From The Archives - A Series; Part III

This was a more formal message I did for my Homiletics class I was in at Florida Baptist Theological College in Graceville, FL, back in April 1990.   This was more formal because it had to be done in stages and then presented in class after doing a homiletic study, creating the script, and then the delivery of the message, which was evaluated by my classmates. 

Anyway, here it is, my B-grade message, for your reading pleasure and spiritual edification.

Lovers of All and Respectors of None

(Acts 10:10-15, 34)

Did you ever wonder why the church is getting such a bad rap in a world that is getting worse every day?  Some Christians say the church has been weakened by demonic oppression; others say it's just laziness because of rampant worldliness in our churches.  Whatever the case, our modern church has suffered two major ills.  The first is that, due to prosperity and compromise with the world, we have lost our zeal for getting folks saved.  The second reason is that instead of evangelizing the masses, we choose to sit around and flap our gums off about theology and legalistic hogwash, causing division in the Body of Christ.  If you wil read Acts 10:10-15 with me, you will see that the Apostle St. Peter was in a similar mess, but in our key verse of Acts 10:34, we find out what the Lord says about this.  (I would ask you to read that verse aloud when you reach it, because the central truth is found there.)

Now, I will give you a brief overview of the situation at hand to present a Scriptural example.  Cornelius, a Roman centurian who lived in Caesarea Maritima, had been a dedicated proselyte of the Jewish faith for some time.  In a time of prayer, he sees a vision of an angel who assures him that God has indeed heard his prayers and was about to answer them.  In the process of doing this, God sends Cornelius to Peter in the city of Jaffa.  In the meantime, Peter has been praying also, and the Lord sent a great hunger upon him.  After he requests food, he all of a sudden falls into a deep trance and sees this vision of a great vessel with many clean and unclean critters on it.  A voice (the Lord's) commands him to kill and eat three times, but Peter, still thinking himself a Jew, refuses because of Jewish law.  Then, it comes.  Peter is promptly told that what GOD has cleansed is not to be called unclean.  In this vision, God is preparing Peter for a ministry to the Gentiles, and Cornelius was to be the "chosen first" as it were.  In short, He was telling Peter that the Church of Christ accepts all nations without regard to any humanistic barrier.  That is documented in our key passage, which records Peter's revelation of God's will for His Kingdom.

Even though I haven't gotten to the "nitty-gritty" of the matter yet, I think you will see what I'm talking about.  The Church today, for one thing, has gotten legalistic on us.  One of the most absurd things I have seen since I have been a part of the Body of Christ is this nonsense of reserved pews in churches, for one example.  Who does man think he is, anyway?  We are supposed to be Christ-like yet although Jesus loved all and respected none, as our key verse emphasizes, we play favorites.   We go out and try to "win the Trumps and trash the tramps."  A close example which - praise be to God! - was corrected before it got out of hand was the case of David Wilkerson.  In 1958, when an invalid by the name of Michael Farmer was murdered by severn members of a street gang, it appalled Wilkerson so much that he was shocked when the Holy Ghost laid a burden on his heart to help the murderers.  Like Peter, he disobeyed several times before doing the Spirit's will.  As a result of his obedience, one of the most dynamic witnesses to indigent youth was born in Teen Challenge.  This should prove something to us in that we are chosen sometimes to do things we don't like, yet obedience brings blessing.  If the Church would recognize that fact and start winning the lost to Christ, what a force we would be to reckon with.   Oh, how ignorant Satan wants us to be!

Now in addition to not having a concern for the lost because of our snotty carnality, we have another equally disturbing problem.  The problem is that we, as Christians, cannot even cooperate to win souls anyway.  I heard a song just recently about these uncooperative brethren, comparing them to concrete - thoroughly mixed up and too well-set.   As John Shirley (one of my classmates in this particular class who had previously spoken) said in his message the other day, there is a serious problem on our campus here with this.  Many students are walking out of fellowship with us because we gave them the "left foot of fellowship," that being we ostracized them because they use a different translation of the Bible, lean too far to one extreme, or come from the North instead of the South.  However, do they not believe the same fundamental doctrines all true?  Do they not have salvation by faith in the risen Savior as we do?   And most important of all, are we to judge a book by its cover, or rather obey the command in Luke 7:1?  Think about that, for believe it or not, we are all guilty of that sin of judgementalism in some way or another.  Peter was likewise, for when he saw the vision, he let his flesh rule instead of God's Spirit.   We cannot judge a book by its cover, for it is the words within we look at.  Likewise we don't measure a Christian by how "religious" he acts, but by the condition of his heart.  However, since only God knows that, then we should bite our tongues and shut up, for that person's spiritual condition is between him and the Lord, and is none of our business.

In closing, I perceive humanity, as consumed by the flesh, and our favoritism in church and between churches results from the flesh.  However, as God was not a respector of persons, then don't let us be.  If we are truly filled with the Spirit of God, we should see to it that our church be filled with harlots, drunks, orphans, hustlers, and the lowly, for the church is not a convalescent center for lazy Christians, but a haven for the have-nots and spiritually sick.  Also, the Body of Christ, as it says in Romans 12:4-5, is made up of many members.  When we bicker and fight with a bunch of theological hogwash, it is like a man cutting off his right arm with his left hand, and is just as painful.  So please, brethren in Christ, don't do this, for our voice is one of sanity to a hell-bent world ruled by that conniving snake of hell himself.   I'm weary of fighting, and I want to see love and fellowship.  God help us and grant us grace as we seek spiritual unity one unto another.  Amen.

From The Archives - A Series; Part II

The next message in this series was one that I gave in October 1989 at a small Baptist church in Powhatan Point, OH, called then the Taylor Street Mission.   The church met in an old store, and was a tiny congregation but they also were a good group

He Who Laughs First - Will He Also Laugh Last?

(II Peter 3:3-4, I Kings 19:14)

In our time we have seen a move from morality to immorality in everything from the music we listen to, even to the very food we eat. The desires of the flesh have led many a young person to think of Satan as some "good ol' boy" or of hell as a giant playground of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. As a matter of fact, Satan has deceived so many young people through such things as rock and roll that they are literally dying, of suicide, drug overdose, and the like. Furthermore, some have become so rebellious that they desecrate the Gospel by following their own lusts, and an ultimate act of doing so is their proclamation of rock stars and the latest teen heart-throbs and blonde bimbos as "gods". Elijah lamented in I Kings 19:14 that Israel had "torn down altars, forsaken His covenant, and killed the prophets." Does it not seem as if we are guilty of the same today? Just take a good look around you and see for yourself the exploitation of the sinful by prominent celebrities. What can we say or do?

