Is the gospel emphasis leaving daily redemption out?

I’m reading an interesting book, ‘The Divine Conspiracy’, by Dallas Willard.  Here’s a particular quote which sums up for me some of the dilemma I’ve seen as a Christian blogger, between Christians at different ends of the spectrum:

When we examine the broad spectrum of Christian proclamation and practice, we see that the only thing made essential on the right wing of theology is forgiveness of the individual’s sins.  On the left it is removal of social or structural evils.  The current gospel then becomes a gospel of ’sin management’.  Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message.  Moment to moment human reality in its depths is not the arena of faith and eternal living.

From The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, Chapter 2, The Gospels of Sin Management pg 49-50 in my copy.

While blogging, I’ve seen the evangelical, redeemed and Pentecostal movements generally preaching that apart from all else, if you confess your belief in Christ, you are forgiven your sins.  You know that if you die, you will get to heaven.  The goal is to see as many people confess this and therefore be ’saved’ as possible – this is the most urgent priority.

Redemption is far more about what happens after you die, not going to hell, than about experiencing redemption on a daily basis.  In Pente circles at least, these days, discipleship is often more about raising up ‘leaders’, to plant new churches or proselytise to bring in new members, than it is about encouraging that quiet, daily inner growth and reliance upon God, which transforms character from within, but does not necessarily turn everyone into a leader of sorts.   I imagine there are however some teachers who do encourage the latter – but where is it in terms of priority generally?

I’ve also come across the left wing of Christianity, who make some very good points about social justice issues.  As my Christian growth took place in various evangelical churches, this was fairly recent exposure for me – I didn’t realise when I was younger that being involved in Greenpeace, or war protests and so forth, could be an essential expression of Christian faith for some.  Maybe I was just a bit slow, but I can at least say that I _never_ had that put to me in church.  Now I realise some Christian groups, as Dallas Willard seems to imply above, regard this as an essential expression of Christian faith, and would probably see a person’s faith as very one dimensional without evidence of this kind of involvement with ‘the other’ in their lives.

Dallas Willard appears to say that actual inner change, an experience of the life of Christ within us _now_, is part of the redemption.  (I totally agree with him, and pray for this kind of inner growth as time goes by, and the kind of revelation of God that will transform more and more.)

I don’t think these churches would disagree with him, but their messages don’t typically aim for this kind of change so much as other programmed types of involvement that achieve their good ends – just not the good ends that are inside us necessarily.  There are behavioural checkboxes to tick, such as tithing, or involvement in a ministry, or attending a home group, rather than inwardly making choices to live in Him whenever there is one to be made, in a quieter fashion, and growing in this abiding over time – of course the results of this are seen, but not in a programmed sense.

Evidence for this, I think, is where a church puts its program needs ahead of treating individuals with love.  One very public example would perhaps be Mike Guggliemucci’s father putting attendance at a Men’s Camp ahead of spending time with his publically disgraced son.  There are many other smaller examples but I won’t begin listing them.

If churches changed their message to place more emphasis on inner transformation and focused more on getting that revelation of the love of God – and living it as their number one priority – do you think there would be less scandalous behaviour in the church, greater unity within the faith, less abuse of power, and the growth of the kind of community that outsiders can genuinely see a difference in – a light – that they’d want to be part of?

Gaza front – “We feel the hand of God”

So much of what is read and seen of the war in Gaza is opinion, speculation or propaganda, it’s hard to know what is real. It’s a terrible action, as all war is, and one that has worked more against Israel in public relations terms than for them. But one has to ask why HAMAS insisted on the continual barrage of Israel with thousands of rockets aimed at civilian neighbourhoods, and why Israel should be asked to do nothing against it.

Here’s a note from an Israeli soldier at the front which brings home something of the perspective from one side.

Aryeh, a former hesder yeshiva student and a soldier in reserves who spent a week fighting terrorists deep inside northern Gaza, spoke with IsraelNationalRadio’s Yishai and Malkah Fleisher on Thursday about his personal experiences during the war.

