Little Red Riding Hood Beware & The Acorn and the Tree

Yesterday (Thursday 28th August), I had a vision.

I saw the wolf from the Little Red Riding Hood fairy story. He was standing outside the cottage Little Red Riding Hood was to visit, with obviously evil plans in his heart. I saw this wolf, and then saw him finishing get dressed. He already had Grandma’s flowery nightdress on, but his head was evidently still a wolf, so he was not so well disguised - but now  he put on a matching nightcap in a pretty ‘feminine’ print, which he pulled over his head and ears to complete the disguise and cover over his prominent wolf features (pointy ears etc). He was still a wolf though.

I was reminded that spiritual wolves (false prophets and false teachers) do not always look like wolves. The most cunning wolves disguise themselves as sweet old Grandmas wearing even Grandma’s clothes, and to the undiscerning really look and act the part. How can a sweet little old lady be evil? ‘She’ can be trusted, right?! Wrong! It’s the big bad wolf waiting for you in grannie’s bed – with the intent to savage the church, a drooling salivating beast. Do NOT be fooled by appearances!

This vision is not only a reminder of something ‘obvious’ that many of us Christians already know, but also a warning. I have the sense the wolves (one wolf pack being within Wagner’s NAR apostolic prophetic movement) are going to get a lot more cunning.

For months blatant deception has been in our face c/o Todd Bentley, that, well, even a child should have been able to spot – and ‘the powers that be’ ensured it was deliberately blatant. They have been playing games with us and been very cunning because of what comes next that will not be so blatant at all. I think the wolf is going to get smarter, a lot smarter, and a lot more subtle, as he completes the transformation process and pulls on the rest of his disguise – for Todd Bentley was deliberately blatant for his and others’ own evil agenda.

In the process of pulling on the rest of his disguise, the wolf will even publically savage some of his own (I am guessing  the more openly off blatantly false prophets (the Lord did not show me this in a vision, but I think Patricia King might get hammered) to make the appearance of real change. Beware though – at heart, the wolf even though he is changed into another costume is still a wolf who is dark indeed – as it is merely a disguise, not a change of character or heart. He is not and never will be a sweet old granny. He is a wolf in fancy dress. Avoid such men like the plague for they ARE THE PLAGUE that comes upon the church.

***

Just after the time that Todd Bentley ran from the Lakeland Revival after the ABC Nightline airing (around July 11th) I was meditating on what came next after Todd Bentley’s fall from a great height. I was thinking about the Dragon’s Mouth vision and saw that it was coming to pass – as well as the vision re the two main blows bringing the Lakeland Tent down (and this was the second blow). The hanging out to dry by his associates was yet to come to pass (but has since then). So what came next, I wondered? It was at a time when a few people were rejoicing thinking that it was the end of it because Todd had been exposed, could that be the case, I wondered? I soon realised from the following it was only really just the beginning.

I saw another vision. This time I saw Todd Bentley falling from the dragon’s mouth, but his body became as an acorn and this acorn fell down to the ground and ‘died’. It was a spiritually dark acorn, black as anything in its ‘aura’, showing me yet again Todd Bentley’s true spiritual source is NOT God but is of the evil one. And as this acorn fell to the ground, it broke and embedded itself in the ground, and a great massive tree, a very large one with many leaves and many branches grew up from this one acorn’s ’seeds’ and spread itself out. Normally a tree in the Bible is a positive thing – but not this one in this vision. Its trunks and branches were very dark – black as anything, again showing its spiritual source was not godly or good. I understood the tree growing up to represent the government of C Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation. {Now do you know why I have been watching their behaviour so closely after the orchestrated Todd Bentley fall?]

The interpretation of this vision was – even a ‘nut’ like Todd Bentley (a blatant deceiver) can cause something big to happen spiritually – and it was not good. And it was only because of his fall – not so much because of his pre-existing work, that what happened next took place: the government of the apostles. Church be warned and do not let these men even put a foot in the door. I tell you the truth, they plan to savage you. 

