Day: January 29, 2017

VIRGINIA CHURCH HOSTS LECTURE ON ” ISLAMOPHOBIA”; PROFESSOR CLAIMS IT’S DRIVEN BY “IMPERIALISM”

 Todd Green
 Todd Green is serving as a Franklin Fellow and advisor on Islamophobia in Europe.
 Todd Green visiting with Representative Keith Ellison (MN) in Washington, DC.
ABOVE: GREEN WITH ELLISON 
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT ELLISON:
VIRGINIA CHURCH HOSTS LECTURE ON 
” ISLAMOPHOBIA”; PROFESSOR CLAIMS IT’S DRIVEN BY “IMPERIALISM” 
BY ANDREW HARROD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

“I have lots of relationships with Muslims. They have taught me compassion and peace,” stated Luther College Professor Todd Green during a January 22 presentation at McLean, Virginia’s Lewinsville Presbyterian Church (LPC). Here this self-proclaimed “scholar of Islamophobia” and “anti-Islamophobia activist”
reiterated his fantasy that interpersonal relationships with Muslims
can refute supposed “Islamophobic” prejudices arising from Western sins
like imperialism.

Green, author of the 2015 book The Fear of Islam:  An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West, is currently a Franklin Fellow
at the United States Department of State, where Green “assesses and
analyzes Islamophobia in Europe.” He has had ample opportunity to
expound the book’s themes in various appearances in radio (see here, here, and here) and online, as well as public presentations such as at the 2016 Peacestock conference of the leftwing Veterans for Peace. He also writes for left-leaning publications such as the Huffington Post and Sojourners.

Without specific definitions, Green has concluded that “Islamophobia
is an irrational fear, hostility, or hatred of Muslims and Islam” and is
“one of the most acceptable prejudices in the United States today.”
This presents a “cultural racism” in which “Muslims are essentialized;
they are treated as a race,” he elaborated at LPC. Nonetheless, he has
previously vaguely qualified that critical study of any such posited
bigotry “is not an attempt to cut off critical conversations about
Islam.”

Green has assessed that “imperialism is one of the main factors
driving Islamophobia in the past and in the present,” resulting from
historical “imperial tension and imperial competition” between
Christians and Muslims. “In the seventh century when Islam came on the
scene, it spread very quickly and Islamic empires developed quite
quickly,” he has stated, while leaving unmentioned the Islamic
supremacist jihad doctrine
that propelled such conquests. With shifting power balances between
Western and Islamic civilization across the centuries, Islamic empires
gave way to the European colonialism that subjugated many Islamic lands.

Westerners colonizing Muslims, Green has argued, realized that “with
imperial projects there must be some ‘other’, and this ‘other’ must be
demonized and dehumanized in order for the imperial nation to galvanize
popular support.” The “neo-imperialism” of rival Cold War superpowers
followed European colonialism. Even post-Cold War, “much of U.S. foreign
policy is incomprehensible apart from understanding that we are still
engaged in the imperial project.”

Casting Muslims as passive victims of Western aggression, Green
believes that such stereotypes influence Americans today who “have seen
and continue to see Muslims in many parts of the world as obstacles to
our imperial ambitions.” In the Huffington Post, he emphasizes
the “history of Western interventionism in Muslim-majority contexts,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S. exploitation of energy
resources in the Middle East, the legacy of European colonialism.” The
oft-debated question “Is ISIS [the Islamic State in Iraq and (Greater)
Syria] Islamic?” is merely a “thinly veiled form of Islamophobia
intended to heighten our fears of Islam while absolving the U.S. of its
own responsibility in contributing to the rise to ISIS.”

“Religion is rarely the driving force behind terrorism,” Green’s article claims, befitting his oft-disproved analysis
that socioeconomic disadvantage, not Islamic doctrine, lies behind
jihadist violence. At LPC, he described Muslims joining ISIS because of
factors like discrimination in Europe or oppression from Middle Eastern
dictatorships, just as socioeconomic factors might influence Westerners
to join rightwing movements. “White Christians have an empire to hide
behind.  Many of these young men joining ISIS don’t.  When you are
politically disenfranchised you will sometimes find other ways to find
power.”

In identifying “Islamophobia’s” past and present purveyors, Green resorts to well-worn, hackneyed tropes. He embraces the fraudulent Edward Said’s Orientalism
thesis that “knowledge about Islam coming from Orientalism was being
distorted by the imperial project.” Past Western Islamic studies served
not intellectual inquiry, but rather “knowledge for the sake of control”
over Muslims.

Green today castigates “professional Islamophobes” supposedly motivated by pure malice, such as Pamela Geller, Daniel Pipes, Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer, and Geert Wilders.
“From the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed
at night, their job is to figure out ‘how can I better demonize Muslims
today.’” While “Islamophobia” often appears among conservatives, it is
“more dangerous in the way it manifests itself among those who claim to
be liberal,” such as talk show host Bill Maher, Green noted at LPC. He meanwhile makes the common yet baseless claim
that “Islamophobia” forms a well-funded “powerful industry,” while the
“anti-Islamophobia side does not pay quite as well” for individuals like
him.

Contrastingly, in Green’s estimation Islamic belief seemingly can
cause no harm, as he rejects “misconceptions” that “sharia law is
somehow incompatible with democracy or with the West.” “The overwhelming
majority of Muslims” globally “really are trying to practice their
religion that helps them and their fellow human beings flourish,” he has
argued. At LPC he added that “I hate the language of ‘radical Islamic
terrorism’” and its “simplistic understanding that Islam programs people
to be violent.”

Islamic rule past and present thus raises few concerns for Green
while he condemns the United States for having supported dictators like
Iran’s shah. Like many academics, he whitewashes Islam’s often brutal, subjugated
“status of dhimmis or protected minorities” for non-Muslims, stating
that “for much of the history of Islam Christians and Jews were
protected and lived in peace with Muslims.” Today Americans in the
Middle East should “be very consistent when it comes to supporting
democratic movements, even if that means risking losing an alliance with
an autocratic government,” irrespective of such “democratic” results in
1979 Iran and 2011 Egypt.

More often than not, non-Muslims draw Green’s criticism. Writing in Sojourners, he approved of President Barack Obama’s regurgitation of the common canard
that the Crusades were unjustified aggression, not a just war defensive
response to jihadist conquests. “Obama did his best at the National Prayer Breakfast
in February [2015] to address the legacy of violence carried out in the
name of Christianity.” Green also has falsely relativized that the
“Bible has its fair share of violent texts” along with the Quran,
thereby ignoring fundamental differences between violent verses in these two scriptures.

Green’s Huffington Post writings betray a less than stirring defense of free speech against jihadist censorship. Geller and Spencer’s 2015 Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, where security guards killed two Muslim assailants, merely exemplified “hate rallies that engage in Muslim-bashing under the pretense of defending freedom of speech.” Reviewing Iran’s 1989 blasphemy death sentence for British writer Salman Rushdie,
Green mused that “minorities rarely have possessed the same
opportunities to shape public opinion as those with political power or
cultural capital.” Therefore, “Rushdie and some of his more outspoken
supporters adopted a fairly uncritical approach to freedom of
expression, assuming at times that this freedom benefits all members of
Western societies equally.”

For Green, individual relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims
are the antidote to what he has called a “perfect storm of Islamophobia”
in a French television interview.
He laments supposedly skewed media representations emphasizing Islam’s
violence while “there simply are not enough strong relationships in the
West between Muslims who are in the minority and the non-Muslim
majority.” As one venue for interfaith outreach, he advocates the Muslim
Brotherhood (MB)-derived Muslim Students Association (MSA), which he addressed in 2010 at Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University.

One of Green’s book interviewees, Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, currently under fire for his anti-Israel statements and extremists Islamist affiliations,
presents for Green the kind of Muslim people should befriend. “If you
have a really jaded, negative view of politicians and think that they
are intellectually disengaged, you should have a conversation with Keith
Ellison, and you will change your mind,” Green has stated about the
Minnesota representative. Accordingly, Green’s wife and fellow leftist, Tabita, has written
about how he took Luther College students from their Iowa campus on a
field trip to Ellison’s Minneapolis mosque, where the radical imam Siraj Wahaj has been a featured speaker.
Tabita also noted that the field trip included a visit to the Minnesota
chapter of the Hamas-derived Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “to learn about their civil rights work.”

Green’s tweets round out his Islamist sympathies. In one, he calls the radical, anti-Semitic Woman’s March on Washington organizer Linda Sarsour a “shining star in the battle against racism and bigotry” and therefore “#ImarchwithLinda.” In another,
his CAIR and MSA affiliations apparently make him worry that
“[d]esignating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist org. will open the
door to witch hunts aimed @ Muslim civil liberties groups.”