Let us examine what God says in His word about this state of events. On the positive side, we do see a major fulfillment of Joel 2:28 in the form of the Charismatic Renewal, which many of us would refer to as the "Latter Rain." Praise God for it, for it is real, and it is happening today! A new wave of revival is being felt from the million-member congregation of Dr. Cho's in Korea to the little storefront Holiness missions of five or ten souls in our major cities. Though it may not be manifested in the world around us, God's Spirit is moving, and is getting a lot of resistance from Satan. Old Slewfoot knows his time is short, and you can bet a Florida lottery ticket on that if your convictions don't prohibit you. As a result of this fact, the devil is doing some overtime in order to get as much of this world as possible into his evil grip. It is a spiritual war and all humanity, no exceptions, is taking sides. With that piece of knowledge, you have an important question to ask yourself: whose side will you be on? God gives you a choice, and it is up to you to make it.  You don't have to follow our Lord and His free gift of salvation He offers you, but it is your loss if you choose not to.  You don't have to go to a church and serve Christ who came to earth to die for YOUR sins, but you'll die with them.  And you have the right to choose the kind of life you will lead, for there are two choices:  a broad path of destruction, and a narrow path of life.  No, this is not a quote from Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" but rather comes from the ONLY WAY to eternal life, Jesus.  So remember, you may scoff and scorn the ones who choose the right way, but remember in the end that you chose the path you're on, and you'll see who has the last laugh!  However, if you want to change your path now, it is not too late:  the privelege is yours to choose to change your road.   However, please do not tarry long in choosing, for time is very short.  God loves you, and wants you to spend eternity with HIM, but in order to do that, you must choose to receive His free gift of His Son, Jesus.  You can't go on the merits of Uncle Fred, the Baptist deacon, but you must enter into your own personal relationship with the living God.  So, if you want that last laugh of joy rather than being laughed at in contempt by hell's demons, then commit your life to Christ today and experience that joy and peace you can only have through Him, and will last eternally unlike the buzz of alcohol or the short span of a noisy rock concert.  He would not emphasize these things in His word so much if He did not want you to have them, and it is a greater fulfillment than any earthly pleasure can offer.  He is offering this all to YOU today, and please accept my petitions to you to receive Him.  Amen.

From The Archives - A Series; Part I

Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting some old messages I gave years ago that I pulled out of my "memory box."   These go back quite a ways, as they were from my early days as an itinerating minister with both the Baptist and Foursquare denominations.  Some of these will show how green around the gills I was, but I am presenting them unedited and as I originally presented the

The first one here dates back to 1988, during my junior year in high school, when I composed what was my first message for a contest the state Baptist Convention was having.  I never got the chance to actually enter the contest, but still composed the message regardless.  Being I was a new Christian and was newly called, you will see I am quoting some liberal theologians, such as Rienhold Niebuhr, because I didn't know any better.  Also, my 11th-grade English teacher, Mrs. Dawne Milne, graciously helped me edit the script for errors then.  So, without further elaboration, here is that message from 23 years back.

What Is a Commitment?

What is a commitment?   The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary lists it as a "gift in trust."  This would have to say then that our commitment to God is as a gift of our souls in trust to Him.  In using noted Protestant philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr's analysis of this, we see that only a vital Christian faith, renewed in prophetic origin, is capable of dealing with the moral and social problems of our age.  However, with the temptations that befall our weak souls, how would we do this?  Well, here is how.

You see, when you make a Christian commitment, you are surrendering yourself to Christ.   However, it goes a little further than this.  SInce you have now committed you life to Christ, you have a responsibility of committing yourself to furthering the kingdom of God.  In doing so, you must do as Matthew 28:19 tells us:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Most of us, however, take these commitments for granted.   We keep them in word, but do we practice them?  Or is it that we don't have the love we should feel in carrying out the commitment?  It is sort of like playing the clarinet or saxophone.  As you may know, both of these instruments are played by using a little sliver of wood called a reed, and without it, you will not get a sound.  If the reed wears down, the sound will not come out right.   With this in mind, what solution is inevitable?  Why, to get a new reed of course!

The point here is this:  if you replace the reed to renew the sound, you must renew the commitment God gave you in order to do the work Christ commissioned you to do.  A musician in a symphony orchestra, for example, has to keep his reed in good shape in order to play as the conductor expects him to.   If he cannot play with a worn reed, he is not going to do the orchestra any good because he is not producing anything.  Like the musician replaces his reed, so also must we renew the commitment.   We are not being productive in God's kingdom if we refuse to do so.

I now urge you to renew your commitment to the Lord today.  If you prove your commitment by living it, you will be inspired by it and will be an inspiration to others.  One must be living proof of his or her commitment to our Lord and Savior.

Terry Jones, Burning the Koran, and the Scandal of Today's Christianity

This is the Lenten season as I write, and I had planned on doing some lessons regarding the Stations of the Cross and other Lenten devotions practiced by both the Eastern and Western branches of the Church.  However, a lot has been on my mind concerning a current issue, and felt that it was something important that needed to be addressed.  This issue has hackles raised on both sides of it, and a lot of slander and misinformation (even sadly from other Christians, as I will elaborate on) has been bandied about that I frankly find disturbing, as it distorts facts.  However, as I intend to show here, this isn't the first time that the professing Christian community in this nation - particularly American Evangelicals in recent years - has been guilty of the stupidity I am about to expose, and unfortunately the Bible prophesied centuries ago that it would not be the last.  Therefore, that being said, let us begin.

Terry Jones is an independent Pentecostal minister who pastors the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL, and up until a couple of years ago no one gave a hoot about who he was; that is, until he started making a needed but unpopular stand against radical Islam.   All because he wanted to burn a book - the Koran, a demonic book but just a book nonetheless - in order to break what he was shown by the Holy Spirit to be demonic bondage over billions of lost Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere, he began catching a firestorm of criticism, beginning with his proclamation of a "Burn a Koran Day" in September 2010.   For a few months all was quiet until he symbolically burned a Koran on his own property, which of course the Constitution gave him full freedom to do as an expression of opinion/conviction.   Whether people agree with what Terry Jones did or not is not the issue - fact is, all he did was burn a book, and the secularists and fellow Christians should have just let it go if they didn't agree with it.  However, coincidentally, a family of Americans was massacred by Muslim nuts at around the same time Jones burned the Koran, and now for some reason a gullible American public has pinned this all on him, and in the eyes of many ignorant idiots (forgive the tone, but it upsets me) he is more guilty of murder than the Islamic psychos that actually committed the atrocity.  If you are one of those stupid enough to believe Terry Jones was responsible for those tragic deaths (and my condolences and prayers are with the families of those dear people who were mercilessly slaughtered by the Islamic kooks, as their deaths were totally unnecessary), then I have some prime Brooklyn real estate to sell you and will throw in some green cheese from the moon - if you buy into that lie, you are ignorant of Islamic history and the whole situation.

What really burnt my biscuits though was that a professed Christian radio personality, Janet Parshall on the Moody Network, had the audacity to come out and condemn Jones and more or less asked the question "what does burning a Koran profit the kingdom, and who does it reach?"   That was on Friday's radio broadcast of her program we were listening to when traveling home from work, and it made me so upset that I shot her a letter about it.   However, she raised an interesting question that basically shot her own argument in the foot, and that is what I want to talk about here today - what do a lot of things American Christianity engages in profit the Kingdom??  And, that is what we are going to talk about now, because American Christianity - in particular Evangelicalism in the past 30 years - has become so complacent, so lazy, and so compromising that it has created a scandal, one that a few years ago was the subject of a whole book by author Mark Noll called The Scandal of The Evangelical Mind.   From Rick Warren books, to megachurches, to "Christian shopping malls," to televangelists kissing the backside of the Communist regime in China, to the Emerging Church Movement, to "Contemporary Christian Music," etc., etc.,...on and on I could go with the list of things I feel are little profit to the proclamation of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.   Yet, you never hear Parshall, Rick Warren, Pat Robertson, and others saying anything about the futility of those dead works and "traditions of men," do you??  Well, they may be too gutless to attack it, but I am a voice for truth and intend to use that voice to proclaim an unadulterated truth - other voices are out there too, and I believe Terry Jones is one of those voices, which I will get into shortly.  However, a little Bible is necessary at this point, and let's do some teaching.

