I TRIED, BUT

 Earlier, I learned that one of my relatives by marriage had attended a Joyce Meyer conference. For the sake of anonymity, let's call this person "Brooks." (You know, like the all-star 3rd baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, Brooks Robinson, but it could also be a girls' name, like in the old TV show,  "Our Miss Brooks.")

I wrote Brooks a letter, enclosing "Laying Down the Law" as a gift, since our relationship has been an excellent one. As I explained, it was given in gratitude. 

I continued the letter by doing two things: I informed Brooks that Joyce Meyer (JM) was a heretic, citing actual quotes to back up my charge. Like the Bible says, "By their fruits you shall know them." (In context, "fruits" refers to their words, not their deeds, a common misconception.)

I didn't hear from Brooks for some time. I didn't hear, that is, until this week when a brief note arrived. Until then, I thought I'd lost a friend. After reading the note, maybe I have.

Before I tell you The Rest of the Story (a shameless plug promoting my radio program), I need to say something, though it strays from the subject. Periodically, when I listen to pastors or read some of their newsletters, I often find an interesting theme that runs through them: in every witnessing encounter they have, it always turns out to be successful. But we all know life doesn't work that way. We live in a fallen world. Sometimes we go to the plate and get a hit; sometimes we go to the plate and strike out. What I was reading or listening to from those pastors wasn't real. 

OK. Now back to The Rest of the Story. Brooks informed me about being a follower of JM for 20 years(!) and that many others followed her. I was surprised at the mention of the 20-year relationship, but everybody knows that JM has a huge following at every conference. Brooks went on to say that there was enjoyment in the fellowship experienced at the conferences.

However, the biggest surprise of all was read, "I've never heard her say any of the things (my word was for "things" was "heresies") you asserted in your letter." So, my charges were merely unsubstantiated "assertions." But, for 20 years, Brooks has never noticed anything amiss?!

I would have preferred to read, "I've never heard her say these assertions, but I'll look into it," or "I'll do some further study on this serious matter." 

What I "asserted" is easily found on the Internet; a child could do it with the help of friend Google. The heretical "sermons" are there for the hearing in living color. "He who hath an ear, let him hear."

Or JM writes books where I found the heresies. 

I'll close by mentioning two important things: we all try, and sometimes we strike out; we all try, and sometimes we hit a home run. We don't need one more brag-a-mony that gives the impression, "I really put that guy down." That's not the real world.I struck out.

The second thing is I'll try again. I'll send the direct quotes from JM, citing the book for Brooks (notice the clever alliteration) and page number, or the link where Brooks can hear and see it, live and in living color, or in black and white on page # 38, and encourage Brooks to study the matter. 

Stay tuned. When I know something, you'll know something.

I want to Tell You a Story

 I want to tell you a story. If a story can make you sad and angry simultaneously, this is such a narrative. 

What I'm going to tell you is not fictional but true. It happened in a real place, a real home, and a real older lady who lived with her son and daughter-in-law. Involved in the story is a real pastor who came to visit this lady.

She had a disease, the one most dreaded. Her pastor came often to the home to offer prayer and comfort, but he was one of those men who did just the opposite. His words carried no solace. He delivered his messages to her in the privacy that her son and daughter-in-law were graciously allowing the two to have. But when her son discovered what the pastor was doing, he no longer allowed such privacy. 

Her son discovered that her pastor was a thief who, in every visit, stole something precious from his mother. You see, the pastor was one of those false teachers who believed this:

."Because Jesus had perfect health, you can have perfect health…Jesus didn’t have tumors so you don’t have to have them either…as Jesus is in his health, so are you.”  

Then the visiting pastor echoed such ideas as this: “He [God] promises to heal all – everyone, any, any whatsoever, everything – all our diseases.”.  

After one of those visits, the lady's son discovered his mother in tears, and through her tears, she blurted out the question and the demand, "Why doesn't God heal me?" The pastor who was to bring comfort into that room had left the poor lady thinking something was wrong with her because he had told her she didn't have enough faith or else she would be healed. His visits left her defeated and bitter.  From that time on, her son and his wife sat in on all the visits. 

At all costs, those pastors must keep various verses locked up, kept from their congregations. Such texts as:

1. John 5: Jesus goes to a pool with many, many sick people present, yet only heals one.

2. II Cor. 11:24ff

3. Philippians. 2:25-27 

4. II Tim. 4:20

This story is true and is the story of a number so large that no man can count. This believer died in defeat. It is so sad and so maddening. 

WHY WOULD A PASTOR SAY THIS?

 It's amazing that a pastor has what one author called, "A special animus for those whom he deems overly occupied with Bible prophecy." 

The pastor, Rick Warren, has written that when the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus refused to do so, saying, "The details of My return are none of your business." Really? 

Yes, he wrote that in one of the most popular books ever, The Purpose Driven Life. That book has sold over 50 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books in publishng history. So, how many millions of people read and never checked it out that Jesus said in reference to prophecy, "It's none of your business."