Yet even Green recognizes that interfaith relations with Muslims are
not without their pitfalls. “You want to see a nonstarter happen,” he
has indicated in his various appearances, including at LPC, then
introduce the subject of “Palestine” between Jews and Muslims. Before
tackling such hot topics, he recommends that interfaith groups undertake
noncontroversial community projects like Habitat for Humanity homebuilding; “I tend to prefer more organic relationships to evolve,” he has stated. Apparently then, Jewish legal legend Alan Dershowitz should build a house with Ellison before deciding to leave the Democratic Party if he becomes the Democratic National Committee chairman.

Reality belies Green’s “getting to know you”
thesis in which individual relationships with Muslims dispel
reservations towards Islam that actually come from the faith’s hard
facts, not imagined prejudice. Numerous Christians from Muslim-majority
countries have impressed upon this author Islam’s oppressive nature
towards non-Muslims, even though these individuals lack no opportunity
to meet Muslims as Green bemoans in the United States. Likewise Europe’s
significantly larger Muslim populations, recently increased by an
influx of “refugees,” have done little to improve Islam’s popularity.

The arguments of Green, who by self-admission is by training a
student of American and European religious history, not Islamic studies,
might impress his fellow leftists as indicated by his largely positive
reception at LPC. Paralleling the Obama Administration’s State
Department, LPC has made an appeal to “Actively Support the Boycott of Products Made in Israeli Settlements” and is pro-LGBT. Yet individuals like James Lafferty,
head of Christians Against Radical Islam (CARI), indicated during
audience questions why skepticism is warranted. He recalled a local
presentation 25 years ago by Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam once feted as a Muslim “moderate”
and later killed in Yemen as an Al Qaeda supporter by a 2011 American
drone strike. “He said many times exactly the same words I have heard
tonight,” Lafferty noted.
______________________________________________________

 THE FEAR OF ISLAM BY TODD GREEN:
 
 

TRUMP ORDERS “A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY & PLANS FOR THE DEFEAT OF ISIS”

 
TRUMP ORDERS “A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY & PLANS FOR THE DEFEAT OF ISIS”
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 What is refreshing about this Memorandum is that it doesn’t contain what
 it certainly would have contained in the previous administration: a 
clause or two about how the Islamic State (which is actually the name of
 the group, not the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is perverting the 
great, noble, peaceful religion of Islam. This statement doesn’t say 
anything about whether or not the Islamic State is Islamic, which is 
just as it should be: the President of the United States is not and need
 not be the nation’s Chief Theologian. The motivating of the ideology of
 the enemy needs to be identified, discussed, and countered; no 
declaration of whether or not it is actually Islamically correct is 
needed from the U.S. government.
 

“Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” White House, January 28, 2017:

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM – 3

MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT

THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY

THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OF STAFF

THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR
NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS

THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT

THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

SUBJECT: Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is not the only threat
from radical Islamic terrorism that the United States faces, but it is
among the most vicious and aggressive. It is also attempting to create
its own state, which ISIS claims as a “caliphate.” But there can be no
accommodation or negotiation with it. For those reasons I am directing
my Administration to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS.

ISIS is responsible for the violent murder of American citizens in
the Middle East, including the beheadings of James Foley, Steven
Sotloff, and Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, as well as the death of Kayla
Mueller. In addition, ISIS has inspired attacks in the United States,
including the December 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, and
the June 2016 attack in Orlando, Florida. ISIS is complicit in a number
of terrorist attacks on our allies in which Americans have been wounded
or killed, such as the November 2015 attack in Paris, France, the March
2016 attack in Brussels, Belgium, the July 2016 attack in Nice, France,
and the December 2016 attack in Berlin, Germany.

ISIS has engaged in a systematic campaign of persecution and
extermination in those territories it enters or controls. If ISIS is
left in power, the threat that it poses will only grow. We know it has
attempted to develop chemical weapons capability. It continues to
radicalize our own citizens, and its attacks against our allies and
partners continue to mount. The United States must take decisive action
to defeat ISIS.

Sec. 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States that ISIS be defeated.

Sec. 2. Policy Coordination. Policy coordination, guidance, dispute
resolution, and periodic in-progress reviews for the functions and
programs described and assigned in this memorandum shall be provided
through the interagency process established in National Security
Presidential Memorandum – 2 of January 28, 2017 (Organization of the
National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council), or any
successor.

(i) Development of a new plan to defeat ISIS (the Plan) shall commence immediately.

(ii) Within 30 days, a preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS
shall be submitted to the President by the Secretary of Defense.

(iii) The Plan shall include:

(A) a comprehensive strategy and plans for the defeat of ISIS;

(B) recommended changes to any United States rules of engagement and
other United States policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of
international law regarding the use of force against ISIS;

(C) public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies to
isolate and delegitimize ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology;

(D) identification of new coalition partners in the fight against
ISIS and policies to empower coalition partners to fight ISIS and its
affiliates;

(E) mechanisms to cut off or seize ISIS’s financial support,
including financial transfers, money laundering, oil revenue, human
trafficking, sales of looted art and historical artifacts, and other
revenue sources; and

(F) a detailed strategy to robustly fund the Plan.

(b) Participants. The Secretary of Defense shall develop the Plan in
collaboration with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the
Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National
Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

(c) Development of the Plan. Consistent with applicable law, the
Participants identified in subsection (b) of this section shall compile
all information in the possession of the Federal Government relevant to
the defeat of ISIS and its affiliates. All executive departments and
agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, promptly comply with any
request of the Participants to provide information in their possession
or control pertaining to ISIS. The Participants may seek further
information relevant to the Plan from any appropriate source.

(d) The Secretary of Defense is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register

DONALD J. TRUMP

 

JOHN MACARTHUR ON THE REFORMATION: A LESSON ABOUT HERESY & THE POWER OF TRUTH

 
JOHN MACARTHUR ON THE REFORMATION: 
A LESSON ABOUT HERESY & THE POWER OF TRUTH
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

This is THE year.   2017.  So many have been awaiting its
arrival with anticipation, with hope, with a desire to see history
repeat itself.  And NO. It isn’t about some eternally unimportant temporal American election.

It’s about the explosion of truth … God’s Truth … across the
planet. It’s about when Truth was unshackled from a millennium of
virtual bondage in a blasphemous prison built by the apostate hands of
man.   It’s about not a mere celebration of a historical event – the
Reformation – it’s about praising God for giving bold, historic evidence
of his claim in Psalm 138:2:

You have exalted above all things
your name and your word. Psalm 138:2

The Reformation serves as providential, temporal, historic evidence
that His Name and His Word will always remain unfettered by the prideful
whims of man and unshadowed by the efforts of a God-hating enemy.
Utterances from the truthful lips of God (Proverbs 12:19) remain forever.

The Reformation was a providential movement of God, protecting His
Truth and thereby extending grace to the undeserving world. Its’ fruit
has, as of this year, continued to bless the world for five hundred
years.

But, though we know the many warnings of end-time diversions off the
narrow path and how the church will increasingly be plagued with false
teachers and false gospels, the true church – not the superficial one – prays for another reformation.

We want another reformation that brings to the modern church what the
Reformation brought to the 16th-century one – the restoration of God’s
Name and God’s Word to their rightful, exalted place. We want that
preached in our pulpits and taught in our Sunday school rooms. We want
THAT Truth to be the visible image of the church to an onlooking world.
And we want that Truth to be proclaimed, defended and contended, so that
the elect hearts of men may be saved by it. We want that Truth blasted
across an increasingly depraved world because THAT Truth gives glory to
Jesus, the Lord and the Savior.

But the modern superficial church – the one most unbelievers think of
when they think about “church” – is light years away from the authentic
light of God’s Word, though that Word is so often merely a
fingertip away. False teaching is rampant because the Word goes
unheeded. Error is hurled, tolerated, and endorsed with ever greater
ferocity because sound doctrine is ignored. Deception continues WITHIN the church as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 5:19) appealingly deludes with unsound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3) imprisoning men’s minds in strongholds of darkness. (2 Corinthians 10:4)

On his daily Grace To You Radio
broadcast today, John MacArthur prefaced his message with a quick look
at two particular lessons from the Reformation. These studio comments
come ahead of the rebroadcast of his message, Is Jesus The Only Way?

Here’s what Dr. MacArthur had to say:

“I think there are a couple of things that come out of the Reformation that are just really profound, far-reaching lessons.”

