And now as predicted by Bob Jones, Rob DeLuca & Todd Bentley, The Oregon Outpouring!

Here it is folks. Manufactured Revival Part 4. Lakeland Outpouring, The Dudley Outpouring, Washington Outpouring, and now Albany for the Oregon Outpouring. Amazing!  http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/todd-bentley-bob-jones-self-serving-and-self-fulfilling-prophecies/

Pastor Denny Cline – Albany, Oregon

Meetings For Albany Outpouring Continue This Week

By now, many Christians (new and seasoned) have heard of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Lakeland, Florida. It has continued to grow in intensity and fruitfulness with many receiving Christ and being healed and set free from sickness and oppression. Since attending those meetings on three occasions, we’ve decided to hold special meetings to give God the opportunity to release this wonderful anointing in our region. The impact was immediate and more powerful than anything we’ve experienced in its beginnings–in almost 14 years of our ministry in preaching the Gospel with signs and wonders.

You can read some of the testimonies from the May 9-10, 2008 meetings on our website.

We’ve already had an increase in healing over the last few months. Just recently a woman born deaf in one ear could hear clearly as the Holy Spirit continued to heal people Sunday morning. Some may ask why the emphasis on healing? Actually, it is not the emphasis. Hunger and passion for Jesus is the emphasis. When the manifest presence increases many things happen, including people receiving Christ as Savior, but especially healing and miracles.

Two weeks before I went to Lakeland, I had a vision in our Sunday morning service during worship. I saw the hordes of hell being chased into a pit by a huge cloud of God’s Glory, and walking behind the cloud was a young boy eating a piece of bread. Even then, some of the the insight from this vision seemed obvious–healing is the children’s bread. But now seeing what began in Lakeland and is spreading all over the world, this vision has even more meaning to me. Healing, deliverance, and signs and wonders were always a part of Jesus’ ministry, as He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

You might ask, “What if I go to such meetings or let someone pray for my sickness or infirm condition and I don’t get healed?” What have you got to lose by giving God an opportunity to heal you? Jesus only asks us to have the faith of a little child to receive what the Kingdom offers in the fullness of redemption–which includes healing.

This fresh wind of the Holy Spirit is powerful on many levels, empowering and giving the saints a confidence to make radical Christianity normal. Many are being filled with a fresh passion for Jesus to serve Him with all their heart and are being set free from all kinds of things. Go to Lakeland if you can, or come to Albany or one of the many other places where God is pouring out His Spirit if you can.

I am including a prophecy that Rob DeLuca sent to me this morning, which is for Albany and Medford, Oregon. We want to see the entire Northwest ablaze with the Holy Spirit’s love and power–reaching the multitudes for Christ.

“Come and get some” (is what Todd has been saying), wherever you can. Todd Bentley will be in Pasadena with David Tomberlin for one night this weekend also. Click here for details.

May the Lord set the entire West Coast on fire with His glory. We’ll see you here or somewhere in Oregon.

Under His Wings,

Denny Cline, Senior Leader
Albany Vineyard Christian Fellowship
www.vcfalbany.org

I saw a Vision of this Whirlwind of FIRE Trailblazing Across OREGON

Rob DeLuca
Prophetic word for Albany and Medford by Rob DeLuca

Dear Denny,

I had a vision of you while Todd Bentley was praying for you at the meetings in Lakeland, when we were up on the platform together.

I saw a vision of this whirlwind of fire–trailblazing across Oregon, and it was burning up forest trees and the fire was spreading and it was getting larger and larger and it began to consume towns and cities–all across the State of Oregon.

As I watched, I also saw that it began to pull “golden stones” (people) out of the ground–they were alive. As these came out of the ground, they swirled within this whirlwind of fire and they were full of life. I saw these golden stones begin to shine really bright and then they were flung out all over the nation of America. Hot, golden living stones.

The Lord is showing me that what is taking place with you and your ministry, Denny (based in Albany, Oregon), is going to set Oregon on fire.

The Lord is also showing me a city–Medford, Oregon. The reason I know of this city is because my parents used to live there. I also saw that this fire touched Medford in a great way. The wind is blowing and the fire is burning and watch out Oregon, here it comes! Many people will be sent out from Oregon–golden stones to touch the nation.

Let’s stay in touch. God bless you man.

Rob DeLuca
His Way Church in New Zealand

From  http://www.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=21980&PN=

Todd Bentley video, angelic abduction & pillar of fire

I know this video is on several sites already anyway, but I thought I would flag it up as a post for those that had not yet seen it. Personally, I believe Todd Bentley of Fresh Fire Ministries and the Lakeland Outpouring Fame is outright lying in this video and had no such prophetic experience, just as I believe he lies about a lot of things he claims, such as his other experiences with angels and visions. I say this by viewing his body language and mannerisms, and listening to his voice, and using my discernment – but even if we say this encounter was a real spiritual experience he genuinely had, it is not of God for multiple reasons. Todd Bentley is a false prophet, either by deliberate deceit and charlatanism, or by being being ‘innocently’ decieved by seducing spirits. Take your pick, either which way he is a false prophet. (Another site has shown how Bentley has plagarried a lot said in this video from false prophet William Branham’s material re the pillar of fire and angels.)

Before anyone defends Todd Bentley on this post, please watch these and tell me how what he says is even remotely possible to be biblically defensible.

Part 1

Part 2

(Transcript of video)

“Revelations 10,  ooh I love this stuff. Okay, cause its so alive to me because these are so many experiences I had.” had’ Rev.10: I still saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, as a might angel coming down from heaven clothed with a cloud rainbow was on his head his face was like the sun, his feet Charlie, look at this his feet were like pillars of fire. This angel that has feet like pillars of fire has come to me on several occasions….I don’t know if it was THIS angel…But I’m telling you there are angels in heaven that have feet that are like pillars of fire.

This might not even be an angel, it might actually be Jesus, The angel of the Lord. So maybe it wasn’t an angel that came to me maybe it was actually Jesus. But let me tell you the experience.” “I’m telling you is the truth now- everything I’m telling you is the truth- I shouldn’t have to say I’m telling you the truth. Jesus did that, every once in a while, kind of reemphasizing what he was saying he wanted make sure recapture you attention really what I’m saying, this is important listen up.

I was in Seattle Washington at a public meeting and as the speaker was speaking I was sitting in the front row; 

The atmosphere around me starts changing and become electric, like is there some kind of angelic being moving around here now… “so I’m sitting in the front row and all of a sudden the atmosphere around me starts changing and like become electric, and I‘m like- is there some kind of angelic being moving around me right now… have you ever had that sense that something was going, you couldn’t see in the invisible realm but you were sure aware of it, either demonically or angelically, okay so I’m sitting there trying to listen to the speaker and all of a sudden I’m aware of like an electrical presence, an electrical, it was like electricity and it was like 2-3 feet in front of me” right in front of my chair, it was like a whirlwind actually, it was swirling, it was swirling like a whirlwind. And it was very electric and so I’m sitting there and I heard the Lord say “put your hand out. And I‘m thinking, God were listening to the speaker and the lord’s speaking to me put your hand out. So I put my hand out and heres what happened RRRRRR it was like putting my hand into an electrical forcefield.” Everytime I stuck my hand out the atmosphere was like RRRRRRR…RRRRR and then I thought what is this and God says it’s a portal, an open heaven. 

And then you know what I saw? A pillar of fire “just like God brought Israel out with a pilla…I have 4 ft. maybe it was 3 ft. this pillar,… that went through the church roof. A round pillar of living fire, blue, red, sparks I mean it was pillar of fire, moving fire went right up through the church roof. I’m looking at Bill Johnson , he speaking I have a pillar of fire here God’s telling me it’s a portal and its like the bush that was consumed but did not burn I thought can this be happening to me . I’m having a Moses experience in Seattle. There’s this pillar of fire here and the lord says put your hand in it and your first thought is I’m going to burn my arm off. So, I put my hand in it RRRR and it was a real pillar of fire.“get in the Pillar of fire” so I get in to the pillar of fire – as soon as I get in to the pillar of fire my entire body starts going RAAAAAAR and I go up through the church roof in the pillar of fire, its transporting me- I’m in the pillar of fire, its like beam me up, up through this pillar, I’m through the church roof and all of a sudden I, I land, when I say land I mean crash on an operating table in heaven” this is a prophetic experience just in case you didn’t know. I mean, you were there charlie you probably remember the sounds; and the sights, okay. So, I’m gone, I’m in heaven on an operating table. The first thing I’m thinking, I don’t watch CSI very often I just started, its interesting, and I’m thinking I’m in an autopsy room or something that’s the first thought, I thought I’m on one of those tables. That’s my first thought y’know I’m in this room appear 4 angels that look like men don’t worry they weren’t like glorious living creatures like seraphim thy were just like guys in white coats but they were angels they had appearance of men two angels stood on one side of the operating table. And two angels stood on the other side of the operating table and honest truth they wrenched me down, I don’t know what it was they tied me down with but all of a sudden my hands and my ankles were fastened to this table but don’t tell me, this is a little graphic. I’m thinking they’re going to do a surgery on me and I’m awake that’s my first thought they are going to do a surgery on me – your going to be operated on by these angels and here’s what happens, I’m thinking they are going to pull out a scapel and go like (sound) and cut me open And all of a sudden I hear this sound like a mitre saw rrrrrrrr a mitre saw like one of those things before brain surgery, they rrrr . y’know they cut your skull , they pick this thing up and I I literally thought (sound) and they put this thing and they stuck it in me right here on my neck and it didn’t hurt but here’s what happened they went (sound of cutting him open) right down to my lowards and all of sudden my stomach went puchh and everything inside of me popped out onto the table, my heart, my liver like everything. And I’m lying there and you want to scream because you think it should hurt but it doesn’t hurt. and your lying there and your arrr arrr all your insides are, here’s the strangest thing. so then here’s what happens the angels start taking these white boxes, they were white boxes (small), I mean like a little Christmas present, but they were white boxes and they were stuff, have you ever seen anyone stuff a turkey… and they start stuffing these things inside of me They t stuffing these boxes all over and I heard the verse “I desire truth in the inward parts.”