Steve Strang re: Todd Bentley fall, and The Emperor Has No Clothes

By Steve Strang From here, 28th August 2008

“When I was in Canada last week on vacation, I picked up a Canadian newspaper with a full-page article about revivalist Todd Bentley titled “Bentley Bends.” It appeared in the National Post  on August 19, and though it put the typical secular journalist spin on anything having to do with Pentecostals or miracles, it was surprisingly gentle in telling about Bentley’s fall. …

{End times thoughts – the implication here being that we must be ‘gentle’ too with Todd Bentley, even though he is still unrepentent – and by ‘gentle’ the NAR definition of gentle more akin to whitewashes and silencing, and not the Bible’s definition – and those that are not gentle as per the NAR defintion are by implication anti gifts of the Spirit and anti miracles.]

Meanwhile ministry to Bentley continues. I’m thankful that the Christian leaders who were set over him in the June 23 “alignment and commissioning” ceremony at the Lakeland Outpouring are ministering to him behind the scenes.

[Notice NAR apostle Steve Strang backing the heretical NAR practices of alignment, as well as C Peter Wagner's NAR in general. 

Why would any genuine Bible-believing Christian be 'thankful' that anyone, let alone a man like Todd Bentley, is under the 'covering' and 'ministry' of dangerous false prophets and even falser and more dangerous apostles?

Why would anyone be glad of the ministry of false prophets to anyone - man or beast?

Why would anyone be glad about the promotion of the NAR and their antichrist government through the 'fall' of Todd Bentley - which was some weeks before they say it was, and also for different reasons than they say it was?

And how can anyone 'in the know' fail to spot the direct NAR involvement in the Lakeland revival since even before its inception?]

In an earlier Strang Report I had called on them to step up and intervene in this situation, a day or two after news of Bentley’s separation was made known.

{Like this had never not been the NAR plan anyway! Fellow apostle and Charisma editor Lee Grady was calling on the apostles aka ’spiritual fathers’ to step in months ago!]

Two of the three leaders were out of the country and later challenged me via e-mail by saying that I had made it sound as if they would not do their jobs unless outsiders put pressure on them. Of course I assumed that they would do their jobs because I know they are men of integrity.

{This would be Che Ahn, Bill Johnson and John Arnott. Men of integrity?! Surely Steve Strang does not really think this! Integrity is linked to honesty and truth which has sadly been very lacking of late from the key people associated with Lakeland.

And hey, I thought it was wrong by them to criticise or judge – but not for them, evidently – their criticism is however seen as being a ‘challenge’. ]

But in the rush of dealing with the situation quickly I did not contact them other than to send them an advance copy of my Strang Report. So, for what it’s worth, I apologize for leaving the wrong impression. My reaction was based partly on past observations of situations in which spiritual discipline needed to be applied and those who were supposedly over the person ran for cover.

{Cover-ups you mean? Lack of integrity? Plenty of past observations of those as an apostle by your own testimony? What does this say about the apostolic prophetic movement?}

Meanwhile, many people are talking about the situation and wondering why there wasn’t more discernment.

{There was more than enough discernment and more than enough warnings – the problem was though that many people KNEW and refused to listen and still refuse to listen now – because they loved manifesting more than they loved obeying God and his word! They WILFULLY swapped the truth for a lie. This is the key issue that needs to be addressed before ‘discernment’ even – holy awe of God and basic obedience and submission to God’s Will instead of our own feelings and our own will.]

In fact, I had lunch recently with a Christian leader who watched the Lakeland Outpouring on the Internet for 60 days and said the longer he watched it, the more inclined he was to overlook some concerns he had. He said initially he felt that Bentley’s actions, along with his tattoos and piercings, indicated that he was “in rebellion.”

{And all the rest that was wrong… Note Strang and his friends knock Todd’s tattoos and piercings, when anyone who said that before was ‘religious’ and ‘pharisaical’…]

This leader confessed to me that next time he is going to be more careful to listen to his inner witness when he has a concern about a ministry.

{‘Inner witness’ – surely it must fundamentally be based on the word of God first and foremost! Otherwise he is still a typical Charismatic led by feelings over the word of God. And did this man really not know the scriptures enough to know Todd Bentley was as blatantly false as they come on many different levels. Is he really so naive and unwise and foolish that he cannot spot a brazen liar and thief hyping up the crowds? PEOPLE KNEW AND THEY TURNED A BLIND EYE.

