Month: February 2019
THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION & THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
In April 1995, Charisma magazine reported that two professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (William Hendricks and Tim Webber) urged the churches not to fear the charismatic movement. Hendricks, director of Southern’s doctoral studies, said, “We shouldn’t feel defensive or threatened by an alternative experience, perspective or insights about the Holy Spirit,” and warned that in fighting the charismatic movement “you could be fighting what is a legitimate experience of the Spirit.”
In March 1999, a Charisma magazine report entitled “Shaking Southern Baptist Tradition” gave many examples of charismatic Southern Baptist congregations.
Three of the men that are associated with the charismatic move within the SBC are Jack Taylor, Ron Phillips, and Gary Folds, all of whom accepted the unscriptural nonsense that occurred at the Toronto Airport Church in Ontario and/or at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.
This charismatic “revival” took the form of gibberish speakings, uncontrollable laughter, falling on the floor, rolling on the floor, barking like a dog, roaring like a lion, braying like a donkey, electric shocks, shakings, jerkings, and other bizarre experiences with no biblical support.
Jack Taylor is a former vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Taylor was converted to the “Toronto Blessing” when he visited there in 1994. Since then he has spoken frequently on the radical Trinity Broadcasting Network and similar Charismatic forums. He founded Dimension Ministries and is busy influencing Southern Baptists and others with his unscriptural doctrines.
Ron Phillips is pastor of Central Baptist Church of Hixson, Tennessee. His annual Fresh Oil & New Wine Conference, which features speakers such as Rodney Howard-Browne, the “Holy Ghost Bartender,” draws hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors and church members. The church uses the charismatic rock-style music and is experiencing charismatic phenomenon. Another Southern Baptist pastor, Dwain Miller of Second Baptist Church in El Dorado, Arkansas, has prophesied to Phillips that God would use him “to bring renewal to the SBC’s 41,000 churches.” He is referring to a charismatic “renewal,” which is always accompanied by unscriptural ecumenical fervor and downplaying of Bible doctrine. In 2006, Phillips told the Tennessean newspaper that he first experienced speaking in tongues when he was sleeping. He said his wife woke him up and said, “What in the world are you saying?” He concluded that it was a gift from God to encourage him (“Some Baptists Believe Gift of Tongues Remain,” The Tennessean, March 26, 2006). He says that he continues to speak in tongues in his “private prayers.” Of course, there is not a hint of something like this in the New Testament Scriptures. In 2008 Phillips counted 500 churches in his charismatic network (“Charismatic Southern Baptist Churches,” Baptist Standard, Oct. 30, 2008).
Gary Folds is the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Belle Glade, Florida. He has written a book promoting the Toronto “Blessing” entitled Bull in a China Shop: A Baptist Pastor Runs into God at Toronto. He describes being “slain” in the Spirit and other such things. Following is how he described the meetings he attended: “Some people would simply lay on the floor as though they were sleeping … Others would writhe in what appeared to be anguish, pain, or possibly agony. Some would twitch, while others shook, and some would even have convulsive-type jerking. Many would cry, while an even greater number would laugh … Many of them would laugh for an hour or longer. One night I saw people laugh for almost two and a half hours.”
James Robison is another example of SBC charismatics. The once fiery evangelist used to lift his voice against sin and apostasy, but those days are over. In 1979, he had some sort of charismatic experience. That same year he spoke at an Assembly of God church. By 1981, he had completely gone over to the ecumenical Charismatic-Roman Catholic line. That was the year he first invited a Roman Catholic to speak at his Bible conference. Robison was so comfortable with the ecumenical program by 1987 that he joined hands with 20,000 Roman Catholics, including hundreds of priests and nuns, at New Orleans ‘87. At this meeting, Robison made the following amazing statement: “I tell you what, one of the finest representatives of morality in this earth right now is the Pope. People who know it really believe he is a born again man.” I was at this meeting with press credentials and personally recorded the message from which this excerpt is taken. Robison remains affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and has influenced many Southern Baptists in the charismatic direction.
Another example is evangelist Bill Sharples. He resigned a Southern Baptist pastorate after accepting the tongues-speaking movement, but 25% of his meetings are in SBC churches. He claims that 15 to 20 percent of Southern Baptists that he meets are open to the Charismatic movement.
Billy Graham is another Southern Baptist who has recommended tongues and charismatic signs and wonders. In his 1978 book, The Holy Spirit, he “endorsed laying on of hands, divine healing and tongues.” He said: “As we approach the end of the age I believe we will see a dramatic recurrence of signs and wonders, which will demonstrate the power of God to a skeptical world.” Graham even promoted the false charismatic prophet Oral Roberts. Graham spoke at the dedication ceremony of Oral Roberts University in 1962. Later that year Graham joined Oral Roberts as a speaker at the July 1962 convention of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International in Seattle, Washington. Graham invited Roberts to the World Congress on Evangelism in 1966 and recommended him to influential evangelical leaders.
Pat Robertson is another example. In the late 1950s he became involved in the Pentecostal movement and began “speaking in tongues.” He established the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960, and that same year was ordained by the Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia, a Southern Baptist congregation. A few years later he formed the “700 Club,” which spread ecumenical and charismatic doctrine far and wide. He still claims to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Speaking at Celebration 2000 in St. Louis, Missouri, Robertson testified that though he is a Baptist, he sees the need for Roman Catholic charismatics to visit Baptist churches in order to teach the Baptists how to dance and worship God.
Another charismatic Southern Baptist is Pastor Wallace Henley, Crossroads Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. His church practices tongues speaking, and he supports the “revival” at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, where the pastor gets so “drunk in the spirit” that he cannot lead the congregation. Henley claims that those who are opposed to the charismatic movement are “pharisaical” and “mean-spirited.”
In November 2005 the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board voted to forbid missionaries to speak in tongues, but Jerry Rankin, the head of the board, said that he has spoken in a “private prayer language” for 30 years. What confusion!
Speaking at a chapel service on August 29, 2006, Dwight McKissic, a trustee of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the students that he speaks in tongues in his “private prayer life” (“Southwestern Trustee’s Sermon on Tongues Prompts Response,” Baptist Press, Aug. 30, 2006). McKissic, who is the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, an SBC congregation in Arlington, Texas, said he has prayed in tongues since 1981. The first time, he says, was when he was a seminary student. He recalls, “Strange sounds begin to come out of my mouth” (“Southern Baptists Debate Tongues,” cbs11tv.com, October 07, 2006).
Missionary David Rogers, son of the late Adrian Rogers, SAID HE WORKS WITH MANY MISSIONARIES WHO PRACTICE PRIVATE TONGUES.
