COMPOLO, “WHO’S PRINCIPLES DO WE LOOK TO?”

Tony Compolo - Whose ‘principles’ do we look to? BGAV reduces budget; Tony Compolog tells messengers he opposed Calif Prop 8 by Robert Dilday

ROANOKE, VA (BP) - The Baptist General Association of Virginia, acknowleding an uncertain economic environment, approved a reduced budget for 2009 during a quiet annual meeting that drew about 1,200 people to the Roanoke Civic Center.

At the Nov 11-12 meeting, messengers elected a retired public school administrator as president and adopted constitutional amendments that increase the amount of contributions necessary for churches to affiliate with BGAV.

The meeting’s theme was “Who Is My Neighbor”? Reacing Beyond the Church Doors” based on Luke 10:27, which says, “You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.

Speakers included Tony Compolo, professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in Pennsylvania; David Coffey, President of the Baptist World Alliance; and J. Larry Holland, pastor of Franklin Heights Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Va. Music was provided by Katie Campbell.

Compolo’s remarks were notable for his criticism of the recently passed Proposition 8 in California which would amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Interpreting the meetings theme, “Who Is My Neighbor?” Compolo said, “The Samaritans were those who were considered spiritually unclean, abominations in the eyes of God.” Some of today’s “Samaritans”, he said, the poor, Muslims, illegal immigrants and gays.

Compolo called himself “a conservative on the issue of homosexuality”, but he said he opposed Prop 8. Describing homosexual behavior “contrary to the teaching of God” he nonetheless questioned what was gained in passing the ballot initiative.

“What did we win? … I’ll tell you what we won,” he said, “We won tens of thousands of gays parading up and down the streets of San Francisco and New York and L.A. screaming against the church, seeing the church as enemy. [Ah, no, Compolo, they view Christ as their enemy.]*

“I don’t know how we’re going to reach those brothers and sisters”, he said, “but I’m an evangelical and I’m going to win them to Christ … And if we’re not going to win them to Christ if we keep sending them bad messages, and we’ve sent them a bad message. I think the decision in California was in agreement with how I believe, but sometimes you’ve got to consider the person before you bang them over the head with YOUR PRINCIPLES”.

Messengers approved a 2009 budget of $13.8 million, which is $560,000 less than this year’s $14,360,000 total. Tom McCann, who chairs the BGAV’s budget committee, said officials project the 2008 receipts to be about $13.8 million.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=29361

BETH MOORE, LIFEWAY (SBC) PEDDLERS OF SATAN’S LIES

Beth Moore and Lifeway (SBC) Head Deeper Still Into Deception, by Ken Silva

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1 NASB)

How Would You Know If You Were Being Taught FALSE Doctrine At the Lifeway: Biblical Solutions for Life website of the SBC we read:

Together again for 2009! Join us for a rare and unique opportunity to hear three-internationally renowned Bible Teachers - Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer - at one weekend event. LifeWay presents Deeper Still The Event in Greensboro, Orlando and Oklahoma City!

Go deeper in God’s Word as you sit under their teaching, and listen as they share their views together during a panel discussion. Go deeper in prayer with thousands of women across North America … (Online Source)

Men and women, this “Event” feature some Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism-lite gleaned from apostate Roman Catholicism, which is slithering deeper still into the Slowly Becoming Catholic, allegedly the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Your key to spotting this CSM i.e. ascetiocism-lite is the term “deeper”. The implication is that unless you practice so-called spiritual disciplines you haven’t gone “deep” enough in your relationship with God.

My advice is: Wake up! This repulsive rubbish is literally taken from Counter Reformation (Hello!) figures like Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the spiritual gestapo the Jesuits, and emotionally troubled Teresa of Avila. A while back 20th Century Fox released a DVD called Be Still And Know which featured:

contemplatives as Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Calvin Miller and Phyliss Shirer, along with some names that may surprise you? [not readers of contend4thefaith] Max Lucado, Beth Moore. An acknowledgement list at the end includes Brennan Manning and Dr. Charles Stanley (Online Source)

With Be Still and Know Beth Moore and Shirer are, at the very least, involved with promoting spiritual deceptions of Contemplative/Centering Prayer. At the 2:18 mark of the commerical below Beth Moore reads the text above, which flatly contradicts engaging in the religous bondage of the neo-pietism of spurious Spiritual Formation ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic “Roshi” Richard Foster; and since when were Quakers evangelical?

Moore than says dramatically, “Several years ago Christ began to place a tremendous burden on my heart for the people of God to know the freedom of God“. Really how would we know?  And if so, do we now have prophetesses among us with special revelations from God concerning His “freedom” because the Word of God came to Beth? And what if I, as a pastor-teacher also was to say, “A couple of years ago Jesus placed a tremendous burden on my heart for the people of God to know the freedom of God“.

