I recently did a teaching on the book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and how to tell the book is a channeled book. She is channeling an unidentifiable spirit being who self identifies as ‘Jesus Christ’. But by examining what this spirit tells her in the light of the New Testament, you can tell that it is not the real Jesus Christ but a deceiving, seducing, evil spirit whose goal is to lead God’s people into occultic practices.
There are many ways to discern this deception: by comparing what the spirit says to what the real Jesus Christ said and did in the New Testament, how she used God Calling*, another channeled occult book, as her inspiration, misquoted Scripture, plus others means.
One of the ways you can tell is by the flattery and romantic non-sense that is used in the text.
Some examples are:
Let My gold-tinged Love wash over you and soak into the depths of your being.
When you seek my Face in response to My love call, both of us are blessed.
Look into My Face and feel the warmth of My Love-Light shining upon you.
When your joy in Me meets My joy in you, there are fireworks a heavenly ecstasy.
Take time to rest in the Love-Light of My Presence.
When you trustingly whisper My Name, My aching ears are soothed.
When you walk through a day in trusting dependence on Me, My aching heart is soothed.
Feel your face tingle as you bask in My Love-Light.
I am aching to hold you in My everlasting arms, to enfold you in My Love.
As you listen to birds calling to one another, hear also my Love-call to you.
Now if you have read the New Testament, it does not take long for this type of verbiage to raise an alarm. I never read in the New Testament where Lord Jesus talked to Peter, John, James, or any of the other disciples this way. I can see ole Peter shaking his head and saying that Jesus never talked to him that way.
Apostle Paul warns us about the enemy of our soul using flattery to entrap us:
“Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.” (Romans 16:17-18)
Paul warns us not to be ‘unsuspecting’ Christians, not to go through life thinking that the enemy does not have designs on us to bring us into captivity to their master satan. There are evil workers of the antichrist spirit (I John 4:3) who will use smooth and flattering speech to gain our trust and confidence resulting in our bondage.
Jude, the Lord’s half-brother, also warns us about flattery as a tool of deception:
“These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.” Jude v16
These sinners Jude is warning about are seeking power and control; power and control over you and me so we can help them accomplish their own wicked goals that are cloaked in a false robe of righteousness. The Lord warned us about those who look like sheep but speak like dragons (Rev.13:11).
The Old Testament prophet Daniel tells us that flattery (or smooth words) will be a tool of the ultimate human evil, the Antichrist. Daniel 11:32 says in part:
“…with flattery he will corrupt those who act wickedly toward the covenant…” (HCSB).
Truly what Proverb 26:28 says concerning flattery is true:
A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.
Watch out for this tool of the devil. Protect yourself from religious deception. Read the New Testament and know the Truth that will set you free from bondage to religion and protect you from wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“The word that is used in the original language for salvation covers the entire work of God on behalf of the human soul. I am sure that not one of us, not even the one who has spent the most time in the study of the word of God, can fully comprehend the height and the depth of the vast subject of salvation. The depth is our need, the height is the provision that God has made. Salvation begins when the sinner recognizes the fact that he is less perfect than God and therefore under condemnation.
In order to make this very practical, I shall appeal to you directly concerning your own salvation. God comes to you today, just as you are. There is nothing that you have to do in order to draw his attention to you. You do not have to make yourself better in order for him to start his work. There is an old hymn that puts it well:
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream.
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
God comes to you whatever your background of education or the lack of it. He comes to you with your prejudices, however they may have been formed. He comes to you with the declaration that you are in a position that is desperate without His help, but he tells you that He is ready to furnish the help you need. Unfortunately, there are those who turn away from Him because they live in a world where illusions are so plentiful. A man is in vigorous health, making good money, and relatively happy. It is easy to think that since you are getting along so well in your progress through the world that you are also getting along well in your progress towards God. The fact is that you are lying in the embrace of death and do not realize your need.
A Chinese evangelist was once preaching on the street in a town in China. He spoke of the weight of sin and a heckler called out to ask how much that weight was. Fifty pounds? One hundred pounds? The evangelist answered: if you have a corpse lying in his coffin, will he feel a one hundred pound weight on his chest any more than a fifty pound weight? So the weight of sin is upon the human soul, and it is only when the Holy Spirit makes us conscious of need that we can feel the weight of sin and turn to the Saviour who is able to lift it.
If you fancy that you have an ability that can help you, you have never understood your own inability or the magnitude of the task which is demanded of you. A man might be the world’s champion Olympic swimmer, but if he were suddenly thrown overboard in the midst of the ocean, the distance to the shore would be totally beyond his powers. And God declares that you are overboard in the sea of sin and that estranges you from him. No breast-stroke of emotion can bring you to the shore. You must recognize your lost position and submit yourself to his sovereign grace. God commands men everywhere to repent. And repentance does not mean an emotional state of being sorry for your sins. It is derived from a Greek expression for the military command of “right about face”. You have been facing yourself, trusting in your own ability while Christ has been behind you, despised and rejected by you. You must about face. You must despise and reject your own efforts for salvation and realize that God has done all the work through the Saviour and that He requires you to put your trust in him.”
For God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Quote from Donald Grey Barnhouse, Man’s Ruin (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids), pp. 169-171
The event, so central to Scripture and, indeed, salvation itself, seems as though it is being reduced to a “sideshow” in what is the increasing paganization of culture and even the church. Dr. Peter Jones warned about this 22 years ago in his excellent 2001 book Pagans in the Pews. For way too many, the focus is now on them and not on the One who came to redeem us all.
In Soft Occultism, Patricia Patnode describes: Young women looking for meaning are enchanted by a new paganism elevating ego and material desire. Young men are also being “enchanted by a new paganism” for pretty much the same reasons. It elevates “ego and material desire.” It affirms and directs worship to the being they most love – themselves.
The paganism that is all the rage is not really new, of course, and has been part of the human condition since shortly after the fall. However, paganism in the Western world faded far away as Christianity ascended in the early centuries. It only seems to us starker and more pronounced today because it follows the Christian era and is strongly resurgent now that Christianity is being pushed aside. God and His Son have been pushed to the background of society and even the church, it seems.
Patnode writes: The new, default spiritual identity for young people in the West is soft occultism, or casual witchery. This identity can easily accompany an existing religious affiliation, and often does since it is so obviously integrated in most aspects of modern Western culture. Some may want to argue that this is only true in the culture outside the church, but the same transformation is happening in many of the “Seeker Sensitive,” “Purpose Driven,” narrative-focused churches, along with many other churches where we may not have expected it to have taken root. Like so many other infections, it seems small and merely bothersome until it is suddenly malignant and, everywhere, a threat to the body.”
It is interesting that Patnode points out that popular lifestyle gurus and life coaches borrow their material from the church!
The root of all kinds of evil is indeed the love of money, but the reason we love money so much is because we love ourselves, and money can, we think, make us happy. Self-love is the root of the root. The search to “uncover hidden knowledge of ourselves” entices us away from the clearly revealed knowledge about ourselves in the word of God. Sound biblical teaching and discipleship in the local church by the pastors, elders, and more mature believers is being gradually replaced with “Christian Life Coaching” and profiling systems. The soft occultism that is pervading much of the church entices and draws the unwary into its grip through “spiritual tools” from occultism like the Enneagram. It too often is embraced and grows through the aid of the pastors in those churches, as well as through Bible Colleges, seminaries, “Christian” publishing houses, and magazines.
A few years ago, I heard of an intriguing new personality test straight from the pulpit….I went home that day and took the test, thinking it was all fun and games and absolutely safe, of course, because I had heard it at church. Upon discovering my number, I was completely won over. At the time, I thought that beyond the pleasant emotional pull of simple “self-awareness,” it was a great tool of transformation, which pointed out my strengths and weaknesses and the blind spots that I had never noticed before but which were keeping me from being the best I could be. I thought it would help with the relationships in my life and could be a great way to authentically connect with others on a deeper level. What ended up happening, though, was the complete opposite. I became hyper-focused on my alleged “type,” and with crazy eyes, I shared it with my friends, family, acquaintances, and even absolute strangers in the grocery store.