Excerpts:

I’ve been in Gaza for a week; medics and others in my unit went in a week earlier to get the lay of the land. We’re in an armored reconnaissance unit, which means we are infantry that goes in front of the tanks, first of all to clear a path, either in open area or clearing houses in built-up areas, making sure there are no anti-tank forces against us, and secondly, we scout ahead and point out targets for the tanks.

The army was very tight with us about security – they took away our cell phones, made sure we don’t have cameras, etc.

No Atheists in Foxholes

[Asked what it is like when they actually enter Gaza:] Right before we went in, there were a lot of jokes, black humor, like, ‘I’ll leave you my boots,’ etc. And you know how they say there’s no atheist in a foxhole – it’s really true. Rabbis were giving out Tehillim [little books of Psalms], and every soldier took one, or two, or three, or four – even the guys who just two days ago were arguing with me against religion. They act as if the Tehillim are bullet-proof, and they put them all over their body, saying I don’t want to get hit here, and here, and here. Anyway, before we went in, there were jokes – but then, when we actually start going on, it gets very, very quiet, people thinking their own thoughts, like who might not be coming back, or about their families, or whatever.

When we actually went in, it was very surreal. On the Israeli side, even with all the rockets and shells falling around us, you sort of feel safe – but when you cross over, you feel like you have left the safe cover of Israel. . You hear a lot of booms, mostly from our jets and copters and tanks and things. The first kilometer or two was open area, and then, when we got to the built-up areas, it really was pretty scary. There are snipers and stuff – but there were two things that were particularly hard for me. One is that almost every single house is booby-trapped – even with families inside! Because it looks good on the news [against Israel] to have a whole family killed. the people are forced to stay there, or sometimes they stay on their own – this is insane, we can’t comprehend this… It’s scary kicking in a door and thinking that the entire house might collapse on you.

Fear of Being Snatched

But even more scary is the fact that there are tunnels everywhere in Gaza – not just the ones that people know about in southern Gaza. I don’t know how many there are, but there are tunnels between houses and headquarters and the like, not only for reinforcements but also because one of their main goals is to kidnap soldiers. That is really terrifying. You see a bush and suddenly the bush moves and a hand sticks out, trying to grab a soldier’s leg and pull him inside. It happened a lot. Or we’re in a house trying to get some sleep, and you don’t know if a floor tile will suddenly move and someone will try to grab you. So on the one hand, you try to sleep very little, but we also work very closely together, looking after each other, helping each other, and certainly not doing anything by oneself.

The Old-Man-and-the-Cane Trick

The top Hamas guys are dug-in and hiding pretty well under hospitals and schools, and they don’t even know what’s going on outside. We’ve cut their phone lines, including cell phones, and they communicate by sending children with notes to each other; we’ve caught kids carrying notes. We once saw an old man hobbling down the street with a cane, looking very bent over and wretched, and when he saw Israeli soldiers, he suddenly threw away the cane, ran over to them and tried to blow himself up on them; the soldiers were able to shoot him first.

No Concern for Life

[Asked what the feelings seem to be among the Arabs:] The mindset of the enemy is so alien to us; by us, the death of any one soldier is terrible, a national tragedy – but by them, it seems that they want as many deaths as possible. In Israel, schools even dozens of kilometers from Gaza are closed in order to minimize the risk, which is pretty small – but in Gaza, where there are bombs all over the place all the time, we’ve seen kindergartens filled with 150 or 200 children, and the kindergartens are boobytrapped! They even shoot rockets from inside mosques and these places.

We Want to Finish the Job

The soldiers’ morale is very high, and all of them definitely believe that the war is just and important. No one likes fighting; people want to be with their families. I’ve seen some 35-year-old guys almost crying about how much they miss their families – but at the same time, no one wants to leave now. Of all sectors, it’s the soldiers who do not want a ceasefire, not because we want to fight but because we know the job is not finished yet. We don’t want to have to go back again in a year or two or three. The soldiers want to stay and finish the job, they really do. I think there has to be a hard push against Hamas, even harder than we have done until now; this will take a real sacrifice, we know – but to think that we might leave and the rockets will still fall, what did we do??! Killing 900 terrorists out of 20,000 is just not enough, we have to really decimate their ranks in order that they should know that they should leave us alone.

