INTRODUCTION
The
Bible speaks of a great "Latter Day" nation that shall rise
up at the "end of the age;" a nation that will glorify herself
as a dazzlingly beautiful QUEEN (Rev. 18:7), but a nation
that the Bible says is -
"... DREADFUL and TERRIBLE, and
STRONG EXCEEDINGLY with great iron teeth: that DEVOURS
and BRAKES IN PIECES, and stamps the ... [people of
the earth] with its feet ..." (Daniel 7:7)
Isaiah describes this nation as an "OVERFLOWING SCOURGE"
(Is. 28:18) - and the Bible goes on to say that this "BEAST-NATION"
(Dan. 7:7) will gain mastery over the entire earth and establish a ONE-WORLD
EMPIRE that will bring ruin and poverty to the peoples and nations
of the world.
A
one-world empire that will dominate the earth and bring it under its
control? One that the Bible says will be "DREADFUL!"
"TERRIBLE!" "STRONG EXCEEDINGLY!"
- and one that "DEVOURS" and "BRAKES
IN PIECES!" What nation is that? - Mozambique? Zambia?
Costa Rica? The answer is obvious to anyone outside American Christian
circles, proving once again that -
"... the children of this world are in their generation wiser
than the children of light." (Luke 16:8) [For a detailed Scriptural
identification of this great "Latter Day" nation, please
see our article, "In Search of Babylon" What Does the Bible
Say?]
AN ONE-WORLD AMERICAN EMPIRE
Come on now, can there be any doubt that it's America? What other nation
today can even come close to such a description? For example, Thomas
Donnelly, Deputy Executive Director of the Project for the New American
Century, writing for the magazine, Foreign Affairs [a CFR
publication], writes:
"THE
FACT OF A (ONE-WORLD) AMERICAN EMPIRE IS HARDLY DEBATED THESE DAYS.
Even those who fear and oppose it - in this country, the libertarian
right and the remnants of the new left; abroad, a variety of voices
from Paris [to Berlin, to Moscow] ... to Beijing - define international
politics almost entirely in relation to U.S. power, and especially
U.S. military power. The 'unipolar moment' has become a unipolar decade
and ... it COULD LAST MUCH LONGER." [Please see
our article, "The New American Imperialism."]
[NOTE: For those who continue to foolishly labor under
the vacuous and absurd notion that the European Union (or any other
nation or combination of nations) will somehow or other displace the
United States as the world's sole super-power, we URGE
you to see our articles on this subject, "America versus Europe,"
and "The Truth About What's Happening in the Ukraine: Managing
Democracy." You need to understand just how asinine and daft
such a notion is.]
SUPPORT OF THE CHRISTIANS
And
what a BLOODY and CRUEL empire this is -
an empire bent on world conquest, and DAMN all those who
get in its way.
Nevertheless, despite its heartless cruelty and fierce barbarism, this
empire has managed to secure the support of countless numbers of Christians
not only in the United States, but throughout the world - and so much
so that it has in the eyes of many succeeded in transforming its subjugation
of the poor and downtrodden of the earth into a "HOLY CRUSADE"
to bring Christianity to the world. [For an idea of just how bloody
and cruel this empire is vis a vis the poor of the earth, please
see our article, "A Woman Riding a Beast Going Forth Conquering
and to Conquer;" please also see our articles, "The American
Empire: the Corporate / Pentagon / CIA / Missionary Archipelago,"
"The American Empire and the U.S. System of Client States,"
and "The Third World as
a Model for the New World Order."]
AN EMPIRE THAT HAS
PARTNERED WITH THE CHURCH
Christianity (so-called) and the American New World Order System partnering
together to subjugate the world? Yes! - that's exactly what is happening
today - AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE BIBLE PROPHESIED WOULD
OCCUR IN ITS 2,000 YEAR-OLD DEPICTION OF THIS PROFANE PARTNERSHIP AS
A WOMAN (THE APOSTATE CHURCH) RIDING A BEAST (THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD
ORDER SYSTEM). The great Bible expositor F.C.
Jennings, writes:
"Turning then to the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation,
we see the whole stage filled with two personalities only: a 'Beast'
and a 'Woman' … There can be no argument or discussion as to
this speaking of both the CIVIL [political, economic,
and military] and ECCLESIASTICAL [religious] conditions
[of the country] ... the 'Beast' (which answers to the Civil Power)
and the 'Woman' (which answers to the Religious Power) are thus INDISSOLUBLY
co-related …"
INDISSOLUBLY CO-RELATED:
THE REST OF THE WORLD SEES IT
The "beast" and the "woman" INDISSOLUBLY
co-related? - is that what Jennings is saying here? Yes! - that precisely
what he is saying! And that's EXACTLY how the rest of
the world sees what's occurring in the United States today - and so
much so that Dr. David Gelernter, a professor at Yale, says that AMERICANISM
TODAY IS MORE A RELIGION THAN ANYTHING ELSE; that patriotism and
Christianity have become one-in-the-same thing; they've been welded
together.
C.K.
Chesterton calls America "the nation with the soul of a church
... [Religion] is the energy that makes it [i.e., America]"
- and again, isn't that precisely the situation the Bible says will
characterize Babylon the Great; specifically, that the state (i.e.,
the American New World Order System) and religion [i.e., Christianity
(so-called)] would so closely entwine themselves together that the Bible
could depict their relationship as a Woman riding a Beast? Of course
it is! Gelernter writes:
"An expatriate ... [friend of mine] wrote recently in Front
Page of being instructed by Londoners that 'the United States
is now one giant fundamentalist Christian nation peopled with Bible-thumpers
on every street'; that America is 'running wild with religious
extremism that threatens the world far more than bin Laden'."
To put it in the vernacular, this SCARES THE HELL out of the
Europeans and the rest of the world. As a result, according to Gelernter,
"Anti-Americanism has blossomed frantically in recent years.
Nearly the whole world seems to be pock-marked with lesions of hate
[against the United States]."
And be clear here: this hatred has a lot to do with the presumption
of the Christian devotees of George Bush that America is somehow or
other morally superior to all the other nations of the world; that it
is somehow or other closer to God; and that its people are the "Chosen
People" destined by God to "bring Christ to the nations."
Gelernter continues:
"By Americanism I do not mean American tastes or style, or
American culture - that convenient target of America-haters everywhere.
Nor do I mean mere patriotic devotion; many nations command patriotic
devotion from their citizens ...
"By Americanism I mean the set of beliefs that are [today]
thought [by the followers of George Bush] to constitute America's
essence and to set it apart; THE BELIEFS THAT MAKE AMERICANS POSITIVE
THAT THEIR NATION IS SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHERS - MORALLY SUPERIOR, CLOSER
TO GOD."
This kind of thinking, according to Gelernter, is infuriating to the
other peoples and nations of the world. Gelernter persists:
"And we needn't go to ... [Europe] to find angry denunciations
of President Bush and the Americans who support him [i.e., the Christian
Right] ... The President's faith, said one prominent American politician
[i.e., Al Gore] in 2004, is 'the American version of the same fundamentalist
impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, and in many religions
around the world ...'"
Plainly, Gelernter sees what's happening: that a convergence has occurred
in the United States between religious power on the one hand, and political
power on the other hand; a convergence that threatens to bring "HOLY
WAR" to the entire planet.
EVERYONE SEES WHAT'S
HAPPENING EXCEPT CHRISTIANS
Of
course, Gelernter isn't the only American who sees what's occurring
in the United States between the state (again, what the Bible calls
the "Beast") and the church (i.e., the "Woman riding
the Beast"). Take, for example, Gary Wills; he complains in the
New York Times:
"We now resemble [secular] Europe less than we do our putative
enemies ... al Qaeda [and] Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists."