And what if I then went on to say that one of the best ways to embrace the freedom of God is simply to read the Bible; to pray continuously, then do what it says in the His Word and come away from false teaching advanced by contemplative dreamers. Avoid their spirituality of the self and do not be subject again to a yoke [of] its slavery because they teach you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. (Jeremiah 14:4) I mean how would you know? MUST WATCH

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, CALLED FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

contend4thefaith believes Netanyahu, if elected, could be the very man Israel needs in the trying days that lie ahead … I will be praying for his victory as he truly loves his nation and won’t put her on a chopping block - as the current PM is salivating to leave as his ‘legacy’.

The very thought that Ehud Olmert would attempt to sell out the residents of Jerusalem in the twilight hours of his term, given the numerous indictments which he faces is just too much. There has been weak-willed leaders in Israel ever since Sharon, who also made far too much concessions with the enemies of the Blessed Land, took ill.

This is one Christian who is laboring in prayer daily for the peace of Jerusalem and trusting that God will assign the man He needs to be at the helm during these consequential times for the nation of Israel.

DOES BARACK OBAMA PLAN TO EMASCULATE ISRAEL’S NUKES?

http://www.tjci.org

Does Barack Obama Plan to Emasculate Israel’s Alleged Nuclear Deterrence?

President-elect Barack Obama plans to “get tough” on Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons. This is not a new policy for the U.S. State Department.

October 30 to November 1, 1991 Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir attended the Madrid International “Peace” Conference. He was urged not to go but, he ignored the warnings. He assumed he could handle everything. As predicted, Israel was facing a “Kangaroo Court”.

Shamir and the other Israelis present were thrust into an ambush arranged by then Secretary of State James Baker III and Baker’s infamous [trio] … Dennis Ross, Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer. These three were selected by Baker because they were ambitious, leftist Jews and could be depended upon to take their marching orders from Baker and the ever pro-Arab U.S. State Department.

They are now advising Obama on how best to deal with Israel, as they did before. While they denied playing any significant role at the Madrid Conference, it was reported by those present that they bounced from room to room, pressuring, making recommendations and otherwise guiding the tenor of those meetings.

While Ross, Miller and Kurtzer were doing their lobbying, mostly biased toward the Muslim Arab countries’ position, I has an uneasy thought. I sensed and wrote then that I thought the Baker team would urge some Arab Muslim country’s representativee to ask for a “Nuclear-Free-Zone” in the Middle East. Sure enough, near the end of the Conference, like a well-oiled scheme, the Egyptian representative did ask for a “Nuclear-Free-Zone”, in effect, to eliminate Israel’s deterrance to enemies who far out-number her.

Since it is well-known that Israel probably had a Nuclear Deterrance (and was the only country in the area to be so endowed) clearly, the objective of this proclamation was, as pre-planned, to eliminate Israel’s deterrent capability. If Israel obeyed those “diktats” that would translate into Israel having to face Muslim Arab aggression with conventional weapons only and limited man-power compared to the huge population of the surrounding Arab Muslim countries. (See link above to read further.)

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What always amazes me is that the nations, including the nation of America, dare to poke God in the very pupil of His eye:

Zechariah 2:8 - For thus says the LORD of hosts; After the glory has He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that touchs you touches the apple of His eye.

SPURGEON’S WARNING AGAINST ANYTINGARIANISM

The following is one of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s warnings against “the downgrade” in doctrine and the deep evangelical compromise of the day, especially in the Baptist Union. The sermon was entitled, “Progressive Theology” and was published in the Sword and the Trowel“, April 1888.

Spurgeon labled the mood of the hour “ANYTHINGARIANISM” and warned “It is thought to be mere bigotry to protest against the mad spirit which is now loose among us. PAN-INDIFFERENTISM IS RISING LIKE THE TIDE, who can hinder it?

WE ARE ALL TO BE AS ONE, EVEN THOUGH WE AGREE IN NEXT TO NOTHING

It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce ERROR.

Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true, the true is false; the true and the false are one. Let us join hands, and never again mention those barbarous, old-fashioned doctrines about which we are sure to differ.

Let the good and sound men for liberty’s sake sheild their “advanced brethren”; or, at least, GENTLY BLAME THEM IN A TONE WHICH MEANS APPROVAL. After all, there is no difference, except in the point of view from which we look at things; its all in the eye, or, as the vulgar say, “it is all my eye”!

In order to maintain an open union, let us fight as for dear life any from of sound words, since it might restrain our liberty to deny the doctrines of the Word of God.  THIS SPIRIT IS IN ALL CHURCHES, MORE OR LESS; INDEED, IT SEEMS TO BE IN THE AIR.

The prince of the power of the air is loosed in an extraordinary manner for a season, misleading even the godly, and triumphing greatly in those whose minds willing minds yield full assist to his deceitful teachings.

http://www.wayoflife.org

The eHarmony Shakedown

by Michelle Malkin, 11/21/08

Congratulations, tolerance mau-mauers: Your shakedown of a Christian-targeted dating website worked. Homosexuals will no longer be denied the inalienable ‘right’ to hook up with same-sex partners on eHarmony. What a landmark triumph for social progress, eh?