True, Gaza is now largely in ruins, but they’ll get lots of money to rebuild, and they’ll use a lot of the money to get more weapons as well. We have to go in deeper and stronger, and make them understand that it’s just not worth it. In addition, I think we can’t leave without Gilad Shalit; it would be terrible if not.

We Feel the Hand of G-d

[Asked about how spirituality and faith in G-d plays out:] Well, I would say that everyday religion is one thing; we take things for granted, we pray every day, some people concentrate more and some concentrate less. But here – you live it, you absolutely live it. Secular soldiers are whispering prayers, everyone wants G-d to be there, and we do feel it – we have seen the hand of G-d; we have been very fortunate, you can see it and feel it… [Regarding packages of sweets that the soldiers receive from the home front:] Even though we’re often hungry, the first thing a lot of soldiers go for in the packages that is not the food, but rather the letters and words of support. You can’t imagine what it does for us to read them. I have about nine of the really special ones, and when I had a little time, I would go over to some corner and pull them out and read them. They give so much strength.

I just want to tell this really special story that happened to me: Some of the letters have phone numbers on them, so I called one of them to thank her for her letter – an 8-year-old girl named Eden. Eden told me that she was so happy I called and that she had just been in the hospital for an ear operation. But then her mother got on and she was all emotional and told me, “It’s so amazing that you called because Eden’s two older sisters received calls of thanks from soldiers, and she was feeling sad that no one called her – and now you called!”

 by Hillel Fendel
 Israel National News

Mercy Ministries demonised!

In a scathing article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ruth Pollard slams Mercy Ministries for  allegedly practising exorcism on patients. Mercy Ministries is a Christian organisation.

One thing to ask here is whether it is appropriate for a Christian help service to practice exorcism. Who decides whether a Biblical practice should be used by a Biblically based group? Governments? Newspapers? The media? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission? Centrelink?

When she asked Centrelink if there were any abnormalities with the way Centrelink payments were utilised, Pollard was told,  ”Centrelink conducted a full investigation into the appointment of Mercy Ministries as nominees for Centrelink payments,” the general manager, Hank Jongen, said. “Investigation of the current customers reveals nothing untoward. There are no records of any complaints about the nominee arrangements.”

‘Nothing untoward’, and ‘no records of any complaints’, is not enough for Pollard and her fellow critics, though. They don’t like the concept of people being set free from being demonised, so they demonise the organisation for having manuals which outline what they consider correct techniques for casting out demons. Could this be because, like serial Christian basher and former senator Lyn Allison, she doesn’t like the prospect of Christians being able to help others through Biblical principles she doesn’t understand or consider valid?

Interestingly, Mercy Ministries has stated it doesn’t use the manuals anyway, and had revised their policy on exorcism. So why continue to pursue them?

I guess the practice of exorcism, which was first used successfully by Jesus, is a threat to unbeliever’s politically correct revisionist view of what true Christian ministry is – or it could be, if we will only act on Jesus’ instructions and not waver because a few doubters think psychology and medication are the only answers for many of the unexplained human frailties we are occassionally exposed to.

Clearly, each person has to be helped on an individual basis with true mercy, not every mental problem is solved through casting demons out of people, and there has to be a high degree of compassion, love and tender care given to these young women, most of whom suffer because they have a history of being neglected or abused. But saying no one ever needs to be freed through exorcism is a grave error. 

So now, to perpetuate the rough treatment of Mercy Ministries, journalists are prepared to call respected commentators from Centrelink liars, and accuse the ACCC of a cover-up. Can’t let a good scandal die for want of facts, can we?