Charles Carroll, SBC missionary to Singapore who was dismissed by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in 1995 because of his charismatic activities, testified that many
Southern Baptists living overseas are charismatic, but most remain “in the closet” for fear of being fired (“Baptist Missionaries in the Closet,” Charisma, March 1999, p. 72).
In May 2015, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board reversed its former policy, approving a new one accepting missionaries who speak in “tongues” so long as they don’t become “disruptive” by placing “persistent emphasis on any specific gift of the Spirit as normative for all” (“FAQs on Missionary Appointment Qualifications,” IMB Policy 200-1, IMB.org).
Thus, this is not a small issue. Rankin and those supporting his position are trying to distinguish between public tongues and private, saying that while they are opposed to public “tongues” they believe there is a private form of tongues that one can use to edify oneself.
In fact, the tongues of Acts are the tongues of 1 Corinthians 14. Biblical tongues were real languages that a believer was enabled to speak supernaturally. Biblical tongues were a sign to the nation Israel that God was going to send the gospel to every nation and create a new spiritual body composed of both Jews and Gentiles (1 Cor. 14:20-22, quoting Isaiah 28:11-13). Each time tongues were spoken in the book of Acts (Acts 2, 10, 19) Jews were present. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, the Jews rejected the sign and were judged by God. The purpose of tongues speaking ceased even before the events recorded in the book of Acts were completed. The last mention of tongues is in Acts 19. The sign, having been fulfilled, ceased. When John Chrysostom wrote in the 4th century about the sign gifts of 1 Corinthians 12-14, he said: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to, and BY THEIR CESSATION, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place” (“Homilies on 1 Corinthians,” Vol. XII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Hom. 29:2).
There is no “private prayer language” in the New Testament. It is the recent invention of Pentecostals and charismatics who, having realized that they cannot speak in real tongues that can be interpreted (one of the absolute biblical requirements), were forced either to renounce their experience or to create some sort of cockeyed defense for it. There is not one example of a prayer in the Bible that is uttered in unintelligible mutterings that “bypass the intellect.” Jesus Christ did not pray that way and neither did the apostles. I have heard charismatics speak in their “private prayer language” in churches and conferences in many parts of the world. Larry Lea’s “private prayer language” at Indianapolis ’90 went something like this: “Bubblyida bubblyida hallelujah bubblyida hallabubbly shallabubblyida kolabubblyida glooooory hallelujah bubblyida.” I wrote that down as he was saying it and later checked it against the tape. Nancy Kellar, a Roman Catholic nun who was on the executive committee of St. Louis 2000, spoke in “tongues” that went like this: “Shananaa leea, shananaa higha, shananaa nanaa, shananaa leea…” repeated over and over.
Friends, this is not any sort of biblical language; it is childish nonsense, but it is neither innocent nor lacking in spiritual danger. The Bible warns repeatedly and forcefully about the danger of spiritual deception, and those who empty their minds through the practice of a “private prayer language” are in danger that the devil will fill them. Being “sober and vigilant” is the opposite of emptying one’s mind, of “moving outside of the box,” of “letting go and letting God.”
The depth of which the SBC has drunk of the charismatic spirit was evident in December 2015 when SBC President Ronnie Floyd spoke at International House of Prayer’s OneThing 2015 (ihopkc.org/onething/speakers-worship-leaders). IHOP was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle (b. 1955). He was joined by men such as Bob Jones, John Paul Jackson, Paul Cain, David Parker, and Francis Frangipane, who were promoted as prophets of a latter-day miracle revival movement. Bickle’s emphasis is a Latter Rain signs and wonders ministry in preparation for Christ’s return. IHOP hosts 24/7 prayer meetings which are mystical contemporary worship “encounters” powered by rock music. They are weird charismatic free-for-alls. IHOP’s 24/7 prayer sessions have been described as “frenetic … euphoric worship … mesmeric, musical worship, repeating the same phrases over and over” (“Love and Death in the House of Prayer”). I can confirm this from my visit in October 2014 to an IHOP conference. IHOP’s 24/7 “prayer” is not about thoughtful, biblical prayer or quiet, thoughtful meditation on Scripture. It is about charismatic mysticism whereby God is allegedly “encountered” in and beyond prayer and Scripture. It is about “experiencing” God. It is about bringing in the kingdom of God through signs and wonders. This is why IHOP is attracted to Roman Catholic contemplative prayer, as evidenced by the fact that their bookstore features dozens of contemplative titles. Contemplative prayer has the same mystical objective as IHOP’s 24/7 prayer: an experience with God and direct revelation from God beyond Scripture. But when you go beyond Scripture, you go beyond the God of Scripture, and you open yourself to angels of darkness masquerading as angels of light. This is why charismatic worship and contemplative prayer lead to association with Rome, the heart and soul of apostasy, and ultimately to universalism, pantheism, panentheism, and idolatry, as we have documented in our book Contemplative Mysticism. IHOP is so deceived that it believes it will literally direct God’s judgments on earth during the Tribulation. For more on this see “The International House of Prayer” at www.wayoflife.org.
One of the major bridges from the charismatic movement into Southern Baptist churches and homes is contemporary worship music. The 2008 Southern Baptist Hymnal contains a great many songs written by charismatics and published by charismatic music companies such as Integrity, Maranatha, and Hillsong. About 75 of the top 100 contemporary worship songs are included. For example, songs by David Ruis, Paul Baloche, Jack Hayford and Darlene Zschech are included.
These songs are direct bridges to the one-world “church.” I don’t know of one prominent contemporary worship artist who is opposed in any practical sense to the charismatic movement and ecumenism, and that includes the Gettys.
David Ruis was a worship leader at the Toronto Airport Church where people rolled on the floor, barked like dogs, roared like lions, laughed hysterically, and got “drunk in the spirit” during their “revivals.” Ruis’s song “Break Dividing Walls” calls for unscriptural ecumenical unity between all denominations.
Paul Baloche was worship leader at the charismatic Community Christian Fellowship of Lindale, Texas. Their 2002 Leadership Summit featured Ricky Paris of Vision Ministries International, who calls himself an apostle and is said to give “apostolic covering” to Vision Church of Austin, Texas. Baloche’s Offering of Worship album was recorded at Regent University in Virginia Beach, which was founded by the radical charismatic ecumenist Pat Robertson. As far back as 1985, Robertson said that he “worked for harmony and reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics” (Christian News, July 22, 1985). Some of the Regent professors are Roman Catholic and Regent’s Center for Law and Justice has a Roman Catholic executive director. According to Frontline magazine, May-June 2000, a Catholic mass is held on Regent’s campus every week.