I began placing everyone in a box according to what I viewed their “type” to be. In doing this, I felt that I was protected in a way from people I could never hope to comfortably mesh with. I took control into my own hands and steered clear of “certain types” and, for two years, dove headfirst into progressive Christianity without realizing it. I read books by a guy named Richard Rohr (whose occultic teachings, by the way, not a lot of pastors seem familiar with), listened to his followers, and read books by Ian Morgan Cron, Suzzane Stabile, and David G. Benner. I listened to podcasts about the types and read a slew of books based on false doctrine and a specific false view of God known as panentheism. Panentheism teaches that God is in everything. I read about the false self versus true self2 and how to properly relate to others with this spiritual tool. I began psychoanalyzing my family, friends, and close acquaintances, and for two years walked in this way.
Then, two very close friends warned me about this system and ideology that had obviously taken control of my life. The second they warned me about this tool, I realized I already knew the truth in my heart. For a while, though, I continued to double back to it because of the sway it held in my church at the time and many other churches in the Nashville area.…What I found was absolutely astonishing!…What I can mention is that the types originate from a form of automatic writing, which is an allegedly “spiritual way” of making contact with the “spirit world.” It is strange that no one seems to question who these “spirits” might be or whether making contact with these “spirits” is even a safe idea, let alone Christian! Indeed, the practice has origins in the occult and the demonic. I can say without a doubt that this “Tool” isn’t helpful at all, but a blind walk onto a pagan spiritual path – into which many Christians are walking blindly towards and/or have fallen into step with today. It’s getting in touch with an exciting “self” outside of the gospel – a self where you don’t need Jesus at all. I believe that this harmless seeming “Personality test” is an unholy Spirit in the church today, leading Christians out of truth, which is horrifying.
So many pastors and church members walk right into this false religious practice with a big smile on their face and joke with their friends about their types, all the while not realizing exactly what they have attached themselves to. Without thinking, Enneagram adherents start to place others in “personality boxes,” too, which is not kind. I have to wonder what’s truly being “made” of it all by sinister forces beneath the surface. Using it in our churches and messing around with this ideology is dark – horribly dark – and I’m saddened that very few seem to be paying attention.
All of my Christian life, I’ve listened to pastors preach about staying away from evil, and now I plead with you to do your own deep research and throw this evil out of the church. The flock needs protecting and shepherding like never before.https://midwestoutreach.org/2023/12/07/the-occulting-of-culture-and-the-church/
The son of a saloon keeper, Mel Trotter had learned bartending from his father when his dad was too drunk to pour a drink at the bar. As a young man, Trotter had resolved to escape the saloon, leaving home to take up barbering. Unfortunately, he was so successful as a barber that the income gave him the opportunity to gamble and drink at will.
Trying to escape big city temptations, Mel Trotter moved to Iowa about 1890 and managed to stay sober long enough to marry. But his wife soon discovered that she was married to an alcoholic. He repeatedly vowed to straighten out his life, once staying sober for 11 months. But even the birth of a beloved son could not keep him from drinking. After one 10 day binge, Trotter returned home to find his wife weeping over the dead body of their two year old son.
Trotter left his son’s funeral for a saloon. Then he hopped a train for Chicago, running from his failure, from alcohol, and from the certainty he could not conquer his addiction. He knew his life was running out, but he resolved to end it in anonymity.
The night of January 19, 1897, homeless, hatless, and coatless, Mel Trotter sold his shoes for one last drink before planning to commit suicide. The alcohol barely warmed him as he trudged barefoot through a Chicago blizzard, trying to find lake Michigan so he could drown his sorrows forever. Passing the darkened businesses on Van Buren Street, Trotter stumbled. A young man stepped out of the doorway of the only lit building, helped Trotter up, and invited him inside. Trotter followed, too numb to read the sign over the door: Pacific Garden Mission.
The man sat Trotter down in a warm room full of derelict men. The missions Superintendent, Harry Monroe, was in the middle of his evening message but broke off his comments when he saw Trotter. Monroe felt compelled to pray aloud, “Oh, God, save that poor, poor boy.”
Monroe then shared the story of his own troubled life before he had met Christ. “Jesus loves you”, he concluded, “and so do I. He wants to save you tonight. Put up your hand for prayer. Let God know you want to make room in your heart for him.” Barely understanding what he was doing, Trotter raised his hand. Something inside him rose up and accepted the invitation in simple faith. And in that moment the shackles of alcoholism and despair fell away.
Trotter spent the next 43 years ministering to the men and women he met on the streets, as lost and hopeless as he had been. His message was simple: “God loves you in the midst of the deepest failure and despair and his love has the power to change even the most ruined life.” He was ordained in 1905 and for 40 years served as a supervisor of a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Alumni of his mission founded 68 other rescue missions across the United States, and Trotter became an international evangelist.
That dark night in Chicago Mel Trotters life didn’t end — it began!
Have you ever struggled with an addiction, whether alcohol, drugs, sex, or something else? God is in the business of delivering men and women from addictions. He did it for Mel Trotter, and he can do it for you.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. Psalms 40:2
Source: E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, The One Year Christian History (Tyndale, 2003) pp. 38-39 (If you are a looking for an historical daily devotional, I heartily recommend this book.)
Do not stay in the chains of addiction. Let Jesus Christ deliver you today. Humble yourself and ask him to do it today, right now. God bless you.
Pray you and your family are having a great Christmas and New Year Season.
God has a sense of humor.
When the 19th century university elites of Germany began to say the Holy Bible was just a collection of old tales compiled from stories told around the campfire for generations and not reliable, God just sent some men with shovels and spades to the Middle East and had them dig in the ground to show these university elites who professed to be wise that they were fools.
I was recently reminded of this fact when I discovered a new YouTube Channel entitled “Expedition Bible” (link to website) that shows how archeology and ancient history confirms the Bible.
The videos take one archeological discovery in the Middle East (Iraq, Jordan, Israel, etc.) and shows how what was discovered confirms the places, people, and events mentioned in the Bible. The author adds certain tools (arrows, lines, camera angles, graphics, context, etc.) to the videos to help you understand what you are looking at, from what viewpoint and how it fits into the Bible narrative. The explanations and subject matter are the most comprehensive I have viewed.
An example would be the YouTube video concerning Nineveh. I understand if you’re afraid to click on published links, so in that case just go to YouTube and search for Expedition Bible.
Another bonus of the videos is that the author, Joel Kramer, a born-again archeologist, refers to some of the earliest published writings of archeologists who were early or the first to excavate places like Ur, the homeplace of Abraham; Babylon, where the Jews spent seventy years in exile and the birthplace of worldwide idolatry, and Nineveh, where Jonah preached and contains the palace of Sennacherib, who conquered parts of Israel. I have been able to find these out-of-print old titles online for free and in downloadable formats. If you are interested in ancient history, these books are a must have.
An example is the title Ur of Chaldees – A Record of Seven Years of Excavation by Leonard Woolley and published in 1929. Woolley was the archeologist in charge. Ur was where the biblical Abraham lived at one time and today is in modern Iraq.
Following is a link to the About page where you can learn about the author and his goals and, by scrolling down, you can see his statement of faith.
I hope you will check out the content and see how archeology confirms the Bible. Then share the information with your friends who still believe the lies of those old foolish university professors.
The following article concerns the arrest of a Romanian yoga guru who is the leader of a multi-national tantric yoga organization called Atman Yoga Federation and is charged with the indoctrination of his female followers for sexual exploitation. The sexual abuse of female and male followers by yoga gurus is well documented going back to when the Beatles started going to India in the 1960s to receive “enlightenment” which was actually a descent into spiritual darkness. Carl
PARIS (AP) – A 71-year-old Romanian yoga guru and 14 others were handed preliminary charges by a Paris magistrate on a raft of counts linked to an international ring that for years allegedly subjected followers seeking enlightenment to sexual exploitation.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that six of the 15 people interrogated were ordered held on Friday, while nine others were freed but under judicial surveillance.