Clearly, Wills, like Gelernter, recognizes what's happening: That America
is fast transforming herself into a religious state that looks more
like Iran than it does the secular nations of Western Europe.
Then there's Thomas Friedman; he writes that the Bush people -
"... have used ... religious energy to promote divisions and
intolerance at home and abroad."
Plainly Friedman also discerns the "religious energy" that
is animating the Bush Administration - and it frightens him.
CHRISTIAN POWER IS GROWING IN THIS COUNTRY
And one must be clear here: the political power that the Republican
Party has amassed unto itself as a result of its alliance with the Christian
Right is GROWING; it's not diminishing! That's what Joshua
Muravchik thinks; Muravchik, writing in Commentary Magazine,
says -
"In addition to winning the presidency with an absolute majority
of the popular vote (something no Democrat has achieved since Lyndon
Johnson in 1964), the Republicans solidified their majorities in the
Senate and the House of Representatives. This will be the sixth successive
Congress since 1994 in which the Republicans will have controlled
both houses ... NOR IS THIS PATTERN LIKELY TO BE BROKEN ..."
And
- to add insult to injury - Muravchik writes:
"... The Republicans won in a year when many things had seemed
promising for Democrats. The war in Iraq was proving to be much tougher
sledding than originally hoped, and throughout the year Bush was buffeted
by unfavorable headlines - a mounting insurgency, intelligence failures
about weapons of mass destruction, prisoner abuse, the withdrawal
of allies [from Iraq], and more ... Nor was the news from the home
front particularly good for Bush. The economy was recovering from
recession, but the rebound was weak, generating few jobs and no more
than guarded optimism."
Still,
the Republicans won - and they won by not "going to the middle"
in order to win "moderate" votes - thereby diluting their
appeal to their "Christian base" - but by dipping deeper into
the well of that base, and becoming even more shrill insofar as their
"Christianity" was concerned - and they won by almost 3,000,000
votes. In other words, by emphasizing their so-called "Christianity"
(and not "running away" from it as most political pundits
had suggested they do) they actually increased their popularity among
the American population. [Please see our articles, "The Church
and the State" and "Political Christianity" for a discussion
of the importance of religion in the construction of a state insofar
as "average people" are concerned.]
ALL THIS BODES ILL FOR THE DEMOCRATS
Obviously,
this bodes ill for the Democrats and those who oppose the Republican
Party's alliance with the Christian Right. James Carville writes:
"If we can't win this damn election, with a Democratic Party
more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money
as the Republicans, with 55 percent of the country believing [the
U.S. is] heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having
won all three debates ... if we can't win this one, then we can't
win [anything]."
Donald Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee,
agrees; he writes:
"I think we have come to an ending point in a long transition
that began in 1968 ... I think we live in a country that is majority
Republican now."
The editorial staff of the New York Times, no friend of the
Republican Party nor the Christian Right, agrees that the Christian
Right has made the Republican Party the majority party in this country,
and that this "new reality" will continue for a long time
to come; it reports:
"The present national divide between the ... solid Republican
majority and a Democratic Party seemingly trapped in second place
may be hardening into a pattern that will persist for years to come."
All this gives evidence of the substantial and GROWING
power of the alliance between the Republican Party and the Christian
Right. According to Maureen Dowd, this doesn't augur well for the rest
of the world. She writes:
"... jihad in America ... One party controls all power
... One nation dominates the world."
In
other words, one nation dominates the whole world, one party commands
that nation, and one political constituency controls that party: the
Christian Right. In that respect, it's interesting to note that it used
to be said of Germany (specifically, Prussia) that Germany was unlike
all the other countries of the world in that while all the other nations
possessed armies to protect them, in Germany's (Prussia's) case, it
was an army that possessed a country rather than a country that possessed
an army. And so it is with the United States: while all the other nations
of the world possess religions, in the case of America, it is a religion
(i.e., Christianity) that possesses a country.
If
that's the case, then the world had better carefully heed the words
of Dowd (above), because the TRUE believers of any religion
(and the members of America's Christian Right are certainly that: "true
believers") are prone to spread their religion by any and all means,
and if they happen to possess the most powerful army in the world to
help them in their "proselytizing," they will be prone to
use it. [Please see our articles, "A Woman Riding a Beast Going
forth Conquering and to Conquer" and "George Bush, the Promise
Keepers, and the Principles of Messianic Leadership."]
WHAT KIND OF CHRISTIANITY IS THIS?
But what kind of Christianity is this that is animating the Republican
Party and the nation - and, as Dowd suggests, threatening to take control
of the world through the "barrel of a gun?" It's certainly
not a BIBLICAL form of Christianity: After all, no Biblical
Christianity would ever seek to subjugate the world in such a fashion.
Jesus said:
"... all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
(Matt. 26:52)
And He went on to say that if He had wanted to conquer the earth by
"force of arms," He could have done so, and He wouldn't have
needed man's help:
"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he
shall ... give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt.
26:53)
No! - Jesus wanted nothing to do with that kind of thinking and those
who propagate it, as the Christian Right is doing today. Instead, Jesus
told His disciples -
"... My kingdom is NOT of this world: if my kingdom
were of this world, then would my servants fight ... but ... my kingdom
[is] not from hence." (John 18:36)
So
I ask you again, What kind of Christianity would involve itself with
Babylon the Great (i.e., with the American New World Order System) -
the enemy of Christ? What kind of Christianity would associate itself
with the Beast of Revelation chapter seventeen? And, finally, what kind
of Christianity would partner with the rich of the world to subjugate
the poor of the earth? Certainly NOT a Biblical Christianity!
[Please see our previous article (i.e., Part I to this article), "The
American New World Order System Must Give Way To The Kingdom Of Heaven."]
If, then, this is not a Biblical form of Christianity, what is it?
- it's one that is BLASPHEMOUS to its very core (which
explains why it is able so easily to partner with George Bush's American
New World Order System); and it is Christianity that is SACRILEGIOUS
and PROFANE to the very essence of its being; the kind
of Christianity that can say with the late Kenneth Hagin (who today
is roasting like a chestnut in the fires of hell):
"That's who we are; WE'RE CHRIST ... In fact,
in the Epistles, the Church is called Christ. The Church has not yet
realized THAT WE ARE CHRIST. When we do, we'll start doing
the work we're supposed to do [i.e., subjugate the earth]. Christ
is the Head - we are the Body - and the Body of Christ is Christ."
[Brothers and sisters, that is BLASPHEMOUS.]
THE "CONTINUATION OF THE INCARNATION"
We are Christ? Yes! - that's what Hagin is saying here; and he's saying
that the same power that Christ possessed to command nature, we possess
too - and not just as supplicants, but as actual POSSESSORS
of that power in the same way that Christ possessed that power. That's
what James Robison - in whose church Ronald Reagan once said, "You
cannot endorse me, but I can endorse you" - also believes.
He writes:
"God wants us to see Jesus as MERELY the big
brother in a huge family of brothers and sisters who are [intrinsically]
like Him ..."
In other words, we are as much "God" as Christ is, and to
the same degree that Christ possesses DIVINITY, we possess
DIVINITY as well! Robison - again, THE SAME PERSON
WHO DID SO MUCH TO LAUNCH RONALD REAGAN'S 1980 CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRESIDENCY
- continues:
"As I consider the implications of what God is telling us [i.e.,
that we as Christ's 'brothers and sisters' are as much 'God' as Christ
is] ... my mind almost explodes. I do not believe the Church until
this time has ever noticed more than a fleeting glimpse of THIS
OVERWHELMING TRUTH [i.e., that we are as much 'God' as Christ
is God]."