Jack Hayford, author of the song “Majesty” (which teaches the Pentecostal kingdom-now theology) and many other very popular worship songs, is pastor of Church-on-the-Way Foursquare Church, a Pentecostal denomination founded by the female pastor Aimee Semple McPherson. Paul and Jan Crouch, of the Trinity Broadcasting Network are members of Hayford’s church. Speaking at the St. Louis 2000 conference, Hayford told how his daughter approached him one day and expressed concern that her “tongues speaking” was mere gibberish. He encouraged her that the believer must first learn to speak in “baby tongues” before he speaks in “adult tongues.” (I attended this conference with press credentials and heard Hayford say this.) To the contrary, biblical tongues-speaking is not something that can be learned; it is a supernatural gift and there is not one example in the New Testament of someone learning how to speak in tongues. Hayford claims that in 1969, as he approached a large Catholic church in Southern California, God spoke to him and instructed him not to judge Roman Catholicism. He says he heard a message from God saying, “Why would I not be happy with a place where every morning the testimony of the blood of my Son is raised from the altar?” (“The Pentecostal Gold Standard,”Christianity Today, July 2005). Based upon this “personal revelation,” Hayford adopted a neutral approach to Catholicism, yet the atonement of Jesus Christ is NOT glorified on Roman Catholic altars. The Catholic mass is an open denial of the doctrine of the once-for-all atonement that we find in the book of Hebrews. Note what the Second Vatican Council said about the mass: “For in it Christ perpetuates in an unbloody manner the sacrifice offered on the cross, offering himself to the Father for the world’s salvation through the ministry of priests” (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery,” Intro., C 1, 2, p. 108). This is only a small part of Rome’s wicked heresies, and it is impossible that God would encourage Jack Hayford to look upon the Roman Catholic Church in any sort of positive, non-judgmental manner. Hayford has acted on this “personal revelation” by yoking up with Roman Catholic leaders in conferences throughout the world. For example, he joined hands with thousands of Roman Catholics, including hundreds of Catholic priests and nuns, at the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit & World Evangelization in St. Louis in 2000. This is evidence of spiritual blindness of the highest degree.
Darlene Zschech and her Hillsong worship band performed for the Catholic Youth Day in Sydney, with the pope present. The lyrics to Zschech’s “Holy Spirit Rain Down” (which is included in the new Baptist Hymnal) begin: “Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down/ Oh, Comforter and Friend/ How we need Your touch again/ Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down.” Where in Scripture are we instructed to pray to the Holy Spirit? To the contrary, the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray to the Father (Mat. 6:9). The charismatic movement is not in submission to the Word of God and does not care one way or the other that there is no Scriptural support for this type of prayer, but shame on Baptists who follow in these presumptuous and disobedient footsteps.
Zschech’s song “I Believe the Presence” from her Shout to the Lord album preaches false Pentecostal latter rain theology. The lyrics say: “I believe the promise about the visions and the dreams/ That the Holy Spirit will be poured out/ And His power will be seen/ Well the time is now/ The place is here/ And His people have come in faith/ There’s a mighty sound/ And a touch of fire/ When we’ve gathered in one place” (“I Believe the Presence” from Shout to the Lord).
Shame on Lifeway for giving charismatics a powerful forum to influence Baptist churches, and shame on the Southern Baptist Convention for allowing Lifeway to do these things.
Because the SBC refuses to deal with this error consistently, the leaven will continue to spread. The Bible warns that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” This is true for sin (1 Cor. 5:6) as well as for false doctrine (Gal. 5:9).
In a few years, someone will probably be writing about “tongues speaking” and other charismatic phenomena among Independent Baptists.
(For more about the charismatic movement see The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: History and Doctrine, available from Way of Life Literature.)
MUSLIM REP. ILHAN OMAR KEEPS PLACE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE DESPITE HER ANTI-SEMITISM
WASHINGTON — Newly elected Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggested on Sunday that Jewish money was behind American elected officials’ support for Israel, sparking widespread condemnation and fresh allegations of anti-Semitism.Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, was responding on Twitter to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCathy’s vow to “take action” against her and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, both of whom support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.“It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” Omar tweeted, reacting to another tweet from the prominent journalist Glenn Greenwald, who said it was “stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans,” referring to McCarthy’s pledge.Benjamins are a slang term for $100 bills, which feature US founding father Benjamin Franklin.When one journalist followed up by saying she wondered who Omar thought was paying American politicians to be pro-Israel, Omar responded: “AIPAC!,” referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.While the pro-Israel lobby wields considerable influence in Washington, it does not contribute to campaigns, nor does it make endorsements.Omar, a Somali-born refugee from Ethiopia, was recently appointed to the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. In recent weeks, Omar and others have been vociferous critics of two anti-BDS bills that are being pushed in Congress….
_______________________________________________________________
ILHAN OMAR’S NON-APOLOGY FOR HER ANTI-SEMITISM
Will she make more anti-Semitic statements?
Will the sun rise?
_________________________________________________________________
President Donald Trump turned up the pressure on Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar Tuesday, demanding the first-term lawmaker resign over her Twitter comments that many of her own colleagues called anti-Semitic.‘I think she should either resign from congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,’ Trump said – stoking a controversy that prompted senior Democrats and party leaders blasting Omar’s comments about Israel.Speaking at the top of a meeting with his cabinet, Trump said Omar’s comments were ‘deep seeded in her heart.’ He also called her apology, issued Monday after the entire Democratic leadership issued a statement condemning her comments, ‘lame.’Omar apologized ‘unequivocally,’ she said. But she added: ‘At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry.’One of the tweets that drew criticism was her one word tweet: ‘AIPAC!’ which referenced the powerful American Israel PAC. She also tweeted ‘all about the Benjamins’ – in comments colleagues said made it seem Israel supporters adopted their positions for cash.Trump’s determination to tee off on the issue was revealed on the bottom of his hand-written notes. They said: in all capital letters that ‘Congresswoman Omar should be asked to resign or at least get off the Foreign Affairs Committee.’Trump also weighed in on the controversy swirling around Rep. Ilhan Omar Monday night, saying the first-term lawmaker ‘should be ashamed of herself’ for her ‘all about the Benjamins’ comment.‘I think she should be ashamed of herself. I think it was a terrible statement. And I don’t think her apology was adequate, the president told reporters aboard Air Force Once en route to a Texas campaign rally….