“The first one is that error, heresy, false Christianity can
survive for a very long time. It can not only survive, it can actually
be a dominant force in society. That is exactly what happened for a
thousand years in the development of Roman Catholicism.”

“If you think that there’s not a powerful, massive, embedded
force for heresy, for a corrupted Gospel and a corrupted church, alive
and well in the world, you don’t know history.”

“Error is always seeking to be permanently embedded and given a
kind of dignity, a kind of acceptability, a kind of prominence in the
world. And that’s what happened for a thousand years in the development
of the Roman Catholic Church.”

“The other thing that comes out of the Reformation is this … that
as profoundly embedded as evil is for such a long time and through tens
of thousands of people, God can use one person as He did Martin Luther –
or two or three – to literally bring the Truth.”

“That’s something we ought to pray for even today.”

There’s really only one thing that can be said to this … AMEN.

 

HERESY-NEUTICS: A REVIEW OF “DESTINED TO WIN” BY KRIS VALLOTTON

 
HERESY-NEUTICS: 
A REVIEW OF “DESTINED TO WIN” 
BY KRIS VALLOTTON 
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Destined To Win: How To Embrace Your God-Given Identity And Realize Your Kingdom Purpose

Author: Kris Vallotton
Foreword: Lisa Bevere
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 3, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0718080645 / ISBN-13: 978-0718080648

The endorsements alone are enough to warrant a “Warning: Heretical
& Hermeneutical Danger Ahead” notice on its cover.  With glowing
endorsements from the likes of “apostle” Mike Bickle, Jesus Culture
founder Banning Liebscher, Ted Dekker, Che Ahn, Heidi Baker, and Shawn
Bolz, there is little doubt that Destined To Win is borne of a “wide path” false theology.  Add the obligatory laudation from Vallotton’s cohort in charlatanry, Bill Johnson – whom Vallotton compares to Moses
– and the assurance that the book will distort and defile the truth of
God is more manifest than fake Holy Ghost gold dust blowing through
Bethel Church’s air ducts.

Kris Vallotton, the author of this “everything God does is about you”
tome, is the “senior associate leader of Bethel Church and co-founder
of Bethel School of Ministry, where he has served with Bill Johnson for
more than three decades.”  This just goes to prove that one can spend
decades in the “Jesus biz,” presumably surrounded by Bibles, (serving primarily as visual aids to prop up the “Christianized” illusion of Bethel’s otherwise heretical endeavors) and still not apprehend Biblical truth.  As Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”  (John 3:7)

Source: Bethel School Of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) Website: http://bssm.net/
school/academics/

Oh, and it is noteworthy that the book’s bio makes references to the
“Bethel School of Ministry” when actually it’s the “Bethel School of Supernatural
Ministry.”  It’s where, if you’re devoid of authentic Christian
doctrinal understanding, you go to be anointed and receive an
“impartation” in order to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the
dead.  I’m not sure if “grave-sucking” – for which Bethel is notorious –
is part of the core curricula or if it’s an a la carte elective. Anway,
the book curiously downplays the “supernatural” element and adjective
to Vallotton and Bethel’s frolics in falsehood.

Another – perhaps surprising – endorsement comes from Eric Metaxas,
the Greek Orthodox, Yale-graduated author of some recent, more
mainstream books of a Christian slant. (His bio on Bonhoeffer won a Christian Book of the Year award)
He may have been tapped with an invite to endorse in order to give
Vallotton and Bethel a more cultured, dignified, mainstream appeal.

“Vallotton’s faith is contagious.  That’s the point.  Read this book and catch it.”  Eric Metaxas

Frankly, if you’re a believer, you’d be safer waltzing into a CDC
ebola biohazard lab in your birthday suit than to risk catching any of
Bethel’s toxic spiritual microbes.  What was it our Lord said?  “And do
not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear
him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  (Matthew 10:28)
 Spiritually cavorting with the toxins of Vallotton may not kill your
body, and though the subtle incubation period of Bethel’s lethal virus
may seem temporally-appealing, the full-blown contagion is eternally
terminal.

 

Consider Mark Batterson’s endorsement.  You know Batterson from circle-praying false-teaching fame.  He said, “Destined To Win
gives readers a proactive plan to deal with the true, deep needs of
their souls.”  Well clearly, the capacity for discernment from a guy who
actually believes that Christianizing spirit-summoning prayer
techniques from the world of witchcraft are legitimate ought not require
much Berean examination to be summarily dismissed.  Following
Batterson’s method, you end up with an unbiblical technique that leaves
the “circle” of truth broken, shattered, and its practitioners
spiritually comatose.  Little wonder he’s endorsed a book that offers
much the same fare.

Vollotton’s book opens with a Foreword penned by pastrix and fellow Bethel charlatan Lisa Bevere.  Well … it was possibly penned by her.  She promotes some sort of Holy Spirit automatic writing so it’s possible that she’s claimed somewhere that she
actually didn’t write it.  But, given the glowing words it contains,
it’s a certainty that the Holy Spirit didn’t automatically – or
accidentally – write it.  God does not use charlatans to endorse
charlatans, nor does He do it Himself. Had the Holy Spirit actually
aided Bevere, His Words would doubtlessly have had a much more
first-century, Biblical ring to them … something more like … “For the
time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own passions.”  (2 Timothy 4:3)

(Just a rabbit trail here before proceeding. While this may be
common sense to many folks, I’ve encountered many who don’t do it. Pay
close attention to who is endorsing a book. I generally will read every
endorsement before I’ll even read the dust-jacket or back-cover synopsis
of the book. If a single known false teacher – or, as in this case,
enough of them to make a baseball team – endorses a book, then it most
surely ought to be avoided. Charlatans are not asked to endorse the
works of Biblically responsible authors,and vice-versa. You’ll not find a
toothy-grinned Osteen giving a gleaming review on a work of John
MacArthur. And you won’t find R. C. Sproul endorsing Jesus Calling.  It’s a useful practice to employ in order to avoid unhelpful books by unfamiliar authors.)

IF THE ENDORSEMENTS DON’T WARN YOU OFF, THE MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY SHOULD

The modern superficial Christian church echoes so much of the post-modernism of culture around it (or, more correctly and more often, that culture isn’t just echoed, it’s invited in to “take a pew and enjoy the show.”)
  It disregards absolute truth. It doesn’t do the diligent work to
comprehend, teach, and preach what accords with sound doctrine, instead
opting to promote the popular, the appealing, and all things that tend
to fill pews, sell books, and keep coffers brimming.  It’s far more
important for the church to have hipster appeal in a Youtube video than
it is for it to offer the faith-maturing truth of God’s Word for the
souls of authentic sheep.  Such is the case with anything coming out of
Bethel Church.

Though the superficial church has largely jettisoned adherence to any
absolutes of Biblical doctrine, Vallotton’s book hawks the one
persistent, but false, absolute that remains ecclesiastically
pervasive.   What is that one absolute? That nothing in all of creation
is more important than you. That God wakes up every morning fixated on
how to make your dreams, hopes, and desires come to fruition. That He
wants to you be actualized, to be anointed, to be imparted some
supernatural empowerment to achieve your dreams.

“God is all about you!   I don’t mean you are all He has; I just mean you are His favorite.” Kris Vallotton

Scripture, though, teaches a rather different exalted One.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” God the Father, Matthew 17:5
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Paul, writing of the “beloved Son,” Romans 11:36

But Destined To Win is less high-pressure with its emphasis on the supernatural than Vollotton’s previous tomes. (He’s currently got 20 titles listed on the Bethel Church store website.) This latest volume doesn’t carry the same charismatic tone as, say, Developing A Supernatural Life: A Practical Guide To A Life of Signs, Wonders, and Miracles.
Published in 2007, the marketing hype for that book proposed to find
Vallotton reaching “into God’s arsenal” to equip the reader with
supernatural weapons that will “catapult you into your divine destiny.”

His 2016 volume, Heavy Rain,
finds Vallotton offering “guidance and inspiration … to become a vessel
that catches the downpour of the Spirit’s rain – and helps release
God’s Kingdom like a flood.” The 2014 text by Vallotton, Basic Training For the Prophetic Ministry,
is hawked as a resource to help “all believers to operate in prophetic
ministry.” In it, one will presumably “learn the languages of God and
hear His voice like never before,” how to “discover and develop your
prophetic gifts,” as he helps one to “step out and confidently share
words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy.”