New Jersey plaintiff Eric McKinley can now crown himself the new Rosa Parks - heroically breaking down inhumane barriers to Internet matchmaking by forcing law-abiding private companies to provide services it was never created to provide. “Men seeking men” has now been enshirned with “I have a dream” as a civil rights rallying cry of the 21st century. Bully for you, Mr. McKinley. You bully.

Neil Warren, eHarmony’s founder, is a gentle, grandfatherly businessman who launched his popular dating site to support heterosexual marriage. A “Focus on the Family” author with a divinity degree, Warren encourages healthy, lasting unions between men and women of all faiths, mixed faiths, or no faith at all.

Don’t like what eHarmony sells? Go somewhere else. There are thousands upon thousands of dating sites on the Internet that cater to gays, lesbians, Jews, Muslims, Trekkies, runners, you name it.

No matter. In the name of tolerance, McKinley refused to tolerate eHarmony’s right to operate a lawful business that didn’t give him what he wanted. He filed a discrimination complaint against eHarmony with the New Jersey Department of Civil Rights  in 2005.

To be clear: eHarmony never, ever refused to do business with anyone. The company broke no laws. The great “sin” was not providing a politically correct service that a publicity-seeking gay plaintiff demanded they provide. For three years, the company battled McKinley’s legal shakedown artists - and staved off other opportunists as well. The dating site had been previously sued by a lesbian looking to force the company to match her up with another woman, and by a married man who ridiculously sought to force the company to find him prospects for an adulterous relationship.

This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a rib-eye, or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services. But rather than defend the persecuted business, the New Jersey attorney general intervened on behalf of the gay plaintiff and wrangled an agreement out of eHarmony to change its entire business model.

The company agreed to not only offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users, pay McKinley $5,000 and fork over $50,000 to New Jersey’s Civil Right’s division “to cover investigation related administrative costs.” Oh, and that’s not all. Yield, yield to the grievance-mongers:

Additional terms of the settlement include:

–eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the “Diversity” section of its website as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services; FURTHER:

http://www.michellemalkin.com

PREPARING FOR A CHARISMATIC MELTDOWN

Source: http://www.prophecynewswatch.com

Foreclosure. Eviction. Bailouts. We’re hearing those terms a lot these days, and not just in the newspaper’s business section. In the last two weeks three Charismatic churches that once enjoyed huge popularity have fallen on hard times.

In Tampa, Florida, Without Walls International church is facing foreclosure. The megachuch, which once attracted 23,000 worshipers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations, shrunk drastically after co-pastors Randy and Paula White announced in 2007 that they were divorcing. On Nov 4 their bank filled foreclosure proceedings and demanded immediate repayment of a $12 million loan on the property.

In Duluth, Georgia - northeast of Atlanta - sheriff’s deputies arrived at Global Destiny Minstries and ordered Bishop Thomas Weeks II to leave the property. According to documents filed in state court, Weeks - who divorced popular preacher Juanita Bynum in June - owed more than $511,000 in back rent to the building’s owners. He was escorted out of the building on Nov 14 while church services were in progress.

In the case of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, many parishoners walked out 16 years ago when it became known that Earl Paulk and other staff members were involved in wife-swapping. Paulk created a bizzare culture of secrecy to cover up the immorality, which included his affair with a sister-in-law - and resulted in the birth of Donnie Earl (who thought he was Earl Paulk’s nephew until last year). The church only had a few hundred members in recent years.

Today, Donnie Earl has embraced the inclusionist doctrines of Oklahoma pastor Carlton Pearson, who left the faith in 2003 and was labeled a heretic by a group of African-American bishops the following year. The younger Paulk now preaches that all people, not just Christians, are saved. He told Charisma last week that the Cathedral “has expanded to include all God’s creation - Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, gay, straight, etc.” And this distorted message is broadcast from a pulpit that hosted the premier leaders of the charismatic movement in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Even before Weeks was charged with assaulting Bynam in a hotel parking lot in August 2007, the pastor of Global Destiny Ministries defiled his pulpit during a “Teach Me To Love You” marriage conference. He told married men they should use profanity during sex to heighten their experience, and he brought couples on stage to play a game in which males were asked to name their favorite female body parts.

Lord, help us.

Was it supposed to end like this? [yes, that is what Scripture says … many will fall away]* How did a movement that was at one time focused on winning people to Christ and introducing them to the power of the Holy Spirit end in such disgrace? [Because many in the ‘movement’ were false confessors and jumped on a money making bandwagon which placed far too much emphasis on so-called ‘gifts of the Spirit’ which encouraged people to “act” …. God will not be mocked, nor will He share His glory with another.]*

I hear the sound of bricks and steel beams crashing to the ground. The wrecking ball of heaven is swinging. It has come to demolish any work that has not been built on the integrity of God’s Word.