This kind of thinking is called the "Continuation of the Incarnation,"
and it is widely held as a belief under different names and different
guises in today's church; according to this teaching, the church is
the essence of God; His "... on-going incarnation in the world
today." The idea here is that, yes, Jesus is Christ, BUT
SO IS THE CHURCH AS THE "BODY OF CHRIST." And if the "Body
of Christ" is "God," then we too are "God."
LUCIFERIC CHRISTIANITY
This kind of Christianity is LUCIFERIC! - and one would
do well to consider the words of the prophet Isaiah before imbibing
the waters of this putrid well along with Hagin and many of the other
leaders of today's American church:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
"For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I WILL EXALT MY THRONE ABOVE THE STARS OF GOD: I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I WILL BE
LIKE THE MOST HIGH." (Is. 14:12-14)
This is LUCIFERIC sin, and it will NOT
be forgiven! Those who partake in this sin shall someday -
"... be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
(Is. 14:15)
The Bible says:
"... All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men.
"And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall
be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, IT
SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN HIM, NEITHER IN THIS WORLD, NEITHER IN
THE WORLD TO COME." (Matt. 12:31-32)
When a man claims to be "like God" in the sense that Hagin
et. al. have done, he has committed blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit! He has denied the work of the Holy Spirit; he has made the Holy
Spirit out to be nothing more than a "common thing" that can
be intrinsically united to a "created being." NEVER!
There is the CREATOR, and then there is the creation -
the creature. Man is a creature, a "created being." Christ
is from "eternity past" to "eternity future." The
Bible says:
"In the beginning was the Word [i.e., Christ], and the Word
was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD.
"The same was in the beginning with God.
"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made." (John 1:1)
He is the great "I AM" (that is the meaning
of His name - Jehovah). There is NONE like Him. He is
no creature. He is no "created being." He is the CREATOR.
The Bible says:
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING,
thou art God.
"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night.
"Thou carriest ... [men] away as with a flood; they are as
a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
"In the morning it [i.e., man] flourisheth, and groweth up;
in the evening it [i.e., man] is cut down, and withereth.
"The days of our years are threescore years and ten [70 years];
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years [80 years], yet
is their strength labour and sorrow; for it [i.e., our life] is soon
cut off, and we fly away." (Ps. 90:2, 4-6, 10)
WE ARE AS NOTHING BEFORE GOD
We are as NOTHING before God, and for us to suppose otherwise
is a very, very dangerous thing. Yes, brothers and sisters, the Holy
Spirit does in fact indwell us, but it is not INTRINSICALLY
one with us - that is to bring the Creator down to the level of the
creature. The Bible says, "Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven? - that is, to bring Christ down from above ..."
(Rom. 10:6) But when we say we can be united to the Holy Spirit intrinsically,
that is exactly what we are attempting to do: we are attempting to bring
Christ down from His exulted and UNIQUE position at the
right hand of God.
Yes! - we are the "sons and daughters of God," but we are
the "sons and daughters of God" by ADOPTION.
We do NOT intrinsically share the divine nature. Christ
is the ONLY INTRINSIC Son of God. He is united
to the Holy Spirit and the Father INTRINSICALLY. We are
not! - AND WE NEVER WILL BE.
When we claim to be one with the Godhead in the same fashion that Christ
is one with the Godhead, WE HAVE COMMITTED BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE
HOLY SPIRIT - and don't think even for a minute that just because
a person claims to be "born again" that person is immune from
the awful edict of Matt. 12:31-32: "... All manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men ... it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
It's for this reason that Lucifer was cast down:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground ..." (Is. 14:12)
Again, you say, but I'm a believer; the Bible says, however:
"Thou believest ... thou doest well: the devils (i.e., demons)
also believe, and tremble [in anticipation of the awful fate that
awaits them]." (James 2:19)
THE LEADERSHIP OF TODAY'S CHURCH IS DEEPLY
INVOLVED IN THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
And it's not just Hagin and Robison that have imbibed deeply of the
poisonous waters of this pestilent well (i.e., the belief that man can
intrinsically be united with God), and have ipso facto involved
themselves in the same great crime that Lucifer involved himself. ALL
of the following leaders of the American church have done so as well
- to one degree or another, by commission or omission, by their positive
affirmation of this blasphemy or their silence in opposing it and their
refusal to "cut themselves off" from those who affirm it,
no matter: Oral Roberts, Richard Roberts, the late John Wimber, C. Peter
Wagner, Kenneth Copeland, the late Kenneth Hagin, Jack Hayford, Billy
Joe Daugherty, Charles Green, Marilyn Hickey, Karl Strader, Jim Ammerman,
Tommy Barnett, Charles Blair, Happy Caldwell, the late Charles Capps,
Morris Ceruillo, Ed Cole, Paul Crouch, Geraldine Derstine, Richard Dortch,
Ed Dufresne, Quentin Edwards, Mike Evans, Kenny Foreman, Gerald Frey,
John Gimeinez, Ronald Halvorson, James Haynes, Wallace Hickey, Roy Hicks,
Charles Hunter, Frances Hunter, Robert Tilton, Larry Tomczak, Casey
Treat, Ron Tucker, Tommy Tyson, Dick Iverson, Vicki Jamison-Peterson,
G.L. Johnson, Larry Lea, Freda Lindsay, Francis MacNutt, Ralph Mahoney,
John Mears, Mike Murdock, Charles Nieman, John Osteen (and his son),
Paul Paino, Carlton Pearson, Tommy Reid, Fred Price, Evelyn Roberts,
Roy Sapp, Jerry Savelle, Charles Simpson, Carlton Spencer, Stephen Strang,
Lester Sumrall, Hilton Sutton, Vinson Synan, Jeff Walker, Bob Weiner,
Austin Wilkerson, Ralph Wilkerson.
All
this to say nothing of our usual "cast of suspects:" Tim LaHaye,
Beverley LaHaye, Ern Baxter, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson,
Robert Stearns, Mike Bickle, Reuven Doron, Che Ahn, Frank Hammond, Cindy
Jacobs, Bill Hamon, John Eckhardt, Bobbie Byerly, Dutch Sheets, Jim
Goll, John Paul Jackson, Francis Frangipane, James Ryle, Frank Damazio,
Ed Silvoso, Carlos Annacondia, Claudio Freidzon, Roger Mitchell, Ted
Haggart, Paul Cain, Chuck Pierce, Rick Joyner, Kingsley Fletcher, Jim
Laffoon, Barbara Wentroble, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. [We URGE
you to see our article, "Today's Church: Making Zombies out of
Christians - the Prophets and Apostles Movement."]
This is a virtual Who's Who in American Christianity today.
AND THESE ARE PRECISELY THE LEADERS OF THE CHURCH WHO HAVE PLEDGED
THEMSELVES AND THEIR FOLLOWERS TO THE SERVICE OF GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICAN
NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM. You had better be careful if you are in
any way involved or connected to these men and women; if you are, you
have been pledged - whether you realize it or not - to the service of
hell.
WE ARE ONE WITH GOD BY ADOPTION
Again, we are the "sons and daughters of God" by ADOPTION,
and this is how we relate to the Father. The Bible says:
"... ye have received the Spirit of ADOPTION,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Rom. 8:15)
And it goes on to say that He has -
"... predestinated us unto the ADOPTION of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will ..." (Eph. 1:5)
The oneness that we enjoy with the Father is a oneness of RELATIONSHIP,
not an INTRINSIC oneness that a son by blood enjoys
with his father.
