A woman under the influence of the Holy Spirit at Zoe Ministries?

Please take a look at the picture of a woman manifesting ‘in the Spirit’ which is on the following link.

http://archive.recordonline.com/photo/bishop/pages/ejgpay01.htm

It looks just like any other scene in many pentecostal/charismatic churches all across America, right?

The picture captions says: ‘A parishioner who had just pledged $10,000 is overcome by the Holy Spirit and is watched carefully by the other ministers so as to not hurt herself.’

So why am I highlighting this photo? Because this is occuring at no ordinary Christian church. It is at Bishop E Bernard Jordan’s church, Zoe Ministries, in Brooklyn, NY. Bishop Jordan claims to be a bishop able to trace his ’spiritual ancestry’ back through the linage of ‘black church fathers’ to the apostle Paul, who according to Jordan was black too and was commissioned by the black laying on of hands. Jordon also calls himself ‘A Master Prophet’, the ‘E’ initial in his name apparently standing for ‘Elijah’.

Jordan is featured on the Black Entertainment Network and urges viewers to call in for a ‘free’ prophecy, to then be followed up ruthlessly and be spammed with heaps of personalised chain letters and nuisance phone calls urging them to sow a lot of financial ’seed’ – to him, of course. He has also appeared on Trinity Broadcasting Network with Paul and Jan Crouch. Ex RUN DMC member, Reverend Run, helps promote Bishop Jordan on an MTV show called ‘Runs House’ and Jordan has some other influential recruits including a presidential candidate. His associates include Rev Ike. Archbishop Roy E. Brown consecrated Jordan in 1994.

Master Prophet E Bernard Jordan’s photos adorn his website, with him in a variety of ridiculously trying-to-be-pious looking poses wearing fake clerical garb. He is obviously proud of his looks as these photos are such a feature on the site. His bio is sickeningly proud and egotisitcal. The prophecies he sells from his website at an exorbitant sum (eg US$365 each)  are occultic claptrap - a blend of astrology and numerology and positive thinking and life coaching, and of course are not really personalised or personally considered, and are more suited to the Psychic Circle than a Christian ministry.

“He will prophesy what he sees on a cassette tape, and actually map out your life! He will tell you when you are to make critical steps, enter into partnerships, and many other issues that you need to know. He will tell you what you can expect for the next twelve months, giving you a map that you can follow to the destination of your destiny. According to your faith it shall be done unto you”  http://www.zoeministries.com/public/products/?productid=80 

“Like Nostradamus, Bishop Pike, and Edgar Cayce, the accuracy of the gift that operates in Bishop Jordan will astound you!”   his website boasts. Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus are associated with the occult!

‘Thousands of people attribute their success, prosperity, health and happiness directly to the master teachings of Bishop E. Bernard Jordan’   Doesn’t he mean to GOD?

Bishop Jordan is far from ‘Christian’, even though he talks about the Bible and Jesus and appears on Christian television, and mentions a few scriptures, albeit dangerously out of context. He is not a Christian not just because he rips people off in the above manner, and lies while he does it, but he has a host of weird new age occultic ideas and practices in addition to his ‘psychic readings’. ‘We must first know who we are. “When you declare “I AM” you become God.’  he blasphemously says. No need for a personal Savior Jesus when you already  are God, all you have to do is search deep within and find what you need! He even has palmists teaching his congregation their skills:

‘We packed again in late March, this time heading towards New York City. Our destination, “Zoe Ministries” a predominantly black congregation headed by their magnetic leader Bishop Bernard E. Jordan and assisted by his wife Pastor Debra and her brother Father Berrian. Ghanshyam was invited to give an intensive weekend-long workshop in palmistry to this very open and responsive group of ministers and lay people.’  (The Palmistry Center bulletin)

Zoe Ministries’ God is blatantly money. ‘If you quench a prophet’s thirst, you will get the prophet’s reward,’   E Bernard Jordan, the Mastor Prophet says. So pay me and pay me a lot – quench my first – and you will get a computer generated prophecy from me that is not at all biblical, let alone breathed by God, and is not at all personal! He also has the audacity to say: ‘(People who say) it’s not about the money. Whenever you hear that, take your Bible and run….. As the Bible states, money answers all things.’  (You what? Didn’t he mean Jesus answers all things?)

Bishop Jordan, the quack bishop and psychic is a dangerous false teacher and false prophet,  a master manipulator, and a greedy self centred egotistical profiteer. He demands not just tithes and HUGE offerings, but unquestioning obedience to himself. He demands being greeted with a deep bow, and possibly a kiss of his bishop’s ring too, and says of anyone that would think of questioning him: “Murmuring is a serious matter to God, for it questions His choice and His intelligence. It makes mockery of God’s wisdom, and those who indulge in slander place their thoughts and opinions above those of God Himself. The exaltation of your opinion can be lethal when you are dealing with anointed vessels.”   (Yep, more ‘Touch not my Anointed’.)  

