective that can
say with Paul the Apostle,
"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom.
8:18)
The kind of perspective that professes that we are "strangers and
pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13) and attests to the fact that
we "seek another country" (Heb. 11:14), "a better country,
that is, an heavenly country" (Heb. 11:16), a "city" (i.e., kingdom)
that the Bible says God has "prepared for them" (Heb. 11:16)
- and in view of all this, we are prepared to endure ANYTHING
on this earth - "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of ... (this present evil world)
for a (small) season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures ... (of this world):" for we have in our view
the "reward" of the kingdom to come. (Heb. 11:25-26)
A FEW SHORT YEARS FROM NOW
Of course, there are those who say that all we are doing here is "dreaming
of the sweet by and by," BUT THAT'S NOT TRUE AT ALL.
I
tell you the truth when I say, IN A FEW SHORT YEARS - maybe
in less than TEN - THAT KINGDOM WILL BE ESTABLISHED
- AND NOT JUST IN HEAVEN, BUT HERE ON EARTH! TEN SHORT
YEARS! We are at "THE BEGINNING OF THE END!" AND
THE VERY REAL FACT OF THE MATTER IS, JESUS IS COMING BACK
to -
"... bring the blind by a way that they knew not; ... (and to) lead
them in paths that they have not known: (to) ... make darkness light
before them, and crooked things straight ..." (Is. 42:16)
To -
"... scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
"(and) put down the mighty from their seats, and EXALT THEM
OF LOW DEGREE.
"(To) fill the hungry with good things; and to send THE RICH
... EMPTY AWAY." (Luke 1:51-53)
And finally, at the "end of all things," to -
"... wipe away all tears from ... (our) eyes ..." (Rev. 21:4)
How
long is ten years? - more or less? It's nothing! Blink your eyes and
it is "come and gone" insofar as history is concerned - AND THE COMING
WAR WITH IRAQ WILL BEGIN IT ALL!
HOW DO WE BEGIN?
How do we begin? - we begin where we are! Some of you are in a position
RIGHT NOW where you can begin a "house-church." Your spouse
will support you, you have friends and loved ones who will begin meeting
with you. You should start! - and as you do, remember, DO NOT
LOOK BACK, because what you are beginning in your home cannot
possibly compare to the so-called glory of what you have left anymore
than Petach Tikva could compare to the glory (so-called) of Warsaw,
Moscow, or St. Petersburg. You will have to improvise to make it work,
just as the Jewish settlers in Palestine had to improvise to make what
they were doing work.
Then there are those of you who want to begin, but have no one to meet
with you. If that's the case, BEGIN BY ORDERING OUR CD. IT'S
FREE! Once you get the CD, make copies of it, and pass it
out to your friends and anyone else you can find. Or, if you wish, print
the articles out (then make additional copies at a Kinkos) and distribute
them in your church. Keep doing it. Don't give up. Eventually, if you
sow enough seed, you will find some people who will want to meet with
you to discuss the issues on the CD, and out of that - if you are persistent
enough - a church-life will blossom.
Finally, there are those of you who for one reason or another can't
emigrate out of your church right now. If that's the case, then support
us by helping us out financially. That is a real help, believe me -
for just as the Jewish settlers in Petach Tikva and elsewhere in Palestine
couldn't have made it without the GENEROUS help of those
who stayed back in America, so we who go can't make it without similar
aid. There are so many things we can use your financial help to do.
For example, thanks to your help, we have been able to keep two of our
members employed full time writing and keeping the websites going. That's
where most of the money has been going up till now - that plus purchasing
the necessary computer equipment to keep everything working. And believe
me here, your generous help in this matter has accomplished quite a
lot: as we have already indicated, WE NOW HAVE TWO OF THE MOST VISITED
CHRISTIAN WEBSITES ON THE INTERNET - SO THE MESSAGE IS GETTING OUT.
1.6 MILLION "HITS" A MONTH - that's a lot of "hits" and
we owe that success to all those who have so SACRIFICIALLY
given to the ministry over the last few years.
MORE THINGS PLANNED
And let me tell you what we want to do now if more of you can see your
way to help us out. We want to free another two FULL-TIME
workers to go out and help those of you who want to start "house-churches"
in your homes to get started.
Now
the workers we have in mind are older Christians in the Lord, and are
not rookies, but VETERANS of the old "Jesus Revolution"
of the 1960s and early '70s. THEY KNOW HOW TO START "HOUSE CHURCHES,"
they LOVE the Lord, they know how to MINISTER
to the saints, and by the time they leave you, you will be able to confidently
move on with the Lord, and help others to do the same. [Please, we URGE
you to read our article, "The Jesus Revolution,"]
REMEMBER HERE, IT IS THE TESTIMONY OF THESE "HOUSE-CHURCHES" THAT
WILL RESONATE THROUGHOUT CHRISTIANITY IN THIS COUNTRY. By helping
to establish them, you are striking a blow at GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICAN
NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM AND ITS ALLIANCE WITH THE CHURCH in a way
that NOTHING else can do!
In addition, you will be striking a blow at today's PASTORAL
SYSTEM that will echo throughout all of Christendom. IT'S
IN THESE SMALL "HOUSE-CHURCHES" THAT THE BATTLE TO REGAIN THE SOUL OF
THE CHURCH FROM THE APOSTATES WHO NOW CONTROL IT WILL BE FOUGHT AND
WON.
WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL HELP TO DO THAT - AND IT HAS TO BE HELP BEYOND
WHAT WE ARE GETTING NOW, BECAUSE - OBVIOUSLY - WE HAVE TO CONTINUE OUR
WORK WITH THE "WRITING MINISTRY" AND THE WEBSITES. We can't let
up there - that's what's gotten us to the point where we are now - so
we will need "new giving" and / or "additional giving" to take this
next step.
Finally, I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart who
have so SACRIFICIALLY been giving to the ministry. PLEASE
KNOW THAT WHEN YOU GIVE FINANCIALLY TO THE MINISTRY, YOU MAKE THIS MINISTRY
AS MUCH YOUR MINISTRY AS IT IS OURS! We could do nothing
without your help. GOD KNOWS THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE GIVEN - and
He is a REWARDER of those who help; maybe not in this
lifetime and maybe not materially, but certainly in the life to come.
You can help and / or continue to help by making out a check to "Antipas
Ministries."
God bless you all!
S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries
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