So I say what do you want me to do God what do you want me to do God, he says get in. I said now, God you want me to get in the pillar of fire, I’ve got a pillar of fire that is appeared at my meeting and you want me to climb in it. One, nobody else can see the pillar of fire. Two, if I’m going to climb in it anyone at the meeting looking at me is going to see me laying on the floor, they’re not going to see the pillar of fire and I’m going to look like a fool, Bill’s speaking.

I’m wrestling with God he says

I said God what’s happening -

He said  “I don’t have the thirty forty years to prepare a vessel I’m doing something quick there’s going to be people who get saved and I’m going to open them up and supernaturally place inside of them 10 years of knowledge, wisdom and even character because of the fruits of the spirit. And so These boxes represent character attributes…”and God, so I desire truth, I said whoa that’s pretty awesome and so I come back to meeting, not come back like I wake up I’m in the meeting again

And the Lord says get off the floor get back to your hotel room – right now, I’m going to visit you in power for one hour. I thought whoa, what’s going on. So I said Charlie quick, the lord told me to get back to the hotel room he’s going visit me in power for one hour, you want to come? Grab your son. Randy, randy Clark was with me, I took a couple of his interns. My father was with me and one other person. and uh So lets go and we went back to the hotel and we went to charlies room in the hotel in Seattle. And uh I looked at my watch it was a quarter to twelve, or a quarter to eleven, a quarter to eleven. And we opened the hotel door and looked at the clock a quarter to eleven we didn’t even have to pray, the moment the door closed, the moment I said it was a quarter to eleven Instantly without anybody praying boom the holy visitation fell on the room and everybody in the room was caught up with me in the visionsI mean, all you could hear was aaargh, arrgh (torturing sounds) everybody was shaking y’know and people were having open visions Charlie was skiing on the mountain of the Lord. I was screaming out fire, its consuming me fire, y’know charlies son was in a vision, my father was in a vis,“all at the same time, it was rad.”

 

God says “Todd this is something I’m doing on the church today as an acceleration, He says “I’m supernaturally imparting the character, the revelation and the knowledge that I need the church to have to so they can do the do the work I need them to do because the laborers are few.”.” Moses 40 years , 80 years … I don’t have. I’m doing something quick there’s going to be people who get saved and I’m going to open them up and supernaturally place inside of them 10 years of knowledge, wisdom and even character because of the fruits of the spirit. And so These boxes represent character attributes…”and God, so I desire truth, I said whoa that’s pretty awesome and so I come back to meeting, not come back like I wake up I’m in the meeting again

And the Lord says get off the floor get back to your hotel room – right now, I’m going to visit you in power for one hour. I thought whoa, what’s going on. So I said Charlie quick, the lord told me to get back to the hotel room he’s going visit me in power for one hour, you want to come? Grab your son. Randy, randy Clark was with me, I took a couple of his interns. My father was with me and one other person. and uh So lets go and we went back to the hotel and we went to charlies room in the hotel in Seattle. And uh I looked at my watch it was a quarter to twelve, or a quarter to eleven, a quarter to eleven. And we opened the hotel door and looked at the clock a quarter to eleven we didn’t even have to pray, the moment the door closed, the moment I said it was a quarter to eleven Instantly without anybody praying “boom the holy visitation fell on the room and everybody in the room was caught up with me in the visions I mean, all you could hear was aaargh, arrgh (torturing sounds) everybody was shaking y’know and people were having open visions Charlie was skiing on the mountain of the Lord. I was screaming out fire, its consuming me fire, y’know charlies son was in a vision, my father was in a vis,“all at the same time, it was rad.”

“So anyways an hour after the power of God encounter to make a long story short what happen was the angel came into the room that had the feet like pillars of fire again… Into the hotel room and in the natural the whole hotel room filled with smoke, everybody in the room smelt it. 12 hours later those two hotel rooms burnt to the ground, above charlies room. Above charlies room the angel to come down to those to hotel rooms on his way down to visit us those two hotel rooms caught fire for real and burnt down. I said God I’m going to get a reputation. “In fact the next year people did not want to stay above my room or under my room nobody wanted to be near my room last year in Seattle I thought what is this and the Holy Spirit showed me the angel in Revelation 10.”

Convert or Die! Civil War in the Church played out

I have written a couple of times now on the prophesied Civil War in the church, as promoted by ‘prophets’ Bob Jones, Rick Joyner, Paul Cain et al. {See here and here for example]

Therefore I find it interesting to find this article below. The Left Behind   series is very popular, but very heretical. The reason being is that the Bible clearly shows the rapture of the church as post-tribulation – that is after   the antichrist has appeared and persecuted the true Christians and there has been great suffering etc. However Left Behind’s   authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, together with many of the current voices in the new church such as Hal Lindsay, declare the pre tribulation rapture  – a new theology only since the mid 1800s – that declares the church will be raptured away before  the antichrist appears and all the bad stuff really starts.

I am not nit picking here: this is extremely important, as not only does believing the false doctrine of the pre trib rapture leave Christians unprepared for what is really coming, but believing in the pre tribulation rapture theory potentially leaves you open to accepting false counterfeit Christs instead of the real Jesus. If you do not realise everything that has to happen first before   Jesus Christ can return, and also his  method of return, you could easily be decieved. That is why Jesus really emphasised what must happen first   before his return to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, and also the method   of return. The gathering of saints in the sky ( cf. 1 Thess. 4:15 ff.) is described in detail in Matt. 24:31, and is specifically occurring “after the tribulation of those days” Matt. 24:29.

One theory about Christ’s return becoming ever more popular in these apostate times, is the Latter Rain one promoted by the new prophets and apostles. They declare that Christ is returning, but rather than within the air as lightning flashing from the east where every eye will see Him, Jesus more subtlely returns within the Body of Believers  and the glory coming on man is to make man a perfect overcomer superman and God-man. These blasphemous heresies are promoted by the new prophets and apostles including Bob Jones and Todd Bentley (yeah, him again!). Thus these new prophets and apostles are promoting an antichrist second coming, not the real one.

I have already mentioned the militant speach of the new breed elitist Joel’s Army. They have made it quite clear they want dominion, and in order to get dominion, those that stand in their way will be removed. Therefore the following game is a bit more chilling than appears at first glance -

“Convert or die game divides Christians – Some ask Wal-Mart to drop Left Behind

Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves.

The Campaign to Defend the Constitution and the Christian Alliance for Progress, two online political groups, plan to demand today that Wal-Mart dump Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a PC game inspired by a series of fictional Christian novels that are hugely popular, especially with teens.

The series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is based on their interpretation of the Bible’s Book of Revelation and takes place after the Rapture, when Jesus has taken his people to heaven and left nonbelievers behind to face the Antichrist.

Left Behind Games’ president, Jeffrey Frichner, says the game actually is pacifist because players lose “spirit points” every time they gun down nonbelievers rather than convert them. They can earn spirit points again by having their character pray.

“You are fighting a defensive battle in the game,” Frichner, whose previous company produced Bible software, said of combatting the Antichrist. “You are a sort of a freedom fighter.”

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the retailer has no plans to pull Left Behind: Eternal Forces from any of the 200 of Wal-Mart’s 3,800 stores that offer the game, including just seven in California. The nearest are in Chico and Redding.

“We look at the community to see where it will sell,” said Tara Raddohl. “We have customers who are buying it and really haven’t received a lot of complaints about it from our customers at this time.”

Clark Stevens, co-director of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, said the game is not peaceful or diplomatic.

“It’s an incredibly violent video game,” said Stevens. “Sure, there is no blood. (The dead just fade off the screen.) But you are mowing down your enemy with a gun. It pushes a message of religious intolerance. You can either play for the ‘good side’ by trying to convert nonbelievers to your side or join the Antichrist.”