Bishop Jordan is dangerously egotistical and spiritually abusive, as well as a robber of the flock and a liar.  He is a wolf savaging the lambs!

“Our Bishop, E. Bernard Jordan, is able to trace his spiritual genealogy to the Apostle Peter, the first bishop of the church…he is now in Apostolic Succession,” the church magazine states. “Many so-called or bogus bishops are parading in the church today and these men cannot trace their lineage to the Apostles. If you know of a bishop who cannot trace his lineage back to the original then he must not be entreated as a bishop because he is not authentic.”

What is the significance of the office of bishop? According to the magazine, “The bishop as a city father and gatekeeper determines what enters or exits the city or state over which he presides,” the magazine claims. “He is the one ordained by God to maintain the highest spiritual and moral climate throughout the community. The church in the New Testament began with the father, Black men, who laid hands upon Paul, who became the Apostle Paul. He [Paul] was also a Black man as is evident in Acts. 21:37-39…. God is now restoring the Black fathers to the helm of the church so that it will again move in the right order as it was originally designed.” 

“A Bishop is greeted by a deep bow,” it adds matter of factly. “Some even kiss his ring in acknowledgment of who he represents, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Kingdom of God.”

(Source http://www.cultlink.com/sentinel/jordan.html)

This is far from the model of New Testament leadership where the greatest leader is the greatest servant. It can also  be seen then that there is ridiculously over the top black nationalism and black pride themes running throughout his ‘theology’ as well as the occult new age garbage and money chasing. Yet in Christ there is neither black or white, slave nor free, male or female.

When I first read about Jordan, I thought ‘this guy is a joke, surely not many people take him seriously, let alone in Christian circles’  but they evidently do take this clown seriously, in increasing numbers, and he even has his own cult, the Neophytes of the Prophetic Order Of Mar Elijah (POME). ‘Mar Elijah’ being himself, of course.

Go google the POME members websites’, made up of Temple Guards and Temple Seers and others, and see them all in their brown monk-like habits and tell me they are not   a cult – they look and sound no differant than cult members – and pay far more than the average cult member too, I bet. Here’s a group photo of them at an expensive Prophecology Seminar last year -

The following links contains photos of part of the decor of E Bernard Jordan’s multi million dollar home, in Tuxedo Park, NY. http://archive.recordonline.com/photo/bishop/pages/ejgbhom2.htm  Take a look at this too: http://archive.recordonline.com/photo/bishop/pages/ejgbhom3.htm and this one: http://archive.recordonline.com/photo/bishop/pages/ejgbhom7.htm 

“One mural shows Jordan on a throne, as pharaoh. Nearby, in a room with scarlet walls and gilded filigree on top, there is a ceiling painting of Jordan on a throne – as God – with his three sons hovering around him as angels. On the ceilings in the foyer and another room, there are baroque-style paintings of his children as cherubim, soaring across the heavens. None of this quite compares to the living room. Here, the four walls are covered with murals depicting New Testament scenes, each with Jordan as Jesus in the familiar iconography of medieval and Renaissance art. Two scenes show the Ascension: Jesus/Jordan ascending into heaven after rising from the dead. For a Nativity scene, the artists used Jordan’s baby picture to depict Jesus/Jordan in the manger.” http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general592.html

The words ‘proud’, ‘egotistical’, ’self centred’, ‘blasphemous’ and ‘cultish’ does not even begin to convey.  I can imagine Jim Jones, and many other cult leaders, in just such photos. The Heaven’s Gate Hale Bop comet cult was a joke too, and ridiculously laughable, til it went horribly wrong, as with the Solar Temple cult. In many ways Jordan has the typical mentality of a cult leader. Abusive, controlling, greedy, egocentric, and apparently charming and charismatic.

More on Jordan is here -

http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/a-new-definition-of-soaking-brought-by-master-prophet-bishop-e-bernard-jordan/ 

and here http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/turning-the-mark-of-beast-into-the-mark-of-wealth/

I asked at the start of this article to look at the photo of that lady in the Spirit. After reading this through, it should be clear that what goes on at Zoe Ministries is not the gospel and is not of God. It is not even remotely Christian. The lady in the picture has been manipulated, controlled, abused and coerced by a egocentric false minister and false prophet to give US$10,000 of her money over to his churches so he can get fat on it – how on earth can the Holy Spirit bear witness to this (even if we were to agree such manifestations were biblical?)?!  Any of her manifestations therefore are self-induced mania/stress/hyped – or worse are from demons.  What does this fact say then to other such manifestations, wherever they occur – such as at the Lakeland Revival for instance?  Not all glitters is gold.   Obviously.