Further this is not just about ‘discernment’ – it is also about obedience to what one does already know. Even he says he knew there were some issues. Yet he ignored these, which is never biblical. Even if you do not want to chuck the baby out with the bathwater, you can and should still get rid of the dirty bathwater you see.]

Others are e-mailing me what various people have written about the situation. If you have not read Dutch Sheets’ very in-depth and thoughtful letter about Bentley and the Lakeland Outpouring, I urge you to do so …  I agree with essentially all that Dutch writes.

{He would, bearing in mind Dutch Sheets is NAR and promotes C Peter Wagner and ignores many of the key issues still – see Dutch Sheets Statement]

Someone else e-mailed me an item …  I was taken by the fact that the person who wrote it rightly comments that many Pentecostals believe “if it’s odd, it must be God.” I had never heard that expression, but I know his statement is true.

The writer also makes a comparison to the emperor in the old fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes. 

{Funny Steve Strang should mention that when I have used the same analogy -http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-on/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/a-new-perspective-needed-at-lakeland/]

Because he relates the story better than I can I quote him here: There is an old fable that should serve as a pertinent parable for today’s church. The story is told of two unscrupulous tradesmen who offered to sell an emperor a quantity of material that was so exquisite that ‘only those with the greatest taste and style’ could see it. The emperor, not wanting to give the impression that he lacked such finesse, paid an enormous sum for the non-existent material that was then ‘made’ into a suit of clothes.

It was later announced to his subjects that he would be leaving the palace wearing clothes of such wonder that ‘only those with the greatest taste and style’ could appreciate it. The crowd, falling into the same trap as the emperor, cheered and shouted at the non-existent apparel.

The ecstasy and applause continued until a small child, who had come to the gathering late and had not heard the intimidating preamble, joined her mother and, pointing to the emperor shouted out loudly, ‘Look, Mummy, the emperor is not wearing any clothes!’ Only then did the bubble burst.

… He says, in relation to the fable: We need the simplicity of that childlike voice in today’s church. 

{As well as the people who will boot out the rogue tailors!]

It is the voice of people [who] refuse to accept that spirituality is “less than” if it is not accompanied by uncontrollable shaking. It is the voice of leaders who, when they see manifestations of the flesh, refuse to be intimidated by the voice of a crowd that declares that “If it’s odd, it must be God” and have the courage to say, “Please stop doing that; it’s silly.” 

{Manifestations of the flesh? There are plenty of those. They are not just silly though, they are dangerous. Strang forgets demonic manifestations as well.

Furthermore many people did say ’stop’ but the crowd did not listen, and more than that, threw stones at those who did warn them. These stone throwers include all the NAR prophets and apostles – Charisma Magazine included -so this saying is more than a tad hypocritical of Strang!]

Those who operate in this gift are almost universally considered to be the party-poopers of Pentecost. Their voice is universally seen as negative,

{Because the NAR teach this]

and the body language of those who do not want to hear their message is always, “Why are you trying to stop us when we are having so much fun?”

Yet the Bible tells us to “test the spirits” and “weigh prophecy.”

{Why on earth do they refuse to do either of these then? Why pay lipservice yet refuse to do it? (For if Strang did it it would be quite another article he would be writing). Obviously I know why the key leaders don’t teach this – because they would be found out, it is not in their interest to expose themselves.

Strang and his crowd still refuse to test prophecy or the prophets or the manifestations. I know this because of their continued endorsements and involvement in the NAR, their positive articles on NAR people and NAR revivals – eg the latest article on the Golden Gate Outpouring - which indicates they have learned absolutely NOTHING, let alone repented…]

Why, with so many mature leaders present at Bentley’s endorsement,

{Mature = elderly. Not wise, not true, and not even true brothers – but savage wolves.]

was the gift not used or,

{Because they did not want it to be used as it would expose them]

given what we now know, why was there not a word of knowledge?

{Because they are obviously false prophets and false teachers who speak flattering words to one another! There are also blatant deceivers among them.

However true prophetic words WERE given by God to those outside the NAR camp.]