All of us should be trembling. God requires holiness in His house and truth in the mouths of His servants. He is loving and patient with our mistakes and weaknesses, but eventually, if there is no repentance after continual correction, His discipline is severe. He will not be mocked.

Romans 11:22 says, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.”

God is not married to our buildings. If He allowed foreign armies to burn Jerusalem and its glorious temple, He will also write “Ichabod” on the doors of churches where there is no repentance for compromise.

I pray the fear of God will grip our hearts until we cleanse our defiled pulpits. Let’s examine our hearts and our ministries. Let’s throw out the wood, hay and stubble and build on a sure and tested foundation. It’s the only way to survive the meltdown.

*Denotes commentary by contend4thefaith

HINDU EXTREMISTS TO KILL CHRISTIANS

(SANJEEV GUPTA/EPA) - Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) party take part in a ‘Weapon Worship’ in Bhopal. Britain has refused to bar members of the radical group.

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

Extremists Hindu groups offered money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to Christian aid workers in the eastern state of Orissa.

The allegations follow the British government’s refusal to prevent members of two radical groups linked to the worst anti-Christian violence in India since the Partition entering Britain.

The US-based head of a Christian organization that runs several orphanages in Orissa - one of India’s poorest regions - claims that Christian leaders are being targeted by Hindu militants and carry a price on their heads. “The going price to kill a pastor is $250 (L170)“, Faiz Rahman, the chairman of Good News India, said.

A spokesman for the All-Indian Christian Council said: “People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties. They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are given petrol and kerosene“.

Ram Madhav, a spokesman for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest hardline Hindu group, denied the claims. “The accusation is false“, he said.

Orissa has suffered a series of murders and arson attacks in recent months, with at least 67 Christians killed, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Several thousand homes have been razed and hundreds of places of worship destroyed, and crops are now wasting in the fields.

In recent weeks the violence has subsided but at least 11,000 Christian refugees remain in camps in Kandhamal, the district worst affected. “They are too scared to go home. They know that if they return to their villages they will be forced to convert to Hinduism“, Father Manoj, who is based at the Archbishop’s office in Bhubaneshwar, the state capital, said. Read further:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5186703.ece

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Abba, lifting up these precious saints to You and trusting them to Your good care. Praying for the children to know peace that comes by leaning in closer to Yeshua. Grant peace and joy to them during this hour. Asking for protection for the missionaries, their families and all the children and parents who benefit from them. Abba, Your Word will never be stopped by the workings of the devil and I praise You for that promise! May these violent who are lost in darkness be broken and come to salvation by the Power of Your Mighty love. In Jesus name, Amen.

THE ANTICHRIST AND MR. OBAMA

November 16 - This weeks feature article by Jack Kelley, http://www.gracethrufaith.com

Since the election I’ve been asked a number of times to comment on the likelihood that Mr. Obama could be the anti-Christ. Let me begin by saying that by being elected President he’s Mr. Obama now, not just Obama. As for him being the antichrist I’ve discouraged that thought because I don’t believe it’s time for the anti-Christ to be revealed yet. But apart from that, I can find no Biblical reason that would absolutely disqualify him. And based on the things we know about the anti-Christ there’s a fit in several important places. The anti-Christ will have to burst on to the scene quickly and powerfully to accomplish so much in the little time he has, so maybe he’ll need a head start. If that’s the case, maybe Mr. Obama is on his way to becoming the anti-Christ. Let’s find out.

We know that the anti-Christ will be a descendant of the people who made up the Roman Empire in Biblical times (Daniel 9:26), and he’ll arrive on the world scene as a peace maker (Daniel 8:25). He won’t be part of the world’s elite at the beginning of his career (Dan 7:8) but will rise up among them eventually to surpass them and become the leader of the entire world. (Rev 13:7-8)

He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many of them and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but by human power. (Daniel 8:25)

This means that he’ll base his success on a lie, misrepresenting himself and his intentions, but people will want to believe him so badly that they’ll disregard his inconsistencies until it’s too late to stop him. Initially he’ll seem successful, but when just when they’re saying “Peace and safety”, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains to a pregnant woman, and they won’t escape. (1 Thes 5:3)

Deja Vu All Over Again?

Some of us remember when Jimmy Carter was elected president of the US. The country was fed up with Washington and even though he had no national leadership experience, we elected him because he promised he was an outsider who promised change. He said he would never lie to us, but after the election it turned out that he had. He had misrepresented his background and didn’t have the ability he needed when it came to governing. He said he was a Christian and even orchestrated a land for peace deal in between Israel and Egypt, but he proved to be anti-Isreal. Soon we had a crisis in finance with interest rates at 20%, an energy crisis with our first gas shortages, and an administration that didn’t know how to work with Congress to fix things. The Iranians captured our embassy and held our citizens hostage. Thankfully he lasted only one term.