The Rev. Tim Simpson, a Jacksonville, Fla., Presbyterian minister and president of the Christian Alliance for Progress, added: “So, under the Christmas tree this year for little Johnny is this allegedly Christian video game teaching Johnny to hate and kill?”

Both groups formed in 2005 to protest what their 130,000 or so members feel is the growing political influence and hypocrisy of the religious right.

In Left Behind, set in perfectly apocalyptic New York City, the Antichrist is personified by fictional Romanian Nicolae Carpathia, secretary-general of the United Nations and a People magazine “Sexiest Man Alive.”

Players can choose to join the Antichrist’s team, but of course they can never win on Carpathia’s side. The enemy team includes fictional rock stars and folks with Muslim-sounding names, while the righteous include gospel singers, missionaries, healers and medics. Every character comes with a life story.

When asked about the Arab and Muslim-sounding names, Frichner said the game does not endorse prejudice. But “Muslims are not believers in Jesus Christ” — and thus can’t be on Christ’s side in the game.

“That is so obvious,” he said.

Left Behind is a real-time strategy and adventure game. Players don’t role-play like in Grand Theft Auto — it’s more like the board game Risk than Clue.

Frichner said more than 10,000 retailers — including Sam’s Club, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, GameStop, EB Games and various Christian stores — offer the game. He said sales are terrific, though he wouldn’t reveal figures.

Protesters are targeting Wal-Mart, where the game retails for $39.96, because it is one of the biggest video game sellers in the United States.

More than 60 million copies of books in the series have sold since the first volume came out in 1996.

Jeff Gerstmann, senior editor at the online publication Gamespot.com, said the game isn’t popular. The game itself, which Gamespot rated 3.4 out of a possible 10, has lots of glitches.

“And it’s kind of crazy,” Gerstmann said. “One of the evil characters is a rock musician. … If you get too close to him your spirit is lowered.”

But Plugged In, a publication of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, gave the game a “thumbs-up.” The reviewer called it “the kind of game that Mom and Dad can actually play with Junior — and use to raise some interesting questions along the way.”

Frichner said that is precisely his company’s ultimate goal in offering the game: to bring parents and kids together to talk about the Bible. He said most teens are playing video games, so it was natural to turn the books into one.

His business partner, Troy Lyndon, created Madden Football, one of the top-selling sports video games. Left Behind Games Inc. is based in Murrieta (Riverside County).”

(Article from San Francisco Chronicle, USA, Dec. 12, 2006)

Sowing seeds to false ministers who sell healing & then lie you’re healed

PASTOR MOSES SOLOMON MALE is Executive Director or Arising for Christ ministry. An ardent critic of the widespread prosperity gospel where pastors ‘sell’ prayers for numerous needs, Male tells RICHARD M. KAVUMA why he wants a judicial probe into born-again churches.

Many pastors today are taking money to pray for various needs like visas or getting cured of HIV; why is that a problem?

The fact is that our people are faced with enormous spiritual, social, marital, financial, and health difficulties. There are so many people who are terminally ill and have tried the medical sector and failed. All these people are vulnerable and [these pastors] take advantage of them. They deceive them that if they pay so much they will get cured. Other people are so poor and want to go to western capitals in US, Canada, Japan, in search of greener pastures but because there are very high [travel] restrictions, these people can pay anything they have to get visas. And these so-called pastors deceive them.

But pastors say they do not force anyone to pay?

If you promise some one with a problem that the problem will go, that person will give anything. You don’t need to point a gun at someone to force him/her. If you tell some one that if he sows a seed, he will get 100-fold multiplication; that if he gives Shs 500,000 he will get a visa and that person has tried three or four times in vain, don’t you think that person is bound to believe you?

First, that person believes that you know what you are saying. Secondly, these are people who claim to speak from God directly. There is a difference someone speaking on his own authority and when some one says, ‘I speak from God; the spirit is saying, Christ is saying, God is saying…’

Does the Bible prohibit such paid for prayers?

Actually, when Jesus was commissioning his disciples, he told them, ‘you have received free, go and give free’. One can give an offering or a sacrifice but not with a promise that if he gives, something he has been very much vying for will happen.

Do you not believe that God has the capacity to cure HIV or any disease?

For four years I was with Kakande and his wife Loyce of Holy Church of Christ, now the Synagogue. I was their number two. I used to handle HIV-positive status results and would burn them at their instructions. Then they would tell the victims that they are healed.

Many of these people are already dead. What they would do – because they had that claim – these victims would be given into sexual relationships with healthy people. I have a host of them. A friend is Magezi, who was given one of the victims who had brought HIV-positive results to me. The woman died in 1998.

There is Thomas Kamya, who was also given an HIV-positive woman who they claim to have prayed for and healed. The woman died in 1997, Thomas died in 2003. There is my colleague Obonyo, who was given an HIV-positive woman. The woman died six months later; Obonyo got herpeszosta; they claimed it was witchcraft, they didn’t permit him to take medicine and finally when he quit he was so weak. He died in 2003.

And there is Balabyekkubo who claimed to have powers to heal HIV. One of the people he claimed to have healed was Pastor Joseph Luutu, who eventually married in 2001, with five years’ fake HIV status results which he used to convince the woman to marry him. He took that woman to a backyard clinic in Namungoona for HIV testing and the results turned out negative.

But how come people test HIV-positive, they are prayed for, and then they test negative?

These pastors who claim to heal HIV connive with some medical personnel to falsify HIV status results to be seen negative. Yes. [That used to happen] And the doctor is there. I saw it with my eyes. And of course there is Joseph Luutu.

And let me tell you this: I am currently handling a case where a lady was convinced that she would be healed of HIV and she gave her vehicle. She was never healed.

Not only that. People have given their houses, their land, people have emptied their bank accounts. So actually these are criminals who are capitalising on people’s ignorance of the reality. They are robbing them in the name of Jesus.

Some churches do not charge for praying for certain needs but for counselling or ‘sowing a seed’. This sounds okay.

What these people call counselling is actually soothsaying and this is different from counselling. In counselling some one with a problem talks to you and you guide this person on how to deal with the problem thoroughly – if it is Bible-based counselling – based on scripture.

Now, what do these people do?

They say, ‘those of Shs 10,000, then Shs 20,000… you go to Namulanda (Muwanguzi); go to Kawaala (Yiga); go to Lindon at Seguku – many of these pastors tell you to sow a seed first, put in an envelope and ask for what you want. These are thugs who are using the Bible to get what they want.

Your critics say that you do not have a church and therefore are not qualified to criticise them.

The Bible is very clear. I am the temple of the lord, just like you are the temple of the lord. The Church does not mean a building or an institution.

It means people. I am the nucleus church; then with my family, we are a family church; with colleagues we become the local church; together with other Christians we become the national church and universally we are the universal church. Let those who challenge me that I have no church show me which building Jesus built and left behind as the church; which institution Jesus started and left it behind as a church.

What these people have done is to make would-be Jesus’ disciples into church attendants. And what do they do in there? They rob them, exploit them, manipulate them, control them. People today fear pastors more than they fear God.

For over a year now you have been involved in a campaign to clean up the church: what have you achieved?

Years ago people did not believe that men and women of God could be involved in dirt. We have managed to bring out sodomy and Pastor Kitaka is now facing a case of sodomy with young boys.

The Police are dragging the case. They are investigating and they are not investigating. We have exposed thuggery at the pulpits; we have exposed visa thieves – I remember Pastor Kakooza of Kasubi was eventually sued by Susan Namugenyi.

He was claiming to pray for visas and this lady took her money meant for school fees for a visa. When she couldn’t get it, he told her that ‘if you become my wife, you will get it’. We have been able to expose the false-prophesy givers. People now know that there is a problem in religious institutions.

Many pastors you criticise appear or claim to be supporters of President Museveni: has this been a problem?

When we launched the campaign, the first people we pointed at claimed that we were attacking them because they had supported President Museveni. But our campaign has nothing to do with politics because these criminals commit their atrocities on FDC supporters, Movement supporters, DP supporters, CP supporters and those who have no parties.

What some of them do today – they have many radio programmes – immediately one starts a programme, he says ‘I send my greetings to His Excellency President Y.K. Museveni’. Muwanguzi says that, Lindon says that, Lule says that…

You have written to the Ethics Minister on how to clean up the churches: briefly, what are you proposing?

I have demanded that let there be a judicial inquiry. We are calling for a neutral platform, similar to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, where people abused in spiritual entities – no matter what religion – can put their claims so that they can be addressed.

It is unfortunate Police cannot verify spirits and some of the things that happen are beyond the human eye. Secondly, when these people are conning people, they don’t sign anywhere and [have no physical evidence].