Why was it that, as millions listened and a prophecy was given that Jesus would appear in person on the platform on a specific date, not one person expressed a word of caution?

{People did, but not in your camp, which really says it all as to what camp you have pitched your tent in – the false one. And just when did you speak out, Mr Strang, about this infamous false Wendy Alec prophecy? Or any of the other false words about angel Emma and the fire pillars and William Branham? Or the thirty two resurrections that you KNEW were lies as you had staff investigating them - but kept quiet about them til AFTER Todd had already fallen and it was in the NAR interest to hang Todd out to dry?!]

Could it be the intimidation of crowds, the awe induced by Christian celebrity or the absence of the childlike voice that needed to burst the bubble? What the church should be hungering for today is not “extreme prophetic” but “accurate prophetic.”

[Speaking of Extreme Prophetic, Patricia King, spiritual mother to Todd Bentley, is now an apostle of X P Church with many NAR apostles like James Goll linked in a pyramid scheme.

As for accurate prophetic, well the whole charismatic movement would be cleared out of the big names if you demanded 'accurate prophetic' - and that includes everybody linked to the NAR including Pope Peter Wagner.]

Why is it then that some people who have gone to Lakeland are seeing things occur in their church that they had not encountered before? The answer is simple.

{Because strange fire infects quickly]

God recognizes and responds to hunger.

{So let’s all go to a spiritualist meeting and go get ’some’ there? Or a Moonie convention?]

Leaders heard there was a fire and wanted to be warmed, heard of a well and wanted to be refreshed, and heard there was food and wanted to be fed.

{But false food and false fire. How can Strang STILL be supporting Fakeland?]

That God met them on their journey is yet another expression of His amazing grace.

{But did He? How is that ‘meeting’ with God defined? Feelings? Silly manifestations that the child needs to cry out loud about? False prophecies that people refuse to throw out?]

Please share your thoughts with me about the situation. Meanwhile, pray for Todd and his wife, Shonna. Let’s especially pray for Shonna, who received none of the adulation but is experiencing most of the pain.”

{In one breath Strang says the Emperor Had No Clothes On re: Lakeland. In the next, he says God still met with people there, which is a tad contadictory. Yet if he admits the emperor has no clothes re Lakeland, he admits this of the NAR, and Toronto and Brownsville and many other things as well – for Lakeland was not unique, it was only on a much larger scale what is already happening in Charismatic land – the same prophecies, prophets, impartations, apostles and agenda – NAR dominion!]

See also this by Strang: Time for Spiritual Fathers

Gwen Shamblin and Weigh Down Remnant Fellowship

Somebody recently asked me about Gwen Shamblin of ‘Weigh Down’ -  here is a link to a group of articles on her ‘fellowship’ to show that there is   indeed cause for concern.

A leader repents from the heart to the flock

This post here was written by a former leader in a C Peter Wagner affiliated church.

“I am the Person Formerly Known as Your Leader.

I was the supporting cast in our church. I was not one of the “Main” leaders. I was never paid to lead. I had “leadership roles.” I (along with my husband) was viewed as one of the supporting pillars in our community of believers. I tried not to be one of the front leaders. I simply took the vision of the church, supported it, taught it, explained it, fought for it and promised loyalty to it. For almost 20 years my husband and I have been in this role and just recently we have come to see many things we never would have thought possible.

I am the Person Formerly Known as Your Leader

All this time I worked as your leader. I was at one time or another, your small group leader, your counselor, and your ministry head (nursery, new member development, etc). I helped at various times on the worship team, the prayer team, the nursery, the elder board, the college ministry team, the hospitality team, and I’m sure a host of other teams and positions.

I am the Person Formerly Known as Your Leader

Because of all this, I need to repent and ask your forgiveness. I was wrong. I thought wrong things. I believed wrong things. I modeled wrong things. I taught wrong things. I was wrong. I have sinned against you and the others and against my grace loving, mercy giving, all powerful, all loving God.

- I repent for teaching and modeling that the “covering” of our church, my leadership, and our network would keep you from going into rebellion or deception.