Mr. Obama could easily turn out to be just another Jimmy Carter, and if so America will suffer through the next four years and then he’ll be gone. But if he continues to be succesful in convincing people all around the world that he’s on the right track even though everything seems to be falling apart, it could be a different story.

If my calculations are correct, American Christians have just voted in our last presidential elections and won’t be here to see whether Mr. Obama turns out to be the anti-Christ or not. But someone with a lot more experience in accurately predicting the future has some interesting insight into the next few years. His name is Gerald Celente, CEO of Trends Research Institute, and he’s renowned the world over for his accuracy in predicting world and economic events. He accurately predicted the 1987 Stock market crash, the Fall of the Soviet Union, the 1997 Asian currency collapse, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and one year before the fact predicted that what he said would become known as the Panic of 2008, saying that giants would tumble to their deaths, which is what we’ve just seen in the fall of several of our oldest and biggest financial firms, and with the big three auto makers teetering on the brink. (You can check his track record for yourself at http://www.trendsresearch.com.

Celente is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellion - all within four years, cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.

According to his recent FOX News interview, called “Predicting Obama’s Impact” (posted on YouTube Nov 10, 2008), by 2012 America will become an underdeveloped nation. There will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and holidays will be more about obtaining food than gifts.

We’re going to see the end of retail christmas … we’re going to see a fundmental shift take place … putting food on the table is going to be more important than putting gifts under the christmas tree“, said Celente, adding that the situation would be “worse than the great depression”.

America’s are going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for“, he said, nothing that people’s refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession now highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

All this comes from a man with an international reputation for being right and whose continued success depends on it. If he’s right now like he has been so often in the past, then the next four years will be worse than the Carter Administration ever was, rather than the launching pad for a coming world leader.

(By the way, please take note that this is another independent expert pointing to the year 2012 as one of cataclysmic significance in bringing about the End of the Age).

There’s a wild card that I hestitate to throw in here because I don’t even want to think about it.  But if it’s true it could easily cause the problems that Mr. Celente is predicting. For some time now certain people, Republican and Democrat alike, have been saying that Mr. Obama isn’t legally qualified to be President because he’s not a natural born citizen of the US. I won’t go into the details but the point is that he could make all this go away by producing a legitimate birth certificate, something he’s been unwilling to do. A Supreme Court Justice has apparently given him until Dec 1, 2008 to do so, and if he does then the Electoral College vote will be certified and he’ll be the next President. But lawsuits in a dozen or so states have been or are being filed to prevent the certification until Mr. Obama proves he’s qualified. If the courts throw out the election who knows what will happen.

What Time Is It?

As many of you know, I’ve said that all of the End Times prophecies including the Second Coming could be fulfilled as early as 2018. I base this on the Lord’s promise that the generation being born at the time of the first End Times signs would still be alive when “all these things have happened” (Matt 24:34). Most scholars view the re-birth of Israel in 1948 as the first of the end time signs. With an average lifespan being 70 years, according to Psalm 90:10, everything would have to come to pass by 2018. If the Rapture only just preceeds the 70th week of Daniel it could come 7 years earlier, in 2011, which is 2 1/2 years from now, about half way through Mr. Obama’s first term, assuming the election stands.

So here’s how to tell if he’ll become the anti-Christ or not. If it seems like he can do not wrong, if people feel safe and it’s beginning to look like there’ll be peace in our time, then there’s a good chance he’s the one. But if Gerald Celente’s predications are coming to pass, and the world’s in worse shape than ever, then he’s just another Jimmy Carter, an inexperienced outsider who had no business running for president in the first place, let alone being elected.

Time will tell, but either way we can look for some difficult days ahead for the Church. [contend4thefaith concurs] Because either way we are in the final phase of post Christian America and can expect the world around us to become more and more anti-Christian. And if the economy continues to self destruct it will be just that much worse.

But whether Mr. Obama turns out to be the anti-Christ or not is really irrelevant to the Church. Our job in the short time we have left is to get ready to move to our new home. That means breaking our ties with the old one. Anything that can’t be put to kingdom use is excess baggage to us now. We should be sending whatever treasure we have up ahead. We should stop worrying about our career, our retirement fund, our lifestyle, and all those other worldly distractions and put all our resources to work for the benefit of our next lifes. After all, it’s the real one. And one way or the other, this one is already gone.

Whether you believe in the pretrib Rapture or not you know my advice is sound. After all I’m not just making this stuff up. Everything I’ve been saying is straight from the Lord’s own mouth. He’s the one who said quit storing up treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where theives break in and steal. He’s the one who said to store up treasures in heaven instead. (Matt 6:19-20) And He’s the one who said not to worry about our lives here but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and he’ll provide for all our needs (Matt 6:31-34).