WE ARE ONE WITH GOD IN THE SAME MANNER
THAT A HUSBAND IS ONE WITH HIS WIFE
Moreover, the Bible doesn't leave it at that; it goes on to compare
the kind of oneness that we enjoy with the Father to the same kind of
oneness that an husband enjoys with his wife:
"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that
loveth his wife loveth himself.
"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, EVEN AS THE LORD THE CHURCH:
"FOR WE ARE MEMBERS OF HIS [i.e., CHRIST'S] BODY, OF HIS
FLESH, AND OF HIS BONES.
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."
(Eph. 5:28-31)
And the Bible goes on to say:
"Wherefore they [i.e., the husband and wife] are no more twain
[i.e., two], but one flesh ...." (Matt. 19:6)
But, again, this oneness is NOT an INTRINSIC
oneness; IT IS AN ONENESS IN RELATIONSHIP! The husband
and wife are one in their relationship, but they are not one in their
nature. The man still remains a man, and the woman still remains a woman.
They do not meld together and become a strange new creature: a sort
of "man-woman." But this is PRECISELY what Hagin
et. al. claim happens when we are "born-again:" that
we are made INTRINSICALLY one with God.
I warn you, I somberly caution you, to believe such a thing
is to set yourself on the road to hell.
THE FOUNT FROM WHICH ALL
OTHER ABERRANT TEACHINGS FLOW
You say that you are not involved in this kind of sin? Oh really? -
well you should know that this sin is the source out from which some
of the most common (but aberrant) practices of today's church flow -
teachings that "allow" many in the church to think that they
can "speak for God," and that their "speaking" is
- IN FACT - God's speaking.
This practice operates under many guises, and under various names and
designations (for example, "Words of Knowledge," "Words
of Wisdom," and various other extra-biblical "hocus-pocus"),
but it's all the same thing: Christians are "speaking for God"
- and NOT as someone who has studied the Bible and is
simply elucidating what he has learned from the Word to others on the
basis of his studies (as we do in Antipas), but as someone who has received
new, extra-biblical "REVELATION KNOWLEDGE."
And this "Revelation Knowledge" is then presented to believers
as the ACTUAL "words of God."
To Christians who don't know better, these "Words of Wisdom"
and "Words of Knowledge" can be frightening things indeed,
full of ad homonym "threatenings" and "menacings."
NOTHING good ever comes from them, even when they "present
themselves" as heralds of "good news;" they (i.e., these
"Words of Knowledge" and "Words of Wisdom") are
INSTRUMENTS OF OPPRESSION AND CONFUSION; A MEANS THROUGH WHICH THE DEVIL
- NOT GOD - CAN SPEAK TO THE CHURCH; they are a means through
which the Word of God can be bypassed, and man can "add" to
the Scriptures, or "take away" from them, in DIRECT
contravention to Revelation 22:18-19:
"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God
shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book
of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of
life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written
in this book." (Rev. 22:18-19)
Of course, to the practitioners of today's "new Christianity,"
it is absolutely essential to their purposes that a way be found to
"add to" or "detract from" the Scriptures, because
what they teach and what they stand for CANNOT be supported
by a simple resort to the Scriptures.
AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT:
A "WORD OF KNOWLEDGE" DIRECTED AT THE MINISTRY
Over
the years Antipas Ministries has been the recipient of many such "utterances."
For example, we recently received one from a woman whose family we had
given hospitality on the ranch when they had had no where else to go.
Early on we learned that this family had roots in the kind of LUCIFERIC
Christianity that we have been discussing, but they claimed that they
had renounced these things.
It
soon became apparent, however, that they had not, especially when we
at the ranch failed to live up to the "expectations" that
they felt were "appropriate" for us. In this respect, it should
be noted that this kind of Christianity - the kind we have been discussing
- is "heavily into" the "perfection of the flesh"
(which, of course, is integral to the belief that man can become God),
and - concomitant with that belief - that one's "standing before
God" is measured by the "perfection" one has attained
in this life. [Please see our articles on this kind of Christianity,
"The Obermenschen (Supermen) of Kenneth Hagin, Bennie Hinn and
John Wimber" and "The Doctrine of the Antichrist: Misogyny
and the Search for Moral Purity."]
This
"perfection" can evidently be measured by various outward
displays of personal piety, such as the way one dresses, the time one
can be publicly seen "on his knees before God" (in
direct contradiction to Matthew 6:6), the amount of TV one watches,
the video games one engages in, whether one smokes or not, how financially
successful one is, etc. - and, strangely, it doesn't seem to matter
whether or not the one doing the "measuring" has attained
success himself in any of these areas of life. [Please see our article,
"Making Men Cogs in a Machine" and "Capitalism and Christianity."]
MOREOVER, THE "MEASURING" THAT IS DONE BY THESE PEOPLE
HAS VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH "MEASURING" ONE'S SELF, AND EVERYTHING
TO DO WITH "MEASURING" OTHER PEOPLE. Such people seem
to have totally forgotten the words of Christ when it comes to the PERSONAL
shortcomings of other people, and most especially, their brothers and
sisters
in Christ. Jesus said:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged.
"For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
"Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote
out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
"Thou
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then
shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
(Matt. 7:1-5) [Please see our article on the phenomenon of "perfecting"
the outward man as it "plays itself out" in its connection
with political power in this country, "The Cedars: the House
of 24th Street."]
SPIRITUAL TERRORISTS
It's as if these words (i.e., Matt. 7:1-5) do not exist for these people.
They have taken a black "magic marker" and "blacked out"
all these verses from their Bibles. Indeed, it seems that they harp
on the personal short comings of others as a means to TERRORIZE
them. Personal, ad homonym attacks (attacks on one's person and
one's character) are their "stock-in-trade" - and that's especially
true when they target someone who cannot be attacked BIBLICALLY
for what he teaches or for what he believes. These are the kind of people
about whom Jesus said:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are
full of extortion and excess.
"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the
cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
like unto whited sepulchres (tombs), which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
"Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matt. 23:25-28)
The fact is, these people do not seem to be happy unless they are "bringing
someone else down." They don't call it that, of course, but that's
what they are doing. They believe somehow or other that "adjusting"
the lives of their brothers and sisters in Christ is what they have
been put on earth to do. This is called bringing people into "accountability;"
but this is an human invention, and has NOTHING to do
with the Bible. Jesus said,
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days
[or any other such thing] ..." (Col. 2:16)
NOTE: you should understand here, that this verse
is not talking about criticizing the doctrine someone holds (that's
"fair game;") it's talking about "attacking" the
peccadilloes and short comings of someone else's character, his habits,
and the manner in which he conducts his personal life.
But that's not what the purveyors of the "new Christianity"
think. They take particular delight in judging others. There is no mercy
with them; no forgiveness; no forbearing. In short, these "Christians"
(so-called) are spiritual "TERRORISTS." The
words of Paul in Colossians carry no meaning for them:
"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels
of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, LONGSUFFERING;
"FOREBEARING one another, and FORGIVING one another
..." (Col. 3:12-13)
And in all of this, the failure of such people to see what they are
doing is breath-taking. For example, the inability of those on the ranch
to measure up to the standards of this woman and her family did nothing
to prevent them from continuing to take "hospitality," money,
food, etc. from us long after they had evidently decided that we were
not living up to the high level of their Christianity (though I now
understand that they deny that we were helping them out financially).