We have proposed a policy which is very drastic but it is difficult to understand it unless you have had an opportunity to see the victims like I have and had experience like mine. Personally I was in a cult and Kakande and his wife paid a policeman to finish off my life when I was leaving them after witnessing all those evils in there – marriages broken, witchcraft performed, people robbed, people selling off their property…

They paid a policeman to…?

To kill me. And the policeman came and introduced himself to me. He started off by intimidating me in 1992; then he told me the truth – ‘Leave Kakande and his wife Loyce. Keep quiet.’ I have shared this with even officials of State House, even the Regional Police Commander Kampala. And in 1993 when I exposed them, they went on to cause my arrest. I spent a night in Wandegeya Police cells. Many people fear to come out because they fear reprisals.

You want a policy to regulate churches: how do you reconcile that with freedom of worship?

Freedom of worship presumes that people know their rights and that the leaders will exercise a duty of care over their followers. But where you have leaders who exploit them and build posh houses, buy hummers and live very lavish lifestyles!

They even rob the HIV-sick? How do you rob someone you know has come to you fervently seeking consolation and support?

They rob people who are desperate. If government does not address the despair of our people, it will have abdicated the duty of care and protection of the people.

Your last word?

There is a lot of indifference in our people. Many think they cannot fall victims. People used to talk about Kibwetere and they did not know. It was too late to realise that Kibwetere was a danger in our country. We have Kibweteres masquerading as women and men of God today.

I am saying, time has come to stop the indifference. Let us join hands together, resources and fight this evil.

Article from http://www.yesumulungi.com/Apologetics/Appologs18.htm

Another Florida charlatan selling healing miracle revival

To a chorus of “Amens” and “Thank You, Jesus,” the Rev. Daniel S. Mundell tells followers God will free them of debt, even make them millionaires. Then comes the sales pitch: Back up your faith with donations. Give, even if it’s your last $100. Write a check. Pay by credit card.

Preaching mostly to a low-income following, the Hallandale Beach-based evangelist has raised millions of dollars through services and crusades in South Florida and across the country.

Former followers say the only one who seemed to attain wealth was the preacher.

Before starting New Generation Ministries in 1991, Mundell had filed for bankruptcy protection and lost a home in a Foreclosure. By 2005, he was living in a $1.8 million estate in Safety Harbor, near Tampa, with basketball and tennis courts and a putting green. The ministry paid the preacher $206,000 in 2005 and once provided him a Mercedes-Benz, a Jaguar and a Corvette, according to court records.

Mundell, 55, declined to be interviewed, citing “pending litigation.” His wife of 20 years and former co-pastor, Kimberly, filed for divorce in October.

“I’m not going to deny that it was lucrative,” Kimberly Mundell told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

For 10 years, Mundell preached in the Fort Lauderdale area at the Solid Rock Family Worship Center under the umbrella of New Generation. He raised money for a new church but then left the congregation in 2004. The church was never built.

Mundell traveled the country on crusades, soliciting donations for overseas mission trips he never took and making predictions to followers that they said never happened.

Mundell is now back in South Florida, preaching at Good Shepherd Ministries in a strip mall in Hallandale Beach and rebuilding his ministry after filing for bankruptcy protection a second time last June. He hosts a weekday radio program broadcast in South Florida on WEXY (1520 AM) and several cities around the country.

“Do you need a miracle? Do you need someone to talk to?” Mundell asked in a Feb. 6 broadcast. “Well you can have that happen today, right over the telephone. As you’re getting ready to dial the toll-free number that I’m going to give you, your life’s getting ready to change.”

APPEAL TO THE POOR

At its peak in the late 1990s, New Generation took in about $3 million a year, Mundell testified in a July bankruptcy court hearing. In addition to his Solid Rock congregation, he preached on the radio and TV through paid programming in multiple cities.

Mundell’s message of “abundant living” helped the white preacher attract worshipers, most of them low- and middle-income blacks.

“What I believe was that he felt like he was called to help the rejected, the downtrodden, the forsaken,” said Kimberly Mundell, who is black.

Mundell is part of an unregulated network of traveling evangelists who say they can heal the sick, perform miracles and make the poor rich. They hold crusades mostly in poor neighborhoods, stay until the money stops coming in and split the proceeds 50/50 with the home church, said Kimberly Mundell, who traveled the revival circuit with her husband.

In April, Mundell hosted Apostle J.G. Rice of Columbia, S.C., for a “Flame of Fire” crusade at Good Shepherd. Rice blessed attendees with “miracle oil” and at one service encouraged them to give $300 each in collection envelopes that included options to pay by credit or debit card.

Last year, Mundell teamed with the Rev. W.V. Grant of Dallas. Grant spent more than a year in federal prison after a 1996 conviction for failing to report $375,000 in taxable income in the purchase of two homes, including his $1 million residence.

Grant’s “miracle revival” at Good Shepherd lasted more than six months.

“Fifteen thousand souls have been saved. Scores have come out of wheelchairs, off the crutches, canes and out of their braces,” Grant wrote in an October letter to prospective attendees.

“My short leg grew out 3 inches!” said the caption over one man’s photo.

“I no longer have epilepsy!” said another.

Grant could not be reached despite messages left at his Dallas church.

Phillip Umphres, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Dallas who prosecuted Grant, described the traveling evangelists as a small community.

“There’s a whole little subculture and they know each other,” he said. “They’ll borrow each other’s written materials if they’re successful.”

NO ‘SILVER SPOON’

Born in southern California, Mundell describes in sermons a childhood of poverty. Raised by his Pentecostal grandparents, Mundell says he was saved at the age of 4 and began preaching the Gospel at 8.

“I didn’t come from no family with a silver spoon,” Mundell said in a Feb. 25 broadcast. “My daddy was a prisoner in San Quentin [Calif.] Prison. The whole time I was growing up we had to go visit him there.”

California archive records show Mundell’s now-deceased father spent less than four months at San Quentin. He first entered prison in 1961, just before Mundell turned 9, for writing a bad check and returned twice for parole violations, serving a total of less than four years, according to the records.

Mundell preaches that he is living proof of miracles, paralyzed from the waist down from a 1976 car accident in California. Told by doctors he’d never walk again, Mundell says Jesus healed him one night two and half years later.

California police agencies no longer have records from that time. Kimberly Mundell, who met her husband after he says he was healed, said she pressed him for evidence, but he never produced any.

“If what he says is true, it truly is a miracle,” said Maria Amador, director of education at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Preaching financial prosperity, Mundell tells followers that above all God wants them rich. “God made me debt-free and blessed me with multi-million-dollar wealth,” he said in a sermon dated Nov. 10, 2006, on his Web site.

By then, Mundell had stopped making mortgage payments on his Safety Harbor home, which he lost in Foreclosure in January. In his bankruptcy petition last year, he listed debts of $1.5 million on the home, credit card bills including $10,385 to Saks Fifth Avenue, and $28,041 in unpaid child support for a daughter from a previous marriage.

“We believed and taught that there was nothing wrong with being prosperous, so the lifestyle fit what he was teaching, preaching, except we weren’t debt-free,” said Kimberly Mundell, who was not a party in the bankruptcy filing. “We were in debt trying to live the lifestyle.”

That lifestyle included European vacations, $1,000 shoes, Rolex watches, and fine Italian suits, she said. And it took root in South Florida.

TRUST GOD AND GIVE

The ministry’s success soared after Mundell settled in Fort Lauderdale in 1994 and started Solid Rock.

“We hit big,” Kimberly Mundell said.

Within three months of his first service in a Lauderdale Lakes office park, Mundell was drawing crowds exceeding 800 worshipers.

Annette Hopkins of Margate, who met Mundell on a crusade, was so taken by the preacher that she moved from St. Louis to South Florida in 1998 to be part of his ministry.

“People believed in him,” she said. “You were encouraged not to hold back in your giving, to trust God.”

Hopkins said she donated tens of thousands of dollars.

Former Fort Lauderdale resident Winnie Francis, now of Land O’ Lakes on Florida’s west coast, said she gave about $20,000 one year. “I wasn’t even earning that much,” Francis said, adding that she used savings and proceeds from property she sold.

Preaching mainly from schools and leased buildings, Mundell told his congregation he would build a church.

“It was going to be beautifully decorated,” Hopkins recalled. “I gave, we gave.”

Property records show New Generation purchased 4.5 vacant acres in Oakland Park in 2003, land upon which Mundell said a church would rise. A little more than a year later, Mundell closed Solid Rock without ever breaking ground.

“The very night he said the church was closing, he took up a collection,” Hopkins said. “We never knew what happened to the money.”

In June 2005, New Generation sold the land for an $800,000 profit. Two months later, Mundell and his wife bought their $1.8 million estate, putting down $525,000, records show.

Kimberly Mundell said the couple used some of the proceeds from the land sale in the purchase of their home. She provided New Generation bank records that show four payments totaling $189,366, three to an escrow account and the fourth to a title company.

“We felt that was the church’s money,” Hopkins said.

Now 71, Hopkins said she had planned to retire but is working as a substitute teacher as a result of the money she gave to Mundell.