Again, really? Over 25% of the Bible is devoted to prophecy. Ignore it? Pastor Warren goes on to connect being concerned with prophecy is "Trying to figure out  the exact timing of Christ's return." Warren seems to think that the abuse of some in setting dates (which no repubable Bible teacher or scholar does) is justification for ignoring eschatology.

Dr. Charles Ryrie states an important principle: "Abuse of a doctine is no reason for playing down the truth of that doctrine." 

How important is prophecy? In I Thessalonians, 4:13-18, Paul took the time to discuss the rapture of the church because the believers were "uninformed" about it. In the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, Jesus spent 51 verses teaching prophecy to His students. He didn't say or even imply, "It's none of your business!"

In I Cor. 15:51ff, Paul instructs the Corinthians about the rapture of the church. What about alll the prophecy in Revelation 4 to the end of the book? That book contains a massive amount of prophecy.

The book of Revelation has something important to say in chapter 1 verse 3: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." 

That one verse nails it. How can a pastor say what that pastor said/

BEWARE THE BILLBOARDS

 "Chrislam," you can see the word in giant letters on billboards as you drive on the Interstates or city streets. What's going on with that word? Absolutely nothing good. 

Chrislam" refers to a movement that's attempting to blend elements of biblical Christianity and Islam into a single religious practice. It's what God warned Israel about; syncretism with the pagans around them.  

Those pushing Chrislam want a gullible public to believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God and that certain theological differences may be minimized to promote unity. Biblical Christianity and Islam can be blended together into one if you can blend oil and water. 

HOW SO?

1. The Bible teaches that there is only one path to God the Father, and that path is found in Jesus Christ. As Scripture states: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6).

Christianity affirms the deity of Christ (John 1:1,14) and proclaims His death and bodily resurrection as central to salvation (I Cor. 15:3-4). Islam, by contrast, sees Jesus merely as a prophet and denies  His crucifixion and resurrection.

2.the Bible teaches salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). This contrasts sharply with Islamic teachings, which emphasize obedience to certain practices to earn favor with God.

3. Biblical Christianity holds the Bible is the inspired Word of God. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). 

Chrislam, however, typically accepts both the Bible and the Qur’an as holy texts. This approach raises significant conflicts because the Qur’an and the Bible differ fundamentally in describing God, Christ, salvation, and humanity’s fall into sin. (From The Bible Hub)

OBAMA'S INAUGRURATION: DID YOU CATCH IT?

One of the most inF\fluential pastors in the whole wide world is Rick Warren. not only that, he's author of "The Purpose Driven Life" and "The Purpose Driven Church" which sold copies in bazillions, purchansed by evangelical churches and Christians all over the globe and translated into language after language. 

Pastors jam his conferences by the thousands to learn how they can have a mega church just as he does. He draws them like a super magnet from all over the world; they hang on his every word; they buy enough of his books to propel him into the NT Times best-seller lists week after week. The secular world has designated Warre as "America's Pastor."

But did you catch what Warren said when he prayed at the 2009 ingugration of President Obama? His closing sentence was, "I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray: then he quotes Matthew 6:9-13. 

"Yeshua" is the Hebrew name for Jesus, next came "Jesus" i. e. Spanish pronunciation. but who is Isa? That's the Muslim name for Jesus.(!) As stated above, Isa is that "Jesus" who, accorfing to Islam, is merely  a prophet who Islam teaches was not crucified and there was no resurrection.

Billboards aren't the only problem as we see in Warren's public statements at a World Economic Forum panel discussion: 

"To my Islamic brotherher from Italy, I would say I'm not really interested in interfaith dialogue; I'm inereted in interfaith projects. We've got enough talk. So . . a few weeks ago, at Georgetown University, we brought in three imams, we brought three Catholic priests, we brought in three evangelical pastors and we bught in three Rabbis and we said, 'What can we do about AIDS?' And we started on some comon ground  on those issues; what can we do that we all care about?"

Red flags go up after reading that speech. First, no believer is a brother of an Islamist. Second, the mission of the church is not to "do something about AIDS:" Christ gave the church its marching orders--the Great Commission to evagelize and make disiciples. Warren expands the Great Commission to include social work, which distracts the church.

Eric Barger, a world religions expert, writes, "Warren's use of the name of Isa, the false Jesus of Islam, was a slap in the face to all he that he had alrady prayed. . .  In fact, in Islam, the prophet  Isa ("eee-sa) is actually the destroyer of Christianity, not its Savior."

BEWARE THEBILLBOARDS

THE BIBLE VERSE ERIKA KIRK QUOTED

 At the memorial service for her husband, Charlie Kirk, his widow, Erika, quoted Luke 23:34: "But Jesus was saying, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.' And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves." (NASB, 1995) This was a highly dramatic moment in the memorial as she put this text front and center, in the hearing of an estimated 90-100 thousand in person and an estimated 25-30 million online, with Turning Point USA claiming over 100 million views, although this number cannot be verified .