Gregorian Bivolaru was among two of the six handed a string of preliminary charges that included human trafficking in an organized band, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention of numerous people along with rape and “abusing the weakness of a group” via psychological or physical subjection. None of the 15 was named but a judicial source said that Bivolaru was among the two facing the longest list of charges.
A trimmed-down version of the preliminary charges were handed to the other suspects. An investigation will now determine whether the preliminary charges lead to a formal indictment and a trial.
The arrest this past week of Bivolaru and 40 others in the Paris region ended a six-year manhunt in several countries. The police unit that combats sect-related crimes freed 26 people described by authorities as sect victims who had been housed in deplorable conditions.
Accounts from alleged victims detailed in the French media portray Bivolaru as a guru who coerced women into sexual relationships under the guise of spiritual elevation in a career spanning decades and continents.
Bivolaru’s group, initially known as MISA, for Movement for Spiritual Integration Toward the Absolute, was later known as the Atman yoga federation. Non-consensual sexual activities under the facade of tantric yoga teachings were allegedly at the heart of the organization, according to a French judicial official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity because the person, like other judicial officials, wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The group’s “ashrams” were centers for indoctrination and sexual exploitation disguised as spiritual enlightenment, according to the official. One appeared to be exclusively dedicated to satisfying the desires of the leader, with women transported there from elsewhere, the official added.
MISA said in a statement on its website in Romanian that Bivolaru had been targeted by media campaigns since the 1990s to “discredit and slander” him, calling any charges against him in France “absurd accusations.”
The Atman federation meanwhile described the situation to The Associated Press in an email as a “witch hunt,” disclaiming responsibility for the private lives of students and teachers at its member schools. It also highlighted that some member schools had won cases at the European Court of Human Rights, demonstrating human rights violations against them.
The alleged sexual abuses spanned Europe. In 2017, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation issued an international arrest warrant for him for alleged aggravated human trafficking. Bivolaru had obtained political refugee status in Sweden in 2005, which delayed legal proceedings in Romania. In France, yoga retreats were held in and around Paris and in the southern Alpes-Maritimes region. However, it was not immediately clear how long he had been in France.
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17: 9
Many years ago, in the early days of radio, an incident took place which I may well recount as a crystallization of the aims and purposes I had before me in undertaking this task: the exposition of the epistle to the Romans. In a certain city in central Pennsylvania, listeners were attempting to get my program from a distant station that was broadcasting on a wavelength so near to that of another station that the two programs sometimes became confused. From New York a certain minister was preaching his sermon at the same time that my Bible study was going forth. Friends told me that a woman who was trying to unscramble the two broadcast said, “If I hear a voice talking about the dignity of human personality, I know that I have the New York station. If the voice says that a man must be born again, I know that I have Dr. Barnhouse from Philadelphia.”
Within that exaggeration there is a profound truth, and within that truth there is the expression of the ministry which I seek to exercise. I am convinced that the ministry which seeks to exalt mankind can, in the end, do no good for mankind. On the contrary, the ministry which will reach the truths of man’s complete ruin in sin and God’s perfect remedy in Christ, can best reach the heart of the need of the human race and can bring the only remedy that can heal the heart which God has declared to be humanly incurable.
Quotation from: Donald Gray Barnhouse, Man’s Ruin– Romans 1: 1-32 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1952) p. 1
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and renowned critic of Islam, has revealed her conversion to Christianity, describing her journey from Islam to atheism and ultimately to Christianity.
In a Weekend Essay published on UnHerd, Hirsi Ali, who is known for her bestselling books and outspoken views, says her encounter with Bertrand Russell’s 1927 lecture “Why I am Not a Christian” led her to atheism, offering solace and escape from the fear instilled by religious doctrine. She found Russell’s views on religion, rooted in fear, resonant with her own experiences.
“It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title,” adds Hirsi Ali, who is originally from Somalia and is a survivor of genital mutilation.
Hirsi Ali traces her initial disillusionment with Islam following the 9/11 terrorist attacks when she questioned the justifications for the attacks in the name of Islam.
During her teenage years in Nairobi, Hirsi Ali says she was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, which instilled in her a strict interpretation of Islam.
This period was characterized by a strict adherence to religious practices and a deep-seated disdain for non-Muslims, particularly Jews. However, her later exposure to atheism through figures like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins provided a stark contrast to her previous beliefs.
Hirsi Ali attributes her turn to Christianity to a broader concern for the challenges facing Western civilization. She cites threats from authoritarian regimes, global Islamism, and “woke” ideology as catalysts for seeking a unifying force. Christianity, in her view, offers a foundation of values and traditions that uphold human life, freedom, and dignity, and counters the divisiveness she associates with atheism.
Responding to her embrace of the Christian faith, conservative Christian philosopher Dr. Robert George wrote on Facebook: “Two decades ago, under the influence of the writings of Bertrand Russell, she became an atheist. Her thought was that atheism was smart and sophisticated — it was allegedly what really intelligent people believed (the ‘brights,’ as Daniel Dennett embarrassingly labeled himself and his fellow unbelievers). It was the way to a world of rationality and civil liberty. Hirsi Ali is not the first to have gone down that misguided path. She now sees that it is indeed misguided and that there is, if I may quote scripture, ‘a more excellent way.’”
Hirsi Ali’s embrace of Christianity also stems from a personal quest for spiritual solace and meaning in life.
Hirsi Ali critiques atheism for leaving a “God hole,” which she believes has led to the rise of irrational ideologies and the erosion of Western values. She argues that Christianity provides a unifying story and foundational texts, similar to those in Islam, that can engage and mobilize people.
Speaking at the National Press Club in 2015, Hirsi Ali offered five amendments to the religion of Islam that Muslims should take seriously if they really want to bring about a peaceful reformation to their religion.
She suggested Muslims should view the Quran and the hadith as creations of human effort, potentially divinely inspired but ultimately human in origin. This perspective challenges the traditional view of Muhammad as a moral guide post-Mecca, which Hirsi Ali finds problematic.
As the second amendment, Hirsi Ali advocated for a change in how Muslims prioritize life after death over life before death. She called for a reorientation toward valuing earthly life more.
She also argued that Shariah law is responsible for widespread violence and oppression in Muslim cultures, exemplified by regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Islamic State terrorist group.
As her fourth amendment, she called for the elimination of the principle of “Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong.” This principle, according to Hirsi Ali, leads to vigilantism and mob justice, as seen in cases where citizens punish individuals for alleged violations of Shariah law or disrespect toward Muhammad.
Hirsi Ali also called for an end to the concept of Jihad as Holy war, advocating instead for a focus on peace.
“Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.” C.S. Lewis
While the government is not God—a truth they tend to forget from time to time—their burgeoning relationship with the companies developing artificial intelligence serves as a helpful parable for understanding a key component of our relationship with the Lord.
Scripture is clear that when our sin takes us outside of God’s will, there will be consequences (Galatians 6:7). And though that cost may be delayed at times, it doesn’t go away. As such, it is much better to work with God than to wait for him to correct us when we go off the right path. That doesn’t mean the Lord can’t redeem our mistakes, but it’s still far better to have never committed them in the first place.
C. S. Lewis described this principle well when he said of God, “Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.”
As Christians, we must not make the mistake of giving up the good that God has prepared for us simply because it’s not what appeals to us in the moment. The Lord wants to direct our path because he alone knows what is ultimately best for us and for his kingdom. But he also loves us enough to give us the freedom to make that choice for ourselves.
So which path will you choose?
Will you take the road that seems best to you, deciding that it’s worth the risk of God “bringing down the hammer” to correct you in the future? Or will you let the Lord lead and submit to his will as you partner with him in advancing his kingdom?
Put that way, the choice should be simple. And, ultimately, it is. But it’s also one that all of us get wrong from time to time when we lose sight of what is really at stake.
So take some time now to pray and ask God if there are any ways that you have strayed from his will. If the Holy Spirit brings any to mind, repent and commit to whatever steps are required to correct those mistakes.