Though he has certainly not recanted the charismatic false teachings from his earlier books, Vollotton has toned them down in Destined To Win.
You’ll still find such notions as anointing, impartation, and Holy
Spirit “gifts” mentioned throughout the text.  Yet their mentions are
subtle but no less dangerously toxic to authentic faith.  The book
maintains more muted undercurrents of NAR dominionist theology (God’s kingdom being made manifest on earth by your God-empowered success)
as well as a smattering of the “little gods” teaching from the
prosperity gospel.  Shades of covetousness for the supernaturally
miraculous are persistent in the book, unlike the importance of sound
doctrine which is absent.

“I dream of a day when the people of God are so
filled with the Spirit of God that by the Word of God we calm storms,
stop earthquakes and reconcile warring nations. I envision a time not
too far into the future when tens of millions of believers unleash
heaven wherever they go and thereby shift the atmospheres of nations.”
Kris Vallotton

Destined To Win is
much like a plagiarized and expanded outline of power point slides from a
rah-rah, pump-you-up, you-can-do-it self-help pep rally from some
soap-selling pyramid scheme seminar. It’s alleged to be a “how-to” book
on getting “actualized” (a New Age notion, perhaps, but not a Biblical one), to operate as a leader in your divine capacity in God’s kingdom.

Vallotton gives an inane evidence for why God wants you – and everyone else – to understand that “You are destined to win!”

“We don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads,” he says, “because we
weren’t designed to back up, retreat, or lose ground.” “Our arms were
created to only work in front of us,” he writes and, “our feet point
forward and are incapable of swiveling rearward.” What’s all this
anatomical reality mean? “It’s all a sign of our Creator’s desire for us
to gain ground and to live successful, productive lives. God is our
rear guard and we are to face forward.”

God is our rear guard?   Jesus never taught that. In fact, far from even implying that “God’s got your back,” he said the exact opposite, “Follow me.” (Matthew 8:22, Matthew 9:9, Matthew 19:21, Mark 1:17, Mark 10:21, Luke 5:27, John 1:43, John 21:22)
 Not only that, but Jesus clarified “follow me” even further: “If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
Now that’s worrisome. How am I supposed to have my “best life now” a la
Vallotton if, according to Jesus, I might be dead? Somebody’s wrong …
 and it is not the Son of God.

“I long to see people fully actualized in a way that
causes them to embrace their God-given identities and fulfill their
divine purpose.”  Kris Vallotton

In order to achieve your destiny, posits Vallotton, you must realize
that you can only accomplish the task – be actualized in it – by

Kris Vallotton

knowing who your peeps are. You’re the leader and your identity, your
divine destiny, is tied to your followers.   “It’s impossible to escape
the fact that our destinies lie in our people,” writes Vallotton.
 Elsewhere he says that “you can’t find your purpose until you have
found your people, because your ultimate purpose is in your people!”  By
comparison, the Apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ.”  (Philippians 1:21)

SCRIPTURE IS CITED, BUT HERESY-NEUTICS IS APPLIED

To substantiate this claim with Scripture – which itself is not
heralded as the place for a believer to go to find their purpose –
Vallotton, citing Acts 9:27,
says, “Think about it: would Paul have become an apostle if Barnabas
hadn’t ‘taken hold of him’ when he was still young in the faith?”

This fails the basic rule of hermeneutics: context rules. Barnabas was “taking hold” of Paul AFTER
the Lord’s dramatic interruption of his Damascus road trek. By the time
Barnabas took hold of him, Paul (then Saul) had already been chosen by
the risen Lord. Barnabas was merely taking him to the Jerusalem
disciples who were wary of the well-known former persecutor of the Way.
Barnabas testified on Paul’s behalf, but Barnabas’ actions didn’t “make”
Paul an apostle.  The Lord had already chosen him.  But this contextual
fact was in the way of Vallotton’s narrative.

No doubt it’s this sort of disregard for “rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)–
consistent throughout the book – that prompts Vallotton to suggest that
the work of the Holy Spirit might more appropriately be credited to
Barnabas:

“It’s possible that Barnabas inspired Paul to write as many as thirteen books of the Bible.”   Kris Vallotton

Possible encouragement aside, Paul did not write because of Barnabas; he wrote because the Holy Spirit prompted him to.

But Barnabas didn’t pose the only hermeneutical challenge for
Vallotton. So did the “heart.” In the book’s second chapter, the author
proceeds to lay out the solution to all the ills of the world, and a
truth necessary for us to succeed. He says, “I am convinced that wars
would cease, crime would plummet, divorce would diminish, and immorality
would fall if the human race just experienced these three words: you
are loved!”

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Vallotton’s not merely hyping Arminianistic salvation here. He’s
towing with a twist the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life” false gospel.   He’s promoting a sort of universalism in which
the depravity of man suddenly vanishes not because of
 Gospel-born regeneration, but if and when the “truth” of God’s love
“stored in their heads” makes the “eighteen-inch journey to their
hearts.” Citing Proverbs 3:5, Vallotton states that “I am convinced that your heart can take you places your head can never go.”

“‘Mind’ and ‘spirit’ in man
communicate with one another.  It is a false dichotomy contrary to the
scriptural teaching about man that suggests that  man’s ‘spirit’
(pneuma) is an irrational, purely emotional aspect of man, while his
‘mind’ (nous) refers to his reasoning abilities.” O. Palmer Robertson, The Final Word

This false – but culturally and ecclesiastically prevalent –
dichotomy of heart and mind may be dismissed to read further what is
being posited.   Referring to the verse from Proverbs, Vallotton asks,
“Did you just notice the wisest man in the world clearly said that we
must trust God with our hearts, not our heads? In fact, he went on to
say that we shouldn’t put a lot of weight on what we understand.”  We
can be certain that Vallotton’s gleaning from Proverbs is completely
erroneous because the Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture never inspired
anything in it that is self-refuting, as the Apostle Paul does with
Vallotton’s interpretation.  Writing to the Colossians, Paul emphasized
learning and knowing and understanding as paramount to faith, not
thoughtless, heart-driven emotionalism.

“And
so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking
that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual
wisdom and understanding,  so
as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him:
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”
 Colossians 1:9-10

But Vollotton is somewhat of a Proverb-ial bi-polar. Some 70
pages later he cites another Proverb that refutes the very “follow your
heart” point he made earlier: “He who trusts in his own heart is a
fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)

In providing a “guide” to help readers achieve their God-given
destinies, which can only be found once they’ve found their “people,”
Vallotton takes a different tack on an age old technique of Biblical
interpretation.  Instead of hermeneutics, you might consider what he
does more akin to heresy-neutics.  Vallotton doesn’t encourage
readers to play Bible roulette, randomly opening Scripture, pointing to a
verse, and interpreting it as a valid, imminent revelation for their
lives.  He’s not suggesting random verse-plucking for personal gain.
 Instead, he recommends parable-plucking.

“Discovering which descriptions of the Kingdom you most resonate with
and then finding others who resonate with the same aspects of the
Kingdom will help you find your people,” he writes.  “I suggest you
reread all the parables of Jesus in light of this revelation and pay
attention to the ones you relate to the most.”

Kris Vallotton and The Pope

Well, charlatans for centuries have been doing this very thing with Scripture.  (Rome, for example, has constructed a massive religious empire through this practice.)
It’s been treated as a self-help smorgasbord of pithy witticisms ever
since the canon was closed.  Convenient, personally embraceable nuggets
of Scriptural wisdom are often subjectively selected and placed on the
cafeteria tray of our preferential beliefs, while the more difficult,
unpalatable lessons from the Word are left untouched (and often
unserved by the attendant pastors of the church who prefer to offer only
a menu of nutrition-void, Scriptural feel-good food to their “flocks.”) Vallotton does the same here.  Find what you like, embrace that, find like-minded folks, and skip the rest.

Vallotton serves up various parables as examples of how someone might
search for clues to their divine purpose through resonating
characteristics from within the parables.  He cites  Matthew 13:33,
the parable of the leaven, as examples of people “hidden in society”
who are “doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways.”  Their “good
works” are “secretly causing society to rise.”  If you resonate with
this, you must find others who also want to be “stealthy in society” as
cultural influencers.

Perhaps you’re more attracted to Matthew 13:45-46,
the story of the merchant who found a pearl of great value and who sold
all he had to acquire it.  That could mean you are a risk-taker.
 “Maybe the risk-taker in you connects with a Kingdom that has embarked
on an exhilarating and dangerous journey…”

Or maybe you’re more the “fishers of men” type, exhibited in Matthew 13:47.
 “Does your soul long to capture the hearts of people and inspire them
to join the kingdom of heaven? … Then there is a strong possibility that
these desires should guide your destiny.” Yet “maybe you relate more to
the business side of God,” suggests Vallotton, who cites Matthew 20:1.
 “As the Lord unfolds the parable of the landowner, the challenges of
his business, and the descriptions of his employees, you find yourself
basking in His insights and wondering at his wisdom.  If this is true
about you, then these aspirations are signs that you may have found your
people.”