It's simply astonishing! - but, again, this is one of the strange things
about this kind of "judgementalism:" The failure to recognize
the sins in one's life and the kindness one receives from other people
coupled with the awful ability to zero mercilessly in on the shortcomings
of others. My heavens! - BUT SUCH ARE THE CHRISTIANS THAT TODAY'S
CHRISTIANITY IS PRODUCING! - and God help you if you fall into their
hands.
A "WORD OF KNOWLEDGE" IS
DELIVERED TO THE MINISTRY
Finally, this woman - with her rather wimpy husband in tow - came to
our door on New Year's day and delivered to us the following "Word
of Knowledge," and this only after she had secretly stashed away
enough money to leave the ranch; after all, one doesn't want to "offend"
the people from whom one is drawing sustenance before it is "safe"
to do so; it's best to be judicious in these things; it's best to "deliver
God's word" only after one has shielded one's self from the consequences
of doing so.
The "Word of Knowledge read as follows:
"Fresh water and salt water does [sic] not flow from the same
spring. This (i.e., Antipas) is not a ministry of Godly character,
but an institution of worldly character. You are guilty of lies, deceit,
slothfulness, robbery of God's own people, imorality [sic] and divination
[by which she evidently means my writings] ...
"God will strip you of everything and you will be brought to
nothing ...
"If you do not come on your face before God and truly repent,
God will strip you of everything and you will be brought to nothing.
God will no longer allow you to make a mockery of His name.
"It is finished!
"God brought us to the ranch to deliver you your FINAL
warning."
NOTE: As a matter of fact, they came to the ranch
in desperate need of our help; again, if they had had a message from
God when they first arrived, why didn't they deliver it to us then;
it would have been the more honorable thing to do - after all, it
would seem that taking help from the likes of us would have been an
offense to God.]
MY HEAVENS!
My heavens! What a word! - and you must remember here, this "Word
of Knowledge" is evidently something "straight from the mouth
of God." Eeee gads - and "straight out of the blue" (as
it were); not two days after Lucy and I had gone unsuspectingly to the
home that we had provided them on the ranch to ask them if they needed
any additional money for the upcoming month.
There's no "I think" you had better straighten yourselves
out" in this so-called "Word of Knowledge;" no "It's
my opinion that you are slothful, deceitful, etc." It was delivered
as the very word of God itself. Wow! [Of course, if this is a verbatim
word from God, God must have flunked His English course at Hebrew U.]
And the warnings here! - they're enough to take one's breath away:
"God will strip you of EVERYTHING;" and "You
will be brought to NOTHING," and - finally, the piece
de resistance, the words, "IT IS FINISHED!"
Mercy! - And all this straight from the mouth of God.
Sadly, many of those who have shamelessly and
maliciously spread this woman's deceit abroad (all without so much
as a nod in our direction, and without making any attempt to delve
into the real facts of the matter) were once colleagues of ours in
this ministry. But now they HATE and REVILE
us because of our supposed severity, especially as that severity touches
the leaders of today's American church. Interestingly, however, while
they may despise and reproach us because of our rigor insofar as the
American church and its leaders are concerned, they seem more than
willing to use our material whenever it suits their own "watered-down"
purposes; but - naturally enough - only after extensively diluting
it and sometimes using it without permission and without attribution.
Oh well, as Christ said, "... wisdom is justified of her [own]
children." (Matt. 11:19)
MY WIND
Now
I must tell you here, this "Word of Knowledge" is typical
of the kind found in the "new Christianity" of today's American
church. It's not something unusual. Similar "Words of Knowledge"
are floating all around this bizarre world. But bizarre or not, they
are taken very, very seriously by those who inhabit this strange world.
For example, take what David Minor says. Minor is an associate of Derek
Prince Ministries-International, a ministry that is heavily involved
in the "new kind of Christianity" that we have been talking
about here, and a ministry that is deeply involved in strengthening
the PROFANE relationship between Israel and the American
New World Order System. [Please see our article, "The Superman
Theology of the International Christian Embassy's Feast of Tabernacles"
for a discussion of the alliance Israel has made with evangelical Christians
and - ipso facto - the American New World Order System.] Minor
warns all those who fail to take what he is "speaking" to
the church seriously:
"Never forget this is My Wind saith the Lord [meaning
that the words Minor is speaking are God's words, at least according
to Minor]. With tornado force it will come AND ... WILL
LEAVE DEVASTATION [on all those who resist this word]."
Again, all I can say is, WOW! Heavy! Very heavy indeed.
MAKING THEIR PROPHESIES COME TRUE
And if all this wasn't enough, these people - all of them -
believe that they can "bring life" to their prophecies (to
their "Words of Knowledge" and their "Words of Wisdom")
through a very grotesque approach to prayer known as "directed
praying," which they call "spiritual warfare." Linda
Bonville, a leader in today's "new Christianity, suggests how these
"Words of Knowledge" can be "activated:"
"When you're doing spiritual warfare on your knees, by His
Spirit, you've got to send the Name, and the Spirit and the Word together
[out against your enemy]. You direct it like an arrow. When you're
doing spiritual warfare or you're praying for [or against] somebody,
you need to send the name of Jesus, you need to send His seed and
do the work, and you need to shoot it like an arrow. That's why you
pray for [or against] people BY NAME. Because as you
are praying the Word, you are sending it directly to a particular
person; it will go right into the soul of the person you're praying
for. If you direct it that way; if you speak it as such."
STRANGE FIRE
BUT THIS IS WITCHCRAFT! - the invocation of spirits to
do one's bidding. And just because one calls the spirit that he (she)
is invoking the "Holy Spirit," and one claims to be "serving
God," that doesn't make it any less a matter of witchcraft. I say
again, THIS IS WITCHCRAFT - AND IT IS WIDELY PRACTICED IN
THE AMERICAN CHURCH TODAY, AND OVER THE YEARS IT IS HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY
USED AGAINST ANTIPAS MINISTRIES.
But the most important thing to take note of here - at least insofar
as the purposes of this article are concerned - is THAT THIS IS PRECISELY
THE KIND OF WITCHCRAFT THAT THE CHURCH IS WIELDING ON BEHALF OF GEORGE
BUSH'S AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM! It has been used against
the Iraqi people, against the Muslim people, and against all the opponents
of the American New World Order System - people who should not be the
object of "WITCHCRAFT," but the saving grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is STRANGE FIRE, and those who involve themselves
in it will someday suffer the same fate that befell Nadab and Abihu:
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them
his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered
STRANGE FIRE before the LORD, which he commanded them
not.
"And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them,
and they died before the LORD." (Lev. 10:1-2)
THERE IS POWER IN THIS STRANGE FIRE
There should be no mistake about it, however: there is power in the
"STRANGE FIRE" of the "new Christianity"
- Satanic power, to be sure - but power nonetheless. Watchman Nee speaks
of a time in his life when he and those around him in the "Little
Flock Movement" in China were subjected to this kind of power for
months on end. They were overwhelmed by a strange melancholy and an
obtuse sense of foreboding that seemed to surround them and drain them
of their energy. Obviously, their enemies were praying against them.
Finally, the word of God came to Brother Nee:
"... greater is he [i.e., Christ] that is in you, than he [i.e.,
the devil] that is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
And -
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
(Phil. 4:12-13)
The brothers prayed, and the attack ceased.
ABIDE IN HIM
We too have prayed; NOT against those who are "praying
against us" - for instance, this woman and those to whom she has
communicated this "Word of Knowledge" and who in turn have
helped spread it abroad - but that we would draw strength from Him who
abides in us, AND THAT WE WOULD BE ENCOURAGED THEREBY.