And don’t wait to do so. Every day spent outside of his will is filled with moments and opportunities you can’t get back.
Let’s make sure we don’t miss them today.
Source: Ryan Denison, PhD,Is “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy” AI Possible? Biden Issues Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence. November 3, 2023, Denison Forum.
For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10 (emphasis added)
Scripture tells us that God’s love for mankind is a foreign love.
A love not found in or exercised by the human race. This fact alone proves the divine source of the good news about Jesus Christ.
The Scripture says that “ while we were enemies” Jesus went to the cross for ALL humans after being scourged terribly. He died the most despised manner of death known in the Roman Empire. He hung naked nailed to the wooden cross before the very creation He had spoken into existence.
Jesus did this for ALL of God’s enemies. Humans do not die for their enemies.
Not only did Lord Jesus suffer physically, but also, became the sin offering for our sins. He took the wrath of God for the guilt of our sins and for the sins of ALL of mankind, the whole world. He took the wrath of God for God’s enemies so we would not have to experience the justified wrath of a Holy God.
Would you die for your enemy? Do you know of anyone who has or would?
Finally, Lord Jesus cried out on the Cross, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?” (Matthew 27:46) The precious fellowship with Father God which He had always known, was broken due to Him becoming the sin sacrifice on the cross. He had never known this separation before.
He did that for God’s enemies.
The Greek word for enemies denotes hating, hostility and is used as a noun signifying an enemy or adversary. As unbelievers we “were … alienated and hostile in mind” toward God and “engaged in evil deeds” (Col. 1: 21), opposing and breaking His commandments. Paul, in Philippians 3:18-19, describes God enemies when he writes, “For many walk…that…are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite. and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things…”
James, Jesus’ half-brother, tells us that “friendship with the world is hostility toward God” and “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4: 4)
Haven’t we all, at one time or another loved the things of this evil, Satan controlled world system, that are so anti-God and anti-Jesus.
These biblical descriptions of God’s enemy describe every human being on earth, before he or she comes to trust in Jesus Christ and receive God’s love for them.
God’s love for humanity is a foreign love.
No way around it. It is not of this earth nor practiced by humans. It only flows from His Being and expresses the high value He puts on His greatest creation, man. That He would give His Beloved Son for you and me reveals the high value He puts on each person’s soul.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Believe in Jesus today as your Savior and Lord. Please do not reject God’s love for you. If you do, you will eternally suffer for your sins, separated from His great love.
Lord Jesus has ALREADY died for ALL of your sins. He has taken the wrath of God ALREADY for you, so you do not have to experience it.
Receive God’s forgiveness for every sin you have ever committed, turn from your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Noted theologian and preacher John Piper recently listed eight ways he says the Old Testament doesn’t apply to modern Christianity while also believing that the promises of the Hebrew Bible largely apply to the Church.
In an episode of the podcast “Ask Pastor John” posted last week, a listener named Maureen asked Piper, “Which Old Testament verses are for me, as a Christian, today.”
“Sometimes I select a verse that is meaningful to me from my Bible reading in the morning. But then later in the day, as I further reflect on it, it feels like I’ve lifted the verse out of context and misapplied it to myself. How, Pastor John, do I know which Old Testament promises are for me?” Maureen asked.
Piper responded that, while he believed “all of the Old Testament is for those who are in Christ Jesus,” there were still “differences between the people of God — the Church — today and the people of God — Israel — in the Old Testament, and how God relates differently to each.”
Piper listed eight specific differences, beginning with how Old Testament Israel was “an earthly, political nation-state,” while the modern Church “is a people whose citizenship is in Heaven and who are sojourners and exiles here, scattered among all the nation-states.”
The second difference Piper pointed to was that Israel was “a theocracy to carry out God’s punishments for those who broke His law, including capital punishment for idolatry and various other sins.”
“The Church is not a civil government and is not authorized as a church to carry out God’s punishments. Excommunication from the church through church discipline replaces execution through the judicial processes,” Piper said.
A third difference is that Israel was “basically one ethnicity” while “the Church is made up of all ethnicities.” Piper added that “practices that were designed to separate Israel from the surrounding peoples and ethnicities” are “done away with as requirements for God’s people.”
The fourth difference Piper laid out was that while Israel “had defined geographic borders and a geographic religious center,” the New Testament Church “has no geographic borders or religious center.”
A fifth point of difference, according to Piper, was that individuals were born into ancient Israel, while “people are born again into the Church.”
“The new covenant is entered by the miracle of God’s forgiving sins through faith and through God’s writing the law on our hearts,” he explained.
Difference number six was that Israel did not have a “great commission,” specifically a call on members to evangelize, whereas the New Testament believers are called to evangelize.
“The Old Testament religion was mainly a ‘come and see’ religion, while the New Testament religion is mainly a ‘go and tell’ religion,” Piper said.
A seventh difference, according to Piper, was that ancient Israel had a sacrificial system in place, “but that entire system was done away with when Jesus fulfilled it by becoming the final sacrifice and by acting as the final High Priest.” theologian saying that “the people of God in the Old Testament did experience the working of the Spirit of God, but they did not experience or know the Spirit as the indwelling Spirit of the risen Christ.”
“Today, we know the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. He works in His Church, therefore, in a way that he did not work in the Old Testament, because the Church is His body, the body of the risen Christ,” he added.
Despite the key differences, Piper added: “We can take any text in the Old Testament and make it our own by treating it as fulfilled in Christ, with the necessary changes implied in those points.”
In May 2018, megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley garnered controversy when said in a sermon that Christians needed to “unhitch” the Old Testament from their faith.
Stanley referenced Acts 15, in which the leaders of the early Church decided that Gentile converts did not need to strictly observe Jewish law to become Christians.
“[First century] Church leaders unhitched the Church from the worldview, value system and regulations of the Jewish Scriptures,” said Stanley. “Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish Scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
Critics, among them Messianic Jewish author and radio host Michael Brown, argued that “throughout the New Testament,” Gentile believers “were called to live holy lives, based on Old Testament teaching.”
“Pastor Stanley forgets that the Old Testament also tells us the story of Israel, including Israel’s blessed future,” wrote Brown at the time.
“Cut out the Old Testament, and you cut out much of Israel’s destiny, which all believers should understand. Cut out the Old Testament, and you also cut out the destiny of the nations.”
For his part, Stanley told Brown in an interview in July 2018 that he still considered the Old Testament inerrant, and that his comments were centered more toward an audience that does not trust the Bible.
“I told my kids growing up, if anyone ever asks you, ‘Do you believe Adam and Eve are real people?’ here is how you are to answer: do not say ‘yes’ because the Bible says Adam and Eve were real people,” Stanley said.
“You say this: ‘I believe Adam and Eve were historical characters because Jesus did. And when somebody predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever they say.'”
White House walks back Biden remarks about seeing images of beheaded Israeli children
ChristFollower01
Pray for discernment. Pray for all who are suffering. Understand that “the first casualty of war is truth”. All wars employ propaganda.
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Why does the Bible contain prophecy?
Marshall
The Church Age is the period of time from the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to the Rapture, otherwise known as a “gap.” If you don’t believe in any of this, then you will not have the missing pieces of the puzzle.The Prophet Daniel is my favorite because he wrote prophecies concerning Greece and the Macedonian Empire that turned out to be Alexander the Great. Not only that but he also wrote about the Antichrist and the Tribulation which is the 70th “week” (which is not 7 days but 7 years due to the translation). It’s like a dozen means 12. There is a gap after the 69th week in which God stopped the game time clock. The 69 weeks have already happened (69 x 7 = 483). Sir Robert Anderson studied Daniel and wrote the book, The Coming Prince, in which he explained the prophecy that the Jewish Messiah would come 483 years after the commandment (of Artaxerxes, king of Persia) to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. Anderson’s calculations showed that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem in Luke 19, known as the Triumphal Entry, on the precise day that was prophesied by Daniel. God warned Israel about the 70 weeks (70 x 7 = 490 years). Due to the pause, there are the final 7 years remaining (490 – 483 = 7 years). And that is one reason why the book of Daniel is so helpful in learning about the Antichrist.