“Take care then how you hear”  Jesus, Luke 8:18

This technique for identifying your personal “resonances” with
Scripture, to thus be enabled to seek your like-minded peeps in order to
find your destiny, graphically violates the apostle’s admonition to
Timothy to “rightly handle” Scripture.  It fails to heed the Lord’s
warning to “take care then how you hear.”

The parables of Jesus are fundamentally intended to convey profound
spiritual truth.  As John MacArthur writes, “Parables are not to be
mined for layer upon layer of secret significance.  Their lessons are
simple, focused, and without much embellishment.”  “If it seems,” writes
MacArthur in his book Parables,
“the stories Jesus told are capable of endless interpretations and
therefore devoid of any discernible objective meaning, that’s because
truly understanding them requires faith, diligence, careful exegesis,
and a genuine desire to hear what Christ is saying.”  MacArthur adds,
“…all unbelievers lack that capacity.”

Vollotton goes to lengths to emphasize finding your destiny by
finding your people.  He describes in some detail the organization of
Bethel and how creating the proper “environment” for the pursuit of your
divine destiny is critical.  “An environment helps to actualize a
specific people group with a specific vision,” he writes.  “One of the
difficulties in becoming fully actualized occurs when you find yourself
in a community that doesn’t have the capacity or vision to collaborate
your calling.”

The latter third or so of the book offers superficial and euphemistic
encouragements for accelerating your actualization into your peep-found
destiny.  “Too many of us are spiritual mummies,” he suggests,
comparing to Lazarus who emerged from the tomb “alive but bound.”  To
get unbound, you have to confront pain and proceed to freedom.  Later he
offers “five foundational questions” that “are meant to help you
process and proactively evaluate the structures [your environment and
its accouterments] with which you are currently living, so you can
determine whether they are empowering or constraining you.”

His five closing questions, “Who is leading?” – “Who are the people
you are leading?” – “In what season are you leading?” – “What are you
called to accomplish in this season?” – “What core values are guiding
you in life in leadership?” – each are bullet-points supported by yet
other related questions.  These subjective queries are simply fodder for
Christianized psycho-babble self-analysis. They are not in response to
the important apostolic exhortation to “Examine yourself,” (2 Corinthians 13:5) but are posed to put you in the position to be the winner God expects and wants you to be.

The words “vision,” “hard-work,” “courage,” and adjectives consistent
with self-help pop psychology are strewn liberally throughout the book,
spiritualized, of course.  Vallotton couches them with Scripture to
provide an appearance of Christianity and slathers the book with Bible
verses so that a veneer of divine authority seems superficially evident.
 The “supernatural” elements of his – and Bethel’s – well-known, errant
theology are present in the book, but only subtly.  For example, he
cites direct revelations he or his wife have received from God.  (For
example, God told Vallotton’s wife they should move and take a job
offer with Bethel.  God told Vallotton that he should make a lifelong
covenant with Bill Johnson.)

For the minimal importance that genuine salvation matters in the
book, the closing chapter – “Unleashing Heaven” – includes a passing
remark reflective of the less-than-sovereign God well known to the
prosperity-gospel and much of the modern church, “What I mean is that
when you asked Jesus into your heart, you joined the Bless Me Club,
because wherever Jesus lives, He prospers.”  But this magic genie “God”
does not exist and does not save.  And authentic salvation isn’t winning
the golden ticket to Bless-Me-Land; rather, it’s “deny yourself, take
up your cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24)

The closing section of the book offers a self-scoring “Nobility
Assessment Test,” to “help you get a better picture of where you are in
your lifelong journey to nobility,” writes Vallotton, adding that, “You
are called to be a noble person, a winner, and a champion.” While it is
true that we are adopted into God’s family, the full realization of that
relationship will not be known on this side of eternity.  While we’re
here, it is not the pursuit of supernatural nobility or supernatural
gifts or supernatural self-actualization that is to drive us, but rather
obedience to Christ in His Word.  (John 14:21)

The Apostle Peter reminds his readers, and us, what our life’s aim ought truly look like, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  (1 Peter 1:16)

Destined To Win is
merely poorly Christianized pop-psychology motivational fodder.  It is
absolutely not worthwhile reading for a believer.  The only thing going
for it is that for heresy-neutics, it’s a worthy example.

 

LANCE WALLNAU & A TRUMP PROPHECY: FORETELLING BY MISHANDLING SCRIPTURE

LANCE WALLNAU & A TRUMP PROPHECY: 
FORETELLING BY MISHANDLING SCRIPTURE
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 https://brucegerencser.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/lance-wallnau.jpg
Lance Wallnau: Picture of The NAR’s Seven Mountains False Theology
 https://kingthunder.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/7m.jpg?w=464&h=316

In early 2016, false teacher and hurler of New Apostolic Reformation
seven-mountains dominionism, Lance Wallnau got an “impression,” an
“impression” from the Holy Spirit.  It was about Donald Trump,
specifically about Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of The
United States.  It was about Donald Trump being raised up by God just as
He raised up Cyrus for His purposes.

By October 2016, Wallnau’s “impression” became a full-blown
“prophecy.”  Of course, keep in mind that when a prophecy has a
coin-flip toss of being right, it’s “fore-telling” impact is more than
slightly diminished, even if revelatory prophecy were still occuring
today. (It is not.  FYI.)

According to Charisma News – which, believe it or don’t, isn’t a parody site; people actually believe it – Wallnau was reinforced in his Trump prophecy by way of a couple of curious “divine” insights.  Here’s what the Charisma News writer said:

“Wallnau told me he had an impression when he first met
Donald Trump early this year that there was an anointing on him. He
didn’t understand the impression since he preferred Ted Cruz, Marco
Rubio and Carly Fiorina. Then he saw a meme on Facebook showing Trump as
the nation’s 45th president. About the same time, he felt the Lord tell
him to read Isaiah 45, which says King Cyrus who is called the Lord’s
“anointed” and later in the chapter says, “I have even called you by
your name … though you have not known Me.”  (Source)

But wait.  Like a bad Sham-wow infomercial, there’s more!

“Wallnau then told me he felt he heard the Lord tell him
“common grace,” and he found the term in a Charles Colson book. It was a
term the Reformers used to contrast “saving grace,” when there was a
basic understanding of God that influenced governments and societies
even though the people who had this common grace might not have
experienced “saving grace.”  (Source)

(Guess what?  There’s a term I found in a book too.  “False teacher.”
 Found it in the Bible.  Far more weighty than a Colson text. FYI.)

But, for Wallnau, it adds up, huh?  Wallnau didn’t support Trump
early on.  Then he saw a meme.  Then he “felt the Lord tell him to read
Isaiah 45.”   Then the Lord said the words “common grace” to him.  And, wah-la Wallnau!  A prophecy.

The tipping point of authentication?  Not the voice of God.  (If
Wallnau heard anything, it wasn’t God.)  The adjudicating validation for
his prophetic claim was … SCRIPTURE.  But, not Scripture rightly
handled.  (2 Timothy 2:15)  It was Scripture thoroughly “mis-handled” that was the prophetic key.

Wallnau explains:

“With 15 candidates running, many who were clear
conservative evangelicals, why would God be talking about Cyrus? I
quickly looked up the number of the next president. I confirmed that
Barack Obama is number 44. The next president will indeed be number 45. I
kept reading Isaiah 45.”  (Source)

If only we could insert mood lighting and drama-building sound
effects when we write, you might apprehend how absolutely incredible
this revelation is.  It’s big.  It’s huge.  Wallnau predicted, with the
accuracy of a coin toss, the outcome of the election … based on
Scripture.

Trump is the 45th President.  The “Cyrus” effect is found in … Isaiah 45.  Who said America isn’t the new Israel?  (I jest, of course.)

There’s just one problem with this.  Though we have them now, the
original Holy Spirit-inspired, Hebrew Scriptures didn’t have chapter
divisions. There was no Isaiah 45.  It seems like the Lord might’ve used some method other than Bible-chapter bingo to confirm his prophecy to Wallnau.

What if Wallnau accidentally misunderstood?  What if it wasn’t Isaiah 45 he was to read, but Jeremiah 45?
 I mean, it’s just one book after Isaiah.  If it was actually Jeremiah
that Wallnau should’ve read, America could be in for quite a shock.
 Instead of “Wah-la Wallnau,” it could easily be “Woe, Wallnau.”

“Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land.  And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 45:4-5

Now, I’m not making any prophecies or anything, but Jeremiah 45 sure seems close to what Americans are seeking via Trump … “do you seek great things for yourself?”  What, again, was Trump’s campaign motto?  Make America Great Again.  Hmm.

Scripture itself is evidence that God is not seeking to hide Himself
or His Truth from the world.  We need not (and SHOULD NOT) play games
with it to rationalize our desires or to justify presumed (and false)
prophetic claims.  We need to “abide” in the Word, (John 8:31)
to apprehend its full truth, to be compelled to full obedience to it,
and to learn from it the assurance we can have because we have an
utterly sovereign God.

Beware the false prophets of the NAR who abuse God’s Word.  Skip the
spurious Cyrus prophecies.  But, if you’re looking for a genuine
revelation, pick up that Word and start reading.  It’s the entire
revelation of God that reveals “everything we need for life and
godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

And God … He doesn’t play bingo with His Word.  Don’t tolerate, then, those who do.

PATRIOT NURSE: THE VIOLENT UNRAVELING OF THE LEFT

PATRIOT NURSE: THE VIOLENT UNRAVELING 
OF THE LEFT
SEE ALSO:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/01/convicted-felon-womens-march-featured-female-speaker-kidnapped-raped-tortured-man/;
EXCERPT:
 
From The Daily Caller:

Hylton, along with three men and three other women,
kidnapped 62-year-old real-estate broker Thomas Vigliarolo and held him
for ransom, before eventually killing him. As noted in a 1995 Psychology Today article, when asked about forcibly sodomizing the victim with a three foot steel pole, Hylton replied: “He was a homo anyway.”

Speaking about Hylton, New York City Detective William Spurling told
Psychology Today: “I couldn’t believe this girl who was so intelligent
and nice-looking could be so unemotional about what she was telling me
she and her friends had done. They’d squeezed the victim’s testicles
with a pair of pliers, beat him, burned him.”

The Daily Caller goes on to report that Hylton even delivered the
ransom note to a friend of the victim demanding $400,000 even though
they had already killed him at that point.

According to the article she was sentenced to 25 years in prison
although in the video below she claims she spent 27 years in prison. The
amazing thing about this monster is she claims to be a victim which is
one of the hall marks signs of a psychopath.

 DONNA HYLTON
 

PRO TRUMP DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII TURNS ON OBAMA’S POLICY OF ARMING ISIS

 GABBARD’S HINDU WEDDING


REP. TULSI GABBARD

 “Gabbard grew up in a multicultural, multi-religious household: her father is of Samoan and European ancestry and an active lector at his Catholic church, but also enjoys practicing mantra meditation, including kirtan. Her mother is of European descent and a practicing Hindu. Tulsi fully embraced Hinduism as a teenager.”

 http://lybio.net/wp-content/uploads/Tulsi-Gabbard-Janmashtami-Message-2015.jpg

 Gabbard at the ceremony of her promotion to major 
on October 12, 2015
 
PRO TRUMP DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII TURNS ON OBAMA’S POLICY OF ARMING ISIS 
 Published on Jan 29, 2017

Rep.
Tulsi Gabbard recently met with Trump, drafted the Stop Arming
Terrorists Act, led a fact finding mission to Syria and met with Syria’s
president Bashir Al Assad. This is what leadership looks like.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill…

Tulsi Gabbard Veterans Day Speech (Nov. 11, 2016)

 
Congresswoman Tells Truth! There Are No 
Moderate Rebels
 Published on Jan 31, 2017

Congresswoman
Tulsi Gabbard went on a secret fact-finding mission to Syria and
discovered that the Syrian people were telling a very different story
than what the establishment media in the U.S. has been spinning.

Rather
than celebrate a U.S. official going above the call of duty to see how
Syria can truly find peace, Gabbard has been smeared by the
establishment as someone who’d dare question Washington’s (and former
President Obama and his Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and John
Kerry) decision on how to deal with Syria.

THE “PASSION TRANSLATION” OF THE BIBLE: THE NEW APOSTATE REFORMATION VERSION

 http://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/42/455/056/1424550564.jpg
THE “PASSION TRANSLATION” OF THE BIBLE: THE NEW APOSTATE REFORMATION VERSION 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 There is a new bible translation interpretation
 … let’s just cut to the chase, it’s not even a bible. It’s a collection
 of fiction stories that have a somewhat similar theme to the Scriptures
 but adds a whole lot of personal imagination to it.
I warn everyone who hears the words
of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to
him the plagues described in this book… – Revelation 22:18 (ESV (an actual translation))

This new storybook is called The Passion Translation. It’s popular among the New Apostolic
Apostate Reformation (NAR) crowd and quoted regularly by
hyper-charismatic false teachers like Bill Johnson and Mike Bickle. The
book was translated embellished by “Apostle” Brian Simmons,
a former missionary in Panama. Brian Simmons claims that God gave him a
direct divine revelation to create this embellished and highly
interpreted creation that he refers to as The Passion Translation.

The Passion Translation is not a completed work, only a handful of
books have been re-written and of these, they are replete with serious
errors. The interpretations and imaginations that Simmons inserts into
these texts, of course, support the NAR’s modern-day apostle theology.
For example, in Philippians 1:1, a true translation will read as follows:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ
Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the
overseers and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (ESV)
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of
Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi,
with the bishops and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (KJV)

Even the less accurate translation, the NIV, reads:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ
Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together
with the overseers and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (NIV)

This simple verse is translated almost identically in all of these
versions because the meaning is simple enough. There is no hidden text
that has been recently discovered in the ancient manuscripts (that
Simmons claims to have translated from). But let’s look at how Brian
Simmons embellishes this verse, then let’s see why.

My name is Paul and I’m joined by my spiritual son, Timothy, both of us passionate servants of Jesus, the Anointed One.
We write this letter to all his devoted followers in your city,
including your pastors, and to all the servant-leaders of the church.

Notice that Simmons is adding things to the text that simply are not
found there. This is his own interpretation of the meaning of these
texts. Is Jesus the anointed one? Yes, but that’s not what this text
says. Were Timothy and Paul passionate servants of Jesus? Yes, but that
isn’t what this text says. Further, the concept of “spiritual son” is
found nowhere in this text translated here. It doesn’t exist.

But there is an ulterior motive behind this. Brian Simmons is closely
tied to Bill Johnson of Bethel Church. Bill Johnson is an NAR Apostle
and believes in the idea of apostolic fathering–a false teaching endorsed by Michael Brown. According to Bill Johnson, in a book edited by Dr. Bruce Cook, Aligning With The Apostolic, the concept of “apostolic fathering” is part of the core of the New Apostolic Reformation.

One of the core values of the New Apostolic Reformation
movement is the principle of apostolic fathering — raising up spiritual
sons and daughters. And we see that principle here with David. In [Psalm
34] verse 11 he is addressing the 400 as his spiritual children — his
spiritual sons. The Hebrew word here is “ben” meaning son — one who is a
builder of the family name. This is a relational term, not just a
biological one. (source)

The Passion Translation consists of a number of these interpretations
and additions to the text. The sole purpose of this work by Simmons is
to promote the false ideology of the New Apostolic Reformation. It’s a
movement that has its strongholds in the younger generation. It’s
appealing because it’s accompanied by signs and wonders, ecstatic music,
and mystical experiences that draw attention away from the jejuneness
of sound theology normally suffered by unregenerate seekers. Empty
promises of unity and love tend to be the general theme NAR
gatherings and what better way to promote their false ideology than to
create a crackpot version of Scripture that falsely alleges that their
“apostolic authority” and theology is true.

Avoid this piece of work, and Brian Simmons, like the plague.

For the time is coming when people
will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. — 2 Tim 4:3-5 (ESV)
_____________________________________________________
 Rekindle Your Passion for God; Brian Simmons 
at Sid Roth’s “It’s Supernatural”:
 The Passion Translation Overview

K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS: DRAIN THIS SWAMP

K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS: DRAIN THIS SWAMP 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Donald
Trump promised to drain the swamp in Washington.  This task is
especially urgent in that large, malodorous part of the swamp known as
Education.