TURKEY, A MAJOR FIREARMS PRODUCER: ERDOGAN ACCUSES WEST OF “ARMING TERRORISTS & KILLERS WHO TARGET MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD”~TURKISH POLITICIAN CALLS FOR EXPULSION OF ARMENIANS
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Turkey’s western allies of arming terrorists and killers who target Muslims around the world.“Those who give weapons to terrorists with blood-soaked hands create unimagined obstacles when Turkey seeks to buy the same weapons. From Daesh and PKK to Al Qaida and Al Shabaab, all terror organizations that shed the blood of Muslims have Western weapons in their hands,” Erdoğan said in Istanbul on Feb. 9 at the launch ceremony of a new test and training ship.“The murderers of PYD/YPG, who conduct an ethnic cleansing in northern Syria, have the rockets, bombs and ammunition of our allies. Facing such a picture, Turkey cannot wait with tied-up hands or delegate its national security to other countries,” he added.Erdoğan had signaled earlier this month that a cross-border operation against the YPG will happen soon. Since 2016, Ankara has carried out two similar military operations in northern Syria with the help of Free Syrian Army members.Although a military operation seems to have been shelved for now following President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Turkey has made clear that it will never tolerate the presence of the YPG on its borders even if it comes to an agreement with the Assad regime to maintain control of the east of Euphrates River.On Feb. 9, Erdoğan also said Turkey’s military capabilities will “help its presence on the table” in its moves to end the war in Syria, as well as in its anti-terror fight……
_______________________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/02/turkey-politician-calls-for-expulsion-of-armenians-as-revenge-for-french-recognition-of-armenian-genocide
SUE MONK KIDD: FROM SOUTHERN BAPTIST TO GODDESS WORSHIP
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
Kidd is quoted favorably by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), and Philip Yancy (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands and the introduction to Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation.
It is “contemplative spirituality” that changed Kidd’s life, and her experience is a loud warning about flirting with Catholic mysticism.
She was raised in a Southern Baptist congregation in southwest Georgia. Her grandfather and father were Baptist deacons. Her grandmother gave devotionals at the Women’s Missionary Union, and her mother was a Sunday School teacher. Her husband was a minister who taught religion and a chaplain at a Baptist college. She was very involved in church, teaching Sunday School and attending services Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday. She describes herself as the person who would have won a contest for “Least Likely to Become a Feminist.” She was even inducted into a group of women called the Gracious Ladies, the criterion for which was that “one needed to portray certain ideals of womanhood, which included being gracious and giving of oneself unselfishly.”
But for years she had felt a spiritual emptiness and lack of contentment. Prayer was “a fairly boring mental activity” (Kidd’s foreword to Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands, 2006, p. 10). She says,
“I had been struggling to come to terms with my life as a woman–in my culture, my marriage, my faith, my church, and deep inside myself” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 8).
She was thirty years old, had been married about 12 years, and had two children.
Instead of learning how to fill that emptiness and uncertainty with a know-so salvation and a sweet walk with Christ in the Spirit and a deeper knowledge of the Bible, she began dabbling in Catholic mysticism. A Sunday School co-worker gave her a book by the Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton. She should have known better than to study such a book and should have been warned by the brethren, but the New Evangelical philosophy that controls the vast majority of Southern Baptist churches created an atmosphere in which the reading of a Catholic monk’s book by a Sunday School teacher was acceptable. Their thinking goes like this: Who are we to judge what other people read, and who is to say that a Roman Catholic priest might not love the Lord?
Kidd began to practice Catholic forms of contemplative spirituality and visit Catholic retreat centers and monasteries.
“… beginning in my early thirties I’d become immersed in a journey that was rooted in contemplative spirituality. It was the spirituality of the ‘church fathers,’ of the monks I’d come to know as I made regular retreats in their monasteries. … I thrived on solitude, routinely practicing silent meditation as taught by the monks Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating. … For years, I’d studied Thomas Merton, John of the Cross, Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, Ignatius, Eckhart, Luther, Teilhard de Chardin, The Cloud of Unknowing, and others” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 14, 15).
Of Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, which she read in 1978 for the first of many times, she says,
“My experience of reading it initiated me into my first real awareness of the interior life, igniting an impulse toward being … it caused something hidden at the core of me to flare up and become known” (Kidd’s introduction to New Seeds of Contemplation, 2007, pp. xiii, xi).
Of Merton’s book New Seeds of Contemplation she says, “[It] initiated me into the secrets of my true identity and woke in me an urge toward realness” and “impacted my spirituality and my writing to this day.”
Merton communicated intimately with and was deeply affected by Mary veneration, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sufism, so it is not surprising that his writings would create an appetite that could lead to goddess worship.
In The New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton made the following frightening statement that shows the great danger of Catholic mysticism:
“In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that HE NO LONGER KNOWS WHAT GOD IS. He may or may not mercifully realize that, after all, this is a great gain, because ‘God is not a what,’ not a ‘thing.’ This is precisely one of the essential characteristics of contemplative experience. It sees that there is no ‘what’ that can be called God” (p. 13).
What Catholic mysticism does is reject the Bible as the sole and sufficient and perfect revelation of God and tries to delve beyond the Bible, even beyond thought of any kind, and find God through mystical “intuition.” In other words, it is a rejection of the God of the Bible. It says that God cannot be known by doctrine and cannot be described in words. He can only be experienced through mysticism. This is a blatant denial of the Bible’s claim to be the very Word of God.
This opens the practitioner to demonic delusion. He is left with no perfect objective revelation of God, no divinely-revealed authority by which he can test his mystical experiences and intuitions. He is left with an idol of his own vain imagination (Jeremiah 17:9) and a doctrine of devils.
Kidd’s own first two books were on contemplative spirituality.
The involvement in Catholic contemplative practices led her to the Mass and to other sacramental associations.
“I often went to Catholic mass or Eucharist at the Episcopal church, nourished by the symbol and power of this profound feeding ritual” (p. 15).
There is an occultic power in the mass that has influenced many who have approached it in a receptive, non-critical manner.
She learned dream analysis from a Jungian perspective and believed that her dreams were revelations. One recurring dream featured an old woman. Kidd concluded that this is “the Feminine Self or the voice of the feminine soul” and she was encouraged in her feminist studies by these visitations.
She spent much time with a friend who had a feminist mindset and was “exploring” feminist writings, and she began to read ever more radical feminists, such as Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Elaine Pagels, and Rosemary Radford Ruether.
We are reminded of the Bible’s warning, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33).
She says, “I began to form what I called my feminist critique” (p. 59). She learned to see “patriarchy” as “a wounder of women and feminine life” (p. 60).
She determined to stop testing things and follow her heart, rejecting the Bible’s admonition to “prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
“I would go through the gate with what Zen Buddhists call ‘beginner’s mind,’ the attitude of approaching something with a mind empty and free, ready for anything, open to everything. … I would give myself permission to go wherever my quest took me” (p. 140).
She rejected the doctrine that the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice. In church one day the pastor proclaimed this truth, and she describes the frightful thing that happened in her heart at that moment:
“I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. … It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period. … That day sitting in church, I believed the voice in my belly. … The voice in my belly was the voice of the wise old woman. It was my female soul talking. And it had challenged the assumption that the Baptist Church would get me where I needed to go” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 76, 77, 78).