Why strong leadership is important…

One of the big beefs resurfacing on these threads from time to time is the question of strong leadership – whether a local church can thrive just as well with a democratic consortium as it can with a strong visionary leader and team.

I was going through a stack of old books my wife gave me to sort, when I came across a George Barna publication, ‘Turnaround Churches’, which assesses why a number of once declining churches had been able to recover, when many don’t – recovery from a slide being difficult to achieve.

Interestingly, amongst the essential ingredients of recovery from a serious slide is strong leadership, as Barna points out:

Throughout this book, I will return to several key themes. One is the extreme importance of strong, visionary leadership in a church. More often than not, the churches that declined found themselves with a pastor who failed to provide effective leadership.

Most people are followers and need a leader to point them in a direction, to motivate tem to act, to monitor their progress and to react to their efforts. Most of the declining churches attribute their tailspin, in large part, to weak leadership.

Interestingly, some of the pastors who led the church to decline were, at one point in their tenure in the church, providing the type of leadership required. However, one of several realities struck. In some circumstances, the pastor burned out and simply lost the will and energy to lead effectively. In other churches, having reached some level of success, the pastor was at a loss about how to move forward. (This is reminiscent of the Peter Principle: People will rise to their level of incompetence and plateau at that point.)

In some of the churches studied, the problem was that the pastor never was a true visionary leader nor was he capable of becoming one. In other situations, we discovered that the visionary pastor, no longer challenged by the church or tempted by other offers, had departed and was replaced by a less-skilled person.

The loss of momentum provided by the visionary leader eventually caught up with the church, sometimes 5 or 10 years after the departure of the leader, and the church had to undertake radical surgery to restore life to the ministry.

Just like any organisation that hopes to make an impact in its environment, a church needs a strong leader to provide direction for the people. The absence of leadership is like a deep-sea diver who makes a dive without air tanks: The diver can survive for a short period of time, but without a key resource needed to successfully accomplish the mission, the diver eventually becomes disoriented and suffocates.

Along with strong visionary leadership there have to be effective management strategies in place. Church is more than a gathering point for saints and lifestyle education, it is a mission organisation with a mandate to win souls and make disciples. This means leadership, vision, strategic purposes and organisation are of the utmost importance.

Everyone seems to be reading ‘The Shack’

Over the Christmas season I’ve been mixing with a lot of Christians from various mostly Pente churches at different social get togethers.  A common thread for me has been wandering over to join a group and finding them discussing ‘The Shack’.  One person had even been to a talk given by the author, William P Young, when he visited Sydney.  That was interesting to hear about.

I read the book back in August 2008.  I found the first part of the story, which talks about Mack’s personal tragedy, very hard to read, but it is needed as the context for what follows.  The rest of the book I found interesting, sometimes challenging, and definitely worth the read. It’s angles on forgiveness and judgement, and suffering, are worth examining.  The reactions I’ve seen to the book have all been very positive; no one is examining their theology; rather they are relating to the theme of forgiveness and God’s amazing love.  Some people  are very deeply affected by the book.

I wondered if anyone else here has read the book yet, and if you have any comments or opinions on the content?  It’s interesting to me, as it now seems to be entering the consciousness of mainstream Christianity – I suspect that its prominently displayed in our local bookshops, having been a New York Times No 1 best seller.

I haven’t described the content here, since unless you have read it, it will be difficult to comment.  However, I hope that some of you have.

********************

RavingPente

Drawing the Line for 2009

I wrote this four weeks ago in a word document, not looking forward to posting this up.

Okay. I’ve been stubborn with God. SignPosts02 has been getting in the way with my intimacy with God and he completely shook me up this Sunday at an awesome church meeting. Him using vision, rebuke, correction and everything else that He could to make me finally get it… He finally got through to me. He wants intimacy…

As some of you may know, I’ve had quite the adventure in many ministries, that have involved God, abusive people, corrupt ministries, wolves, false doctrines used against me, manipulation, abusive leadership, church excommunication and rejection, the good, the fake, authentic, the world, etc.