“I have no regrets,” she said. “I gave it to the Lord.”

As for the preacher, Hopkins said: “It’s over for me and his ministry.”

MONEY FOR MISSIONS

Sandy Miller met Mundell at a crusade in Dallas in 2006.

“He just was friendly, knew you on a first-name basis,” she said. “He did a lot of promising, that it’s your time for the Lord to bless you financially.”

Miller said she gave the preacher about $16,000. Her daughter, Kelly Smith of Santa Monica, Calif., said she reviewed her mother’s financial records and calculated the total was $43,000.

Mundell talked about his missionary work in poor countries. Skeptical, Smith attended a crusade he held in Los Angeles and pressed the preacher for details of his work via e-mails, copies of which she provided to the Sun-Sentinel.

Mundell sent Smith photos from India, though he was not in them, and an e-mail that he described as confirmation of an upcoming trip to Africa.

“We are under a great burden of finance for our upcoming mission trips,” he wrote to Smith on Aug. 13, 2006. “I want to ask you if you can give an offering any thing would help, also you may have some friends that might want to help… I have to send a payment next week.”

Miller said the mission trips never occurred. Kimberly Mundell said they were canceled “because we did not have the money to go.”

Miller, 66, now lives in an assisted living facility in Glendale, Calif., unable to pay her bills, and is financially dependent on her daughter. She said her once-trusted preacher stopped taking her calls.

“He dropped me like a hot potato,” Miller said.

PROMISING MONEY

Mundell’s message of prosperity struck a chord with his mostly poor followers in North Carolina, said Monte Carr, who had heard Mundell’s radio show and helped bring the preacher there for crusades, the last one in 2006.

“He promises in his broadcasts that somebody’s mortgage is going to get paid, somebody’s bills are going to get paid,” Carr said. “That’s what appealed to us was the idea and concept of giving back to the people of need.”

Mundell urged crusade attendees to give donations and in return God would bless them, Carr said.

Carr said one follower took out a $600 loan. Another, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee from New Orleans, gave the preacher her $1,000 tax refund. Carr herself gave the preacher $1,000, she said.

“I’m in the middle of a divorce,” Carr said. “He said, ‘God’s going to send you a wonderful husband; he’s going to be a minister.’ I haven’t seen this man yet.”

Carr said attendees complained to her when their blessings never came true.

“He continues to send these people letters saying, ‘Give me money and in seven days this and that is going to happen to you,’” Carr said. “These people believe in him and they’re sending their hard-earned money, and these things never happen.”

Mundell continued holding crusades and in March 2007, started a ministers’ training school in Norfolk, Va. He held Sunday services and again raised money for a church.

“Today’s offering is going to be the first offering going into the property, not because I need it, you need to give,” Mundell said on a videotape of a class last spring.

“He never said where the property was, who he was trying to buy it from, but he wanted us to give,” said student Vera Jackson.

The church never materialized. Within several months, Mundell left Norfolk and the 300 students who enrolled in his school. LaVerne Johnson, a school bus driver, said students gave donations, including $100 for a cap and gown and graduation banquet to be held in February.

“We did not get to graduate,” Johnson said.

Mundell had returned to Florida amid mounting personal debt and allegations of domestic violence.

FAMILY TURBULENCE

On Oct. 7, sheriff’s deputies were called to the Mundells’ Safety Harbor home. The preacher told them “he had called a family meeting so he could fire Kimberly and her daughter” from the ministry board, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.

On Oct. 9, Kimberly Mundell sought a domestic violence protection order from her husband, saying he had “slapped me, punched me, dragged me by my hair, choked me,” she wrote in Pinellas County court records.

Kimberly Mundell’s mother, Loyce Alexander, who lived with the couple, wrote in a court statement that she saw Mundell “beat and kick my daughter on many occasions.”

One time, “I was told if I called 911 he would stomp her to death and beat me, too,” wrote Alexander, 78, who said she needed a walker to get around. “These fights would always take place when he would return home from doing a revival. He would be very drunk.” A judge granted the order, prohibiting Mundell from being within 500 feet of his home or the ministry’s office, also in Safety Harbor.

On Oct. 22, Pinellas sheriff’s deputies arrested Mundell at the ministry office on a misdemeanor charge of violating that order, according to records. Mundell has pleaded not guilty, and the case is set for trial in June.

In an e-mail to the Sun-Sentinel, Mundell said his wife obtained the order after she had been fired, “listing my office as her place of employment.”

“She did so to shut the ministry down, knowing it was no longer her place of employment,” he wrote. “I went to my office to collect docs [sic] and equipment.”

While in the Pinellas County Jail, Mundell was served with divorce papers. He has filed a counterclaim, calling his marriage “irretrievably broken.”

Now preaching at Good Shepherd in Hallandale Beach, Mundell said during an April 27 service that he was called back to South Florida, and predicted that soon lines would form outside with people waiting to get into the mostly empty but growing church. He urged the crowd of about 40 to pledge donations of $100 a month and told them they were on their way to a “debt-free life.”

On his radio program, Mundell has announced plans to start a minister’s school on May 17, and recently sent a letter to prospective donors with a packet of “gold dust” and instructions to sprinkle it on their bills and credit cards.

God “is poised to bless you with prosperity and abundance,” Mundell wrote. “However, He can only do it as you OBEY HIS FAITH INSTRUCTIONS!”

Mundell urged “SEED-OF-FAITH” donations of $7.23 to $25.23, in reference to a Biblical passage that says God rewards faithful servants. The letter ended with a voucher containing payment options and the words, “Dear Pastor Mundell, I would like to sow my seed offering on my credit card.”

Article from South Florida Sun-Sentinel, USA, May 11, 2008

Prophet Rick Joyner on Kansas City Prophet Bob Jones

“Bob Jones’ prophetic revelation is the most extraordinary I have ever witnessed. His prophetic gifts are of true biblical stature…..when Bob comes to a church or city almost every person he encounters is left functioning on a higher spiritual level.” (Rick Joyner)

Sadly, Rick Joyner fails to mention that the spiritual level the church or people will be functioning on is not actually from God.

The New Reformation – returning to Rome

WHY EVANGELICALS ARE RETURNING TO ROME
The Abandonment of Sola Scriptura as a Formal Principle
By Pastor Bob DeWaay

The February 2008 edition of Christianity Today  ran a cover story about evangelicals looking to the ancient Roman Catholic Church in order to find beliefs and practices.1 What was shocking about the article was that both the author of the article and the senior managing editor of CT claim that this trip back to Rome is a good thing. Says Mark Galli the editor, “While the ancient church has captivated the evangelical imagination for some time, it hasn’t been until recently that it’s become an accepted fixture of the evangelical landscape. And this is for the good.”2

Chris Armstrong, the author of the article who promotes the trip back to the ancient church, claims that because the movement is led by such persons as “Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and living and practicing monks and nuns,” that therefore, “they are receiving good guidance on this road from wise teachers.” This he claims shows that, “Christ is guiding the process.”3

Apparently, contemporary evangelicals have forgotten that sola scriptura (scripture alone) was the formal principle of the Reformation. Teachings and practices that could not be justified from Scripture were rejected on that principle. To endorse a trip back to these practices of ancient Roman Catholicism is to reject the principle of sola scriptura being the normative authority for the beliefs and practices of the church. In this article I will explore how modern evangelicalism has compromised the principle of sola scriptura and thus paved smoothly the road back to Rome.

NEW “REFORMATIONS” COMPROMISE SOLA SCRIPTURA

Today at least three large movements within Protestantism claim to be new “reformations.” If we examine them closely we will find evidence that sola scriptura has been abandoned as a governing principle—if not formally, at least in practice. To have a new reformation requires the repudiation of the old Reformation. That in turn requires the repudiation of the formal principle of the Reformation. That’s where we’ll begin.

ROBERT SCHULLER AND RICK WARREN

In 1982, Robert Schuller issued a call for a new Reformation with the publication of his book, Self Esteem: The New Reformation.4 Schuller issued this fervent call: “Without a new theological reformation, the Christian church as the authentic body of Christ may not survive.”5 He was apparently aware that his reformation was of a different type than the original: “Where the sixteenth-century Reformation returned our focus to sacred Scriptures as the only infallible rule for faith and practice, the new reformation will return our focus to the sacred right of every person to self-esteem! The fact is, the church will never succeed until it satisfies the human being’s hunger for self-value.”6

The problem is that Schuller based much of his self-esteem teaching on psychological theory and did not provide a rigorous Biblical defense of the idea. Thus his reformation was a de facto denial of the Reformation principle of Scripture alone.