She began to think that the Bible is wrong in its teaching about women and that women should not take the subordinate position described therein. She came to believe that Eve might have been a hero instead of a sinner, that eating the forbidden fruit had actually opened Eve’s eyes to her true self. Kidd came to the conclusion that the snake was not evil but “symbolized female wisdom, power, and regeneration” (p. 71). She was surprised and pleased to learn that the snake is depicted as the companion of ancient goddesses, concluding that this is evidence that the Bible is wrong.
She determined that she was willing to lose her marriage, if necessary.
“I would not, could not forfeit my journey for my marriage or for the sake of religious acceptance or success as a ‘Christian writer.’ I would keep moving in my own way to the strains of feminine music that sifted up inside me, not just moving but embracing the dance. … I felt the crumbling of the old patriarchal foundation our marriage had rested upon in such hidden and subtle ways. Though both of us would always need to compromise, there was no more sacrificing myself, no more revolving around him, no more looking to him for validation, trying to be what I thought he needed me to be. My life, my time, my decisions became newly my own” (pp. 98, 125).
In her case, her husband stayed with her and came to accept her feminist vision, even leaving his job in the Christian college and becoming a psychotherapist, but in many other cases the feminist philosophy has destroyed the marriage. She says, “I’ve met women who in such circumstances have stayed and others who’ve left. Such choices are achingly difficult, but I’ve learned to respect whatever a woman feels she must do.” It is amazing how a person can come to the place where he or she is convinced that it is a righteous thing to renounce a solemn marriage vow that was made before God and man.
She rejected God as Father.
“I knew right then and there that the patriarchal church was no longer working for me. The exclusive image of God as heavenly Father wasn’t working, either. I needed a Power of Being that was also feminine” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 80).
She came to believe in the divinity of man.
“There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul that’s ‘only God’ … the soul is more than something to win or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the God-image, the truest part of us” (When the Heart Waits, 1990, pp. 47, 48).
“When we encounter another person … we should walk as if we were upon holy ground. We should respond as if God dwells there” (God’s Joyful Surprise, p. 233).
She began to delve into the worship of ancient goddesses. She traveled with a group of women to Crete where they met in a cave and sang prayers to “the Goddess Skoteini, Goddess of the Dark.” She says, “… something inside me was calling on the Goddess of the Dark, even though I didn’t know her name” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 93).
Soon she was praying to God as Mother.
“I ran my finger around the rim of the circle on the page and prayed my first prayer to a Divine Feminine presence. I said, ‘Mothergod, I have nothing to hold me. No place to be, inside or out. I need to find a container of support, a space where my journey can unfold’” (p. 94).
She came to the place where she believed that she is a goddess.
“Divine Feminine love came, wiping out all my puny ideas about love in one driving sweep. Today I remember that event for the radiant mystery it was, how I felt myself embraced by Goddess, how I felt myself in touch with the deepest thing I am. It was the moment when, as playwright and poet Ntozake Shange put it, ‘I found god in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely’” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 136).
“To embrace Goddess is simply to discover the Divine in yourself as powerfully and vividly feminine” (p. 141).
“I came to know myself as an embodiment of Goddess” (p. 163).
“When I woke, my thought was that I was finally being reunited with the snake in myself–that lost and defiled symbol of feminine instinct” (p. 107).
She came to believe in the New Age doctrine that God is in all things and is the sum total of all things, that God is the evolving universe and we are a part of God.
“I thought: Maybe the Divine One is like an old African woman, carving creation out of one vast, beautiful piece of Herself. She is making a universal totem spanning fifteen billion years, an extension of her life and being, an evolutionary carving of sacred art containing humans, animals, plants, indeed, everything that is. And all of it is joined, blended, and connected, its destiny intertwined. … In other words, the Divine coinheres all that is. … To coinhere means to exist together, to be included in the same thing or substance” (pp. 158, 159).
She built an altar in her study and populated it with statues of goddesses, Jesus, a Black Madonna — and a mirror to reflect her own image.
“Over the altar in my study, I hung a lovely mirror sculpted in the shape of a crescent moon. It reminded me to honor the Divine Feminine presence in myself, the wisdom in my own soul” (p. 181). She even believes that the world can be saved by the divine mother.
“I know of nothing needed more in the world just now than an image of Divine present that affirms the importance of relationship–a Divine Mother, perhaps, who draws all humanity into her lap and makes us into a global family” (p. 155).
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter ends with the words, “She is in us.”
According to this book, Kidd’s daughter, too, has accepted goddess worship.
We conclude by reminding our readers that Sue Monk Kidd is quoted favorably by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home), and Philip Yancy (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands and the introduction to Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, praises Kidd’s book When the Heart Waits. He says, “As I read her book, Kidd became a companion. I love having her walk with me on my journey.”
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/01/sacred-shegoddess-worship-just-not.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2012/12/sue-monk-kidd-former-sbc-sunday-school.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/much-more-on-rohr-plus-enneagrams.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/associaacsi-still-promoting.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2015/09/a-serious-look-at-richard-fosters.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2016/02/david-g-benners-gift-of-being-yourself.html
https://ratherexposethem.org/2013/04/the-connection-between-lgbtq-soulforce.html
POLICE STATE NEW JERSEY TO ENACT RAIN TAX~THE SOAKING OF THE TAXPAYERS ACCELERATES UNDER LIBERALS
_________________________________________________________________
RACIST VIRGINIA GOVERNOR NORTHAM VOWS TO BE “MORAL COMPASS”, DESPITE PRO-ABORTION STANCE~DISGRACED, BUT HE SAYS HE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE
NAVIGATORS WELCOMES 2019 WITH THEIR CONTEMPLATIVE TREND BY PROMOTING JESUIT PRAYER PRACTICE
Navigators is a Christian organization, founded in 1933 by a young man named Dawson Trotman, that eventually became a household name in the evangelical church.* The Navigators motto is, “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known.” However, Navigators and its publishing arm NavPress have been on a contemplative trend for over 15 years, and in the January 2019 issue of the Navigator’s newsletter, “Worldwide,” it is evident that the stakes have become much higher.
Navigators History of Promoting Contemplative Prayer
In 2005, Lighthouse Trails posted a news brief titled, “NavPress – Whatever Happened to Navigators?” that stated, “Today, NavPress has become a leading publisher for contemplative spirituality books.” Some of the authors NavPress publishes include Brennan Manning, Jan Johnson, Dallas Willard, Henri Nouwen, and Bruce Demerest. NavPress is also publishing Eugene Peterson’s The Message (which is a key product for NavPress).