Being yesterday was Sunday, our Gospel reading at Mass came from St. John 8:46-59, and when our priest read from the Gospel in this passage, a chord was struck that related to this whole discussion noted above.   In the passage, Jesus was preaching to a multitude of Jews, and the one thing He said to them that drives the point under discussion home is this:  "He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear not, because ye are not of God."   That of course did not sit well with His audience, who believed themselves to be somehow endowed with God's great favor or something as observant Jews, yet Jesus shot them down.   So, the Jews He was addressing said He was crazy, possessed with devils, and all other manner of slander, but His reply was simple toward the end of the passage - "Before Abraham was, I AM!"  There are many today, "religious" people, who act like these Jews Jesus was addressing, and as a result, many of them would not know a true move of God if it hit them upside the head with a brick!  Reason is this - James 4:4 describes these people to a tee when it talks about them being friends of the world and enemies of God, because they are enamoured with the pleasures of the world and they are comfortable in the wrong way.  Of course, they have a leadership in their churches that, unfortunately, seeks flattery and riches and will do anything to get it, and a perverse generation of "baptized pagans" fills these churches.  These pastors think that because they have a lot of butts in the pews and bucks in the plate that they are somehow "anointed of God" with what they do, but there is a rude newsflash for them - most of the people they are "ministering" to are aptly described in 2 Timothy 3:2 (lovers of themselves, lovers of money, etc.), 3:5 (having a form of godliness but not the power thereof - they are "religious" but not redeemed, in other words), I Timothy 2:4 (many depart from sound doctrine and genuine faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, and 2 Timothy 4:3, having "itching ears" and heaping unto themselves teachers - televangelists and "Christian" bestsellers - that don't preach or tolerate sound doctrines), and finally they are the church described in 3:14-17 - a complacent Laodicean Church that is choked by its own riches and too entrenched in its own comfort zones to take a stand for anything that exalts Christ.   That is the state of today's Church in America, both Evangelical and Catholic, and it is scary what has happened over just the past 20 years to much of American Christianity.  And, that is the reason why people like Terry Jones and others who do have the boldness to discern God's spirit bother the average pew-potato in the average American Evangelical church - I believe Jones convicts these people, who rely on their own wisdom and have waxed so cold in their own faith that they don't hear the voice of God anymore.   However, this is nothing new, as worldly Christians have always sought to hinder the voice of the faithful because the latter rock their world and shake them out of their comfort zones.   That being said, let me cite a couple of examples of this over the past century, when Evangelicalism started to become institutionalized and thought it was "God's gift to humanity."

I grew up in the Appalachians, as a blessed native of the great state of West Virginia.  As a result, personally much of the modern stuff that has gone on in the typical Evangelical church over the span of my own Christian pilgrimage has had little impression on me - to me, much of it is fluff and stupidity.   Part of the reason for that is that I have seen Christians as they should be, and the home-grown churches of my native Appalachian Mountains still preserve that.  Appalachian Christians - be they Old-Time Baptists, traditional mountain Holiness-Pentecostals, or the Old-Order Dunkards like my maternal ancestors belonged to - have a spirituality that is deeply personal, full of conviction, and as real as religion can get.   Yet, over the decades many of the big players in the Evangelical movement have belittled our people, called us "backward" and "bigoted," and they have felt the need to "civilize" us as they seen us a bunch of goofy hillbilly barbarians or something.   As a matter of fact, the eminent Appalachian scholar Dr. Loyal Jones, in his book Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999) notes on page 4 that it was basically these Evangelical missionaries that fostered many of the negative stereotypes of Appalachian people which still dominate popular culture today.  He also notes the mentality of these "missionaries" about the people having to be saved from themselves, and thus "evangelized and civilized."  Thank God our people were a strong-willed people, and we were able, even unto this day, resist these stuck-up elitists who try to profane Christ's name by slandering others - what profit to the Gospel was that, I ask Janet Parshall and others who still represent this establishment today.  Although charitable in language, I have personally talked with Dr. Jones, and his disdain at the way these snobs treated our people have prompted him to call them "agents of uplift" rather than true Gospel missionaries.  Another very astute Appalachian scholar, Deborah Vansau McCauley, in her quintessential Appalachian religious reference book (which I highly recommend, I must add!) Appalachian Mountain Religion - A History (Chicago:  University of Illinois Press, 1995) notes the following on page 17:

Rather than risk confronting these doubts (of its own identity), American Protestantism made mountain religion the target of its disdain, pity, wrath - all based on a fear bordering on dread.  American Protestantism's questions about mountain people were never "what lessons do they teach us about ourselves?  If they are holding a mirror of our past selves, what does our reflection in that mirror - and how we look through their eyes - tell us about what we have become?"  Instead, American Protestantism's questions were always "How did they go wrong?" and "How can we save them from themselves?"  reflecting not only hubris but anxiety.  One of the most urgent and effective ways of saving mountain people from themselves was to save them from their religion. 

Note that quote from McCauley's excellent book - they (let's read the current-day, mainstream Evangelical establishment, as they are very guilty of this mindset) seem to think they are God's gift to humanity, and all other Christian traditions are somehow "wrong" and therefore the people in the "competing" churches must be "saved from themselves."  They have been doing this for decades with Catholic immigrants, American Blacks, and one other group of Christians that shocked me - the Amish.  That is the second example I want to talk about here.

Back when I was in college at Southeastern in Florida, our Missions class often had these guest speakers, many of whom were missionaries called to this group or that one.   And, some crazies came across our paths, in particular one Pennsylvania-based Assemblies of God missionary who proclaimed proudly that God had called him to be a "Missionary to the Amish and Mennonites" in Mexico!!  Like I said, my folks came from a closely-related Christian tradition called the Dunkard Brethren, and I took issue with that, confronting this "missionary" in class very forcefully.  I had to remind this fool that if it wasn't for the Amish and Mennonites, there would be no Baptists and Pentecostals, because about 60% of the doctrines of the latter come from the former!  Yet, as Romans 1:22 says, professing wisdom, the man became a fool - sadly there are more like him.   However, I began to find it very interesting that these same Evangelical fools, so bent on converting people who are Christians to their less-than-holy brand of Americanized cookie-cutter Evangelicalism, seem to pander more non-Christian religions and even bend over backwards to cater to their demands, as Janet Parshall did in her attack on Terry Jones.  The Evangelical venom-spewing at Pastor Jones was one example, but a friend of mine in Texas shared with me recently a much more disturbing example of this that came up recently in Christianity Today magazine.