- I took your private confidences and passed them on to the other leaders regardless of my telling you that I wouldn’t. I told myself that this was an accepted practice to gain wisdom in dealing with your situation. Now I see it was probably mostly to garner, in some twisted way, the favor of my leaders, to show my loyalty and to gain a better placement of myself in their leadership system.

- I taught, modeled and practiced tithing. I taught you that if you didn’t tithe, bad things would happen to you and/or your finances. Now I understand the fallacy of this. It is a fear tactic – and it is not of God.

- I did not stand up and speak up when I heard and saw something wrong being taught, lived, or modeled. In this way, you, as people who respected me had neither voice nor protection. There were many times I should have spoken up gently/humbly to correct other leaders around me. I wrongly felt that it was up to God to correct and deal with them. That it was not my “place” to correct “God’s Anointed.”

- I wanted to be seen by leaders as loyal and mostly I wanted to be in what I perceived as one of the “inner circles of friendship.” I bought their friendship with flattering words, serving them unconditionally, not making waves, not challenging them and being disloyal to what I sometimes knew was wrong. I was a religious whore.

- I taught you that with leaders, you did not have the right to expect friendship or any sort of loyalty back. I told you that you should become what I had become, completely a servant. They owed you and me nothing. I have learned to watch out for “friendships” where I am the servant only. I have learned my “servanthood” was nothing more than trying to manipulate myself into prominence.

- I taught that the church was an Army and that we therefore needed Generals and Sergeants to lead us. (I of course saw myself as the sergeant – not the head but certainly one of the right arms of the head.) Again, I did not read my Bible.

- I taught you to despise other churches in our city. I taught you that they were not as enlightened as us, did not have as much of the Holy Spirit as us, could not worship as we did, did not recognize the leadership in our church and come under their apostolic leadership, and so many other things. I hinted at their pastors “weaknesses.” I judged their programs, people, leaders and lives as unfit for the true expression of the Kingdom of God and taught you to do the same. It is true that I did see many legitimate problems, and I still do but I had pulled back and decided I was done with the all but the select body of Christ in our area and encouraged you to also “not waste your time.”

- I practiced and taught you “shunning.” This is the practice of not associating with those who have left our body. I taught you to look the other way in the grocery store. To ignore their emails and be succinct and distant when they called you. I taught you that you could be contaminated by a perceived friendship with them, and instilled in you the fear that was in me, that I would be seen as disloyal.

- I taught you that when people left our body, they left their destiny. I thought that the only way they were to fulfill what God had for them was through our particular church.

- I encouraged you in total obedience to our leaders and total submission of ministry to their vision. I often referred to the church as being in the leaders’ “boat.” We were to totally get in this “boat” and leave it up to God and the leaders where and how to navigate this life. We were not to question this boat leader’s vision or direction as they were “hearing from God”. If you wanted to minister it had to be under their direct “umbrella.”

My pride, arrogance, manipulation and disregard for the scripture are detestable to me. In that I was your leader, role model, and teacher makes it doubly serious. I know of nothing else than to remove myself.

I am not beating myself up as to the point where I imagine that I did nothing right. There were many of you that I loved unconditionally. We showed hospitality, we modeled a good marriage, an open and honest life and when I needed to, I have asked your forgiveness. But the scope and magnitude which I see my own heart today is detestable to me.

So today, I ask your forgiveness. I know many of you were not directly under my leadership. So why do I ask your forgiveness? This is why. – Maybe in reading my “confession” you will come to realize that those in leadership above you who have inflicted so many hurts will someday come to realize what they have done. Maybe your prayers for them will result in them walking out of their own deception. Maybe the grace that you show to them will be a signpost for them to follow. Maybe in not hating them you will be able to love and pray for their blinders to fall off. From my heart to you, I am so sorry, please forgive me. And please forgive those who also have been your leaders.”

Louis Lamonica of Hosanna Church, Ponchatoula, On Trial

Article from here (thanks to Mirele for the link) -

“AMITE — The Hosanna Church child-rape trial defendant is the former leader of a Christian cult with congregants who veered from mainstream charismatic teachings by focusing on prophetically inspired public confessions and by vomiting in order to cast out demons of sin, three defense witnesses testified Thursday.