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Thoughts on leftwing support for Hamas and radical Islam
Jan Shay
We knew the end times were coming and told to be prepared. I agree with Wayne. We are to pray for Israel, support them and stand with them. I will follow God’s direction as He tells us what to do in His Word.
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Dr. Ben Carson lists 7 ways communism has won in America
Tiresias
His speech is just a red meat for conservatives. The choice between capitalism and communism is a false choice. We can choose what the role of government is going to be and how to socialize those costs across the population. I’d like to see him give a speech of what programs to support and how to govern rather than mere rhetoric.
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John Piper lists 8 ways the Old Testament doesn’t apply to Christians
Roger McKinney
“Israel was ‘a theocracy to carry out God’s punishments for those who broke His law…'”No, Israel was not a theocracy. Theocracies are ruled by human religious leaders. Israel had no human executive. God did not rule Israel day to day as human kings do. And God was no less king under the monarchy. We learn from the prophets that God is king of all nations in a similar way as he was king over Israel.And no, Israel wasn’t one ethnicity. Caleb and the Kennites who joined Israel during the Exodus were Israelites. And Israel had pagans living among them from the start, any one of whom could become a citizen of Israel simply by converting, as Rahab did and Ruth.We shouldn’t try to apply OT law woodenly, but we shouldn’t ignore it, either. It represents God’s wisdom for governments. We should try to distill general principles from it as Paul did with thecommand not to muzzle the ox.
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Pastor arrested for allegedly raping family member at least 600 times since age 7, getting her pregnant
Wes
If this is true I hope he enjoys spending the rest of his life in prison as a recipient of what he has perpetrated.
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DDonald25 minutes agoBeginning at Genesis 1:1 and ending at Revelation 22:21, the Word of God is for all of God ‘s people regardless of anyone’s ethnic background. When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:15, to “rightly divide the word,” (KJV) he doesn’t mean to actually divide the word up for people groups. He means t…See moreReplyShare
JJohn1 hour agoPiper’s fifth point of difference fails to recognise the difference between the visible and the invisible church. The Reformed view is that the children of believers are part of the visible church. The Paedobaptist view is that they must be baptized into the visible church as soon as physically pos…See moreReplyShare
JTJames Tucker3 hours agoIf you don’t at least have a basic understanding on how your behavior should be like the 10 commandments because Jesus did not or at least did not point to all things that were good and bad except when he said go and sin no more which points to the 10 commandments. The other Jewish laws where the o…See moreReplyShare
DHDonald Hannigan3 hours agoMatthew 5:17-19 Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! Therefore, whoever nu…See moreReplyShare
MMarshall4 hours agoI appreciate John Piper giving us 8 specific examples and the fact that he was on a podcast when a listener called in that question; it means that he was able to field that question without having advance notice of it. I say, “Good job!” However, at some later point, it would be instructive for Pip…See moreReply1Share
HHospes1 hour agoFYI, Piper does not field live questions on his podcast “Ask Pastor John”. The questions are sent to him beforehand.ReplyShare
JJim5 hours agoIf you need the old Torah to live rightly then you aren’t following Jesus and His commands and expectations. Jesus, “upped the ante” so to speak by making following Him having greater expectations than OT Torah.Hating another is akin to murder according to Jesus.Just lusting is committing adultery …See moreReply1Share
TTruthTeller5 hours agoEverything JP writes or states should be carefully examined before anyone agrees with him. Check out his statements on Christian hedonism or CRTJP often uses words to deflect true meanings to “ride the fence” so as not to offend. We must learn from the OT or we loose our sense of a Holy God and how…See moreReplyShare
RRecognizingTruth14 hours agoThat is some AWFUL theology right there.Reply3Share
MPModerate Politically15 hours agoThis does not mean we get a get out of jail free card and can do anything we want. We are to follow Christ. Most everything in the law is about showing love to God, and others. There are also some health and religious laws mixed in as well.ReplyShare
JJohn55 minutes agoWe get a get out of jail free, but with it a new nature added, so we will not do everything we wanted to do before. And if there isn’t a signifcant difference from what happened before, that puts the new nature in doubt, giving us reason to suspect we may not actually have got out of jail either.ReplyShare
LKLen Kinzel15 hours agoIs this saying there are parts of the Old Testamant from which we may need to unhitch ourselves? Asking for a friendReplyShare
HHospes59 minutes agoYes, unless you want to adhere to sacrificing lots of animals.ReplyShare
Kat Von D was many things: A tattoo artist on TLC’s “LA Ink.” A fashion mogul with her own makeup line. A Californian who struck against the grain with her pagan, artistic expressions. How things have changed.
The latest shows her being baptized a Christian in an unnamed church in Indiana in a video posted on her Instagram on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
As inked-up friends of the artist are seen in attendance, Ms. Von D sings before the ceremony, and then a pastor is heard: “I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” He dips her head and white-robed body—tattoos fully concealed—into the pool. She rises and immediately they embrace.
The dramatic metamorphosis isn’t her first, but the latest in a series of moral moltings for Ms. Von D in recent years, taking her in a less pagan direction and toward a more traditional one. Her Hispanic parents were Seventh-day Adventist Christians.
Once a fashion magnate partnered with Sephora, her makeup line, formerly Kat Von D, exceeded profitability expectations by vast margins. Then in January 2020, she announced she’d sold all shares in the brand of her namesake and was no longer involved in any capacity.
In another surprise move, in December 2020 the former TV star left High Voltage Tattoo parlor in LA, announcing she had bought a home in Indiana. She cited California’s taxes, “terrible policies,” and “tyrannical government” as reasons.
The Mexican native, now 41, once mentioned how she’d discovered punk rock and “subscribed more to the feeling of being free.” That explained the ink sleeves. At the same time, her former product line with her signature eyeliner and red lipstick channeled the witchcraft-inspired aesthetic Ms. Von D had long gravitated toward and became famous for.
In yet another post, in July 2022, Ms. Von D said she was tossing all her books about witchcraft and the macabre away, captioning:
I don’t know if any of you have been going through changes in your lives right now, but in the last few years I’ve come to some pretty meaningful realizations—many of them revolving around the fact that I got a lot of things wrong in my past.
Today, I went through my entire library, and threw out books that just don’t align with who I am and who I want to be.
I’ve always found beauty in the macabre, but at this point, I just had to ask myself what is my relationship with this content? And the truth is, I just don’t want to invite any of these things into our family’s lives, even if it comes disguised in beautiful covers, collecting dust on my shelves.
In no way is this post designed to put anyone down if you’re into this stuff, because I think we are all on our own journey, and I love everyone regardless of where they might be at. But right now, it’s never been more clear to me that there is a spiritual battle taking place, and I want to surround myself and my family with love and light.
With that being said, I want to send extra love to everyone out there, and hope through some of these trying times, you are making meaningful changes in your life, too!
While her Instagram still has the same pagan look it always had—the black clothing, the cobwebs, the cat eyes—her latest baptism post comes in stark contrast. Commenting on her baptism video, both supporters and detractors were vocal.
Notably, fellow LA expat and Hollywood escapee Robbie Starbuck echoed her woes about spiritual war: “We live in a spiritual battle right now and while it’s dark sometimes, other times moments like this happen and it fills my soul with joy. Welcome my sister in Christ!”
Some saw her exodus as a sort of threat or betrayal, with accusations like “Poser” and “Absolutely ridiculous.” Still, more supporters offered hope and redemption, welcoming Ms. Von D into the flock with open arms.
“Praying that the Holy Spirit has convinced your heart! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!” wrote Paulabaluart. “He loves you! May the light of the Lord shine upon you and may this light illuminate any darkness around or within you! We love you in Christ.”
Emiliacantor.artist wrote: “I’m not religious but I totally support any change a person freely do to find inner peace, happiness and their own way to meditate and get in touch with their perception of God.”