In the February 2011 issue of the magazine, there was an article entitled "The Son and the Crescent" in which the author, Colin Hansen, expressed support and enthusiasm at altering Scripture to make it more appealing to Muslims.  Hansen says that the title for Jesus, Son of God, is offensive to Muslims and must be changed to read "the beloved son who comes from Allah."  Like so many ignorant Evangelicals who don't know how to research history, Hansen seems to labor under the delusion that "Allah" and the God of the Bible are the same thing, and they are not!  Any Arab - and I quote anointed Palestinian Arab evangelist Anis Shorrosh, who points out in his book Islam Revealed that "allah" is not the Arabic name for God, but rather the Semitic "El" or "Alho" is - who has come to a saving knowledge of Christ knows the difference in these terms, but ignorant Americans, who in their arrogance think they know everything,  do not.   Also, I caution these "missionaries" who do this - the Bible pronounces a curse on people like you who alter - adding to and taking from - the Word of God; it says in Revelation 22:18 that the one who commits this act of blasphemy of God's Holy Word is in danger of God's judgement, and their very salvation is in peril (see verse 19).   That being said, it's time to tie all this together.

I personally find it appalling that professed Christians are so worked up in a lather over Terry Jones burning a demonic book like the Koran, yet they seem to have no problems fiddling with the true Word of God, despite warnings to the contrary of doing that.   Our church leaders have become so obsessed with kissing butt with the enemy in the name of "witnessing God's love" that they are blinded to who the true servants of God are, and it is a true scandal.   And, they seek to force other Christians who differ from them - Catholics, Appalachian churches, the Amish - to conform to their cookie-cutter mold, yet they bend over backwards to appease and accomodate Islam, and not only that, but through the Emerging Church movement and Rick Warren books, they have integrated unholy rock music and New Age spirituality into many of their churches.   Johanna Michaelson, a very godly lady who at one time was involved in the New Age occultism but found the Lord and now ministers to educate people about the dangers of New Ageism, wrote in her 1982 book The Beautiful Side of Evil (Eugene, OR:  Harvest House Publishers) the following on page 169 which accurately states what has happened, almost prophetically:

It is from the very pulpits of our nation that the truth and power of the Word of God has been stripped naked, leaving the flock with a pathetic milk-sop caricature of Jesus.  They have been left "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..."(II Timothy 3:5).  And we are then amazed because our children turn to drugs, cults, and the occult to fill  the vacuum in their lives.

Although Johanna wrote that almost 30 years ago, and it wasn't nothing like it is now, what she said is such a stark reality.  Josh McDowell, in 2006, penned another book called The Last Christian Generation in which he documented that maybe upward of 60% of professing Evangelical church kids don't even believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and judging by the rather accomodationist, fad-crazy "church" in America today, I can see why - I wouldn't want to believe in the weird picture of "Jesus" these people paint either!!  Thanks be to God though I have met the real Jesus of the Bible, and for almost 30 years now I have walked the pilgrim path.   But, I am sick to my stomach at what professing Christians are doing today -the worldliness, compromise, and other garbage is appalling.  That is why I stand behind what Terry Jones is doing, because he hears the voice of the Holy Spirit, and there is a reason God directed him to burn that book - burning a demonic object, while pleading the blood of Jesus over you or the person bound by it, is an act of deliverance, and when Pastor Jones burnt that Koran, he was binding up an evil spirit over people God wanted to touch in the Islamic world.  As a result of that and other prayers of the faithful, many Muslims are now encountering Jesus in visions - these are people, mind you, who have never met nor seen a Christian, and many of them are in North Africa now (that is a whole other story in itself) - and are accepting Him as their Savior.  Many are in fear of their lives - I know of a Berber girl in Algeria that I and an Assyrian Christian friend of mine corresponded with on Facebook who is one of them - and cannot openly profess their faith in Jesus as their Savior, but that number could be even in the thousands!  So, to answer Mrs. Parshall's question about what burning a book profits the Gospel, it does more than you know, sister!!  Remember, I Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the "wise" (read "wise" in a Romans 3:22 context, BTW!), and although burning a book seems foolish, in God's eyes he can use that to reach people in a miraculous way, just like he also has used my Holiness serpent-handling pastor friend Jimmy Morrow in Tennessee to reach people he doesn't even realize.   That being said, I challenge you to think on these things, and maybe repent of your own arrogance and self-righteousness if you are one of those "churchy" Evangelicals who likes to compromise with the world and attack other Christians who may not follow your Wheaton, IL, party line (give me a tiny church in Middlesboro, KY, over the haughty Wheaton campus anyday, for more of God is to be found in the former I have seen from experience.).  As for the rest of you, God bless you and your taking time to read this, and will see you next time.

Some Thoughts on the Emerging Church Movement

I am taking a detour from teaching about the various prayers and creeds of the Church in order to address something that I have talked a lot about in my writings but have not really addressed in-depth like I should.  When I mention some of these issues, such as the "emerging church" movement, some of my readers scratch their heads and wonder "what on earth is he talking about??"  So, if you are one of those people, this is an aid to help you.  For the rest of you, consider this a resource and a tool to sharpen your spiritual discernment, because it is needed in this day and age.

I recently got in the mail a copy of my college's alumni newsletter, and it was a catalyst for me writing this today.  The college I graduated from back in 1996 in Florida is an institution affilliated with the Assemblies of God, and has recently celebrated its 75th year of existence.  Although in times past the college was a paragon of classical Pentecostal teaching and spirituality, in recent years it has gotten involved in some things - many of the same things affecting other Evangelical and Pentecostal denominations like a nasty cancer - that I frankly have concerns about.  For one thing, the college has basically given a carte-blanche blessing of Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven" philosophy, and it has also begun to be closely identified with some figures in a similar and overlapping movement called the "Emerging Church."  Case in point, in the recent alumni magazine, my alma mater bestowed an honorary doctorate on one of the most vocal and prominent of the "Emerging Church" leaders, a California-based teacher by the name of Erwin McManus (more about him later on).  A couple of decades back this would have been inconceivable, and thus it raises some serious theological and spiritual concerns for those of us better grounded in our faith as Christians.   That is why a teaching like I am about to give here is necessary, but at the same time I know it is going to raise some hackles, as movements like this have a strong, well-funded and pervasive influence in American Christianity.  
Therefore, let us begin with some things that will be frightening, as they give evidence to the New Age and occultic/mystical influences found in much of this stuff that sells a lot of copy in religious bookstores. 