For example, Schuller criticized the Reformation for a faulty doctrine of sin:
“Reformation theology failed to make clear that the core of sin is a lack of selfesteem.”7 But Schuller does not discuss the many verses in the Bible that define sin. For example: “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” (1John 3:4). It is not hard to see that Schuller’s reformation constituted the abandonment of sola scriptura as a formal principle.8

In one sense, since Schuller’s call for a reformation based on self-esteem was made 26 years ago, one could argue that it never happened. Of course the idea of self-esteem is still around and taught by many evangelicals, but it never became the one key idea of the church. In another sense, however, Schuller’s reformation was broadened and transferred to others. In 2005 Schuller claimed the following as noted alumni of his institute: Bill Hybels, John Maxwell, Bishop Charles Blake, Rick Warren, Walt Kallestad, and Kirbyjon Caldwell. Bill Hybels himself credited Robert Schuller as a key person who influenced his ideas.9 Though Rick Warren disputes Schuller’s influence on his theology, he has carried forward Schuller’s idea of creating a church that meets people’s felt needs and thus attracts them.

But what interests us here is that Warren is now proposing yet another reformation: And we’ve actually created what we call clinic-in-a-box, businessin- a-box, church-in-a-box, and we are using normal people, volunteers.

When Jesus sent the disciples into a village he said, “Find the man of peace.” And he said, “When you find the man of peace you start working with that person, and if they respond to you, you work with them. If they don’t, you dust the dust off your shoes; you go to the next village.” Who’s the man of peace in any village – or it might be a woman of peace – who has the most respect, they’re open and they’re influential? They don’t have to be a Christian. In fact, they could be a Muslim, but they’re open and they’re influential and you work with them to attack the five giants. And that’s going to bring the second Reformation.10

The problem is that solving the world’s five greatest problems as Warren defines them (11) using anyone willing to help regardless of religion, cannot be justified on Biblical grounds. If sola scriptura were the formal principle in Warren’s theology, then he would provide vigorous, Biblical analysis using sound exegesis to ground his reformation on the authority of Scripture. But his teachings and public statements are not characterized by sound Biblical exegesis.

As I documented in my book on the Purpose Driven Movement, Warren’s reformation compromises sola scriptura in many significant ways.12 These include the use of loose paraphrases that go so far as to change the meaning of various passages, the integration of unbiblical, human wisdom, serious misinterpretation of Scripture, and an unbiblical philosophy of ministry.

Warren has an orthodox statement about the authority of Scripture on his church Web site. In fact, most evangelicals other than those who convert to Roman Catholicism do not overtly reject Scripture alone. But is it practiced?13

There is reason to believe that Warren’s reformation is the continuation of Schuller’s in a modified form. Warren has made finding one’s purpose the lynchpin of his teachings and practices. Finding purpose may not be identical to finding self esteem, but the idea is at least a first cousin. Also, both concepts derive their power from outside Scripture.

C. PETER WAGNER

Another proposed reformation of the church is C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation. As I argued in a recent CIC article,14 Wagner sees the presence of apostles who speak authoritatively for God as the key to the church fulfilling her role in the world. He even speaks approvingly of the “apostles” of the Roman Catholic Church. Wagner and the thousands of apostles and prophets in his movement have shown as little regard for sola scriptura as any non Roman Catholic Christian group apart from the Quakers. So their reformation is a de facto repudiation of the Reformation. Their writings and messages show little or no concern for sound, systematic Biblical exegesis. If they were to adopt sola scriptura as a formal principle and rigorously use it to judge their own teachings and practices, their movement would immediately come to an end.

THE EMERGENT CHURCH

The third (if we count Warren’s reformation as a current replacement for Schuller’s) proposed reformation is that of the Emergent Church. In their case sola scriptura dies a thousand deaths. As we saw in the previous issue of CIC, Rob Bell denies it using the same arguments that Roman Catholics have used. The Emergent Church and its postmodern theology is noteworthy for being a non-Catholic version of Christianity that forthrightly assaults the type of use of the Bible that characterizes those who hold sola scriptura as the formal principle of their theology. The Emergent Church adherents reject systematic theology, and thus make using the principle impossible.

For example, defending the doctrine of the Trinity using Scripture requires being systematic. I have read many Emergent/postmodern books as I write a new book, and each of them attacks systematic theology in some way.

The Emergent Reformation rests on the denial of the validity of foundationalism.

Gone are the days when Christians debated the relative merits of evidential and presuppositional apologetics— debates based on the need for a foundation for one’s theology. Either one started with evidence for the authority of Scripture and then used the Bible as the foundation of one’s theology; or one presupposed the Bible as the inerrant foundation. But today both approaches are mocked for their supposed naïveté. To think that one can know what the Bible means in a nonrelativistic way is considered a throwback to now dead “modernity.” The Emergent mantra concerning the Bible is “we cannot know, we cannot know, we cannot know.” Furthermore, in their thinking, it is a sign of arrogance to claim to know. For the postmodern theologian, sola scriptura is as dead and buried as a fossilized relic of bygone days. So the Protestant (if the term even means anything today) world is characterized by reformations that have either rejected or compromised sola scriptura as the formal principle for their theology.No wonder few voices of concern are raised at Christianity Today’s proposed trip back to Rome to find beliefs and practices. Once sola scriptura has been rejected, there remain few reasons not to go back to Rome. If religious traditions can be considered normative, then why not embrace those with the longest history? DALLAS WILLARD LEADS US BACK TO ROME The cover of the CT article reads, “Lost Secrets of the Ancient Church.” It shows a person with a shovel digging up a Catholic icon. What are these secrets? Besides icons, lectio divina and monasticism are mentioned. Dallas Willard, who is mentioned as a reliable guide for this process, has long directed Christians to monastic practices that he himself admits are not taught in the Bible.15 Willard pioneered the rejection of sola scriptura in practice on the grounds that churches following it are failures. He writes, “All pleasing and doctrinally sound schemes of Christian education, church growth, and spiritual renewal came around at last to this disappointing result. But whose fault was this failure?”16 The “failure,” according to Willard is that, “. . . the gospel preached and the instruction and example given these faithful ones simply do not do justice to the nature of human personality, as embodied, incarnate.”17

So what does this mean? It means that we have failed because our gospel had too little to do with our bodies. The remedy for “failure” says Willard is to find practices in church history that are porven to work. But are these practices taught in the Bible? Willard admits that they are not by using an argument from silence, based on the phrase “exercise unto godliness” in 1Timothy 4:7. Here is Willard’s interpretation: Or [the possibility the phrase was imprecise] does it indicate a precise course of action he [Paul] understood in definite terms, carefully followed himself, and called others to share? Of course it was the latter. So obviously so, for him and the readers of his own day, that he would feel no need to write a book on the disciplines of the spiritual life that explained systematically what he had in mind.18 But what does this do to sola scriptura? It negates it. In Willard’s theology, the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Biblical writers, forgot to inspire them to write about spiritual disciplines that all Christians need. If this is the case, then we need spiritual practices that were never prescribed in the Bible to obtain godliness. Having determined the insufficiency of Scripture, Willard looks to human potential through tapping into spiritual powers: “It is the amazing extent of our ability to utilize power outside ourselves that we must consider when we ask what the human being is. The limits of our power to transcend ourselves utilizing powers not located in us—including of course, the spiritual—are yet to be fully known.”19 So evidently our spirituality is to be discovered by various means that are not revealed by God in the Bible. If the Bible is insufficient in regard to the spiritual practices that we need in order to become sanctified, where do we find them? Here is Willard’s solution:

“Practicing a range of activities that have proven track records across the centuries will keep us from erring.”20 This, of course leads us back to Rome. Catholic mystics spent centuries experimenting with spiritual practices without regard to the Biblical justification for such practices. If evangelicals are going to join them in rejecting Scripture alone, AGAIN they might as well not reinvent the wheel—go to the masters of mystical asceticism. Willard admires the monastics and suggests that solitude is one of the most
important disciplines. He says, “This factual priority of solitude is, I believe, a sound element in monastic asceticism. Locked into interaction with the human beings that make up our fallen world, it is all but impossible to grow in grace as one should.”21  If it is impossible to grow in grace without solitude, why are we not informed of this fact by the Biblical writers? In Willard’s mind sola scriptura is a false idea, so therefore God failed to reveal to us the most important way to grow in grace! Willard says that solitude is most important even while admitting that it is dangerous: But solitude, like all the disciplines of the spirit, carries its risks. In solitude, we confront our own soul with its obscure forces and conflicts that escape our attention when we are interacting with others. Thus, [quoting Louis Bouyer] “Solitude is a terrible trial, for it serves to crack open and bust apart the shell of our superficial securities. It opens out to us the unknown abyss that we all carry within us . . . and discloses the fact that these abysses are haunted.”22 This danger was shown by the early desert fathers, some of whom came under demonic torment in their solitude. Before following people whose practices are dangerous and not prescribed in the Bible, wouldn’t we be better off sticking to the safe ground of revealed truth?