Their testimony in the trial of Louis D. Lamonica offered insight into the decline of Hosanna Church from the spiritual center built by Lamonica’s father into a cult that witnesses said had lost touch with reality.

Lamonica’s attorney, Michael Thiel, has maintained that his client falsely confessed to child rape because he was being controlled by a woman claiming to have prophetic visions. The state’s case, presented by Assistant District Attorney Don Wall, includes accusations that children were molested as part of satanic cult rituals.

Lamonica, 49, of Hammond, faces four counts of aggravated rape of his two sons when they were age 11 or younger. He is the second of seven church members indicted in 2005 for their roles in an alleged child-sex ring to be tried in the 21st Judicial District Court.

Two young woman, Karen Bushey and Desireé Louque, testified Thursday that their membership in the Hosanna youth group was solely about worshipping God. They testified they never saw any satanic symbols or rituals at the church.

Even though they had been named as participants by some of the suspects and Lamonica’s sons, both women said they never had sex with Lamonica or other church members.

Instead, they described what they referred to as a Christian cult.

Once Lois Mowbray became Hosanna’s associate pastor, sermons ended and Sunday worship services varied from praising God for many hours to altar calls where Mowbray claimed God had told her of a sin that a congregant had to confess publicly, Bushey and Louque said.

“People would go up, start kneeling at the front praying,” Bushey, 24, of Tickfaw, testified. “The worship team would crowd around them and pray over them. This would make them start to throw up.”

Mowbray, 56, formerly of Ponchatoula, had been arrested by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office in May 2005 and booked with being an accessory after the fact to rape and failure to report a felony. She was never charged with the crimes by the District Attorney’s Office or a parish grand jury.

Toward the end of the church’s existence, strangers seeking to drop in on services were turned away at the doors, the women said. In fact, they, too, had no contact with others outside the church.

Bushey moved out of her parents’ home and into the residence of the youth pastor after her parents had an argument with Lamonica and told her to leave the church or get out of their home.

Six months later, Bushey said, she contacted her sister in order to visit her on her birthday. Before she knew it, Bushey said, she was dropped off at a park where her mother picked her up.

No one at the church talked to her again, she testified.

Louque’s break with the church came after she told her boyfriend, Christopher Labat, that she was tired of Labat’s practice of confessing every aspect of their personal relationship to Mowbray.

Labat, 27, of Hammond, is the former Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputy who faces child-rape charges in this case.

Six months later, Louque, 23, of Hammond, said she hung out with Labat for a couple of hours. The next day, Labat, after confessing his visit to Mowbray, arrived at her place of employment and pulled her aside, she testified.

Labat then cut off the head of a rubber snake and handed the head to her, Louque tearfully related.

“He told me it was me,” Louque said.

Harvest Family Church Senior Pastor Bray Sibley testified he was concerned when Lamonica decided to become pastor of his late father’s church after Hosanna Church began to decline under the senior Lamonica’s successors.

Sibley leads a nondenominational church along Interstate 12 in Hammond with more than 3,000 members.

However, Sibley once ran a ministry near Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond that was a “seed” planted from Hosanna’s congregation and later became the Harvest Family Church. Previously, Sibley had been a youth pastor at Hosanna under Lamonica’s father.

Lamonica had participated in a church praise band but had no pastoral experience, Sibley testified. But Lamonica had a “fever dream” in which his dead father asked him to finish his work, Sibley said.

“I know it was frustrating to him watching his father’s church disappear,” Sibley said. “I knew he felt an obligation with this dream he had.”

At some point, the founding families left and Hosanna no longer was part of the Assemblies of God affiliation, two moves that worried Sibley because it reduced the accountability of the church leadership, Sibley testified.

The lack of the authority of the others and the accountability created an environment where a person with spiritual gifts could misuse them to control others, Sibley said.

“You need a church with accountability,” Sibley said. “You can’t have people become hyper spiritualized because they lose touch with reality.”

The trial is scheduled to resume today in state District Judge Zoey Waguespack’s courtroom.”