In my past, I really had to toughen up. As a result I studied the bible back to front, started reading like crazy, started eagerly to try and find people like-minded like me and then discovered internet where minds met to blog.

This entire process has been wonderful and I have grown so much. As a result, I have been able to bless others with my insights into various big church cultures so that others there don’t get caught up in the worldly church. They have been grateful that I was honest with them and my views on such ministries such as Hillsong and CCCOF.

However on Sunday night I’ve started the yielding process. I’ve known it for over two months now and I didn’t want to listen to God, but I know personally know now that God doesn’t want me blogging anymore. He’s been speaking to me about ‘gnosis’ and ‘rhema’. As a result, on Sunday I got a vision and some great wisdom from Him.

So this is it. I’m drawing the line for 2009. I’M NOT RUNNING SIGNPOSTS02 NOW!

That’s it! It’s sad. I’d love to be, but I’m selfish over this. More of God or more of Signposts? I think the answer’s obvious. I’m planning to make signposts02 pop up on search engines again. I just wont be posting articles, links or comments anymore… Well… Maybe comments here and there. Hopefully it’s just a season.

So may I bless you with what I have been personally receiving for the last few weeks.

Solomon and David

One had a heart for God’s heart. The other had a heart for God’s wisdom.

One withstood, the other fell. Wisdom is great but is nothing without love (1Cor 13:1-3)

Through having the mind of God, Solomon had everything yet came to the conclusion that happiness wasn’t found with it all. Through his proverbs and teachings we see how fruitless our striving for great knowledge really is. Having the mind of God was a sad reality in the long scheme of things from Solomon’s point of view; to bare so much wickedness and injustice in a global sense. We are not capable of baring the scope in remembering every lie, atrocity, scheme or snare. We are human and learn so much only to forget it all later.

In Relation to This (And Other Odd Things)

This is what God told me to say to someone the previous week:

“I feel God is saying ‘Don’t receive my words with your head but receive my words with your heart. If you receive my words with your mind, you’ll forget. But if you receive my words with your heart, you’ll be changed.”

As I spoke it, I knew it was a word for me too. I didn’t listen until he reminded me this Sunday. He then gave me a vision. A golden crown was on my head and my eyes were looking up to God and then at the crown on my head. But I was troubled by it’s non-dazzling presence. All of a sudden I was analysing the crown and struggled wearing it and had trouble looking at God with it over my brow. I was then looking within my head and saw that the crown was actually resting on mind/brain. With a ‘clink!’, the dull burdensome crown of God, fell from my brain and caught my heart, like a coin about to rest on a flat surface. Another ‘clink!’ noise was made as it fastened onto my heart. I saw myself looking at my chest and felt His crown reveal a golden glow from within me and I knew my heart was smiling and saying ‘yes’.

As a result, I saw myself break a smile and express a deep joy where I carried an authority. True relational authority with God. I was looking up again and was opened like a flower to receive anything from God at anytime.

I was letting him sing over me. In the mean time, through this entire experience, I was talking to him, getting whacked and smashed around by His Spirit (something that made me buckle all over the place- something I have never experienced before except in the last few weeks), on the ground, crying, laughing, at peace, confused, talking to Him again, rebuked, whacked around, crying again.

In the vision God was showing me what would happen if I placed my sensitive heart back into His authorship. Rather then to have intimacy with Him being on the mind, he wanted me to return to my first love, the first yielding, my complete surrender. He just wanted me to be open again with issues that needed to be healed from those past experiences.

But being scared of that I purposely started asking questions, receiving awesome revelations from Him… but in the head. One thing he taught me out many things was prayer. He said to me:

“Pray is my gift to the church. It is there to make everyone remain humble.”

Moving On With My Ear Lobes

In receiving other revelations and experiences (that you might find a bit weird if I explained), someone in the front of the room yelled out:

“I believe God has got this message to give someone: ‘You’re not listening to me’.”