IDOLATRY, Pt 2

God provided the Ten Commandment for the Christian to follow, and our leaders once held to these Ten Commandments and the nation was in a far better state than it is currently. When we reject the God of the Bible, as we drift far from His Commands and continually rebel against Him the consequences multiply exponentially. Of idolatry, God says:

Deuteronomy 5:7 - (Second Commandment) You are to have no other gods before me. You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline - you are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, ADONAI, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot (commands).

As stated in part 1, idolatry is anything which draws us away from Jesus Christ and seeking after His kingdom first. What idolatry is America actively engaged in? The worship of money. What began with Enron has culminated in the meltdown of Wall Street and the public exposure of the failed policies of Fannie Mae and Mac. Politicians forced lending institutions to approve risky loans which but for those new regulations would never have been approved. As a result of this meltdown, thousands of Americans who toiled for decades, saving for retirement, have seen their savings vanish! There has been no mention of a bailout - with our tax dollars - for J.Q. Public; yet, AIG, one of the companies which received millions still continues to send it’s executives on tropical holiday! While necessary to prevent our economy from tanking, we are told it is necessary to bailout the very corrupt institutions which put the economy in this position … perhaps it would be better to clean house and rid the Capitol of those who profited from the Fannie Mae and Mac debaucle. What idol motivates the absolute disregard for others so long as it increases one’s own bottom line? The love of money and the idol of covetousness. Many in this nation seek after money at the expense of their integrity because money is their god! Of the love of money, Yeshua said:

Matthew 6:24 - No man can serve two masters: for he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (cf Lk 16:13)

Proverbs 15:27 - He that is greedy for gain troubles his own house.

Many have been seduced by the trinkets of the world and have been deceived by the riches of it into believing material wealth is the pathway to happiness. Marriages are sacrificed by workaholics. Children grow up in pain as they would much prefer their parents attention and guidance over the things that working 60-80 hrs each week affords them. This frenetic pursuit of wealth comes at a high price! Many live far beyond their means in a vain attempt to fill an emptiness inside, an emptiness only Yeshua can fill. As the saying goes, many in an attempt to “keep up with the Jones” (who are they anyhow?!) seek after material wealth only to discover everything that is gold does not glitter and they are just as empty inside even after attaining ’success’ by the standard of the world. God warns against debt because we become enslaved to the debtor, as many a person who has had to file bankruptcy can attest. This is the idolatry of covetousness:

Exodus 20:17 - Do not covet your neighbor’s house; do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

Matthew 19:23-26 - Then Yeshua said to his talmidim (disciples), “Yes, I tell you that it will be very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Furthermore, I tell you that it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. When the talmidim heard this they were utterly amazed. “Then who”, they asked, “can be saved?” Yeshua looked at them and said, “Humanly, this is impossible; but with God everything is possible”.

God warns against seeking after wealth because once seduced by riches, it is far more difficult to see our need for Yeshua as Savior. We all know that in this world money talks; however, in the next it has no voice. We are to seek after the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else (our needs) shall be added unto us (Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31). The Lord says wealth draws a person, and a nation, away from seeking after God. Material wealth can vaporize in a moment, but treasures stored up in heaven have an eternal value. The price tag of trusting in money is very high:

Ephesians 5:5 - For of this you can be sure: every sexually immoral, impure or greedy person - that is, every idol-worshipper - has no share in the Kingdom of the Messiah and of God.

Another idol Americans pant after is fame and celebrity. We have become a nation that will sit before television, or idiot box as my grandmother used to refer to it, each week to watch American Idol. Recently in the news was the tragic story of a young woman who became so distraught after being let go from the competition for top spot that she went home and shot herself in the head! Apparently, the felt that life was no longer worth living because she had so set her heart upon being the next America Idol. This nation places Hollywood actors on a pedestal, and treats them as if they are worthy of homage! Our youth seeks after their five minutes of fame and places their photos on MySpace, only to face the music when said photo appears in a background check and costs them the position for which they labored so long in college. The celebrity mentality has so infected our nation that two twin women have undergone extensive plastic surgery to look like Barbie (yes, the doll). We have become a culture obsessed with celebrity as the Anna Nicole Smith saga kept people riveted to their tv sets. With a sick voyarism, photographers clamoured after ‘the shot’ by storming Smith’s funeral - it was absolutely shameless! This is idolatry.

Sexual perversion, in all forms, is rebellion against God. People across the nation who hold membership in a church, live together in direct violation of the Command of God to not commit adultery. Any sexual relation outside of marriage is fornication. The Creator instituted marriage (Genesis 3), the family, and instituted moral laws for each from which our nation is far adrift. A clear indication that a nation is in rebellion against God is sexual perversion. Christ instituted the church at Pentecost (Acts) and He has established her heirarchy, qualifiers for those in leadership, and the discipline the pastor is to utilize in the case of a brother or sister that remains in unrepentant sin despite having followed Matthew 18:15-17. Having been a member of a church that exercises discipline as outlined by the Lord, who has absolute authority over His own Body, I know it works. People are restored, if they are part of the flock; however, if they are not they remain ‘in the world’. After having had membership in a church that did not exercise church displine, I can attest to the fact that there is a darkening in that church as sin burns through the flock drawing many away until it seems as though the church is absolutely powerless over sin.