There is another article on this church here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/25/national/25church.html

Time for Don Pirozok to Eat His Words re: Todd Bentley Too

Thanks to ‘Mirele’ for directing me to this clip of Don Pirozok prophesying over Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE5dOvEhctE

Apart from the normal William Branham adulation and idolatry, note in particular what Don Pirozok says about the media not being able to say a word against Lakeland!!

True church growth – a real megachurch!

“If God gives us growth … may it be a growth in God-exalting good deeds in the name of Jesus.”   (John Piper)

Fishers Of Men Or Fishers Of Money?

Fishers Of Men Or Fishers Of Money? (from Battered Sheep)
by Van Robison

“Jesus told Peter and Andrew, who were brothers and who were also fishermen by trade, “Follow Me and I will make you FISHERS OF MEN” (Matthew 4:18-19). Many are the preachers today who proclaim they are fishing for souls, all the while they are really fishing for material riches, wealth, fame, prestige, money, power and authority. The church world is overrun with preachers who have gone fishing and cast their nets for million dollar homes, multi-million dollar homes, jet airplanes, motor coaches, expensive boats, free travels all around the world, and endless other luxuries. How many self-proclaimed pastors today seek personal disciples to follow themselves and to “partner” with them so that they can live a life of royalty, all the while pretending to represent Jesus Christ?

The modern day “money changers” in the church world are much like the money changers that Jesus Christ chastised in Matthew 21:12-13. Their motives were not in serving God, but in FINANCIAL PROFITS. The “fish” (people) in the sea that get hooked on shinning lures are innumerable. Oddly, one of the most weird things about life is that those to whom people give their money to eventually become their masters. Prosperity preachers become lords and masters of their “tithe” payers, “seed sowers” and “partners”, because these “fish” (people) look to these professional money fishers, as if they are God Himself. They are hooked.

Money fishers in the church world are professional fishers of material riches. They use the false tithing doctrine as a primary hook. They use the false “sow a seed, reap a harvest” hook. They use the false “offering” hook. They also very effectively engage people to attend their conferences, camp meetings and revivals which are all great money making opportunities. The glittering lures deceive multitudes. Most of the fish (people) have innocent hearts and honorable intentions, but they are actually bait for sharks. Jesus Christ is not bought with money, nor does the salvation of anyone depend upon “partnering” with sharks. Money is the great obsession of the modern church world. The church industry, which is a mega religious empire, is a great, modern day money institution. Anyone with an interest can key into the Internet and read about the massive material wealth of the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, and the entire Protestant Church world. Not only do the churches build innumerable “church” buildings, temples and cathedrals, but they also own commercial businesses, expensive real estate, land and properties, and countless other assets. All this is of course, in the name of God or Jesus Christ and the result of the never ending flow of free money from the gullible and naive.

The type of giving that Jesus Christ taught is vastly different from the teachings of the church money masters. Perhaps one of the great oddities in the church world today is that the masses of people will give to the wealthy churches, the wealthy celebrity preachers, and to the rich television preachers, while they neglect the poor, the widows, the elderly and the needy. The rich money preachers gladly rob the poor and the widows, and think nothing of taking the last dime of even those who live on social security. I personally know wealthy people who gladly contribute to money hungry celebrity preachers, while they are very stingy towards the poor. Jesus was the Champion of the humble, the meek, the lowly in spirit, the helpless, the defenseless, the needy and those who cried out to Him. The world is full of money sharks in the church world, who come as “angels of light”, but who hook all the fish (people) they can.

If there is one thing Christian people need, it is discernment, because many are caught in the nets of fishers of money. Money goes hand in hand with power and control over the lives of common people. The money masters are masters at making money and deceiving the gullible. The secure way to avoid being caught in the nets of the money changers and the fishers of money, is to not swallow the bait of the fishers of money, and instead follow Jesus Christ and His teachings.”

Pastor Caught With His Hands in the Till

Article from here, 21st August 2008

“A Round Rock pastor who admitted to stealing more than $500,000 from his church pleaded guilty today in District Judge Ken Anderson’s court.

Donald Clyde, 49, turned himself in last August after he told officials he took money from the Forest Creek Church in Round Rock to buy vacations, property, horses and boats. He told police that he used the church’s bank accounts and credit cards for the purchases.