Dolcehairextensionsmelbourne commented:
My life was full of darkness now it’s all changed Jesus is great he changed me and my family. I have a beautiful home beautiful friends and such a great surrounding. Jesus will surround you now with many like minded people enjoy your blessings.
Source: Epoch Times by Michael Wing: a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news.
As noted in Part 1 of this series, there is a coming world religion (CWR), and it is advancing rapidly. One of the significant elements that expedites its growth is mysticism, which is a belief system that ultimately rejects teachings that involve objective laws, rules, requirements, obligations, dogmas, doctrines, and the like, in favor of subjective experiences and intuitive feelings.
The goal of the CWR (also known as the religion of the Antichrist) is to bring all religions under its patronage and control. Since all religions have doctrines that separate them from one another, even to the point of hostility in some cases, their doctrines must be compromised or altered in order to be acceptable to all—or they must be removed altogether. Mysticism facilitates doctrinal compromise because of its subjective nature. In other words, the objective meaning of a doctrine must give way to one’s subjective interpretation, i.e., how one feels about it. When such a belief system is in place, there can be no absolute truth; so-called truth is whatever an individual feels it is. It’s in the mind of the beholder.
Religions that are heavily legalistic in their theology must change in order to fit in with the ecumenical CWR. Two such religions are Roman Catholicism and Islam. In part one of this series we documented how the Church of Rome is well along the way of shifting from its highly legalistic system of rules and obligations toward a more mystical process. The Catholic Church has more than a billion followers, and they also must be included in the religion of the Antichrist. Islam, too, has greater than a billion adherents, so it also must become a part of the CWR. However, it is legalistic—and aggressively so—in its doctrine and practices, far more so than any other religion in the world. Consequently, many doubt that it could ever change.
Some have suggested, therefore, that the religion of the Antichrist will be Islam itself. For that to happen, the conversion of the world to Islamic beliefs would follow its historical method, which is at the point of a sword. Although that worked to a large degree in the past, it falls far short of what is necessary to spiritually transform the entire world. Additionally, there are obvious problems for this belief system regarding the coming religion of the Antichrist. The fact that the entire world will worship the Antichrist as God is inconsistent with and opposed by the Muslim worship of Allah. Sharia law, which is the Islamic code of law, is derived from the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Muhammad’s teachings and examples). Consequences for disobeying Sharia laws are the harshest among religions. Its rules are overtly abusive regarding women. Furthermore, Islam’s collectively intense hatred of Jews and Christians, as well as “all infidels,” is diametrically opposed to the CWR’s necessary ecumenism. These doctrines of Islam work against its efforts to attract followers to the coming world religion. What then, if anything, is there within Islam that might reconcile the billion-plus Muslims to the religion of the Antichrist, with its mystical underpinnings? The answer is Sufism.
Sufism is the mystical Islamic belief and practice through which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge by way of a direct personal experience with Allah. This is Islam in the throes of experiential and subjective beliefs and practices. Being functionally at odds with Sharia laws and practices, many Sufi practitioners reject the rules of Sharia outright, regarding mysticism as the most direct way to achieve union with Allah. Moreover, where it has been historically practiced throughout the world, Sufism has had no problem coexisting with other religions. This is not the case, as we’re well aware, for Islamic Sharia Law.
One mystical aspect of Sufism is for its practitioners to put themselves into an ecstatic trance or altered state of consciousness through whirling. These individuals are known as Whirling Dervishes. According to one source, “The hundreds of the Dervish twirling rotations (20-30 per minute) coincide with the theta rhythm in the brain, and the chanting (they repeat the word ‘God’ [more likely ‘Allah,’] about 99 times) makes the dancers dissociate from reality and enter a different state of mind. When the ceremony is over, the dervishes return, side by side, in front of the sheikh [master and guide] and then move to another room to meditate. The physiological goal of the whirling is for the dervish to ‘empty’ himself of all distractions” (https://bit.ly/3ZgY9sm). It should be obvious that this is just another form of Eastern mystical meditation along with the contemplative forms practiced by more and more professing Christians in the West.
The various exercises of mysticism are similar throughout the world, even where there has been no connection between the cultures or people groups. For example, Sufi meditation and yoga employ the same lotus sitting position and a hasta mudra (with the thumb curled and touching the tip of the forefinger). Sufi whirling has the same effect as the uncontrollable shaking in the Dynamic Meditation practiced by the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Sufi Shaykh is similar to the guru in yoga in terms of the practitioner’s absolute submission to him and obedience to the guidance given. In some practices, the Shaykh is a transcended spiritual entity channeled by the meditator.
The Encyclopedia of Islam lists a number of manifestations found within the meditation practices of Sufism, e.g., “barking and howling” (MacDonald, D. B. “Darwish [Darwesh],” Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by: P. B. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs, Brill Online, Augustana, 21 Sept 2009), behavior that was also exhibited through the so-called impartation of the Holy Spirit in places such as the Toronto Airport Vineyard, Pensacola and Lakeland, Florida, International House of Prayer (IHOP), and Bethel Church in Redding, California, among numerous others.
These experiences taking place throughout the world should offer more than a hint that spirit entities, contacted through altered states of consciousness and meditation, as well as some people’s faith in the false signs-and-wonders methods, have been facilitating Satan’s goal of seducing and controlling the consciousness and beliefs of mankind. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy:4:1).
Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, is someone whom I would describe as the poster boy for everything that I’ve been noting in this article, which is the acceptance of all religions in the formation of a one-world religion. He is a Muslim—a Sufi Muslim. He is also a New Ager and a national spokesman for Transcendental Meditation or TM (https://bit.ly/3GjqXKc). TM is the pseudo-scientific title conjured up by Hindu guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Maharishi, who came to fame as the spiritual advisor and guru to the Beatles, began teaching meditation in US schools as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, but it was shut down because the courts realized that it was clearly a religion. The Maharishi simply renamed it The Science of Transcendental Meditation (emphasis added). This incredibly important alteration was not only successful in promoting his Hinduism in schools, but it also opened the door for other pseudoscientific forms of meditation such as Mindfulness and MindUP, which have been overwhelmingly accepted by our school systems here in the US.
It was never His design to send people to Hell. It breaks the heart of God to see people, made in His image, make the deliberate choice to go to Hell. Hell was not made for people; it was made for the angelic being, Satan, who rebelled against God.
In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Scripture also teaches, “[God] is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
That is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place—to bridge the gap between sinful people and a Holy God. The gates of Hell are locked from the inside. If you end up in Hell, you will practically have to climb over Jesus to get there.
Christians are not superior to any other person. A person who believes Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and proclaims that truth is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
This month, Loren Seibold, editor of Adventist Today, wrote a provocatively titled piece: “The Bible Is a Dirty Book: …which also contains the words of eternal life.” This title, while clearly intended to grab attention, in no way exaggerates the author’s true feelings toward Scripture. For as I read it, I was taken aback by the content no less than I was shocked by the title. Thus it is that the formerly feigned reverence for the Word of God by progressive Adventists gives way to unveiled contempt.
Seibold’s article gives some initial examples of explicit wording and sexually graphic content from Scripture, before moving on to his real objection to the Bible (what he calls “the worst pornography”): its graphic violence. Particularly objectionable to the author is the fact that God is portrayed as commanding the Israelites to slaughter their enemies, seemingly indiscriminately. Seibold cites Deuteronomy 20:16–18 as an example (in the outdated KJV for maximum effect):
But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee…
The three dots at the end of the quotation conceal the entirety of verse 18. This was probably done by Seibold in order to make God’s command appear as unreasonable and offensive to modern ears as possible. The inhabitants of these cities were decreed by God for destruction “that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God” (v. 18). Sin is deadly, and a deadly serious matter, at that. But that’s not at all how a modern religious person would view these things.
Seibold is equally incensed at another passage, Numbers 31:17–18:
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
His response is incredulous, outraged, and mocking: “Seriously? God said you should ‘keep the little girls alive for yourselves’? Since their virginity is particularly noted—uh, what exactly did God intend you to do with them?” Seibold completely leaves out the entire context of Numbers 31, namely that it was commanded as a response to the Midianites’ incitement to sexual sin and spiritual adultery at Baal Peor (Numbers 25).