In 2009, a reader sent a letter to the Lighthouse Trails editors asking if we were aware that Navigators was promoting contemplative spirituality. She wrote:
This all hits hard. I was saved through the Navigators in 1973. They used The Word, Prayer, Scripture memory, time with the Lord back then. They had us witness and spend time in fellowship.
In 2011, Lighthouse Trails wrote an article titled, “NavPress (Navigators) Continues Push for Contemplative Prayer . . . for Kids Too!” The LT article stated:
The April issue of Pray!shows solid signs that NavPress is still advocating contemplative spirituality. For example, there is an article by contemplative Tricia Rhodes. Rhodes’ book, The Soul at Rest, “introduces a step-by-step journey of learning contemplative prayer.”1 In that book, Rhodes says:
“Take deep breaths, concentrating on relaxing your body. Establish a slow, rhythmic pattern. Breathe in God’s peace, and breathe out your stresses, distractions, and fears. Breathe in God’s love, forgiveness, and compassion, and breathe out your sins, failures, and frustrations. Make every effort to “stop the flow of talking going on within you—to slow it down until it comes to a halt.” (p. 28) (also see our research on “breath prayers.”)
In this quote, Rhodes is quoting Episcopalian priest and mystic Morton Kelsey. To “stop the flow of talking going on within you” is classic mystical prayer. This inner stillness of the mind that is sought by the mystic is different than an outer quietness, such as sitting by a stream or turning off the television and radio. One cannot naturally turn off thoughts, and since thoughts are the enemy of mysticism, so to speak, they must be turned off.
It was in that 2011 article that Lighthouse Trails showed how NavPress was now attempting to advance the contemplative prayer movement into the lives of Christian children. Our article explained:
[D]on’t be mistaken in thinking that NavPress doesn’t push contemplative for kids too. They also publish a magazine called PrayKids!. Issue #25 titled “Contemplative Prayer” states:
“Contemplative prayer is a form of meditative prayer that focuses on communing with God. Although sometimes confused with its Eastern (and non-Christian) counterpart, true Christian meditation has been practiced since Bible times.
“This issue of PrayKids!® helps kids learn to slow down their fast-paced lives long enough to experience a meaningful relational encounter with their Heavenly Father.” (source)
The 2011 Lighthouse Trails article offered some interesting insights:
There is a reason that contemplatives often give a disclaimer that contemplative prayer isn’t the same as eastern meditation – it’s because it is done the very same way. Their reasoning is that if the intent is good then it doesn’t matter about the method. But as Ray Yungen points out, if you jump off a building and say fly,fly, fly, you are going to get the same results as if you said fall, fall, fall. (ATOD, p. 86). Good intentions isn’t a safeguard against deception. Mantra-type meditation brings about an induced altered state that leads the practitioner into demonic realms . . . regardless of the word that is repeated.
January 2019 “Worldwide” Newsletter Backs Up Contemplative History
In January 2019, a Lighthouse Trails reader sent our editors a copy of the January 2019 issue of Navigator’s newsletter “Worldwide.” The cover article is titled “An Ancient and Enduring Discipline” written by David Lyons, an International Vice President of Navigators who serves a staff of 5,000 in over 100 countries “by coaching leaders and leading change.” (source) Lyons’ article starts with:
Will The Navigators last 500 years? If so, it will be because we really do live our motto: To Know Christ, to Make Him Known and to Help Others Do the Same.
The Navigators is similar to another Christian organization—the Jesuits—that has lasted nearly 500 years. Although we are fundamentally different than the Jesuits in important ways, we share a passion for spending daily time alone with God.
Lyons explains he became “fascinated” with the “connection” between the Navigators and the Jesuits’ “passion for spending time alone with God” when he read a book called Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year Old Company that Changed the World, written by Jesuit-school graduate and Catholic Church leader Chris Lowney.
The 450-year old “company” Lowney is referring to is the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church, and the practices he is talking about are the mystical prayer rituals that the Jesuits practiced called The Daily Examen (or the Ignatius Exercises named after Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order).
While the five steps of The Daily Examen (Ignatius Exercises) do not specifically instruct on contemplative prayer, they present a framework where contemplative prayer can be practiced. For instance, step one is “Become aware of God’s presence.” This is an essential element of contemplative prayer. For example, the contemplative believes it is very important to “feel” God’s presence and thus the need for a meditative prayer practice. Never mind that the born-again believer has God’s presence (the Holy Spirit) in him whether he “feels” it or not and knows it is not necessary to feel a presence in order to be assured that He is with/in us. Not so with the contemplative practitioner – he often doesn’t have that assurance (possibly because he is not born of the Spirit or he does not know that God’s Word promises us He will live in us; thus he seeks out a substitute (i.e., contemplative prayer) so that he may “feel” God’s presence.
Chris Lowney’s Heroic Leadership describes the “Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius” as helping one to find “self-awareness” and aiding the “soul to rid itself of all its disordered affections.” (chapter 6, pp. 113-114) Lowney also describes what is known in contemplative circles as “spiritual directors”:
An experienced, impartial “director” guides each participant, not by teaching but by helping each recruit interpret his own experiences. (p. 114)
Contemplatives teach that spiritual directors are needed because of the esoteric experiences that take place with these mystical practices, and the director can help “discern” what these experiences mean. Contemplative pioneer, Richard Foster (author of Celebration of Discipline) takes it a step further and suggests that special prayers of protection are needed before engaging in such prayer practices because of the possibility of encountering demonic activity. (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Foster, pp. 156-157; also see here.)
Heroic Leadership, which influenced David Lyons (and now Navigators through Lyons promotion), is an infomercial for the Jesuit Order and the Jesuit rituals and practices (including guided imagery exercises – p. 115); for instance, the word Jesuit is used 500 times in the book, and the “Suggestions for Further Reading” at the back of the book is five pages of resources that emphasize the Jesuit Order and the Jesuit practices. Of course, that would make sense that a Jesuit-school graduate would promote the Jesuits. But the Navigators? How does that make sense?
The Jesuits
For those who do not know much about the Jesuits (and their being the founders and igniters of the counter-reformation movement to stop the Reformation), read Roger Oakland’s booklet titled The Jesuit Agenda and the Evangelical/Protestant Church. It may send shivers up your spine when you realize just what the Jesuit Order is all about (basically, to end the resistance against the Catholic Church and to bring the “lost brethren” back into the fold of the “Mother Church.” One may ask, how have the Jesuits planned to do this? The answer to that is through contemplative prayer. Roger Oakland explains:
[I]f the methods of converting lost or prodigal souls back to Rome have changed, what is the method to accomplish these goals today? It is largely through what is called Jesuit Spirituality. A 2002 book titled Contemplatives in Action: The Jesuit Way reveals how the Jesuit order has had and continues to have a “great influence” in people around the world. It attributes this “vitality” to “its spirituality” which has also “evoked fierce loyalty and fierce opposition.”