And my, what an encouragement we have received in the midst of our
troubles: We have learned recently that, God willing, a number
of brothers, from India, Pakistan, Ghana, Liberia, and Poland are planning
on coming - again, the Lord willing - to our training in June
here at the Ranch - and a good many from the states as well. In addition,
we learned the wonderful news that a very, very dear brother (and his
dear wife), who has been with the ministry for a number of years, has
received an appointment as a research professor at the University of
British Colombia in Vancouver where my grandson (Joshua) lives, and
where his wife (Liz) goes to school. Oh, PRAISE THE LORD!
Then, as if this wasn't enough to encourage us, we learned that four
of our dearest "comrades-in-the-faith" are coming up to the
ranch in the near future to stand with us and encourage us. Oh, how
faithful our God is!
Yes! - abiding in Him is the answer to all our troubles in this life,
and in the troubles that beset us as a result of the work Jesus has
delivered into our hands. Jesus said:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me,
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye
can do nothing." (John 15:4-5)
WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD
Yes! - we have been under spiritual attack, but God knows how to deliver
us from such attacks; and in all of this, we have learned what Paul
meant when he said:
"... 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)
And, furthermore, we have also learned what Paul meant when he said
that we must -
"... take ... the whole armour of God, that ... [we] may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
"And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall
be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God:
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
all saints ..." (Eph. 6:12-18)
And as for all of us up here at the ranch, we pray (as Paul prayed)
-
"... that utterance may be given unto ... [us], that ... [we]
may open ... [our] mouth[s] boldly, to make known the mystery of the
gospel ["Good News"] ..." (Eph. 6:19)
And we pray this for all of you as well - i.e., all of you who have
faithfully stood with us over the years; and who are endeavoring to
get this message out wherever you are (FOR ALL OF US MUST SOMEDAY
COME UNDER SIMILAR ATTACKS, SOME EVEN NOW AS WE PRAY) - in San Francisco,
in New York, in Miami, in Santa Cruz, in L.A., in Phoenix, in Akron
etc., and especially in those far off lands like Ghana, Poland, England,
Liberia, India, Israel, Pakistan, etc.
THIS IS THE "NEW CHRISTIANITY THAT IS ANIMATING
GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM
In
all of this, however, we must take careful note of the fact that this
is a very POWERFUL and sinister "new Christianity"
- and I speak here specifically of the Christianity that has partnered
with George Bush's American New World Order System.
It is a LUCIFERIC form of Christianity that has NOTHING
to do with Christ nor the Kingdom of God. Indeed, it is precisely the
presence of this "new Christianity" that has necessitated
the preaching of the "Gospel of the Kingdom" and the "Eternal
Gospel" "... in all the world for a witness ... "
(Matt. 24:14) A witness for what? - that this "new Christianity"
is NONE of Christs and has NOTHING to do
with the "Kingdom of God;" and - "then shall the end
come." (Matt. 24:14) [Please see our articles on the Gospel
of the Kingdom, "The American New World Order System Must Give
Way To The Kingdom Of Heaven" and the "The Good News Of The
Coming Kingdom."]
And
what an evil Christianity it is - a Christianity that, as we have already
suggested, is heavily involved with "Blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit" (the desire to be "like God" INTRINSICALLY)
and is permeated through and through with witchcraft (the manipulation
of spiritual forces, again, that's what "Words of Knowledge"
and "Words of Wisdom" are all about) and those who practice
witchcraft (i.e., those who engage in such practices). Both of these
are crimes of terrible import, and incur terrible penalties. The Bible
calls this kind of Christianity an "ABOMINATION"
(Rev. 17:5); and one THAT HAS SUBJECTED ITSELF TO THE FORCES OF HELL;
a Christianity that is "... drunken with the blood of the saints,
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ..." (Rev. 17:6).
It is for this reason that the Bible calls it an HARLOT.
(Rev. 17:5)
YOU THINK WE ARE BEING TOO HARSH?
You think that we are being too harsh here? That we are bending the
truth to make a point? but come on now! Be honest! - what kind of Christianity
do you think would partner with "Babylon the Great?" Only
an APOSTATE form of Christianity - a Christianity that
has "fallen away!" Fallen away from what? FROM THE FAITH!
- from heaven to hell! That's what! The Bible says,
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [i.e., the
day of the resurrection and the rapture] shall not come, except there
come a FALLING AWAY first and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition ..." (2 Thess. 2:3) [And you should understand
that the Bible is not talking here about unbelievers! Unbelievers
can't fall away from the faith - they were never there to begin
with. So, very obviously, we are talking about "saved"
Christians!]
What the Bible is doing here is linking the Apostate Church ("apostasy"
means to "fall away") with the "MAN OF SIN,"
the "SON OF PERDITION" who -
"... exalteth himself ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD,
or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2:4)
What is this? - ISN'T THAT PRECISELY THE SIN THAT THE "NEW
CHRISTIANITY" IS INVOLVED WITH? THE SIN THAT KENNETH HAGIN IS INVOLVED
WITH? Again, how else does one understand what Hagin means when
he says:
"That's who we are; WE'RE CHRIST ... The Church
has not yet realized that WE ARE CHRIST. When we do,
we'll start doing the work we're supposed to do [i.e., conquer the
earth for Christ and the church]. Christ is the Head - we are the
Body - and the Body of Christ is Christ."
LET THEM BE ACCURSED
This is bad! Very Bad! - but this kind of thinking permeates the church
today. In one form or another it saturates it, it infuses it, and it
drenches the church with its poison; this is the "OTHER GOSPEL"
about which Paul warned us:
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any OTHER
GOSPEL unto you than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be ACCURSED [i.e., "DAMNED TO HELL"].
(Gal. 1:8)
GUILT BY ASSOCIATION
The Bible says that you CANNOT even associate with men
who consort with such people. The Scriptures say,
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." (Gal. 5:9)
I say again, if you associate with these people, YOU WILL BE
INFECTED; and insofar as this infection has taken hold on the
American church, it doesn't matter whether a few of the leaders of the
church - leaders like D. James Kennedy, Charles Stanley, Jerry Falwell,
Tim LaHaye, etc. (maybe even YOU) - might in their own
hearts and in the privacy of their own homes, and in the inner circle
of their closest associates might disagree with what Hagin et. al.
are promoting, THEY HAVE UTTERLY AND TOTALLY FAILED TO DISASSOCIATE
THEMSELVES FROM THESE MEN. They appear on the same platforms with
them, they share the same pulpits and they speak at the same forums
- and more than that, THEY STAND WITH THESE MEN IN PROMOTING GEORGE
BUSH'S AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM! Isn't that exactly what
Falwell, Robertson, Stanley, LaHaye, etc., are doing? Of course it is.
Their association with men who promote the doctrine of the "Continuation
of the Incarnation" DAMNS them! Guilt by association
you say? Yes! - and the Bible demands it! Paul writes that if any man
who is called a brother engages in this kind of sin we are not even
to eat with him. (1 Cor. 5:11), and Jesus went on to say, "He
that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad" (Matt. 12:30) - and in this instance, this
warning is DIRECTLY connected with "BLASPHEMY
AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT:"
"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against BLASPHEMY
AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST shall not be forgiven unto men. (Matt.
12:31)
Matthew 12:30 and Matthew 12:31 - the one follows directly on the other!
This is no small thing, but, then, what would you expect from a Christianity
that would ally itself with the -
"MAN OF SIN ... the SON OF PERDITION
...
"Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple
of God, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD." (2 Thess. 2:3-4)
THE FORCES OF HELL
THE FORCES OF HELL STAND "AT THE READY" OF THIS NEW CHRISTIANITY
- powerful spiritual forces; forces not of this earth; celestial forces,
demonic and preternatural in origin; forces possessing ghastly power
- the same kind of malignant power that was directed against Watchman
Nee in China, and recently against us at the ranch. AND MAKE NO MISTAKE
ABOUT IT, THIS IS THE KIND OF POWER THAT IS NOW BEING WIELDED BY THE
SO-CALLED "CHURCH" AGAINST IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, AND THE OTHER
NATIONS AND PEOPLES OF THE WORLD - ALL IN THE SERVICE OF GEORGE BUSH'S
AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM. Indeed, this is exactly the kind
of power C. Peter Wagner is wielding on behalf of the American New World
Order System when he says,
"It is our responsibility, as church leaders, to use the authority
that God has delegated to us and to conquer the invisible forces of
darkness ... THIS IS WHAT OPENS THE WAY FOR OUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS
(i.e., Bush et. al.) TO MAKE GODLY DECISIONS IN THE
NATURAL REALM."
Of course, what Wagner calls here the "authority of God"
is not that at all, but the power of Satan, and it is not for the Kingdom
of God that Wagner is wielding that power, but for "Babylon the
Great." It is to such people that the Lord will someday thunder
out in disgust the awful words,
"... I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
(Matt. 7:23)
THESE FORCES HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF THE ARMY
And it is much more than the grotesque prayers of C. Peter Wagner and
his ilk that we should be concerned with here, the very real fact of
the matter is, THESE SPECTRAL FORCES HAVE NOW INSERTED THEMSELVES
INTO THE ARMY AND HAVE ALL BUT TAKEN COMMAND OF IT. THIS IS IMPORTANT
BECAUSE IT IS THROUGH THE FORCE OF MILITARY CONQUEST THAT HELL PROPOSES
TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE WORLD. THIS SHOULD GIVE YOU SOME IDEA OF HOW
CLOSE TO THE END WE REALLY ARE. This isn't the "pantywaist"
French army that we're talking about, nor the "no-account"
army of the Germans and the Dutch; nor the rusted-out and decomposed
army of the Russians - this is the most powerful army in the world,
the army about which the peoples of the earth cry out, "WHO
CAN MAKE WAR AGAINST IT." (Rev. 13:4) THIS IS TRULY AN ARMY
THAT ONE CAN USE TO SEIZE CONTROL OF THE WORLD.
The first indication that this was happening came from reports filtering
back from Iraq and Afghanistan that suggested a very extensive and highly
unusual presence of "Christian warriors" among the troops
- all of them armed with the "new Christianity" that we've
been discussing here: Officers leading their men in "power prayers"
and urging them to "kill Iraqis in the name of Christ;" huge
open-air baptisms of young soldiers unlike anything seen in previous
wars; soldiers being told that if they "accept" Christ they
would be made impervious to the bullets of the insurgents - like Sioux
warriors were told they would be safe from the bullets of the cavalry
during the "Ghost Dance" phenomenon in the Dakota "Bad
Lands" of 120 years ago, and on and on. Crazy stuff!
For the most part, these incidents were "played-down" in
the press, and word concerning them seeped back to the public at large
only on an ad hoc basis; as a result, most people who heard these
reports were tempted to write them off as anomalies. But what Katherine
Yurica has discovered is that these "goings-on" are not anomalies
at all; they are the result of a deliberate (and apparently successful)
attempt to "Christianize" the army - of course, not with the
Christianity of the Bible, but with the LUCIFERIC Christianity
of the American New World Order System; the kind of Christianity that
aims to take over the world through the "barrel of a gun"
and from the turret of an M-1-A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank.
RECRUITING "HOLY WARRIORS" FOR
THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM
What Yurica discovered was truly astonishing and it gave evidence of
just how far the strategy to "Christianize" the army had gone.
For example, she discovered that when Lt. General Jerry Boykin, the
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, visited twenty-three
Baptist and Pentecostal churches across the country accompanied by two
military aides and told his audiences that he was looking "to
recruit you to be warriors of God's Kingdom," that did not
result from the bizarre activities of a lone army officer run amuck.
He was, in the words of Yurica on a deliberate mission aimed at "...
recruiting soldiers to fight a war to set up God's Kingdom on earth,"
and he was plainly supported in that effort by the Pentagon. After all,
one cannot drag along two aide-de-camps on such a tour without
the approval of the Department of Defense (DOD).
And it wasn't just that Boykin had secured the okay of the Pentagon,
he also was supported by the Christian community he was visiting. For
example, Yurica reports that Ken Hemphill, the Southern Baptist's national
strategist for Empowering Kingdom Growth (EKG), has said,
"Southern Baptists must lead in awakening the church to be
on a mission with God for the redemption of the nations."
What does Hemphill mean here? - plainly, the kind of redemption that
he is talking about here is, once again, the kind that flows out from
the barrel of a M-16.
Moreover, Hemphill isn't alone in that belief; Deborah Caldwell, a
senior editor of Belief Net, has revealed that among Boykin's "staunchest
supporters" in his efforts to recruit "Christian Warriors"
to fight in America's wars of conquest were Focus on the Family's James
Dobson; religious broadcaster Pat Robertson; the Family Research Council;
and the Christian Coalition. These are big, big names in the "new
Christianity" of today; indeed, the radio audience that Dobson
alone commands dwarfs the listening audience of Rush Limbaugh, and the
"campus" in Colorado Springs out from which Dobson controls
his "empire" makes the campuses of many universities look
small in comparison.
JIHAD
HOLY WAR! - that's what the U.S. army is planning for
the world, a "holy war" using the "Christian Warriors"
of the U.S. military - and make no mistake about it, this kind of HOLY
WAR is plainly supported by the aberrant theology of the "new
Christianity." For example, David Chilton, a well-known purveyor
of this deviate Christianity, writes:
"The Great Commission to the Church does not end with simply
witnessing to the nations. Christ's command is that we disciple the
nations - all the nations. The kingdoms of this world are to become
the kingdoms of Christ. They are to be ... made OBEDIENT
to the faith ... Christ must reign, until He has put all enemies under
His feet ..."
Chilton goes on:
"OUR GOAL IS WORLD DOMINATION ... a 'world takeover'
if you will ..."
And R. J. Rushdoony writes:
"In winning a nation to Christ, the sword as well as the pen
must be used."
Now stop and think about all this: the army and some of the most well-known
leaders (and ministries) of today's American church are actively engaged
in inducing Christian men and women to become "Christian warriors"
- and not the kind that go out into the jungles of the Third World or
into the inner cities of the nation armed with the Bible to win souls
for Christ, BUT "MISSIONARIES" PREPARED TO DON THE UNIFORM
OF THE U.S. ARMY, PICK UP AN M-16 AND GO OUT AND KILL PEOPLE IN THE
NAME OF THE "PRINCE OF PEACE." How absurdly incongruous
all this is! But, then, what else would you expect from the LUCIFERIC
Christianity of today's church?
SPREADING THE "NEW
CHRISTIANITY" IN TODAY'S ARMY
And not only are the churches and the army cooperating in recruiting
young Christian men and women for HOLY WAR, they are also
working closely together to indoctrinate those already in the military
as "Kingdom Warriors" by "staffing" the chaplaincy
program of the U.S. military with men who are very much given over to
the "new Christianity" that undergirds the American New World
Order System.
According to Yurica, these chaplains are then used to indoctrinate
military personnel already in the army as "Kingdom Fighters."
For example, the Assemblies of God - a virtual hotbed for today's "new
Christianity" - has fielded over 237 chaplains in recent years.