God did not command the Israelites to keep alive little girls for the perverse satisfaction of Israelite men.
God did not command the Israelites to keep alive little girls for the perverse satisfaction of Israelite men. Instead, this passage protects the innocent Midianite women who had not participated in this horrific sin against the Israelites. However, it seems that Seibold does not care about these details, but is instead trying to drive home his point: The Bible is a dirty book.
A Christian attitude toward Scripture
I routinely tell my students in class that it is right for believers to wrestle with challenging issues in Scripture, such as the highly controversial “Canaanite genocide” issue. When we read the text faithfully and contextually, good solutions often present themselves, as shown above. But even when we may not get the full picture, or when the solution is not as satisfactory as we might wish, the Bible’s inner theological coherence keeps us grounded.
I routinely tell my students in class that it is right for believers to wrestle with challenging issues in Scripture, such as the highly controversial “Canaanite genocide” issue.
God is the author of all life. God gives life, and takes life. God has the right and prerogative, as Creator, to take human life (especially in a context of human sin and rebellion). Furthermore, God has the right to use human instruments as a chosen vehicle of divine justice. Governments are charged with carrying out God’s judgment, for example (Rom 13:4). So the difference between vigilante vengeance and legitimate justice is partly due to whether or not God has authorized a particular agent (such as the Israelites) to carry out his judgment.
Noted Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman helpfully describes some of what is going on in these difficult narratives: “We should not be amazed that God ordered the death of the Canaanites, but rather we should stand in amazement that he lets anyone live. The Conquest [of Canaan] involves the intrusion of the ethics of the end times, the consummation, into the period of common grace. In a sense, the destruction of the Canaanites is a preview of the final judgment.” Notice that the Israelite conquest represents something out of the ordinary. But sooner or later, judgment will come to all sinners, hence our dire need for the gospel. Listen to the sobering words of the Lord Jesus, in response to the crowds who told him about a horrible thing that Pilate had done to some Galileans (Luke 13:2–5):
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
One day God will set to right every injustice. But that includes the injustice of every sinner, both great and small. That is why these stories about God’s righteous judgment being executed in this life ought to fill us with wonder at the gospel. They ought to make us love the Savior who bore our own judgment in his body so that not one drop of condemnation would fall upon those who believe.
This is what I mean by a Christian attitude toward Scripture. It is fine to have unresolved questions, to seek answers from the text, to wrestle with Scripture. But it is never right for a Christian to question Scripture’s trustworthiness or its goodness, because to do so is to question the trustworthiness and goodness of its Author. There is a very particular attitude toward Scripture which God has promised to honor: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my Word” (Isa 66:2).
An unbelieving attitude toward Scripture
If you dig down deep enough (though it is perhaps surprising to some), one key aspect of false religion and unbiblical worldviews is an unmistakable hatred for the God of the Bible and for what the God of the Bible has said in his Word. I said “dig down” because sometimes this reality is hard to uncover, though it truly is there. Some individuals, after reading Seibold’s article, might counter that he doesn’t really hate God, only that he has misunderstood what the Bible actually claims about God and his interactions with human beings.
While I do think Seibold has twisted the sense of some of the passages he cites in his article, he seems to have a much bigger and fundamental issue with the Bible than merely the odd verse. Listen to his fairly clear evaluation of Scripture:
Someone is going to say here, “You’re trashing the Bible.” No, I’m trashing one very bad way of reading it. The Bible contains the words of eternal life, but not every word in the Bible is a word of eternal life. Much of it is terribly hard to understand—but even when understood, there’s a surfeit of really bad theology, a horrible lack of respect for human life, and much that is utterly irrelevant to spiritual growth. In its pages some great “holy men of God” did convey to us the astonishing love of God and God’s desire to save us. But it appears some of the words in the Old Testament and Revelation were written by angry, vengeful men—or, in Ezekiel’s case, possibly even mentally ill men.
Things are even further clarified when one pays careful attention to the author’s use of pronouns throughout the article:
“[this] surely isn’t inspired by my God”
“a God worthy of our worship has to be better than the god [sic] pictured in Numbers 31:17-18.”
“our God isn’t always accurately depicted in the book that was written about him.”
Those are fairly shocking admissions. Sometimes Seibold seems to even move past the idea of the God of the Bible merely being a literary invention of its authors: “Undoubtedly some angry person thought God felt that way, but I’d want nothing to do with a God who actually thought that was a good idea [emphasis added].” And again: “It is impossible for me to believe that God insisted on so much violence—and if God did, that’s not a God I can worship or regard as holy in any way [emphasis added].”
If Seibold hates the God of Scripture, just what sort of God does he profess to worship? What are his criteria for sorting through those parts of this “dirty book” he can accept?
If Seibold hates the God of Scripture, just what sort of God does he profess to worship? What are his criteria for sorting through those parts of this “dirty book” he can accept? His instructions at the end begin with a summary statement: “[T]o be a holy and godly person takes more than just following the Bible.” Ultimately, he claims “we Christians must read it through the lens of Jesus.” In fact, Seibold explicitly sets up a sharp contrast between Jesus and the God of the Old Testament:
When Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” he was correcting the Old Testament. He was illustrating, by his life, that that picture of God was erroneous. That’s why he didn’t say, “If you’ve seen what the Father did in the Old Testament, well, that’s what I’m like.” Because he wasn’t.
Nevertheless, even Jesus can be a fallible guide to what Seibold’s God is like. For among his illustrations of the Bible as a “dirty book” is even a passage from the New Testament (Revelation 19:19–21). This prompts him to lament: “The New Testament, which introduces us to the wonderful figure of Jesus, is not entirely free of taint in this regard either.”
Ultimately, the only fully reliable guide to what Loren Seibold’s God is like is Seibold himself (along with his like-minded Adventist friends). The technical term for this mode of thinking is idolatry.
The Doctrine of Scripture and the Doctrine of God
The rejection of the trustworthiness of Scripture is not peculiar to progressive Adventism, but lies at the very heart of the entire movement, as its prophetess acknowledges:
The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God’s mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God’s penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers (Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 225).
Adventists can (and do) make adamant claims about Ellen G. White’s high view of Scripture, as did GC President Arthur Daniells, at her funeral in 1915: “No Christian teacher in this generation, no religious reformer in any preceding age, has placed a higher value upon the Bible.” But White’s teaching of “thought inspiration” is not an isolated phenomenon. It is fundamentally linked to her vast universe of writings that present an alternative worldview (the Great Controversy), an alternative god (“the three great worthies”), and an alternative salvation (the Three Angels’ messages).
The more fundamental reality of false religious systems is not their faulty doctrine of Scripture. It is their faulty doctrine of God.
The more fundamental reality of false religious systems is not their faulty doctrine of Scripture. It is their faulty doctrine of God. And at the very heart of a faulty doctrine of God is a rejection and hatred of the God of the Bible. As Calvin famously stated: “When the Bible speaks, God speaks.”
To reject the words of the Bible is not merely to claim to have a different hermeneutic; it is to reject the God of the Bible Himself. †
Kaspars Ozolins was born in Latvia to an Adventist family. They moved to Los Angeles where Kaspars attended Adventist elementary and high schools in Glendale, California, and his father was an Adventist pastor. He met Ieva, his wife, while studying in Latvia before pursuing a doctorate at UCLA in historical linguistics. After Kaspars completed an M. Div. at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, California, he served as a research associate at Tyndale House in Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. He is now on the faculty at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation.
Martin Luther was one of the famous Reformers in the Protestant Reformation. He unknowingly started the Reformation on October 31, 1517.
There was a time in his life when he confessed:
“I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…”
In 1505 he became a Roman Catholic monk by entering a monastery at Erfurt in Saxony Germany. In 1533 he described his life as a monk:
“I was indeed a pious monk and kept the rules of my order so strictly that I can say: “If ever a monk gained heaven through monkery, it should have been I. All my monastic brethren who knew me will testify to this. I would have martyred myself to death with fasting, praying, reading, and other good works had I remained a monk much longer.”