Johanna Michaelson is a very sincere woman of God who was at one time involved in the occult until Jesus saved her from it, and since then she has had a powerful ministry exposing the occult and its influences and also has a powerful sense of discernment.  I have gotten to actually talk to Johanna on my Facebook page, as she is on there quite often, and she has expressed similar concerns regarding Rick Warren, this whole "emerging church" business, and other such faddish cancers on today's Body of Christ.  In her 1989 book Lambs to the Slaughter (Eugene, Oregon:  Harvest House Publishers) Johanna makes a very ominous statement that today carries even more relevence in lieu of these trends in American Christianity, and what she said over 20 years ago has proven to be frighteningly prophetic:

In personal interviews with witches I have been told that their covens have "laughed themselves silly" at how the Church has so wholeheartedly adopted their occult techniques, thinking that as long as they tagged "Jesus" at the end of them that they were perfectly okay.  In my own earlier days I used extensive guided imagery/visualization techniques for developing psychic powers and mediumship.  Some of the techniques I learned through Silva Mind Control, some through the practice of hatha and Raja Yoga, and some were given to me by the medium with whom I worked for 14 months.   It was a colossal shock to me to discover that virtually the same techniques I had practiced as an occultist were being used in the Church!  (Michaelson, p. 110)

That was over 20 years ago too!  A recent author, Warren Smith, whose two books Deceived on Purpose and A Wonderful Deception were written years later, was also a former New Ager who came to Christ and was horrified to find that there was so much New Age influence in a lot of the Rick Warren stuff and definitely in the "Emerging Church" movement (both, interesting enough, al a Robert Schuller - THAT'S a big surprise; NOT!).  I will be talking more about his observations later, as I have given his two books a thorough reading in anticipation of this study and have copious notes from his books to use.  Point being, former New Agers who are born again through the Blood of Jesus have the discernment to see these things, and what they see are not pleasant images.  Also, all of them have expressed that this seems to be a growing trend, taking over much of the Church as we know it, and thus an alarm must be sounded. However, how did it get that way?  Pentecostal evangelist Perry Stone, in his book Nightmare Along Pennsylvania Avenue (Lake Mary, FL:  Front Line, 2010) notes something interesting as he talks about the inroads of secularism among American youth, noting how it has affected the Church too:

The full gospel churches (older Pentecostal groups) were once considered a backwoods cult for their stand against sin and worldliness.  Eventually they grew and prospered, attracting a more prosperous crowd that provided more tithes and offerings to move from the other side of the tracks to the more upscale sections of town.  Often individuals without strong Christian backgrounds pulled the others into a lifestyle of drinking alcohol, partying, and drunkenness. (Stone, p. 52).

I agree with Perry in that it seems like riches often corrupt our spirituality, and often the twinkly gleam of the "good life" makes us put God on a back burner, and as a result true discipleship suffers.  That in turn breeds other mindsets that maybe certain things - rock music, shacking up, abortion, etc. - are "not so bad," and that perhaps all that talk about sin and repentance, well, it doesn't draw the crowds.  So, we have to compromise the Gospel in order to "preach" the Gospel (?).  And, that is ultimately the mindset out of which Rick Warren, James Rutz, Bill Hybels, and the whole "Seeker Church" and "Emerging Church" movements evolved out of.  Its roots go back decades though, but for some reason it exploded starting in the latter part of the 1990's.   As a result, teachings about the dangers of the New Age and the occult and their dangers, as well as the evils of things such as rock music and its corrosive influence, were no longer heard - pastors became strangely silent on these things.  In my notes, I see that Warren Smith, in his book Deceived on Purpose, elaborates further on what Perry said when he cites on page 17 two primary reasons he believes pastors were suddenly quiet about the New Age and other things:

1.  Obsession with church growth (butts in the pews, bucks in the bank - that is my additional thought!)
2.  Spiritual fads touted as "latest move of God." (Rick Warren is granted now almost prophetic status by some of these pastors)

My personal conclusion I drew from reading Smith's theory on this is that Satan has caused numerical growth, financial prosperity, and  so-called "latest moves of God" to distract the Church from his plans as he begins to prepare people to receive his "messiah," the Beast or Antichrist of Scripture.  Johanna Michaelson was talking earlier how occultic visualization practices have been introduced into the churches, and Smith some 20 years later elaborates upon that by noting that Rick Warren and others owe their inspiration to Robert Schuller, a "minister" who sounds more like a New Thought guru than he does a Christian clergyman.  Of course, Schuller was influenced by another by the name of Norman Vincent Peale, and Peale borrowed heavily from an occultist named Florence Shinn, whose works he was said to have plagiarized (see Warren Smith, A Wonderful Deception, pages 39-50 for more information on that), as well as giving full endorsement of Ernest Holmes, the founder of the Religious Science Church, and his New Thought classic Science of Mind (interestingly, Schuller had a copy of that very book in his desk drawer, and willingly shared it with a couple of Religious Science clergy who visited him - see Deceived on Purpose, pages 101-102, for more on that).  Schuller of course has thankfully always been suspect by strong Christians, as his teachings are just too bizarre and unbiblical, something a devout believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit and well-read in the Word of God has no problem seeing.   However, his legacy is not carried on by his son Robert Jr., but rather in the legacy of two other figures - one is Rick Warren, who is the structural architect, and the other is Joel Osteen, who is the "pretty face" of the Schuller disease to today's public.  Osteen, although influenced more by the charismatic Word/Faith movement (which, via its "father" Esseck William Kenyon, also has a connection to New Thought philosophy) has a message that is nonetheless in line with Schuller's "Positive Christianity" in that Osteen (who a high school friend of mine nicknamed "The Purpose-Driven Grin" incidentally for obvious reasons) talks about all this self-love nonsense - hugging yourself in the mirror and saying "I love me" and all that garbage.  Any rate, the Warren/Schuller connection is small potatoes though compared to the "Emerging Church" movement and its vision to redefine Christianity.

In my estimation, the "Emerging Church" movement and Rick Warren's teachings are basically the same thing, but with one important difference - whereas Warren is a bit of a maverick and rebel who wants to "contemporize" the Church, The Emerging crowd is much more subtle.   What is called the "Emerging Church" started to take shape at the beginning of the 21st century, when a group of people - many of them neo-Evangelicals and charismatics of some stripe or another - began to, in their "infinite wisdom", "discover" that church as usual was not working. So, they had the mentality to "deconstruct" Christianity as it is and rebuild it in such a way that it would relate to contemporary culture.  Oddly, a movement I was part of at one time, the Convergence Movement, actually had some overlap in this to a degree, although the Convergence Movement was actually more Biblical and sought to reconnect with Apostolic Christianity rather than "deconstruction." Many Convergence people today are still on-fire Christians who stand for Biblical truth, and will have nothing to do with some of the things that are part of the "Emerging Church."  However, some of the terminology did get fuzzy in the early days between the two movements - for instance, many Convergence proponents (myself included until I learned better) touted Emerging Church guru Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, as a great resource.  However, Foster it must be noted is an Emerging Church pioneer, and although supposedly an Evangelical Quaker minister Foster nonetheless consults mystics and other esoteric personalities such as Madame Guyon, Henri Nouwen, and Bede Griffiths, for wisdom and insight.  He is also a proponent of the so-called "Contemplative Prayer" movement, which uses such things as Enneagrams and the practice of "tracing the Labyrynth" (a circular maze that one "walks" with a small stick in meditation that is eerily similar to the New Age mandala devotions) as well as controlled breathing and other quasi-yogic practices (there are now also, speaking of which, practitioners of "Christian Yoga" nowadays, including a guy on the internet who developed some thing he calls "Maranatha Yoga.").  The deception in these practices - especially for those of us who have embraced a liturgical/Catholic Christianity - is that they are often taught as "traditions" of the historic Church, which I can assure you they are not!!  As a matter of fact, the Church condemns some of these things for what they are - thinly-veiled occultism.   A deaconness in our Church, Sister Bridget (Susan Stanley), wrote a two part article concerning this issue that is one of the best and most well-written on the subject entitled "The Monastic Call and the Problem of the New Age," and it is available for reading at www.orderofdesertcompanions.org/monasticcall.html.  I want to quote something Sr. Bridget said from her article that fits well with this teaching:

The monastic realm is especially vulnerable in our time. There has been a very strong new age influence in many Orders, and also in contemporary writings on the subject, with many classic writings of the Saints and monastic writers being reinterpreted and republished with a new age slant and commentary added. It is best to seek out the original writings of the Saints and early fathers of the church that are free from added influence

She is right - you have to be careful with reading some "translations" of Church Fathers' writings, as they can be tainted with a universalistic or neo-Gnostic slant by some Emerging Church proponent or outright New Ager (a whole New Age movement, the Liberal Catholic Church, has been doing this for years, as well as the movement of a renegade heretical bishop in Nebraska by the name of Mar Joseph Narsai, who is a closet Theosophist for all intent - the Liberal Catholic Church also has roots in Theosophy as well, being many of its early clergy were disciples of Alice Bailey and followed Helena Blavatsky's teachings.  Liberal Catholics are still around today, although hard to find, and they still have their poison out there in the independent Catholic movement for the unsuspecting, so be careful!).  And, the same is true now among Evangelicals, something I never dreamed I would see happening - Rick Warren, for instance, relies heavily on a bad paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, authored by Emerging Church proponent Eugene Peterson.  Peterson's "Message" is filled with cryptic New Age terminology, notably in the Lord's Prayer and elsewhere with the terms "as above, so below," used by New Agers and occultists regarding a panentheistic concept they have that God is all, and all is God.  And, talking now about Erwin McManus, whom I mentioned earlier - McManus is a Baptist minister and Emerging Church leader who uses another New Age term - "force" - very liberally in his writings.  He talks a lot about "the God within," a foreign concept to Christians as he means it, but sounding so "Christian" that it is being swallowed hook, line, and sinker by millions who are making him rich by buying his books.  This terminology also goes back to Schuller again. 
More could be said on all this, but I would end up writing a book myself!  However, when visiting "Christian" bookstores, there are some authors you need to be aware of and avoid like the plague, because they are "Emerging Church" proponents and their teachings are potentially hazardous - a partial list of these people includes Richard Foster, Bede Griffiths, Thomas Merton, Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, Ken Blanchard, and a former classmate of mine from college by the name of Tom Kyllonen, among others.  These people are false prophets, and they along with more higher-profile people such as Rick Warren, Tommy Barnett, Ed Young Jr., and Joel Osteen, should be avoided by the Remnant of faith like the plague.    Now, let me also do a little teaching from the Word of God about this.

In Matthew 24, a number of warnings are given by the Lord about the coming deception that will shake the Church, and He gives us several signs to look out for:

1.  Deceptive uses of Christ's name (24:5)
2.  False prophets (24:11)
3.  False signs and wonders (24:24)
4.  The appearance of the Antichrist

The deceptive use of Christ's name - more so that saying the "GD" word, this is the ultimate taking of the Lord's name in vain (note my earlier article on that subject).  There are many today who have "the form of godliness but not the power thereof (II Timothy 3:5)," and they deceive many.  They sell a lot of books, and they have big churches and draw as many people to their shows as do the latest musical acts, but what they offer is deception.   1 Timothy 4:1-2 describes this to a tee - in latter times, it says, many will depart from the faith giving heed to lying devils and demonic doctrines, and they will be led by those who speak lies in hypocrisy.  Moving over to 2 Timothy 3:5, it says such people have what appears to be godliness, but they don't have the power to back it up - in short, they are deceivers and charlatans.  Going over to 4:3, it says that people will have "itchy ears," and although sound doctrine offends them (sounds like the "Seeker church," doesn't it?) they will listen to almost everything else that comes down the pike and will listen to all sorts of bizarre people teaching wacky things because they "look good" or some other dumb reason.  It is talking of course not about the unbelievers, but about those in the Church who will in time apostasize from the faith.   However, its influence can be felt - the other day at work for instance, I listened to a group of women at a table across from me extolling Joel Osteen's virtues because he was, in their words, "nonjudgemental" and because he had supposedly unofficially 'blessed" gay rock star Elton John's new child he and his "wife" adopted.  What I heard made me sick, and they measured his success by the size of his church!!  Unbelievers are thinking big churches mean something!  However, they are deceived, because many tares sit in the wheatfields, and some fields are more tares than wheat these days, in particular bigger fields!  We as true Christians must be grounded in the Word of God, because this deception is widespread.  Remember, only a couple of chapters separate Laodicea, the lukewarm church of Revelation 3:14-22 which many prophecy students see as a picture of today's Christianity, and the "Mystery Babylon" cult of the Antichrist described in Revelation 17.  On the clock, the gap is smaller than 14 chapters of Bible though, and as Smith points out on page 147 of his book, Warren and others that ignore the signs of Christ's return (prophecy, according to Rick Warren, is "none of our business," which places him with the scoffers it talks about in Scripture rising in the end times) are failing to discern the deception taking place and could one day be some of the False Prophet's clergy heralding the virtues of the Antichrist.     As a result, there are ten concerns I want to copy here from Warren Smith's A Wonderful Deception from pages 15-30 that we must be attentive to concerning many false teachers today:

1.  Warren, McManus, Schuller and others liberally cite New Age leaders such as Bernie Siegel in their writings and spoken appearances
2.  Warren sends a confusing New Age-flavored message he derived from Schuller's influence that "God is in everything."
3.  Rick Warren's dependence upon Eugene Peterson's The Message.
4.  The "Purpose-Driven Life's" ignorance and distortion of Bible prophecy
5.  Rick Warren's consorting with New Age/neopagan philanthropists such as John Marks Templeton.
6.  The Robert Schuller factor
7.  The "New Reformation" and "God's Dream" concepts and their eerie resemblance to Alice Bailey's utopian Theosophist visions.
8.  The New Age movement's embrace of Robert Schuller
9.  Implications of Robert Schuller's influence on both Warren and many in the "Emerging Church" movement.
10.  Serious concern - the deception of countless millions by such people.

Similar concerns could also be raised about a number of televangelists, especially those who follow the Word/Faith movement, which has similar New Thought influences al a E.W. Kenyon.  Kenyon, Peale, and countless others from ages past were tares of heresy and apostasy planted in a fertile wheatfield that originally was birthed of God in revival.   As the tares gained ground, they spread, and eventually their work of destroying the witness of true Christianity was extensive, and today its influence can be really felt.  Other factors tie into this as well - the rise of "Contemporary Christian Music" is a good example - and they are a sign that a prophesied apostasy of the Gentiles is upon us.  However grim this subject matter was though, it must be remembered that these signs mean our redemption is nigh, for the Lord will come in glory one day to claim His Bride and defeat the works of the enemy.  Also, a positive sign is the movement among Jews coming to Christ in recent years, recognizing Him as their Messiah - they are the future of the Church, folks, and surprisingly both the Messianic Jewish and Hebrew Catholic movements thankfully have been largely untainted by the fads happening in much of today's American Christianity.   And, I feel that is a sign that God has His hedge of protection over His people.  I have talked about that in the past, so will not elaborate on that now, but that too is a prophetic sign.