What is the spirituality of the Jesuits that was so controversial? By their very roots, Jesuits are proponents of mystical prayer practices. The founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, created “spiritual exercises” that incorporated mysticism, including lectio divina. Today, millions of people worldwide practice the “Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola.”
One Jesuit priest who resonates with the mystical spiritual outlook is Anthony De Mello (d. 1987), author of Sadhana: A Way to God. De Mello is often quoted today by contemplative and emerging authors and embraced the mysticism of Hinduism. He stated:
“To silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is to keep the mind from thinking, thinking, thinking, forever thinking, forever producing thoughts in a never ending stream. Our Hindu masters in India have a saying: one thorn is removed by another. By this they mean that you will be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence or word that your mind can be made to fasten on.” – Anthony de Mello, Sadhana: A Way to God (St. Louis, the Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1978), p. 28 (cited from A Time of Departing, by Ray Yungen, p. 75).
Tony Campolo, a popular figure in the evangelical church, reveals something quite interesting in his book, Letters to a Young Evangelical. In his book, he explains the role [Jesuit] mysticism had in him becoming a Christian. He explains:
“I learned about this way of having a born-again experience from reading Catholic mystics, especially The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola.” (p. 30, see “Coming to Christ Through Mysticism,” Oakland )
For skeptics who may need further evidence that Jesuit Spirituality has come into the evangelical/Protestant church, consider this: In 2006, Baker Books, one of evangelicalism’s top book publishers, released a book titled Sacred Listening: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola written by James Wakefield. A publisher description of the book states:
“Central to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Spiritual Exercises is a manual used to direct a month-long spiritual retreat. Now adapting these time-honored Exercises specifically for Protestant Christians, James L. Wakefield encourages readers to integrate their secular goals with their religious beliefs and helps them reflect on the life of Jesus as a model for their own discipleship.”
Wakefield’s book, devoted to the Jesuits and Ignatian Exercises, should be proof enough that the Jesuit Agenda has entered the Christian church and that mysticism is the tool by which the Jesuit Agenda is largely being brought into the lives of countless evangelicals and Protestants. . . .
. . . the “Jesuit Spirituality” has come into the Protestant church; thus this new modern (post-modern) mystical method to accomplish the goals of the papacy is working.
If Protestants and evangelicals can be convinced to practice mysticism (i.e., contemplative), this conditions them to begin embracing Rome and even all religions. It’s important to understand that mysticism is the bridge that unites all the religions of the world. In order to unite them, there would need to be a uniting, common denominator, so to speak. That common uniting medium is mysticism. . . .
Maybe it’s the years of promoting and practicing contemplative prayer ala Dallas Willard, Henri Nouwen, Jan Johnson, Brennan Manning, et. al, and reading Peterson’s The Message that has entranced the Navigators to see nothing wrong with promoting the Jesuit Order and The Daily Examen. It’s probably too late to get the organization to change its mind, but hopefully, there will be discerning Christians who will think twice before following its advice.
*Navigators continues today to have a significant influence in evangelical Christianity. The ministry is active in over 160 colleges, in the military aiding chaplains, “in communities all over the United States,” in church settings, conducting hundreds of conferences each year, doing mission work in 102 countries, and having outreach to young millennials. Sadly, this means that there is the potential for millions to be introduced to contemplative spirituality through Navigators and NavPress.
RADICAL JIHADIST LINDA SARSOUR RAISES MONEY FOR MUSLIM CHILD KILLER WHO RAPED 15-YEAR-OLD
LINDA SARSOUR RAISES MONEY FOR MUSLIM CHILD KILLER WHO RAPED 15-YEAR-OLD
His execution comes 20 years after being put on death row, and while he was also serving time for the killings of two teenage boys who were slain the year before Tiffany Harville was fatally stabbed. For the boys’ killings, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Ray’s last words were in Arabic. He made a hand signal consisting of a closed fist with his index finger pointed and looked toward the viewing room where two of his attorneys and spiritual adviser were sitting, along with members of the media.One of Ray’s attorneys from the Federal Defenders of the Middle District of Alabama, Spencer Hahn, said after the execution, “Domineque was a devout Muslim and a human being. He was a son, a father, a brother. He wanted equal treatment in his last moments. I am beyond appalled at the willingness of Steve Marshall and the State of Alabama to treat a human being differently because he was part of a religious minority. We are better than this.”
THE DEMOCRATS IN THE WIZARD OF OZ: “NO HEART, NO BRAIN, NO COURAGE, NO CLUE”
VIENNA: APOSTATE ROMAN CATHOLIC CARDINAL CLAIMS GAY COUPLES PROVE THAT MARRIAGE IS GOOD~ALLOWS DRAG QUEEN “MARRIAGE” IN VIENNA CATHEDRAL
“Cardinal” Schönborn celebrates Homosexual Prayer Service with blasphemous Transvestite
Cardinal Schönborn Did What
“A Militant Gay Man Would Have Done”
APOSTASY ALERT: POPE FRANCIS DECLARES WORSHIP OF MARY IS A “REQUIREMENT”
Pope Francis bowing before a statue of Mary while the cross of Christ sits in the background
Pope Francis called Mary “the biggest influencer in history.”
MARY – AN ORDINARY WOMAN WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY MISSION FROM GOD
The real Mary – as described in the Bible was a brave believer who worshiped God.
During the earthly ministry of Jesus, an attempt was made to elevate Mary for her role:
PRAY FOR REPENTANCE
“Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 26:1
MASTURBATORY WORSHIP & THE CONTEMPORARY CHURCH
It is designed to be “an experience” for me, not a thoughtful expression of obeisance to God.It does not enable me to consider my duty to respond to God in daily life, but rather fools me into thinking this wave of emotion I’m feeling is the proper response to God.
The current worship trend among evangelicals, increasingly copied by mainline Christians, is disintegrating God’s covenant people into a pile of dust. The masturbatory worship they hold dear is merely a narcissistic journey to nowhere, one in which we are left crowning our own individual selves as lord of all. We’ve already been told that we are like sheep, each one wandering its own way. The church’s historic liturgy presents us corporately with the solution. Masturbatory worship proclaims a subjective gospel, a situational Christian ethic, and a selfish mission.