Any pastor who refuses to obey ADONAI in this regard will one day stand before Him and give an account. This is what God writes through Paul about the brother who remains in sin:

1 Corinthians 5:6-13 - Don’t you know the saying, “It takes only a little hametz (leaven, sin) to leaven a whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old hametz (old nature/flesh), so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach (Passover) lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the Seder (Lord’s supper) not with leftover hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah (unleavened bread) of purity and truth. In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. I didn’t mean the sexually immoral people outside your community (the church), or the greedy, or the thieves, or the idol-worshipper - for then you would have to leave the world altogether! No, what I wrote to you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn’t even eat! For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (unbelievers)! Isn’t it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves. (cf. Deut. 13:6; 17:7,12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21,24; 24:7)

At the summit of rebellion is the sin of homosexuality, which God calls an abomination and unnatural. History’s lesson is that every nation that embraces homosexuality (Sodom, Greece, Rome) is destroyed. In America,  once again the few again have raised their voices against the majority. The evil behind the movement, the devil, is quite cunning in attempting to promote homosexuality as a ‘civil rights’ matter. Of course this is an absolute lie. Civil rights have to do with non-discrimination against people due to the nationality, disability or religion. There is no special protection for me, as a heterosexual, to walk the streets skyclad and gyrate against my spouse while marching in a parade. This is the very sin that God rained down brimstone (fire from Heaven) upon Sodom and Gemmorah … (Gen 19). The men of the city engaged in homosexual behavior in the streets of Sodom. Our nation hosts ‘gay pride parades’, without regard for the Word and the judgment we are courting. One of the saddest spin off of the homosexual activist movement is the attempt to paint the Christian, who does not hate them but seeks to warn them of the coming judgment, as ‘bigots’ and ‘haters’. Behavior like this from those who say they want ’tolerance’ and ‘acceptance’. Apparently only for themselves and if Christians are to be persecuted in order to gain such special protection under the law through proposed legislation such as ‘hate crimes’, so be it. Is that tolerant? No, that is idolatry … mankind seeking to do what is right in his own sight. 

America has lost it’s ability to blush! We are the biggest exporter of pornography. Commercials run all day which would never have been permitted even 15-20 years ago. Parents must needs hold the trigger finger on the remote to avoid the inevitable inappropriate content that will come on the screen. When a nation refuses the commands of God and His ordinances, they will sink to debauchery that is a pit seemingly without bottom.  This pursuit of pleasure is in itself a form of idolatry because it seeks to gratify the lusts of the flesh, which leads to all forms of evil.

As with Israel, unless America repents on a national level, judgment is certainly coming. In the Old Testament books we learn of the judgment God issued against His chosen people, and it is folly indeed to imagine He will not likewise deal with any other nation who refuses to honor Him, obey Him and, moreover, love the apple of His eye - Jerusalem. Our national policy is well known in that regard. In 2 Kings 11:4, ADONAI directs Elijah to shepherd the flock of Israel, both Yudah and Israel, for slaughter. Elijah took two staffs one called No’am [pleasantness], the other Hovalim [bound together], and he shepherded the flock. Elijah snapped in two the No’am staff, “in order to break my covenant”, which I made with all the peoples. The people took note that this was indeed judgment at the hand of ADONAI. I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; if not, don’t”. So they weighed out my wages, 30 silver shekels [that is 12 ounces] and threw them into the treasury in the house of ADONAI. (1 Kings 11:10-13.) (This was a foreshadowing of what would happen to Yeshua when Judas and the priests deemed Him worth only 30 shekels!) Then I snapped in two thy other staff Hovalim [bound together], in order to break up the brotherhood between Yudah and Israel. ADONAI said to me, “This time, take the equipment of a worthless shepherd. For I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who won’t bother about the ones who have been destroyed, won’t seek out the young, won’t heal the broken and won’t feed those standing still; on the contrary, he will eat the meat of the fat ones and break their hoofs in pieces [Speaking of the antichrist.] “Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the sheep! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye. May his arm be completely withered and his right eye totally blinded (2 Kings 11:14-17)

The antichrist is coming upon this earth and it is at the Hand of a Sovereign God who orchestrates history. Every single event in recorded history was in some fashion guided by God’s permissive hand. Evil men who plot evil schemes have been permitted to do so only as it serves to fulfill the prophetic purposes of God. The moral decline of the country, and other nations around the globe, loss of natural affection (caring about others as much as oneself), greed and every other vice are each indicative that the prophetic clock which is leading up to the end of the age has accelerated. In the hearts of all men is a blackness that is so vile, cold, conniving and deceptive that apart from the saving work of Yeshua, God’s miraculous intervention in the sinner’s heart, every person who was ever born would be remain an idolatrous pagan.