SPIRITUALITY FOR THE UNCONVERTED

The fact is that the various ancient practices of the Roman Catholic Church are not unique to Christianity. The meditative techniques that make people feel closer to God work for those who do not even know God. Thomas Merton (who is recommended by Dallas Willard) went to the East to find spiritual practices. They work just as well for those who do not know Christ, probably better. Many ancient Roman Catholic practices were invented at times when many illiterate pagans were ushered into the church, sometimes at the point of a sword. Those pagans were not exactly the type to search the Scriptures daily in order to find the things of God. But why are literate American Christians running away from sola scriptura at a time when searching the Scriptures (especially using computer technology) has never been easier? On this point I am offering my opinion, butthere is good evidence for it. I believe that the lack of gospel preaching has allowed churches to fill up with the unregenerate. The unregenerate are not like “newborn babes who long for the pure milk of the word” (1Peter 2:2). Those who have never received saving grace cannot grow by the means of grace. Those who are unconverted have not drawn near to God through the blood of Christ. But with mysticism, it is possible to feel near to God when one is far from Him. Furthermore, the unconverted have no means of sanctification because they do not have the imputed righteousness of Christ as their starting point and eternal standing. So they end up looking for man-made processes to engineer change through human works because they have nothing else. Those who feel empty because ofthe “pragmatic promises of the church growth movement” as the CT article calls them, may need something far more fundamental than ancient, Catholic, ascetic practices.They may very well need to repent and believe the gospel. Those who are born of the Spirit will find that this passage is true: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

CONCLUSION

Perhaps the best antidote to rejecting sola scriptura and going back to Rome would be a careful study of the Book of Hebrews. It describes a situation that is analogous to that which evangelicals face today. The Hebrew Christians were considering going back to temple Judaism. Their reasons can be discerned by the admonitions and warnings in Hebrews. The key problem for them was the tangibility of the temple system, and the invisibility of the Christian faith. Just about everything that was offered to them by Christianity was invisible: the High Priest in heaven, the tabernacle in heaven, the once for all shed blood, and the throne of grace. At the end of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews points out that they have come to something better than mount Sinai: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24). All of these things are invisible. But the life of faith does not require tangible visibility: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

The Roman Catholic Church has tangibility that is unmatched by the evangelical faith, just as temple Judaism had. Why have faith in the once-for-all shed blood of Christ that is unseen when you can have real blood (that of the animals for temple Judaism and the Eucharistic Christ of Catholicism)?

Why have the scriptures of the Biblical apostles and prophets who are now in heaven when you can have a real, live apostle and his teaching Magisterium who can continueto speak for God? The similarities to the situation described in Hebrews are striking.

Why have only the Scriptures and the other means of grace when the Roman Church has everything from icons to relics to cathedrals to holy water and so many other tangible religious articles and experiences? I urge my fellow evangelicals to seriously consider the consequences of rejecting sola scriptura as the formal principle of our theology.

If my Hebrews analogy is correct, such a rejection is tantamount to apostasy.

END NOTES
1. Chris Armstong, “The Future lies in the Past” in Christianity Today,
February 2008. I wrote a critique of Armstrong’s article here:

http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/3174/Bob_DeWaay

2. Mark Galli, “Ancient-Future People” in Christianity Today February 2008,
7.
3. Armstrong, 24.
4. Robert H. Schuller, Self Esteem The New Reformation, (Waco: Word,
1982).
5. Ibid. 25.
6. Ibid. 38.
7. Ibid. 98.
8. I wrote an article some years ago about Schuller’s self-esteem reformation: http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue18.htm

Article from http://knowthetruth.servantsofjesuschrist.com/2008/04/30/why-return-to-rome/

Rick Joyner on ecumenicism as the new prophets & apostles see it

“All the movements that are working to bring about the unity of the church really have been sent by God. These are meant to strengthen our unity for what is coming.”  Rick Joyner

(‘What coming’ being civil war in the church between the blues and the greys as previously discussed on this site here http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/prophey-bob-jones-role-in-toronto-blessing-brownsville-lakeland-what-comes-next-civil-war-in-the-church/   and also here: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/lou-engle-of-the-call-calls-for-war/)

“I do not doubt that Pope John Paul II was a man of God that all Christians should be thankful for and should rightly mourn. It was not his title but his character that caused him to transcend the Roman Catholic Church and become a leader who blessed and advanced the whole church, and, indeed, the cause of Christianity itself. He was one of the greatest leaders of our time, and will be sorely missed. I have said for years that John Paul II prophetically pulled the string that began the unraveling of Communism…..

“Pope John Paul loved the Holy Spirit, and in an article which we printed in our Morning Star Journal, he encouraged all Catholics to seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was during his tenure that more than 100 million Catholics became Charismatics and were born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II clung to the cross and tried to pray without ceasing…..

“I loved and admired Pope John Paul II. He was one of the greatest men of God of our time. If you feel the same way, consider honoring him by reaching across some barriers the way that he did. Send condolences to the Catholic Churches in your area for the loss of their shepherd, while expressing appreciation for all that he did for the whole church, and indeed the world.”  (Rick Joyner as published on The Elijah List)

It should be noted that Rick Joyner, as well as being linked to the antichrist New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and the one who put together a roundtable of prophets and apostles (as prophesied by Bob Jones), is a Knight of Malta (Order of St. John), an organisation linked to the Roman Catholic church and the Freemasons. Other Knights of Malta include Paul Cain, Ricky Skaggs, Mahesh Chavda and Bobby Conner.

Rick Joyner and many of the other new prophets and apostles from C Peter Wagner’s NAR call for unity with Rome. That is blasphemous and idolotorous and sinful and corrupt Rome, whom the (real) apostle John describes as ‘The Great Whore who rides the Beast’. How can light unite with darkness? How can movements working towards this end be of God?   They aren’t. So what does this say of the people that promote them, and more than that, those who promote them decietfully by lying about their true affiliations and intentions?

Now let us look at what the Knights of Malta are really  about -

“The Order has as its object to promote the Glorification of God by the sanctification of its members, service to the Faith (that is the Roman Catholic Faith) and to the Holy See (Rome) and helping one’s neighbor, in accordance with its secular traditions.” (Spiritual Guidelines For All Member Of The Order, Sovereign Military Order Of Malta, Federal Assocation, U.S.A. website.)

So Knights of Malta pledge allegiance to the blasphemous Pope. And apostate Rick Joyner is trying to get us not only to agree ’Roman Catholics are Christians’ really, but to get us to do the same as he is – that is pledge allegiance to the Pope and to Rome by uniting with her,  and to serve the Roman Catholic faith. Whether you realise it or not.

It is no coincidence at all about the amount of contemplative prayer and other Catholic inspired mysticism that is coming into protestant circles – including Roman Catholic signs and wonders, stigmata and bilocation, and even objects weeping with blood or oil. Even New Mystic John Crowder’s manifestations when drunk in the Spirit are Catholic and papal pleasing, not to mention resembling Padre Pio’s exploits, see here: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/john-crowder-and-the-new-mystics-sons-of-thunder/

Here is some more on Rick Joyner’s ‘chivalrous’ and ‘noble’ Knights of Malta (noticed the way he has swords all over the place?) -

“I checked out the Malta Order’s official site (Rhoads chapter) and also the American chapter’s site. Very interesting. I also read Rick’s own answer to the questions about his involvement. It is still posted on his website. After consulting the source sites, I am convinced that either Rick is severely ignorant (which I seriously doubt, given his admitted intimate involvement with the leadership of this order) or he is just outright lying or wholly deceived.

Rick calls the Order a “Christian Order” and says that it always has been. This is not true, at least from my research. I discovered that the Knights of Malta have remained wholly Roman Catholic since their inception. {End times notes: But then of course Catholics claim to be Christian and the true faith ] It is directly under the authority of the Holy See and the Pope himself. This has been since the beginning. The only way it can be considered a “Christian” order is if a person regards “Christian” in the sense that Roman Catholicism regards their doctrine as being “Christian.”  

“I also discovered through the official web sources that members must espouse many aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine, including prayer for the dead, mass, venerating Saints, the Virgin Mary, and obedience to the Pope. It’s their Rule of the Order and has been since the beginning of the Order. Perhaps they also allow others to participate in the Order concerning its charitable features without having to ascribe to Catholic doctrine completely, but given the fact that Joyner says he was Knighted and he agrees there are vows and oaths involved, I tend to believe he is well aware of the doctrines involved and has probably taken an oath to uphold them. For me this always comes back to terminology.

“Rick likes to also use their terminology, i.e. the Faith, Christian, the Church. A Protestant listening to Joyner would most likely assume he means the Protestant Church, the Protestant Faith, and the biblical, Christian Church of Jesus. But the reality is that this order cares not to uphold anything but Cathoic Church doctrine. And for Rick to ignore this and not be open about this verifiable fact, tells me Christians should leave this man alone. I personally do not believe he is being completely honest and open about his knowledge of the Order.”

(From http://www.cephas-library.com/joels_army/joels_army_rick_joyners_knighthood.html

Not being completely honest and open about his knowledge of the order? Why not, one has to wonder, what does he have to hide?