The
Education Establishment makes everything murky and unproductive by an
endless spew of jargon, incoherent theories, goofy methods, phony
research, and new names for failed ideas.  Finally, no two Americans can
talk constructively about anything in education.  It’s as if they are
talking across vast linguistic and cultural barriers, not over coffee at
Starbucks.  Education is now the fog-shrouded domain of dumbing down.
 Pervasive murkiness is a big part of the reason why so much educational
reform remains stymied.  Nothing moves fast in a swamp.
Here,
then, is a simple formula for quickly draining the educational swamp:
eliminate all the counterproductive ideas introduced over the last 85
years.  That’s it.  These bad ideas, like the viruses in your computer,
did not appear by accident.  They were systematically and deliberately
placed in the schools by John Dewey’s socialist “change agents.”  The
good news is that these bad ideas can be removed in that same deliberate
way – just as a technician removes viruses from your computer.  Presto: schools will be better and cheaper.
Start by eliminating any reading instruction that is not phonics. 
(That would include such folderol as Whole Word, Whole Language,
Sight-Words, Balanced Literacy, High-Frequency Words, Dolch Words, Fry
Words, and others.)  Systematic phonics teaches a simple sequence: kids
learn the alphabet; they learn that each letter stands for a sound; they
learn to blend those sounds.  This process moves much faster than many
people might realize, given the current low level of performance.  Phonics experts say
most children learn to read in the first grade, and usually by the
midpoint of first grade.  If children aren’t learning to read in the
first grade, you know you are in a swamp.
(To accelerate reading and other academic activities, children should learn cursive handwriting. 
They may or may not use this skill later in life; this doesn’t matter.
 Cursive serves a vital purpose in the early years of school: it makes
children more precise, careful, and observant.  Learning cursive speeds
up both physical and cognitive abilities.)
Discard the last vestiges of New Math, Reform Math,
and Common Core Math.  Despite superficial differences, these
pedagogies agree that basic skills need not be mastered, instruction
should spiral wildly from one topic to another, non-standard methods
should be emphasized, and if every student ends up dependent on a
calculator, that’s fine.  The frustration level is very high; these
dysfunctional methods typically make children cry and adults scream.
The biggest boondoggle in public schools is called Constructivism.
  (Like any good criminal, it’s known by a bunch of aliases, such as
Project-Based Learning, Experiential Method, Discovery Method, and
others.)  The idea behind all these names is brilliantly perverse.  Here
it is: teachers must not teach.  They can hang around in the back of
the room.  They can murmur approval, but they must not teach directly to
the students.  Students are expected to teach themselves.  Almost
everything labeled Constructivist should be thrown out.  Teachers must
themselves be well educated; they can then be let loose to do their job.
Another idea that should be eliminated, for the most part, is called Cooperative Learning. 
Children work in small groups.  They think as one, create as one, and
succeed or fail as one.  Here we have socialist world-building inside
each classroom.  Socialists love this idea.  However, as you can
imagine, students lose the ability to think independently and to solve
problems by themselves.  Furthermore, teachers don’t have a good read on
which kids are advancing at a proper pace and which need help.
Another prejudice to discard as soon as possible is the one against memorization.  Wouldn’t
it be better if children actually acquire knowledge, an outcome
collectivist ideologues disdain?  Apparently, their goal is that all
children end up equally empty-headed and mediocre.  Ideally, children
would again be able to memorize multiplication tables, poetry, dates,
famous people, place names, spelling, grammar, anything they would be
better off knowing.  Let education begin!
Still another content-killer is the sophistry called self-esteem.  If Mike can spell Mississippi
and Ted cannot, Ted will feel bad.  This can’t be allowed.  So what
does the school do?  It makes sure Mike doesn’t learn to spell any more
long words.  The acquisition of knowledge is slowed down so slower kids
will feel okay about themselves, but in return, they are locked in place
forever.  Meanwhile, the smarter kids are taught to accept low goals
and standards.  This one pathetic little “virus” can crush a school
system all by itself.
Another
in-your-face sophistry is called Multiculturalism, which is often
partnered with Relevance.  Multiculturalism says kids can study only
foreign cultures.  This leads to the absurdity that American children
know the names of Chinese rivers but don’t know the name of the
Mississippi.  Relevance cuts from the other direction, insisting that
children should study only the world they live in.  If interpreted
narrowly, this approach keeps children from learning foreign
countries, ancient history, and anything the child does not encounter
every day.  In practice, anything you want to add to a K-12 curriculum
can be dismissed because it’s not Multicultural or it’s not Relevant.
 In consequence, very little is taught in our public schools.
QED: Our Education Establishment is diabolically clever.

Let’s
also throw out the idea, long ago popularized by “progressive”
educators, that if a classroom is confused, disrupted, and not very
different from a playground or lunatic asylum,
the children will learn faster because it will be oh, so creative.
 This might be true occasionally; more typically, this is just a
sophistry in defense of chaos.  Send children outside for physical
activity. In the classroom, let children run and play intellectually.
 Create a mood that will encourage serious learning.  Disorderly,
dangerous classrooms reveal that the Education Establishment is not
serious about learning.
Our
high-level educators are obsessed with social engineering, not so much
with academic progress.  I believe that all these bad ideas were
injected into the schools as a way of putting the brakes on intellectual
success.  The biggest brake is obviously prolonged illiteracy.  If kids
can’t read, they can’t learn.  The other gimmicks enumerated so
far, when piled on top of semi-literacy, create the ineffective,
horribly wasteful K-12 we have now.
You
can’t ask parents to be more involved when the system is
incomprehensible by design.  The Education Establishment seems to love
strategies that don’t work, and then murkiness to cover up this tragic
truth.  If we want a rebirth of education, we need far more transparency
and clarity.  Only then can parents and community leaders understand
what’s happening to the children.  Only then can the country have the
schools we need.
Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on his education site Improve-Education.org.  For info on his four new novels, see his literary site Lit4u.com.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION LOSES FUNDING OVER N.J. MOSQUE BUILDING SUPPORT~RUSSELL MOORE’S LEFTIST LEANINGS

 THE “LITTLE PEOPLE” WITHHOLD MONIES; CHALLENGE RUSSELL MOORE’S UNBIBLICAL SUPPORT OF FALSE RELIGION IN THE NAME OF 
“SOUL FREEDOM” & “RELIGIOUS LIBERTY”
 

 ABOVE: ARTIST RENDERING OF MOSQUE IN BASKING RIDGE, N.J.

SEE OUR PREVIOUS POST:

SBC Loses Funding Over Mosque-Building Support
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Artist’s Rendering Of The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus
“Alexander the coppersmith suffered
great harm as a result of our Lord’s gospel diminishing his business.  I
urge you brother to aid him by making offerings and gestures of good
will for the peace of Ephesus and the cooperation between the pagan
deity of Artemis and the church of Christ there.  Surely there is no
reason they ought suffer in the worship of their idols while you
continue the good work of the faith of Christ.  See that your
support to him is made known.”  Paul to Timothy … via the SBC IMB &
ERLC Translation

Remember how Paul encouraged his young protege Timothy to show
tolerance in the wake of the outbreak of riots in Ephesus demanding
religious liberty for the artisans of the temple of Artemis?   Remember
how he sought to persuade the church to take up a collection to help
offset Alexander the coppersmith’s financial loss as a result of the
spread of the Gospel there? Do you remember that?  No?  Neither do I.
 Because it didn’t happen.  But, according to a couple of agencies in
the Southern Baptist Convention, maybe such a show of ecumenical support
should have happened because that exactly what they did some two
millennia later.

IMB President David Platt & ERLC President Russell Moore

We reported last year
about the alliance of the SBC’s International Mission Board (IMB) and
its Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) in their joint
support for a mosque building effort in New Jersey.  Both agencies
signed on to an amicus brief to support the Islamic Society of Basking
Ridge New Jersey in its lawsuit seeking a redress for city zoning
ordinances that denied building permits for its planned construction of a
new mosque in the town.
Through these agencies, the Southern Baptist Convention officially
supported the Muslims in their mosque-building effort.  But some
individual Southern Baptists standing in pulpits and sitting in pews did
not necessarily so agree.
The ERLC’s president Russell Moore doubled down with sarcastic snarkiness to a question posed at the 2016 SBC Annual Meeting
by the pastor of a cooperating SBC church about just how his agency
could justify its support.  Moore’s response exalted that particular
idol of the ERLC – religious liberty – and indicated that among the many
challenging issues facing the agency, of the many things that require
concerted, focused thoughtfulness, the question to support the mosque
building effort was not among them.  It was a no-brainer.

“You know sometimes we have to deal with questions that
are really complicated and we have to spend a lot of time thinking them
through and not sure what the final result was going to be. Sometimes we
have really hard decisions to make. This isn’t one of those things.”
 Russell Moore

By December 2016, the mosque won as a federal judge weighed in on the
dispute, landing on the side of religious liberty for the mosque.  That
brought the issue to a close … for the Muslims. But for Southern
Baptists, the eagerness of their Cooperative Program-funded agencies to
support what many Southern Baptists recognize as the face of evil on the
planet, the problem hasn’t gone away.  Much like evil itself, the
repercussions from SBC support of mosque-building is still very much
alive.