According Yurica's calculations, these chaplains alone have the "statistical
power" to indoctrinate 95,511 military personnel as "Kingdom
Warriors." And that's only the Assemblies of God. There are dozens
of other denominations who - like the Assemblies - have also given themselves
over to the "new Christianity" with similar Chaplaincy program,
and together they have all but taken over the chaplaincy program of
the U.S. military. Obviously, then, IT'S NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE
AMERICAN ARMY IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ HAS A "CHRISTIAN" STAMP
ON IT.
Some, of course, think that this is a "good thing." But,
again, you must remember here, the kind of Christianity that is being
purveyed to our soldiers on the battlefield today is not the "old
time religion" of our fathers and forefathers, but a "new
kind of Christianity" with which they would be utterly unfamiliar.
It is a LUCIFERIC Christianity bent on world conquest
in the service of the American New World Order System, and God help
all those who get in the way of these new "Christian Warriors."
GOD HELP THE HOMOSEXUALS AND
OTHER SO-CALLED "UNDESIRABLES"
Moreover, it's not just the "outside world" that stands in
peril of these new "Christian Warriors:" All those who dare
to stand against the American New World Order System in the United States
are in peril as well. What do I mean by that? Yurica points out that
all members of the U.S. military take an oath to -
"... defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and
DOMESTIC."
My heavens! - think about what that might mean to an army steeped in
the LUCIFERIC Christianity of today's American New World
Order System! It means that this army would think nothing of pouncing
on all those the Christian Right has deemed an enemy over the years:
the gay and lesbian community, the militant feminists, the liberals,
the "Hollywood elite," the "abortionists" (and those
who support abortion), atheists, the Muslims, ad infinitum, ad
nauseum - and this too is supported by the aberrant theology of
today's American church. For example, Franklin Hall, one of the early
purveyors of the "new Christianity" has written:
"... [Christians] will have dominion of this planet. Those
who possess a house may decide who shall occupy it. In the same manner
... as a group from the church takes up their authority and rulership
of the planet that God gave them, they will be able to choose whom
they will to occupy it."
Obviously, this means that Christians - once they have finished taking
over the country - will get to choose who lives or who dies, or at the
very least, who will get shipped off to a "concentration"
or "re-education" camp and who won't. Obviously, if a person
is not deemed "worthy" to "occupy the house" that
Franklin is talking about here, off he'll go. Franklin continues:
"... [Christians] will be required 'to rule all the nations
with a rod of iron' ... To those [in the United States] not accepting
this invitation into Holy Ghost Light of fire [i.e., the gays, the
lesbians, the liberals, the atheists, etc.], there is but one alternative:
the opposite to light is darkness. The Light of Life will be to them
a blinding and CONSUMING FIRE OF DESTRUCTION!"
This is called "ruling the earth with a rod of iron," and
all those who refuse to "come to Jesus" here - who refuse
to be "converted" to the tenets of the "new Christianity"
- will be consumed by this "FIRE OF DESTRUCTION" -
which, of course, is precisely what happened to the Jews of Germany
in the ovens of Auschwitz-Birkanau.
This kind of thinking is rampant in the "new Christianity"
of today; and as the American New World Order System pursues its policy
of "ENDLESS WAR," this kind of aberrant thinking
will no doubt grow and spread. That's what endless war produces - a
spiral down to inhumanity and barbarism. Most people think that they
would never involve themselves in such barbarism; that's what the people
in the former Yugoslavia said about themselves before they were caught
up in the flames of war and the inevitable extremes that follow in the
wake of war.
War has a way of bringing out the worst in everyone. One finds himself
doing things in war that under "normal" circumstances he would
never countenance - not in himself and not in those around him. But
war changes everything. People are changed into monsters! into brute
beasts!
THE END OF ALL THINGS
The Bible says that -
"... the END OF ALL THINGS IS AT HAND ..." (1 Pet.
4:7)
And, as a result, we should not -
"... think it ... strange concerning the fiery trial which is
to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you ..."
(1 Pet. 4:12)
The fact is, THE FORCES OF HELL ARE LOOSE IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY,
AND THEY ARE MASQUERADING UNDER THE NAME OF "CHRISTIANITY,"
and we are to get away from all this as fast as we can. We are to -
"FLEE OUT OF THE MIDST OF BABYLON, and deliver every
man his soul ..." (Jer. 51:6)
We are not to dilly-dally. We are to get out as quickly as possible.
Remember what prophecy is all about! Prophecy is like a road sign saying:
"Slow down, sharp right hand turn ahead!" But if we fail to heed the
sign, if we fail to slow down before we get to the turn, it will
be too late to brake once we finally get there, and we will surely slide
off the road and crash.
Like
a road sign, prophecy tells us things before they happen so
that we can take evasive action before events catch up with us.
If we wait until they finally overtake us, it will be too late
to do anything - we will crash! Watch, therefore, for the "signs
of the times," and don't wait to take action. YOU MAY WAIT TOO
LONG! [Please see our article, "The Watchers Are Watching You."]
Jesus said,
"... When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the
sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for
the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face
of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
(Matt. 16:2-3)
And Paul warns us,
"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children
of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let
us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." (I Thess.
5:4-6)
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
We have been commanded by God to FLEE Babylon and go
to the poor of the world. And where are the poor" - the poor are
to be found for the most part OUTSIDE the borders of Babylon
the Great. IT'S THE POOR FOR WHOM CHRIST CAME, not the rich.
The Bible says,
"Blessed be ye poor: FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD."
(Luke 6:20)
But it says to rich,
"... woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your
consolation." (Luke 6:24)
THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: that Christ and the church
have NOTHING to do with the rich of the world; NOTHING
to do with the American New World Order System; and NOTHING
to do with the kind of Christianity that undergirds the American New
World Order System.
It is the poor for whom the Kingdom of God is intended. It is NOT
without reason that Jesus said:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because HE HATH ANOINTED
ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; he hath sent me to
heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised ..." (Luke 4:18)
We are to -
"... Go out quickly into [the streets and byways of the world]
... AND BRING IN HITHER THE POOR, AND THE MAIMED, AND THE
HALT, AND THE BLIND [i.e., the outcasts of society]." (Luke
14:21)
And we are to -
"... COMPEL THEM [i.e., the poor] TO COME
IN, that my house may be filled." (Luke 14:23)
THIS IS WHAT THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM IS ALL ABOUT, and we
have been called into this great work, if so be we choose to respond
to the prompting of God in our hearts. Oswald Chambers - speaking to
some students one day on Isaiah 6:8 [which says, "I heard the
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me"] - once said:
"Whether or not we hear that call depends on how closely we
are walking with God.
"God did not address this call specifically to Isaiah; Isaiah
had been in the presence of God and - as a result - happened to overhear
God ask it. The call of God is not to the special few, it is
for everyone! Whether or not we hear God's call depends upon whether
or not we are in the presence of God. Many are called but few
are chosen, that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The
chosen ones are those who have come into the presence of God and who,
as a result, hear the still small voice calling all the time, Who
will go for us?
"It is not a question of God singling out a strong man and
saying, Now, you go. Isaiah was in the presence of God and
because of that he overheard the call, and realized that there was
nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, Here am
I, send me. Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to
come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples
there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate
insistence of His, Follow Me was spoken to men with every power
wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with
God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still
small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, Hear am I;
send me."
Paul writes,
"My eager desire and hope is that I may never feel ashamed, but
that now as ever I may do honor to Christ in my own person by fearless
courage - whether that means life or death, no matter! (Phil. i, 20-21
(Moffatt)
More next time!
Until then, God bless you,
S.R. Shearer,
Antipas Ministries