JAMIE GLAZOV UNVEILS HIS NEW BOOK, THE ” JIHADIST PSYCHOPATH”
GLAZOV SHOCKS HUCKABEE WITH THE TRUTH ABOUT JIHADISTS’ SUBTLE STRATEGY
Frontpage editor unveils the “Jihadist Psychopath”
MUSLIM REP. ILHAN OMAR CALLS FOR DEFUNDING OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Friday called for the Department of Homeland Security to be completely defunded.In a Friday evening tweet, the Somalia-born Minnesota lawmaker also called President Trump “Individual 1” and his proposed border barrier “hateful.”“When Democrats stood our ground last month, we proved that Individual 1 does not have the public support to ram his hateful wall through Congress,” Omar tweeted. “Let’s stand firm: #Not1Dollar for DHS.”As Fox News noted, the Democratic congresswoman had only the day before said it was an “outrage” that some Minnesota TSA workers still had not received their back pay…
ISRAEL: “PALESTINIAN” MOSQUE EMPLOYEE MURDERS 19 YEAR OLD WOMAN BECAUSE SHE WAS JEWISH
Israeli police and security forces arrested a Palestinian man in connection with the murder of a 19-year-old woman from a West Bank settlement, whose lifeless body was found in the Jerusalem forest on Thursday night with multiple stab wounds.According to local media reports, the suspect confessed to the murder during his interrogation with Israeli security forces.Identified as Arafat Irfaiya, the 29-year-old suspect from the flashpoint city of Hebron was arrested in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.“The interrogation of the suspect is ongoing and is focused in particular on the motives for the murder,” Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service said….Around 200 demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday evening to protest the murder. Crowds at the event lashed out at Prime Minister Netanyahu for what they called a lax response to terror.Throughout the day, far-right ministers called for retribution and the imposition of the death penalty.According to an Israeli Police statement Saturday evening, “On Thursday morning, Arafat left his home in Hebron with a knife and made his way to the village of Beit Jala. Arafat walked towards the forest where he noticed Ori and then attacked and murdered her.”The suspect was reportedly arrested several times in the past for entering Israel illegal carrying a knife.IDF troops raided two residential buildings before finding the suspect in the Jamal Abdel Nasser Mosque, where he was an employee, according to Palestinian Authority news outlet Wafa. According to the report, Israeli forces collected video surveillance from the mosque and surrounding neighborhood security cameras.Following the raid, local residents reportedly threw rocks at IDF troops in what developed into small clashes which left two Palestinians lightly injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent….Ori Ansbacher, who had been reported missing Thursday, was found in the Ein Yael forest several hours later with “signs of violence” on her body, Times of Israel quoted police and medical staff as saying.Four Palestinians were arrested shortly after the body was found, local media reported, but police refused to comment further on details after a gag order was imposed on their investigation, which is being co-conducted in cooperation with Israel’s Shin Bet security service. They were reportedly released without charge, according to local reports.Initially investigators at the scene reported that the event was being handled as a criminal incident rather than terror related….Earlier, local reports said that investigators had made a “significant breakthrough” in the case, with Channel 13 stating that police believe the most likely motive for the killing of the woman was “nationalistic”, as searches were also being carried out in the West Bank….“This was a shocking and heinous murder, a murder out of blind hatred of a 19-year-old girls because she was Jewish. There is no room for these scum on earth. Today, more than ever, it is clear that the demand of Yisrael Beiteinu (party) for terrorists to be sentenced to death is justified,” Avigdor Liberman, Chairman of Yisrael Beieinu and former defense minister, said on Saturday….
STATE LEVEL BILLS TO OUTLAW ABORTION & CRIMINALIZE SUCH AS MURDER, GROWING NATIONWIDE
Wharton
TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS AGAIN FILE BILL DECLARING SUPREME COURT SAME-SEX “MARRIAGE” RULING “VOID” IN STATE
SAUDI ARABIA: MAN ASKS MOTHER IF SHE IS “SHIA”; THEN CAB DRIVER BEHEADS HER 6 YEAR OLD SON
A six-year-old boy was reportedly beheaded with a shard of glass as his mother desperately tried to save him in Saudi Arabia.Zakaria Al-Jaber was in a taxi with his mother on their way to the shrine of Prophet Muhammad in Medina when the driver stopped the car and forced the boy out.He dragged him to an area near a coffee shop in the Al-Tilal neighborhood, before smashing a glass bottle, reports TMV.The taxi driver slit his throat with a shard of glass before stabbing him repeatedly as both his mother and a nearby police officer attempted to stop the brutal attack.It is not known why the driver attacked the boy, but Saudi officials have reportedly claimed he was suffering from mental health issues.Shia Rights Watch have claimed the boy was killed on Thursday in an act of sectarian violence.The group said that an unknown man had asked the mother if she was Shia moments before the attack happened….Shia Rights Watch, whose headquarters are in Washington D.C., said the beheading must be addressed ASAP….
TRUMP VOWS TO STAMP OUT “RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR” AT GLOBAL COALITION TO DEFEAT ISIS CONFERENCE
Unlike his predecessor, the current U.S. president is not afraid to single out the ideology behind Mideast strife, from terrorism in Israel to Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons.U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS after his State of the Union speech just one day prior.Trump got straight to the point, vowing that the U.S. would continue to fight the forces of “radical Islamic terror,” and vanquish the Islamic State (ISIS), an ultra-violent group that has murdered and pillaged its way through Iraq and large swaths of Syria for the past five years or so.While ISIS is on the ropes, it is holed up in a concentrated area, with a handful of never-say-die adherents refusing to surrender. If Trump has his way, these remnants of ISIS will be taken care of as well.
SOUTH CAROLINA MAN CONVERTS TO ISLAM, PLANTS EXPLOSIVES ALL OVER ANDERSON COUNTY
An Anderson man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State has been sentenced for using weapons of mass destruction after authorities found several homemade explosive devices around Anderson County.Wesley Dallas Ayers, 27, was sentenced to more than 30 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release after previously pleading guilty, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.Ayers admitted that he constructed and placed three explosive devices in various parts of Anderson County between Jan. 24, 2018 and Feb. 24, 2018, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Ayers pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in letters and warned of a jihad, according to investigators’ testimony in a federal court hearing before he pleaded guilty.One of the devices, placed at the intersection of Travis and Martin roads in Anderson County, detonated and injured one person, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.The other two devices were located and intercepted by law enforcement before they caused any harm.Three hoax devices were also placed around Anderson County that resembled explosives but were not. In some devices, Ayers left notes indicating that more powerful devices were to come, according to the statement.His arrest came after a month-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and various other law enforcement agencies.Authorities searched Ayers’ property that showed items consistent with the manufacturing of explosive devices.
THE GRAND SHEIKH FRANCIS OF AL-VATICAN; FULLY DECEIVED~KUWAITI CLERIC ISSUES FATWA THAT UNBELIEVERS & APOSTATES MUST BE KILLED
______________________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/02/muslim-cleric-says-non-muslims-must-convert-submit-or-be-killed-and-those-who-leave-islam-must-be-killed