“The secular worldview holds that there is no god, and if it feels good do it.” “Climb the ladder even if you must compromise your integrity.” Men desire to be captains of their own lives and do not take kindly to the Sword of Truth which is able to discern the inmost thoughts of the heart. Men continue to reject the absolute right of a Sovereign Creator to dictate the lives of His creation. God has an absolute duty as a Holy, Just God to judge those who insist upon rejecting Him and the things of His kingdom in favor of the vain pursuit of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).

Many of the churches in America have been so infiltrated by satan, and the world system, that seminars on ‘growing your church’ often seem to take precedence over preaching. Unlike the first century church in which discipling believers to maturity, and then going forth into the community to “make disciples of all men”, the American churches today seem more inward-focused. Let’s consider the many thorns among the wheat.

A large portion of churches in this nation see nothing amiss in: holding membership in both Freemasonry and church, despite what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:18 - So what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons, and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! You can’t drink both the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons.

Like the corporate world, today’s pastors measure success by how large the church roll is rather than how many of their flock are born again in the Spirit of God and growing under the preaching of the Word. Seeking after bigger buildings, more programs, increasing entertainment and choices of worship music, expository preaching takes a back seat to the ‘felt needs’ of the church attendees. How very sad that people will die in their deception and the so-called pastor who befriended them did not care enough to tell them about the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Author and Finisher of our faith - Jesus Christ. Of living like the world, 1 Peter 4:3-4 says: For you have spent enough time already living the way the pagans want you to live - in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and forbidden idol worship. They think it strange that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, and so they heap insults upon you.

Try living distinct and separate from the world by not hanging out at the proverbial watercooler, and partake not in the coarse jokes or gossip. Do not stand by as a coworker, neighbor, friend or family member blasphemes God … you will not be popular. The FOX News channel will not ring you up to be featured on a show to hear how you ‘keep growin in it’. No, to stand on the Word, to remain on the narrow road with the blessed Savior requires one to forever veer off the broad way which formerly held sway. Just a few verses later 1 Peter 4:12-14 says, Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeals occuring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you. Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when His Shekinah is revealed. If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Shekinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you!

Another idolatrous practice common today is chanting, mantric prayer, contemplative prayer (which is babbling the same word over and over again); practicing the ’silence’ or emptying one’s mind to listen for the ‘divine within’. God forbids this very clearly in the word. Such practices are not Christian and end in death.

1 Corinthians 10:14 - Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry!

1 Timothy 6:20 - Oh, Timothy, keep safe what has been entrusted to you! Turn away from the ungodly babblings and argumentative opposition of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’. For many who promise this ‘knowledge’ have missed the mark, as far as the faith is concerned.

2 Timothy 2:16-17 - But keep away from godless babbling, for those who engage in it will only become more ungodly, and their teaching will eat away at people like gangrene.

Another reason America has fallen so far from the Lord is a pastor sees nothing wrong with holding membership in the Council on Foreign Relations. This group teaches that we are to make peace, improve the world and solve all it’s problems by working in tandem with other nations. There are some who promote a social gospel and these promote the idea that the mission of the church is to feed the poor, clothe the naked, which is partially true and has always been the good works God works in we who are His ambassadors; however, the Great Commission remains the mission of the Body of Christ. Yeshua assured us that hunger, poverty and war would remain part of the human condition until His Second Coming upon the clouds at the end of the Tribulation. As people of the Book, we are to expect persecution. Persecution has existed since Yeshua walked the earth and will remain until His return. Indeed, the enemies of God have declared open season on Christianity and Christians because of their hatred of Christ and love of sin.

It is heartwrenching to watch my nation turn to paganism and from ADONAI, and just yesterday while praying and crying I said to the Lord that I now realize how the Jews felt when they saw their nation dying. Nevertheless, as believers we can rejoice - if through tears - because the prophetic Word of God is coming to pass before our very eyes! The Jewish people are making Aliyah (return) to Israel currently in unbelief, but 1/3 of them that survive the Tribulation, or Time of Jacobs Trouble, will be mercifully granted of God national repentance as they see Yeshua returning to the Mount of Olives with His saints and holy angels. They will proclaim, “Baruch ha B’Shem Adonai” - Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord” as the spiritual blinders are removed and they recognize Yeshua for who He is … their long awaited Messiah. Israel is the only nation promised national repentance, every other person on earth must come to rebirth in Christ to have hope of eternity with Him.

The nations are coming against Israel in fulfillment of Zechariah 12:2, and America is heading the push for the division of Jerusalem. God has sent judgment each time in the form of weather disasters, fires, etc. There is no discernment among our leaders it seems and we are on course toward global governance as the recent proposed solution by the G20 for a global currency indicates. How can their be global currency if there is not a concurrent global government? May God have mercy on many souls as they seek to learn the Truth that is found only in Jesus Christ!