Pastor Dean Haun

Earlier this month, a trustee of the IMB resigned
in protest to that agency’s participation in the mosque-building
effort. The trustee, Dean Haun, is pastor of First Baptist Church of
Morristown, Tennessee.  He also happens to be a former president of the
Tennessee Baptist Convention.
As he posed his concern to the Baptist and Reflector,
Haun makes an astute point, one that seems to have bypassed the IMB and
the ERLC, as evidenced at least by Moore’s smug, rather pompous remarks
to the legitimate query of another pastor at the recent convention.
 Haun says,

“When I look at our IMB mission and purpose statements, I cannot see how this action meshes with them … If we defend the rights of people to construct places of false worship are we not helping them speed down the highway to hell?…I
want no part in supporting a false religion even if it is in the name
of religious freedom…Our Baptist institutions’ names will be on this
brief setting legal precedence and supporting the right of mosques to be
built all over our nation for years to come.” (Source)

Apparently, Haun hasn’t received a viable, Biblically responsible answer to his query.
As reported in the Christian Post, Haun and his 2,000 member church have taken the next step to hopefully make their point.  The church voted … unanimously
… to withhold its contributions to the Cooperative Program.  This
effectively prevents funds collected through their offering plates to
make their way to support an IMB and ERLC that seem to exhibit more
allegiance to religious liberty than they do to the exclusivity of
Christ.
Haun’s church gives about 11% per year to the program.  Their annual
Lottie Moon Christmas offering in 2016 exceeded $150,000 to the SBC
cooperative missions effort.  Last year the church gave “around a half
million dollars” in missions funding.  Though the church will still
continue to financially support the state convention in it’s Tennessee
missions efforts, the funding that would have gone to the Cooperative
Program is being escrowed.
So, in light of the IMB and ERLC’s bold stand with Muslims, at least
one pastor and one church are making their own bold stand … against
their own denomination.  They are standing boldly for the exclusivity of
the Gospel message for which Southern Baptists have – perhaps until the
IMB/ERLC mosque-building effort – always been known.
Yet, for the IMB and the ERLC and much of the SBC, “American”
Christianity is the theology hurled from pulpits, absorbed in pews, and
serves often to drive the agenda of CP-funded agencies.  Religious
liberty is the preeminent “spiritual” gift the false god of that false
faith can offer, and the SBC seems all too eager to bend a knee to it.
 It’s unlikely that Haun’s stand alone will prompt the behemoth SBC to
realize it’s error and repent, but Haun and his church should be
applauded for their stand.   While the SBC seems decidedly unconcerned
about the sovereignty of God, the exaltation and exclusivity of Christ,
and the need to “contend for the faith,” at least one church seems to
be.

“Do not be unequally yoked with
unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or
what fellowship has light with darkness?”  2 Corinthians 6:14

Scriptural commands like Paul’s have become, in the SBC, more like
Scriptural suggestions.  As evidenced by the IMB and ERLC in this case,
apostolic orders, given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are
heeded about as much a smoke detector in a burning building.  Scripture
is visibly ignored.
But since these agencies will disregard Scripture, perhaps Haun and
his church are doing the most obvious thing – taking away the money.
 After all, it was the threat of financial loss to the temple of Artemis
that prompted those riots in Ephesus.  (Acts 19:21-41)
It’s just a shame that, had the Apostle Paul been facing his Ephesian
uproar in our day, the SBC would’ve signed the amicus brief right along
with Alexander the coppersmith … and defended the action with the claim
of “soul freedom for everyone.”
As Paul actually wrote to Timothy, “Alexander the coppersmith did me
great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” (2 Timothy 4:14)
 Should the IMB, the ERLC, and the SBC fail to repent of their clear
violation of the Lord’s command, they can, like Alexander, be sure that
“the Lord will repay.”
Unlike the Muslims who benefited from the ecumenical spirit of
religious liberty-worshipping SBC agencies, and who ultimately won by
the intercession of a federal judge, for those within the SBC, like Haun
and his church, who staunchly disagree with this egregious SBC
behavior, there is no federal judge to intervene. At some point, though,
it will be the Supreme and Sovereign Judge who does.
Still, that this ever happened, there’s one verse – knowingly misapplied – that comes to mind … “Jesus wept.”
______________________________________________________

 Russell Moore and the School of the Prophets of Shame
BY GIDEON KNOX
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Some glaring fault lines have appeared in the conversation about Russell Moore, many of which were exposed by the recent essay in The Federalist written by one of Moore’s fans,
Nathan Leamer of the R Street Institute. Since being crowned head of
the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) in 2013, Dr. Moore
has been no stranger to controversy, much of which he brings upon
himself. His tendency has been to pervert the classic Christian world
view and mix it with language which panders to the left while he openly
admonished evangelicals to disengage the culture war as we entered the
most hostile attacks in the nation’s history.

This may actually be a careful strategy that resembles the “tactics
“of Moore’s most popular target and the source of his current troubles,
President elect Donald Trump. Trump skillfully uses controversy to grab
headlines and kept himself and his campaign on the front page. Trump is a
thick skinned veteran of the New York gossip columns. Trump, therefore,
plays the media as one adept with his NYC and DC survival skills. Moore
may miss the goal and lack the skills to pull this off.

Dr. Moore began his reign by providing us a taste of both his
winsomeness and new tone for the ERLC and evangelicals’ cultural
engagement. But today for Moore, the thought of a Trump presidency seems
to have caused the evaporation of his winsome veneer exposing a
“Prophet of Shame.” “After Trump’s unexpected win, Moore’s pandering to
the political Left seems to have gone into hyper-drive. Moore wants
Christians who have supported Trump to hide their faces. Yet Trump’s
clarity is appealing while Moore’s shame and double speak is divisive.
Christian radio host Janet Mefferd pointed out that Trump inherited many
evangelicals later in the campaign, and he was not their first choice.
But Moore seems determined to let the facts escape him. Others in the
SBC and conservative Evangelical circles echo the same “Blame Game”
toward evangelicals who supported Trump’s campaign .Ed Stetzer implies
that electing Trump has created a climate of racism for which white
evangelicals must explain themselves to Christians of Color ”So, what is really going on?  What are the fault lines Moore and others are missing?

Here Are a Few:

1. Moore is attempting to rebrand the ERLC and the evangelical tone.
He is speaking mostly to next generation of believers whom the Southern
Baptist Convention fears losing – people like Nathan Leamer. Moore
critics are not, as Leamer suggests “a small but vocal minority. They
are the people who pay Moore’s salary and fund his organization.  Former
Senator Mike Huckabee points out that Baptist are “paying Moore to
insult them.”  Moore is failing because he is trying to pour new wine
into old wine skins- (Mark 2:22
). Both the young and old may be alienated in the end. Dr. Moore, why
not start a new organization (wine skin) with the purpose of rebranding
the conversation rather than confusing the present one and furthering
the age divide?

2. Moore is the crown prince of evangelical contradiction.
He welcomes confusing partners like LGBTQ activist who want to redefine
marriage while he ignores, shuns, and shames seasoned conservatives who
understand that the LGBTQ debate is merely a tool that uses the LGBT
community so that progressives can redefine sexual norms and even
personhood. After more than three years in Washington, D.C. does Dr.
Moore understand this yet? Progressives USE minorities. They do not help
them.

3. Russell Moore misidentifies his victims. When
Moore insults the “Christian Right,” he is actually speaking of the
Conservative Christian who craves clarity and conviction on Faith
Values. He attacks these voters as if they were the machinery behind the
conservative political movement. When Christian voters allow this
misidentification and assault, they are thus stigmatized by the press,
progressives, and the new brand of social justice Christian voter. The
fact is most conservatives’ theology tends to be more compatible with
social policy than is the brand of Moore and his followers. Doesn’t
Russell Moore need to get his labels right before applying them?

4. Moore is attempting to build the ERLCs new foundation on the shifting sands of culture.
It is not possible to maintain real integrity to our espoused
theological conservatism and yet be socially pondering if not outright
grasping every progressive object floating on the surface of the current
cultural floodtide. Moore, if not confused himself does allow his
language to confuse others. Moore embraces immigration policies, for
example, that favor the lefts ideology as if he does not know of George
Soros existence or has never heard of open borders. In short Moore
quickly adopts talking points loaded with activist policy and expects
his base to follow while he espouses faithfulness to Biblical values
wrapped in this new terminology. Is this fair to expect thinking people
to follow along?

This article first appeared in BarbWire, written by Thomas Littleton. To read more, click here.