A church accountant noticed some strange charges on the accounts, and when a leadership group began looking into the case, Clyde stepped down. He had been with the church, which has a membership of about 1,500, since 1992.

Clyde pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft, both of which carry a penalty of up to life in prison. But prosecutors and Clyde’s defense attorney, Marc Ranc, asked that Clyde receive five years in prison for the first charge and 10 years probation for the second charge, and that the sentences run concurrently.

Anderson accepted Clyde’s guilty pleas, but ordered a pre-sentencing interview to consider the facts of the case, including that he has paid $343,000 in restitution.

Marc Ranc, Clyde’s attorney, said his client stole about $700,000 from the church.

“From the beginning, Mr. Clyde took responsibility and cooperated with the district attorney’s office,” Ranc said. “The church is the most important thing to him.”

Clyde’s sentencing is set for Oct. 2.”

Aimee Semple McPherson, The religious right’s Canadian godmother

Interesting excerpts of an article from here.

“You can thank a Canadian woman for bringing us today’s Christian-fuelled Republican party. Credit Ontario-raised evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson with popularizing the politically-charged belief that the United States is God’s “Chosen Nation.”

The precocious Canadian girl who became a U.S. firebrand created the potent mix of apocalyptic theology, Hollywood-style theatrics and media savvy that characterizes much of today’s evangelical movement, says a new book.

Adored and reviled by millions even after her 1944 death from a possibly accidental overdose of barbiturates, McPherson was in her day a household name, the most popular preacher in Canada and the U.S., the precursor of Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson. 

Said to simmer with sexuality, the luxury-loving “Sister Aimee” had several husbands, was criminally charged with faking her own kidnapping to cover up an affair and had often-difficult (non-romantic) relationships with the famous, including Charlie Chaplin, Will Rogers, Gandhi and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The centre-left attacked McPherson in songs and movies for her alleged hypocrisy and xenophobia. She put on elaborate stage plays at her always-packed, 6,000-seat Angelus Church in Los Angeles that demonized (literally) Catholics, Jews, Japanese-Americans, Communists and atheists.

In the page-turning book, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America  (Harvard University Press), Matthew Avery Sutton makes a persuasive case that the Canadian evangelist was responsible for rescuing conservative Protestantism from obscurity while creating the political model for today’s powerful Religious Right. She promoted the now-widely held conviction that Jesus Christ and the “American way of life” are synonymous.

Other books have been written about McPherson, but Sutton’s goes furthest in making the important argument that the Canadian evangelist was the most influential model for the merging of conservative Christian identity and American patriotism.

“The flag of America and the church stand for the same thing …. They stand or fall together!” preached McPherson, who founded the Foursquare Gospel Church, which claims six million members, including many in Canada.

Just as McPherson believed God chose Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, the book suggests McPherson set the stage for the religious ideologues who pushed for George W. Bush’s war on (Muslim) terrorism — by teaching God chose the U.S. “to serve as locus for the last days and His ultimate restoration of the faith.”

Through her popular, pioneering Bible radio programs, McPherson constructed a religious empire from which she launched what are now known as the U.S. “culture wars.”

At the time of the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial” over the teaching of evolution, McPherson organized a giant parade and theatrical stage play at her baroque Angelus Temple that portrayed what she called the “hanging and burial of monkey teachers.”

Eighty years later, McPherson’s brand of evangelical sensationalism is again spiking up the issue of whether to teach evolution in U.S. public schools, while in most other industrialized countries the dispute barely registers.

“She was one of the most influential figures in U.S. history,” writes Sutton, a history professor at Oakland University in Michigan. “She was the first religious celebrity of the mass-media era.” 

Although Sutton, who was raised in the Foursquare Church, adopts a balanced tone in this almost affectionate biography, he laments how McPherson’s condemnation of “dangerous outsiders” as un-American remains integral to Christian neo-conservatism. The current targets of such suspicion, Sutton suggests, are homosexuals and Muslims.

….The conservative Protestant movement is now one of the largest and most fast-growing religions around the world, often promoting a muscular mix of Christian theology and American nationalism. This Canadian made it a force with which the world now needs to reckon.”