I simply assumed it was for someone else because here I was deep in conversation with Him, and ‘receiving’ cool revelations. I stopped this line of thought when I felt someone stroke my earlobe. I snapped out of it and looked up to see if the lady next to me was a creep – but she had both her hands raised, lost in worship. I closed my eyes as the guy in the front continued on to see if someone would come down. As I felt I was back in that one on one space with God, I felt, whoever it was, actually grab my ear and pull me up. It was so warm! I opened my and realised it was no-one! THAT’S ME that needs to go the front!

Embarrassed, I didn’t. But I sought out the guy at the end of the night and I finally felt that the crown on my heart actually disappeared. It was if, through my heart, it crowned the invisible: my spirit.

God used the man without realising it and he asked me: Do you remember the conversation you had with God? The things He said? I realised God was right, and what I said last week to the guy about forgetting was right – the mind forgets! I laughed at my foolishness again.

I realised the crown was a symbol of an ‘engagement with the Holy Spirit’. God generally speaks to me in riddles all over the place throughout the weeks. Two weeks prior to this Sunday night experience, God simply gave me the following words: ‘Heart to heart, Spirit to Spirit’. He gave me the desire to engage with Him and it worked. Sunday night, He said this right then and I thanked Him for it. I also thanked my friend for being open to His obedience, to hear from God and obey.

So much was said. And it was all so wonderful too. Maybe more will come back to me what I learnt in the conversation

So in this new season, He will be restoring to me things that I have lost and showing me things I don’t need or need to focus on anymore. He will be showing me how intimate He can actually get with me. Scary thought! I have some really good friends in my life now (and pastors) who I can trust to help me get through this. I haven’t had or seen the church this close to me for over twenty-five years.

Never Say Die

I refuse to see SignPosts die. I think it is important for people to see and read alternate views on church matters. I will be slowly weaning myself off the blog, but I encourage you all to continue discussing and posting up interesting articles that are worth talking about. Hopefully this is a season that I will one day return to (if I need it). I pray that you all get more intimate with God. I’m loving it and I’m experiencing His presence more and more, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. He makes me smile.

Hope to meet up with some of you soon.

God bless you all!

S&P

The Gospels of Vanity, Money, Power

We’ve all heard the gospel of money. (Tithing, WOF, blab it and grab it, etc.)

But have many hear heard of the gospels of Power and Vanity?

Behold the works of an old heretical movement, the Latter Rain movement, stamped out by the American AOG in 1949 as an heretical movement. It’s been underground for a long time and now it’s leaven has devestated the American church. As a result, I’ve personally boycotted buying American Christianity (even though I don’t buy much Christian junk anyway).

This movement has come back stronger then ever before. Through the last few years it’s hid itself under many names, Joel’s Army, Third Wave, Kansas City Prophets, New World Order, New Breed,Overcomers,First-Fruits,Elijah Company,The Bride,Phineas Priesthood, New Wineskin, New Wave,Kingdom Now, Manifested Sons of God, Manchild, I-HOP, The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR- where the ‘touch not God’s anointed came from). People who are apart of this heretical movement are Peter Wagner, Paul Cain, Todd Bentley (tattoo on chest), John Wimber, Rick Joyner (sadly), Sarah Palin,  TB Joshua and many that fall into God TV and under the prosperity gospel sect too like John Bevere, Hagin and Copeland. Benny Hinn is the worst to fall in this category as he is all the above.

What makes this movement so heretical and evil?

Well. Let the movie ‘Jesus Camp’ do the talking.