Now let us look at what C Peter Wagner, chief of the modern apostles and prophets says:

“Probably the first Asian nation to become predominantly Christian will be Korea with the exception of the Philippines which is already about 85 percent nominal Catholic.”  

To be Catholic is not to be Christian, far less ‘nominally anything’ being Christian.

“Many middle and upper-class people are now opening their hearts to Jesus Christ. Some of this is happening through the Catholic charismatic movement.”

No it’s not. The Catholic charismatic movement is from the pit of Hell, and just as much idolatory, blasphemy and such like goes on there as in non Charismatic sectors – in fact, in my experience, more, as I found it far more Mary orientated.  I know, I am an ex Roman Catholic. One of the greatest proponents I knew of Catholic Charismaticalism, one who was regularly involved in the meetings and spoke in tongues and all the rest of it (but was not truly born again) said to me: ‘When Jesus Christ returns, He will give all the glory to His Mother, Mary”.

C. Peter Wagner said that he received a prophecy in 1989 regarding a three-strand cord that was not easily broken. This cord was comprised of conscientious Liberals, Evangelicals and Charismatic Pentecostals. This cord to him, was the Third Wave. This is their unity.

“The Alpha Course is a wonderful and proven tool for evangelism in the local church… I enthusiastically support and recommend Alpha.”

The Alpha Course promotes Roman Catholicism and the Toronto Blessing which points to Rome also.

The new apostles and prophets love Rome. Make no mistake, they work toward that end. Millions have been slaughtered for not submitting to Rome – even recently, I may add, not just pre the Protestant Reformation. At the moment, the protestant church is not being forced into it, but they rush willingly on their accord to Rome. But in time, if we believe the civil war prophecies from Rick Joyner and Bob Jones and Paul Cain and James Ryle and all the others, bloody swords may force us to unite or ‘be removed’ as they put it.  Church, wake up and stop compromising. Church, stop giving ground to these evil men, for I tell you the truth, their faces shine and they have big smiles and look like the real deal, but these men are evil.

“There is not a true Biblical Christian on this earth that does not want revival, but when revival is connected to Post-Millennialism or Dominion Theology, the entire idea becomes everything but truth. While every one of us are fasting and praying for revival, it must be revival tied to our hope and expectancy of the glorious Rapture of the Bride of Christ and not revival based on compromise, one world religions, or a political place in the current power struggle…..

When you see key Charismatic leaders knighted by one of the strongest of all Catholic organizations, there has to be something incredible occurring. For this to happen, connected to a visit by Rick Joyner to the archives of historic Nazism, makes the entire scenario sinister. Add to that a man that has just returned from a visit to Austria and a personal time in the presence of Kurt Waldheim, a former Nazi leader. Then add that same man arranging for a personal visit by Paul Cain to Saddam Hussein, and you are hearing earth-shaking matters….

Rick Joyner did not share the reasons for his visit to Germany and the archives of Nazism. A book, written by Dave Hunt, entitled A Woman Rides The Beast, may help you understand the connections. Adolf Hitler was clearly supported and protected by the Catholic church. The Knights of Malta were closely connected to Hitler by virtue of the Catholic connection. Here is a bit of documentation to confirm this fact.”The Catholic Right and the Knights of Malta, in particular Baron Franz Von Papen, played a critical role in Hitler’s assumption of power and the launching of the Third Reich’s Twentieth Century Crusade. Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s influence in Germany survived World War II intact. On November 17, 1948 the Sovereign Military Order of Malta awarded one of its highest honors, the Grand Cross of Merit, to Reinhard Gehlen, the Nazi chief of intelligence on the Soviet front. He was subsequently installed by the Americans as the first chief of West Germany’s equivalent of the CIA, the Bundesnachtrichdienst (BND: federal secret service), under West German Chancellor Adenauer, a devout Catholic who had received the Magistral Grand Cross personally from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta Grand Master Prince Chigi.” (Nazis, The Vatican, And CIA, Winter 1986, Number 25, pp. 27-29.) The Roman Catholic church as an entity has a proven record of anti-Semitism. We must not forget that there are thousands of Catholic people misled in their doctrines, but not of the nature to do the dark things against the Jews that the political organization of the Catholic church has done.”

More here http://hbcdelivers.s439.sureserver.com/the-christian-new-world-order-how-close and  here: http://www.harvestnet.org/lookback/troubleinprophetland.htm

Satan’s tactics. Renewal, Revival, Outpouring and a Grand Distraction

I was dozing one day in front of the television some months back. I have no idea what the actual show was that was on at that time, other than it was some kind of anime cartoon that had come on. Anyway in between my napping, something one of the characters in the cartoon said really struck me. He was obviously the bad guy by his chilling and gravelly voice, and he said this:

“I shall not directlly oppose their army (the good guys), for if I obviously obstruct them they will become even more  determined to fight against me and will between them soon destroy the obstruction I set for them. I shall distract  them instead and divert their attention… this will be far more effective to achieve my overall goal. They will not even realise what is happening! And by the time they do realise, I will have had my way and will be home dry!”

Thus spoke the enemy and even though I was nodding in and out of sleep at the times, these words struck  me, and I thought, ‘Yes…that is exactly what our enemy (Satan) does sometimes. He subtlely distracts Christians rather than openly directly and obviously oppose them.’ 

And while I thought on this, I remembered the Toronto Blessing – how in a vision I had seen Satan laughing at it, as he  was the true spiritual source behind it. Note, that  I am not saying that everything   that happened during the Toronto meetings was demonic or satanic – it was not – there was a lot of flesh involved too. There was also some genuine Godly experiences. There was sometimes a mixture of spiritual and fleshly sources. And almost every single person involved was sincere and God seeking and would have been horrified to realise its true spiritual source and how they were actually being hindered and mocked rather than equipped and refreshed and revived. As one leader from Brownsville-Pensacola said (paraphrased):  ‘If we realised that Toronto was not of God, and was demonic in origin, as we definitely got whatever they had imparted to us, we would have been imparted with the demonic and been passing it on to others. That thought is just too horrific….’  *

*[I have to add in here that there were sometimes warnings about witches sneaking into the meetings, and laying their hands and imparting something bad and cursing people instead of blessing them.... so we were told we should be careful who we let lay their hands on us and if not sure about someone (I assume by that they meant if we spotted the witch's pointy hats and evil grins and heard them cackle) we should only get ministry from a trained ministry team member. But the question is..... how could witches promote and pass on these manifestations if they were really  from God?  And never, ever, even with these solemn warnings, was testing the spirits or discernment ever mentioned! It is incredibly naive to think that evil looks evil and that evil is afraid to use the name of Jesus where it suits them.]

So I am not saying that everything  that happened there was Satanic at all. BUT, and here is the but,  the overall spirit behind the thing and leading it, was Satanic. The bad fruit that it spiritually produced over the years, and is still producing, since then more than confirms this. The bad apple prophets and apostles and doctrines it elevated also more than confirms this. Todd Bentley’s The Lakeland Outpouring, and Trevor Baker’s The Dudley Outpouring, of course, is linked to the same people and the same spiritual source as Toronto and Brownsville – that is, Satan.

In the last article I wrote on The Most Fruitless Mission ever, http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/the-most-fruitless-mission-ever/ which was at the height of the Toronto Blessing. I said -

“The enemy’s greatest tactic is not so much to deliberately obstruct, but to distract, which is far more  effective. And distract us he did. And it worked, and worked well. What happened was not revival, it was not even renewal – it was just a grand distraction.”

It is now laughable to me that I did not see the paradox of things like people knocked over and ’slain in the spirit’ and manifesting vigrously but not actually healed, even a little bit, or of folk running on the spot or around the room ‘in the Spirit’, sometimes for many hours at a time, claiming and prophesying an ’evangelism anointing’ to the nations – but not actually running, let alone walking out of their own front door to do any evangelism – just going back into church halls for more anointing which LIED to them, and distracted them from the real work of the kingdom! For the ministry of the word of God, evangelism work, prayer meetings, and normal fellowship and church work was exchanged for a lie at this time. A grand distraction it was indeed. So clever and cunning, all done in Jesus’ name. But nobody said Satan was thick.

See also: http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/is-todd-bentleys-lakeland-outpouring-like-the-day-of-pentecost/ 

Does Jezebel resist the prophetic and this move of Todd Bentley’s?

I found this quote on a longer post and wanted to flag it up – it is very well said.

I would like to address the dear person that referred to Jezebel resisting the prophetic because she killed the prophets of God and you concluded this is a Jezebel spirit coming against Todd Bentley. Please read the Word! She had her own prophets of Baal in 1 KINGS 18:19 (450 prophets of Baal who she liked so much they ate at her (Jezebel’s) table). Jezebel LOVED the “prophetic” dear friend! Let us return to the WORD OF GOD and be conformed to it.

From http://churchwarnings.blogspot.com/2008/05/pastors-wife-responds-totodd-bentley.html