Luther was a very pious, moral, Roman Catholic monk trying to work his way to heaven. A heaven which is ruled by a righteous God who he confessed hating.
Why did Luther hate God? At the root of it was his ignorance. Apostle Paul writing about the unbelieving Gentiles says they are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in” them (Ephesians 4:17-18). Such was Luther’s case. The following explains, in his own words, what happened:
“Meanwhile, that same year I had again turned to the exposition of the Psalter, confident that after the academic treatment of the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and Galatians and the Epistle of the Hebrews I was better trained. Certainly, I had been possessed by an unusually ardent desire to understand Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. Nevertheless, in spite of the ardour of my heart I was hindered by the unique word in the first chapter: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it.’ I hated that word ‘righteousness of God’, because in accordance with the usage and custom of the doctors I had been taught to understand it philosophically as meaning, as they put it, the formal or active righteousness according to which God is righteous and punishes sinners and the unjust.”
“As a monk I led an irreproachable life. Nevertheless, I felt that I was a sinner before God. My conscience was restless, and I could not depend on God being propitiated by my satisfactions [good works]. Not only did I not love, but I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…. Thus a furious battle raged within my perplexed conscience, but meanwhile I was knocking at the door of this particular Pauline passage, earnestly seeking to know the mind of the great Apostle.”
“Day and night I tried to meditate upon the significance of these words: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: The righteous shall live by faith.’ Then, finally, God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely, faith and that this sentence -The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel – is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ’The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise. In the same moment the face of the whole of scripture became apparent to me. My mind ran through the scriptures, as far as I was able to recollect them, seeking analogies in other phrases, such as the work of God, by which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.”
“Just as intensely as I had before hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God’, I now lovingly praised this most pleasant word. This passage from Paul became to me the very gate to Paradise.”*
In another place Luther writes about this experience,
“At first whenever I read or sang the Psalm: ‘Deliver me in thy righteousness’, I was frightened, and I hated the words ‘the righteousness of God’ and ‘the work of God’, for I believed that the righteousness of God meant his severe judgment. Were he to save me accordingly, I should be damned for ever. But the words ‘the mercy of God’ and ‘the help of God’ I liked better. Thanks to God, when I understood the matter and learned that the righteousness of God means that righteousness by which he justifies us, the righteousness bestowed as a free gift in Jesus Christ, the grammar became clear and the Psalter more to my taste.”*
And in one last place he writes,
“These words ‘righteous’ and ‘righteousness of God’ struck my conscience as flashes of lightning, frightening me each time I heard them: if God is righteous, he punishes. But by the grace of God, as I once mediated upon these words in this tower and heated room: The righteous shall live by faith’ and the ‘righteousness of God’, there suddenly came into my mind the thought that if we as righteous are to live by faith, and if the righteousness of faith is to be for salvation to everyone who believes, then it is not our merit , but the mercy of God. Thus my soul was refreshed, for it is the righteous of God by which we are justified and saved through Christ. These words became more pleasant to me. Through this word the Holy Spirit enlightened me in the tower.”*
As we can read, Luther goes from a ‘God hater’ to a ‘God lover’ once he is no longer ignorant of the following verse:
‘For in it [the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)
Martin was no longer “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in” him. By the Lord’s revelation to him, Martin went from being a lost Roman Catholic monk seeking to be saved by his good works to a person who was saved by God’s grace by faith ALONE. He says this truth ‘became to me the very gate to Paradise’. Now he could participate in the life of God with a clear conscience knowing that his sins were forgiven in Christ. He realized his good works amounted to nothing when it came to being saved from the guilt and penalty of his sin.
All of his anger and hate toward God was due to not properly understanding God’s ‘righteousness’. The Roman Catholic doctors who had taught Luther only understood one side of the ‘righteousness’ coin. In His heart Luther knew he was a sinner and he had been taught that this “righteousness” was responsible for God punishing sinners and the unjust. And he said he hated this righteous God because of this.
Unfortunately, Luther’s teachers had received an unbiblical, false work-based salvation from their Roman Catholic ancestors and could not teach Luther the other side of the “righteous” coin. This being that when sinners place their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross ALONE for salvation, this very righteousness is imputed or credited to their account and thereby they stand before God legally as if they had never sinned. All because of what Jesus Christ did and they are now in Him through their faith and God’s grace.
His teachers did not believe this.
The believer becomes the ‘righteousness of God’ in-Christ Jesus (II Corinthian 5:21). All of God’s moral excellence and virtue is imputed or credited to the believing sinner’s account. Hallelujah!
What about you?
Is your ignorance about God hindering your relationship with Him?
Do you have a clear conscience before Him or in your heart of hearts you know something is not right, maybe very, very wrong.
Have you ever checked God and Jesus Christ out by reading the New Testament yourself? If not, I encourage you to do so.
If your relationship with the God of the Holy Bible needs a correction or is non-existent, I pray that you will not rest until you are at peace with God the Father through Jesus Christ alone.
“The Lord … is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (Peter – II Peter 3: 9)
Carl
* Martin Luther quotes from Hans Hillerbrand, Editor, The Reformation – A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers And Participants (Baker Book House, 1972) pp. 27-28
As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ….. (Ephesians 4: 14-15)
It is a blessed thing to see Christians who are builded up by the spirit of God and accordance with the truth. But so many always seemed to be running after some new thing, never seeming to have any discrimination. Let me give you an absurd case.
Years ago as I sat in my office in Oakland there came in through the book room a man whose very appearance betokened a heretic. He was tall and gaunt, had long flowing hair coming down over his shoulders, and a long unkept beard. He came up to where I sat writing. I did not like to be interrupted, for I felt that he was going to waste my time with some religious oddity. He said, “I gather, sir, from the books I have seen in the window that you are a truth seeker, and I thought I would come in and have a chat with you.”
“You are mistaken,” I said; “I am not a truth seeker at all.”
“Oh, you are not; may I ask why you are not?”
“Why, because, sir, I have found him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and therefore my seeking is at an end. Once I was a truth seeker, but now I am a truth finder, for I know Christ.”
“Well, but are there not many things that you still need to know?”
“Oh, yes; there are a great many things that I need to know, but I have found the great Teacher, and I am not going around seeking truth any longer. He instructs me through his Word.”
“Well, as for me, I am always seeking; I go anywhere and everywhere that I think I can learn more.”
“Yes,” I said, “I was reading of you in my Bible the other day.”
“Of me?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say about me?”
“It said, ‘Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’”
“Why, that has no reference to me,” he said.
“Pardon me, but you said that you are always seeking and if a man is always seeking he is never finding. But, you see, those of us who know Christ have found him and have been found of him.”
Then he began to impart some of his weird gospel to me and said, “But you don’t know who I am.”
“No,” I said; “beyond what is written here I do not know who you are.”
“I am one of the 144,000 of whom you read in Revelation.”
“What tribe, please?” I asked.
“Well, the Lord knows; I don’t,” he said.
“Then you will have to excuse me for not taking your word for it and really believing that you are one of the 144,000.”
“But have you not heard that the first resurrection has already taken place?” he asked. “I am in my resurrection body.”
“Oh, I am dreadfully disappointed,” I said. “I never thought it would look like that. I thought it was to be something beautiful.”
Maybe I was a little discourteous to the poor old gentleman, but he was so indignant he turned and cursed me in the name of the Lord and tramped out knocking his shoes against the floor to shake off the dust as a witness against me.
“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (II Timothy 3:7)
Source: H. A. Ironside, LITT.D, In The Heavenlies [Ephesians] (Loizeaux Brothers, 1937) pp. 197-199
If you are a truth seeker seeking to know the truth of the universe, let me point you to Jesus Christ who made the universe. He is, as revealed in the Holy Bible, The Truth. Once you meet Him, your journey will be at an end.
Speaking of Jesus, it is written:
And He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
And He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1: 15-18)
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Psalm 119: 38 