JESUS CAMP

Part 1- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=dD2Hyiitpys

Part 2- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=rXQ8GH1xwxg&feature=related

Part 3- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=LwPfsE9qcGQ&feature=related

Part 4- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lXJcTZ9n69s&feature=related

Part 5- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ayO96E4A_fU&feature=related

Part 6- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6oq8DLMu8P0&feature=related

Part 7- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=X6S6suTvgsw&feature=related

Part 8- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yNjuJUOYPCE&feature=related

Part 9- http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=mAKQE9cZI0k&feature=related

This is the fruit of the movement and explains some of the reasons why the church is so rotten. Wagner has been the main driver behind the movement. Rick Joyner’s book’s Final Quest, The Call, The Harvest, The Torch and the Sword, although famous have been classics that have made the church swallow massive bones and take on the gospel of vanity and power. Their gospel message is simply that in the end times, generations will be raised up to bring forth or establish the Kingdom of God, therefore quickening Christ’s return. Other believe that those who are doing the will of God whil the rest of the church is asleep can choose whether to be raptured or stay back and fight, bringing forth the return of Christ and being beside him.

This explains the odd philosophies that America has with the middle-east in terms of Israel, themselves and Jesus. It’s through this movement that ‘America is the New Jerusalem’ comes from. This movement has also swallowed up other religions, movements  and teachings such as gnosticism, New Age, Oneness Pentecostalism and free-masonry.  Some critics go further and say occultism is in there as well with necromancy and shamanism (and other eastern religions). Rick Joyner talks to the dead in his book series also.

Under this movement, we can now see where the Money Gospel came from. But what is this vanity and power gospel about? If their focus is to ‘take cities for God’ by raising up the future ‘Joel’s Army’, how is the idea not appealing to the flesh that one church will raise up that generation? This is why there are too many churches focussing on young individuals in ‘biblical’ institutes but go through still lacking theological depth and discernment. Rick Joyner was among many of the Apostles and Prophets who commissioned Todd Bently in ‘raising up’ the coming generations to influence America.

I encourage people to post interesting articles on here in light of this disturbing division and uprise of such an heretical movement.

Here as some articles I have read and I’ve read many more too:

http://www.discernment-ministries.org/JoelsArmy1.htm

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/0244/84583

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/sarah-palins-churches-and_b_124611.html

http://www.britishblogs.co.uk/categories/joels-army/

http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/jeff-jansen-this-is-the-dawning-of-the-age-of-dominion-the-manchildmanifest-sons-of-god/

http://truelightministries.org/blog1/?cat=20

http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/7214

http://churchwarnings.blogspot.com/2008/09/herescope-ihop-latter-rain.html

http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/09/ihop-latter-rain.html

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-A05WQYi7aQ&feature=related

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=eWuHw-KPMf

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/newapostolic.html#mbickle

http://www.intotruth.org/kcp/Abberent%20Practises.pdf

http://thegreycoats.com/the-vindication-of-ernie-gruen/

http://thegreycoats.com/2008/02/the-much-awaited-interview-with-ernie-gruen/

http://www.factnet.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=5847

http://www.freewebs.com/thechinnicis/Bible%20Studies/An%20authopsy%20of%20Mi
ke%20Bickle.pdf

http://truthspeaker.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/is-ihop-a-cult/

http://truthspeaker.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/beware-the-teachings-of-ihop-kc
-new-age-contemplative-spirituality/

http://signofjonah.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/whats-cookin-in-ihops-kitchen/

http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/sarah-palins-churches-and-the-third-wave/

Bitter pill for environmentalists to swallow…

It seems that publications from Christian organisations, even based on scientific figures, have a disturbing, and even quietening effect on those who have a vested interest in crying wolf about the various atrocities taking place against nature.

A Catholic paper links environmental problems with use of the contraceptive pill, and there is a cry of ‘foul’, yet there may be some substance to the claims, as an interesting article by Angela Shanahan, in The Australian, points out:

According to the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, an alarming rise in male infertility in developed nations is possibly caused by the quantities of synthetic female hormones, particularly estrogen, in the food chain and water. These quantities are directly attributable to increased use of the contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy.

The original report published in German has been widely publicised but mysteriously, the only response to this terrible scenario, which seems to be with us just as surely as global warming, were a couple of letters in this publication and in The Sydney Morning Herald that could have come straight from a 19th-century Old Bigot’s handbook of insults. They hysterically decried the whole thing as a Vatican misogynistic plot. Never mind that it didn’t come from the Vatican. But apparently, in some people’s minds, any taint of Catholicism is enough to justify screaming “ignorant, stupid, unscientific” and of course predictably “misogyny”.