I also hope that this article will be educational to you, because there are many things out there today masquerading as "Christian" but they are evil and occultic - do not have anything to do with them, please!  And, no doubt, I may offend some, but that is okay - the truth must be told and sometimes opposition is a consequence of standing for the truth.  God bless you all until next time.

Israel - a Two-State Solution IS Plausible (But Not What You May Expect!)

Many of you who have read these articles or know me personally know that I have been at an impasse for some time in regard to the Israel/Palestinian issue.  On one hand, I know what the Bible says about the restoration of Israel, and on the other hand I also know that some Palestinians are actually my Christian brethren with deep roots in the region.  I have butted heads with people - including many Eastern Christians, which honestly bothers me - and have wrestled with the issue myself on many occasions, praying for an answer.  In recent days my prayers may have been answered, thanks in part to a program we were listening to on the road while coming home from work one night a couple of weeks back.   The program, In the Marketplace With Janet Parschal, is broadcast on Moody Radio and I have enjoyed listening to it because she really stimulates your mind with the in-depth discussion she presents.  On that particular program, she had this guest (for the life of me, I cannot remember the guy's name!) who was discussing the Israel/Palestine issue, and what he said was revolutionary - God's plan, at least for now, may actually include two states!  I could just about imagine many of my prophecy-student friends gasping in horror, while some of my Eastern Christian friends would be having a smug "I told you so!" expression on their faces.  However, as I reflect upon it, I have a huge sigh of relief, because it really brings a peace to this situation that allows me to discuss it freely with friends I have on both sides of this issue.  Of course, what I am about to say will probably make some mad, but that is OK - compared to the mental anguish I have had over the years trying to reconcile all of the ill-fitting pieces of the puzzle, it is worth getting a couple of over-zealous nuts p.o'ed at me.  So, that being said, here we go.

My studies have been taking me into some other interesting directions as well, for I have learned that a major problem has caused all this to begin with - Islam, and the subsequent scourge of Arabization.  Much like the Borg on the Star Trek series, Arab Islam has literally wiped out the identities of millions of people worldwide, in essence Arabizing them at the expense of their God-given individualities.  Yet, it seems weird that all of these people could be "Arabs' when there weren't really that many Arabs to begin with.  There have been signs of hope though - many North African nations are eschewing Arabism for their true Amazigh (Berber) roots (the Berbers, as you know, were also a people with a great Christian legacy, as it was their nation that produced such spiritual giants as Tertullian, St. Augustine, and others).  Also, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the Assyrians and Chaldeans of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, as well as the Maronite-Aramaic people of Lebanon, have hung on tenaciously to their heritage despite the onslaught of often-brutal Arab nationalist and radical Islamic onslaughts (although they appear to be opposite, Pan-Arabism and radical Islam in reality feed off of each other).  Even among the Palestinians, there is a movement (mainly among the Christian communities in their midst) in which many Palestinians are redefining their identities not as Arabs but rather as Canaanites, Moabites, and Edomites (there is truth in that also, by the way, but that is a whole other discussion).  In short, Pan-Arabism is failing, thanks be to God, as people start discovering who they truly are, and I predict that if the Lord tarries there will be a cultural renaissance among these people, and I would support and welcome that.  That being said, let us now talk about one group in particular, neither Arab nor Muslim, but with strong ancient and Biblical roots as part of the Chosen People.

Many students of Bible prophecy often overlook something very significant - they understand that Israel as a nation is supposed to be restored, but the problem is they are missing something in the equation.  And although I have been accused of being a "Christian Zionist" by many, I think what I am about to say will blow that accusation away quickly.   I remember also that Fr. Elias Friedman, a Hebrew Catholic Carmelite priest, wrote in his 1987 book Jewish Identity on this subject when he said a problem with modern support of Israel is not its existence, but rather its completeness - think about that a moment, will you?  The Bible's promises to Israel which the Church affirms strongly must be to all twelve tribes, yet modern Jewry only encompasses two - even the 55 million or so of us in the world who are of the Anusim are only from two tribes, Benjamin and Judah!  So, where are the other ten tribes??  That is where we are going with this, so brace yourself for some revelation knowledge, folks!!

As we read in I Kings 12, after Solomon's death there was a division in the kingdom of Israel, and what resulted were the kingdoms of Judah and Israel - Judah and Benjamin were the kingdom of Judah, while the other 10 tribes became the kingdom of Israel.  After many years - and a lot of BAD leadership! - the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in the year 722 BC, as recorded in 2 Kings 17:24-41.  What happened next was that the Assyrian king Sargon II who sacked Samaria, the capital of Israel, settled ethnic Assyrians in the land who intermarried with the remnant of the Israelites, thus producing the Samaritans we read about starting in the book of Nehemiah, when one of their rulers Sanballat antagonized the efforts of Zerubabbel, Ezra, and Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem.  For a number of years the Samaritans are not mentioned in any historical writings until Jesus comes along, and lo and behold, He reaches out to them (Samaritans and Jews, as you read in the Gospels, were not the best of friends!) and many are born again through His ministry and even form an integral part of the early Church in Israel and surrounding areas.   Jesus does that for two reasons:

1.  He is called to reach ALL people, and
2.  Samaritans are as much a part of the heritage of Israel as the Jews are, and Jesus made it a point to illustrate that by His show of compassion to the Samaritans.

In other words Jesus came for all of Israel, Jew and Samaritan alike, and ultimately for all humanity.  Jesus, by doing this, also got across something many churches forget today - you have to reach those of your own house first before you can be a witness to others.  THAT is the ultimate lesson of the Gospel, at least as far as this part of it is concerned.

The Samaritans have continued to exist until this very day, and as I am writing this there is still a community of 700 of them near the city of Nablus in Israel.  However, it gets very interesting here, because over the centuries, especially with the onslaught of Islam (I see the average Islamic mullah being something like the Borg Queen in the movie Star Trek - First Contact - their message of "convert or die' sounds like the Borg mantra of "resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.") many of them have been lost in the sea of Islam and were forcibly converted by Muslim fanatics, after which the "Arab" culture of the Middle East after Islam infected it completely overwhelmed, annihilated, and buried the true identities of many people.   A Wikipedia article I read preparing for this lesson notes that a genetic test done on many Palestinian Muslim families around Nablus revealed that they had cultural ties to the Samaritans, and may have descended from the Samaritans themselves at some point but their families were forced into Islam and Arabized over the centuries.  Even former Israeli President, the late Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, said that as much as two-thirds of the residents of Nablus and surrounding villages as of 194o were of Samaritan origin (www.wikipedia.org/Samaritan, quoting from Ben-Zvi's Oral Telling of Samaritan Traditions, Vol. 780-785, originally published on October 8, 1985).  That being said, what this means is that many self-identifying Palestinian "Arabs" may in reality have a birthright to the land of Israel!  And, in a sense then, it gives some validity to the Palestinian claims, for they are Biblical being these particular Palestinians are descended from the lost Ten Tribes!!  Told you this would get interesting, didn't I?? 