This is the first of seven things Jesus said while enduring the inconceivable horrors of the crucifixtion. It is thought that, from its position in the record, to have been spoken very early, probably while the Roman soldiers, the crucifixtion team, were driving the nails into His hands and feet. The soldiers would have heard Him say that, up close and personal. They had never heard such words as those. They were accustomed to the wild, raving curses of the condemned. 

We need to ask a question at this point: about whom is Jesus praying to the God the Father conceerning forgiveness? In other words who are the ones who "know not what they are doing"?

Let's begin with the process of elimination. His prayer wasn't for Pilate; he knew that he had condemned an innocent man. It was he who "took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.” 

Jesus wasn't making the request for the chief priests and scribes, because their sin was against their first-hand knowledge of the words and miracles of Jesus, His credtials to prove He was the Messiah, even to the point of their not being able to refute the raising of Lazarus from the dead: "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs." (Jn. 11:47) 

In addition, in Matthew 12, the leadership of israel commited what Jesus called, "the unforgivable sin," that of attributing Jesus' miracles to the occult. 

He wasn't making the request for the people of Jerusalem and Israel; they had heard Him speak and teach; they had seen more miracles to the extent that "There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I [John] suppose that even the world itself *would not contain the books that *would be written." 

Despite this massive amount of revelation, the people joined with the Pharisees --in an uproar they shouted their verdict raging to Pilate, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The answer: “We have no king but Caesar. (Jn. 19:12, 15)

In the last week of His earthly life, Jesus renered this verdict on the people and predicted a coming judgment on them: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling." (Matt. 27;24) And the judgment to come: "And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down," i. e. the destruction of Jersalem in 70 AD by the Romans. They weren't forgiven; they were disciplined according Deut. 28 and its worst of the cycles of punishment, dispersion from the land. 

Therefore, by the process of eliminattion and the context of Jesus' prayer, for whom is He making the request? The crucixtion team, the Gentiles hammering the nails. They were in the city only because of the massive influx of Jews from all over the known world who have come for the Passover. 

We also see that the context of the prayer reveald the object of the supplication: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.' And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves." Immediately after the prayer of Jesus, the Gentile soldiers are mentioned as gambling over the clothing, thus demonstrating their ignorance as to the significance of what was happening on Calvary. 

Barnes Notes on the Bible gets it right: "The Romans knew not what they did, as they were really ignorant that He was the Son of God."

THE RUINING OF AMERICA PART VII

Samuel has traced the inevitable cycle of government in a fallen world. He now comes to the conclusion of this vicious cycle: totalitarianism. When left to itself, government comes to its final destination; the people are controlled by a tyrant. He states this in I Samuel 8:17b: ". . .  you will become his [the king's] servants." 

In other words, under a tryanny, the people exist for the state and work for the state. There is no government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Samuel then predicts, "You shall cry out in that day because of your king."  He's telling them the oppression will become intolerable. Regardng the prediction of Samuel about the state, history answers, "Amen!"

Alva J. McLain looks back to 1917 and writes: "In 1917, when America entered the first conflict [WWI], it was widely supposed that once we had abolished the kings and emperors, all would be well. So we witnessed the dethronment of the Russian tzar and the German Kaiser, to say nothing of the lesser breeds. And in their stead we got Stalin and Hitler! Today, we look back nostalgically, not to sure that the abolishing of the kings has improved the world political situation over the days prior to 1914."  

Let's sum up by quoting McLain: "It is to the lasting credit of the Founding Fathers of our own American system that they regarded all highly centalized government  with a deep and cold suspicion, holding that the less we had of it the better of we would be. But strangely enough today, for every failure of highly centralized government, its supporters have no rmedy except a larger dose of the same thing."

Human government is necessary; it was instituted by God in Genesis 9. James Madison, "The Father of our Constitution" said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."  

McLain finshes with this warning: "But people who are wise never let it get too big or powerul. Unless strictly limited, there is the loss of liberty, econimic distress, and political despair. " 

 THE RUINING OF AMERICA: PART VI

We have been examining God's Word to Samuel in which God warns Israel about what governments do in a fallen world. So far, we've looked at five characteristics of their downward spiral. We've reached number six: corruption. I Samuel 8:15: "He [the king] will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants." 

As we saw in Part 5, governments never have enough money; as time progresses and beauracracies multiply, the "desk sitters" must be paid. To be paid, the government needs more money from its belieagured citizens. This leads to corruption. The truth of the matter is that a large portion of that money comes to rest in the coffers of those who support the party in power who took it away from the citizens through taxation. 

The ruling party will point out to the citizenry that it's spending the money for, as they always say, "The common good." But truth be told, the government takes the money from those who work to produce it and then hand it over to the the non-producers in the society. This procedure goes under the beneficient name of "wealth reditribution." 

To continue this distribution, the rulers must stay in power, so they act on this formula: spend, tax, elect. The horde of nonproducing citizens realize that they can vote themselves more money by keeping such rulers in power. 

A vicious cyle has thus begun.

TBC