Strange then that in 1998 women’s groups and environmentalists formed an alliance in Japan against the legalisation of the contraceptive pill. Apparently some Japanese women and environmentalists, including the Women’s Network for Ecology, were worried enough about the effect of introducing synthetic hormones in a country that relies on very intensive agriculture and aquaculture to campaign against its legalisation. That is aside from widespread suspicion among Japanese women that there is a definite link between the use of the pill and breast cancer in their Western sisters.

The evidence that synthetic hormones can have grotesque environmental effects has actually been around for a long time and it is mounting. As long ago as the 1980s, studies were done in the US which showed the effects of estrogen pollution on wildlife, famously alligators in Florida with deformed genitals. But more recently, in February 2008, the University of Cardiff published a study that claimed a link between sexual deformities in birds around sewerage outlets of large British cities and the increased amount of estrogen finding its way into rivers and estuaries.

Recently during research for a story on the viability of using recycled water in Canberra, I came across several papers that pointed to the problem of estrogen in recycled water. Indeed, according to Canberra Hospital professor Peter Collignon, an opponent of recycling sewage water into the potable supply, estrogen can be more of a problem in recycled water than microbes because it cannot be filtered out and we simply do not know how well it breaks down. Just as the Romans drinking from lead cups unwittingly caused infertility in themselves, perhaps we are seeing after 30 years of contraceptive pill use the long-term effects of introducing artificial estrogen into our wider environment. So you see this is not just a preoccupation of the misogynistic old Vatican.

It is worth reading the entire opinion piece to get the full gist of what Shanahan is saying, in part, that the risk to our environment comes as much from scientific advancements and supposed enhancements as from irresponsible use of land, sea and air through industry, horticulture and agriculture; also, that it is unwise to ignore every voice which is giving a clarion warning simply because we don’t agree with all they say or believe, or because they are a religious group!

Christian agencies need to continue to publicise injustices and human errors which affect the population, and the environment, and not be put off blowing the trumpet because of an unbelieving world, including in the areas of politics.

God speaks through precious stones…

Speaking of sapphires!

Here’s one for s&p, to encourage you on some of the amazing facts about certain precious stones, which, until recently, only God knew, as related by the wonderful David Pawson in an interview, who beautifully demonstrates how the Bible is God-inspired.

It also goes some way to intelligently, gently, and factually refute the aforementioned atheists, without having to resort to London bus promos! 

Basically, it’s all about the way pure light interacts with certain precious stones, and what we can expect in the New Jerusalem – twelve anisotropic precious stones! 

It’s a little too technical for me to write it all out here, but well worth spending five minutes looking at.

Enjoy!

Only ‘probably’, Richard?? Where’s ya conviction?

On the buses? On yer bike!

Atheists advertise on London busses having pocketed $300,000 for the privilege, yet they miss the profound opportunity to be really definite about their unbelief, by using the term ‘probably’!

Yes, they declare, boldly and concisely, ‘there’s probably no God’. What a proud, brave boast. Not!

Richard Dawkins attempts to go a little further with his convictions, by declaring, rather hesitantly, there ‘almost certainly’ isn’t a God. That’s the spirit, Richard!

Well, Richard, having made a fortune out of writing, not only about your atheistic views, but the foolishness of the masses who believe, are you now falling shy of the godless mark by not affirming once and for all that there is no God, or are you actually, like your compadrés, leaving the door ever-so slightly ajar – just in case God comes along and reminds you of his ability to make incredibly correct judgements about who we are, and what we say and think?

The best comment comes from a Christian who actually donated to the cause, saying ‘we need the debate’, and ‘apathy is our enemy, not atheists’. That’s what you call the extra mile! You just can’t get a good Christian down!

I love the touch at the end of the You Tube clip! It’s precious! But it might make the atheists a little cross!