Samaritans observing Passover near their Temple site on Mt. Gerizim, near the Israeli city of Nablus

If this be the case - we all know obviously that the 700 Samaritans are of Israel anyway, a fact both prophecy scholars and Israeli authorities have no issue with - what this means is that all Twelve Tribes of Israel are in the land!!  And, as a faithful Remnant of all Twelve Tribes is prophesied in Scripture, it is high time we pray for these Samaritans and their descendants - wouldn't it be wonderful if there would be a Messianic Samaritan congregation in Nablus one day??  And, it also means that some of the Palestinians may have more right to the land than many originally thought, especially since DNA research has revealed that they are connected to the Samaritans!  What times indeed we live in!  And, it also must be noted that some of these Samaritan-descended Palestinians are also Christians already - as a matter of fact, the Bishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron, Saidna Gregory Mansour's, family originally came from that same region, which means the Lebanese Maronites in the US may have a Samaritan bishop possibly! (the Assyrian Church of the East already has a Converso chancellor, my dear friend Fr. Charles "Qasha" Klutz in Chicago, whose family were Portuguese Anusim, so Bishop Gregory - who I also have known as a friend for close to 30 years since he was parish priest in Uniontown, PA - may not be the only member of the House of Israel leading a portion of the Church, but there are others, also a prophetic sign). 

Elazar ben Tsedaka, the late Samaritan High Priest (1927-2010)

In lieu of this, many of us who have loved Israel - as we should, by the way - may have to begin to see the bigger picture.  Again, that involves two things:

A.  God may have in his plan, at least for this time, a two-state solution for the Holy Land
B.  Many Palestinians may already be of the House of Israel and not know it

Again, new evidence arises on these things all the time, so be aware that I may on occasion be revisiting this subject in future lessons as I want to share this knowledge with others, so that they also may "rightly divide the Word of truth" and also see more fully God's work in our time.  These little signs and facts also tell us that the return of the Lord is nigh, and as Christians that should excite us - it surely does me, which is why I talk about this stuff with you.  Anyway, I am aware this teaching may be a little different, a little tough to digest as a lot of ingrained thinking will have to be reconsidered regarding what we have been taught, but one thing is for sure - Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour, and He is coming again!  Even so, come Lord Jesus, amen!

The Apostle's Creed

As we continue our study on the ancient creeds of the Church after a couple of weeks interim, we go now to the oldest one that the Church universally uses, called the Apostles Creed.  It dates back, according to a Wikipedia article, to approximately AD 390 and the Council of Milan, and is thus somewhat older than the later Nicene Creed that we discussed earlier.  In the Western Church, it is used as part of devotions such as the Rosary, various Novenas, and in Morning and Evening Prayer in the Anglican tradition, while in the East it is found primarily used in the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts celebrated during the Lenten season, as well as the Akathist Hymn. 

Here is a basic breakdown of the Creed, with its Scriptural references:

1.    God the Father and Creator (Genesis 1:1)
2.    Jesus Christ, the only Son of God and our Lord (John 14:6)
3.    The divine conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:34-35)
4.    His suffering, the Crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus (I Corinthians 15:1-4)
5.    His descent into hell (Matthew 12:40)
6.    His resurrection from the dead on the third day (John 10:18)
7.    His ascension into heaven (John 20:17; Acts 1)
8.    His seat at the right hand of God the Father (Matthew 22:24)
9.    The Second Coming of Jesus (I Thessalonians 4:15-5:4)
10.  The Holy Spirit (numerous Old and New Testament references)
11.  The Holy Catholic Church (Romans 12:4-5; Revelation)
12.  The communion of saints (Revelation 13)
13.  The forgiveness of sins
14.  The future resurrection of the body (I Thessalonians 4)
15.   Everlasting life for the righteous in Christ (John 3:16)

The doctrines stated in the Apostles Creed are very basic, fundamental beliefs that are universally held and accepted by all orthodox Christians, and are ultimately foundated in Scripture and are thus Apostolic in origin, hence the fact it is an Apostles creed.

The purpose of creeds such as this were to refute heretical teachings that began to plague the Church once it was free of persecution, and to this day the historic Creeds of the Church all are effective weapons against both apostasy and heresy.  As it was true then, so is it now, and perhaps more so - being many of us believe these days we are in are those prophesied just before the return of Christ, there are many weird and bizarre doctrines being propagated in the Church, and many of them are in stark opposition to both Christianity in general and the Holy Scriptures in particular.  In my studies, I have come to understand that heresy is varied, and seems to come in two forms:

1.  Practical Heresy - this involves questionable practices and innovations, as well as an over-emphasis on certain things that are otherwise orthodox, rather than belief.  As a matter of fact, a practical heresy can uphold orthodox doctrine and still be abherrent in practice.

2.  Doctrinal Heresy - this involves challenging and outright rejection of orthodox tenets of the Christian faith, and in many cases they involve the person of Christ, thus a subcategory called Christological heresies.  The great Creeds of the Church were often drawn up in response to these, as they are dangerous attacks on the faith.

It must be understood that practical heresy can become a doctrinal heresy if it is allowed to continue unchecked, and we now see that in our day with the proliferation of things such as the "seeker church" movement, Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" philosophy, and the so-called "emerging church" movement.  All of these are technically practical heresies, but by ignoring the Tradition of the Church and seeking conformity with the world and flesh, they have begun to compromise essential teachings on sin, redemption, and heaven and hell, as well as ignoring Bible prophecy totally, so as not to "offend" the "seeker."  As a result, open doors have been created allowing for some bizarre syncretism with New Age religion - in the case of the "emerging church," the line has become very blurry as to what is Christian and what isn't - and secular psychology.  It is because of the widespread acceptance of these movements that today more than ever a Christian needs to know the historic Creeds of the Church in order to sharpen their discernment of false spiritualities and doctrine, and thus is the purpose of these lessons I have been led to share here.   ONLY in the historic Church can you find the true faith, once and for all handed to us directly from the Apostles, and ONLY in the historic Church, with its two-millenia-long legacy of faith, can doctrinal orthodoxy be established in the individual believer.  Fads and fashions come and go - once the Purpose Driven Life becomes a book you can only find on the dusty shelves of thrift stores, a new fad will take its place and be just as off-base - but the truth of the Gospel remains steadfast!  And, the Creeds effectively summarize that faith for us so that we may, as Psalm 119:11 exhorts us, get the Word hidden in our hearts.  It also, as 2 Timothy 2;15 states, allows us to "rightly divide the word of truth," so that we will not be deceived.  Praise be to God, and thanks be to Him, for His Holy Church, of which all of us who are true believers in Him are a part.  in her wisdom, the Church protects and safeguards us against the wolf-packs of heresy that seem to increase in number with every passing year as the return of the Lord draws nigh, and through our acceptance and embrace of that faith, we shall prevail in the Savior Whose blood has washed our sins away and saved us.  Sorry to preach at you, but knowing that I am part of the wonderful legacy of Christ's Holy Church excites me, as it should all true Christians.

As we continue these studies, I hope too that you will gain an appreciation for the true faith of the Holy Church that Christ Himself established, and may her wisdom be your nourishment, and may God's Word ultimately be our foundation as individual believers as well as a Church.  Thanks be to God, and may he bless each of you until next time.