Is This How We Worship God?

I was going to save this for a Random Bits post, but in the ball game of heresy the "Church" by the Glades (CBG) hit this one out of the park. As part of their 'Family Drive-In' series of God "worshiping" films such as Frozen, Star Wars, Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland, and Transformers, the CBG put on a stage show for Harry Potter featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Neither Harry Potter nor I Put A Spell On You has anything to do with God, worshiping God, Praising God, Thanking God... CBG claims to be about two things Jesus and His word, but where in that video or that stage performance or the skimpy costume do we see Jesus or His word? How is this bringing the youth of CBG closer to understanding God's will? They're peddling witchcraft on stage and screen

'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:31)

By the way, the Church By the Glades website says that no perfect people are allowed in the church, which sounds all kinds of touchy-feely wonderful to the sensitive safeplacers, but anyone with any amount of discernment would know that means Jesus isn't allowed in this false church.

Thanks and a Hat Tip to the Museum of Idolatry

WWUTT Wednesday - Name It And Claim It?

If you pay attention to the Word Of Faith prosperity preachers, their instructions guarantee rewards of cash and property from God Himself if you just say the magic words. Wealth beyond the dreams avarice is yours for the taking if you just speak the words of power.

It must be true because Joel Osteen is worth $40 million and he lives in a $17 million house, Creflo Dollar is worth $27 million and was gifted with a $70 million executive jet. Joyce Meyer is worth $25 million from books sales and preaching and biblically she's not allowed to preach. TD Jakes is worth $18 million and he doesn't even believe that Jesus is God. Steven Furtick says that Jesus' teachings prevent him from revealing his income, but he has a $16 million home which he purchased for $390,000. So God is our Creator and Spiritual Financial Advisory, right?

What Jesus Said About Homosexuality

The "Christian" Left claims quite boldly that Jesus says NOTHING about homosexuality and the BIBLE and JESUS do NOT condemn the act of homosexuality and my all time favorite, equating Matthew 19:12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb..." with homosexuality.

The myth that Jesus didn't mention homosexuality is a staple of the "Christian" left who care more about fashionable feelings than about sin and repentance, and the emergent crowd who care more about "meat in the seats" and a healthy coin count at the end of the weekly rock festival than about sharing the Gospel. Carl Lentz, the Hillsong Hipster, went on national TV in 2013 and loudly proclaimed to the world 

You go look at what Jesus did, he was always talking about the heart of an individual and the soul of a person, not these symptomatic societal problems. People hate that, because a lot of churches are about what they're against. We're about what we're for. (source)

If he were actually familiar with the bible Carl may have noticed Mark 10:2-8, Matthew 5:32, and Luke 16:18 where Jesus talks about divorce. This was the hot-button issue of the time, as hot if not hotter than today's talk of homosexuality and do it yourself gender assignment. Since Carl claims that Jesus talked about the heart of the individual what did Jesus say a man's heart, and what did He say about homosexuality?

Emergent Monday - Steven Furtick Superstar

I really do not like polluting a worship service with narcissism, manufactured miracles, and secular noise, the primary purpose of a worship service is to praise and worship God, not the pitiful accomplishments of man.

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

If Pastor Paratus stood before our congregation of Bereans during a worship service and started reciting the play-by-play of the on-going Denver Broncos game for no other reason than many of us in the congregation like the Denver Broncos, I'm sure that the board would have a meeting to discuss this. The service is to worship and glorify God, not the Denver Broncos. 

How could that possibly be any different than Steven Furtick's Elevation "Church" playing heavy metal secular music during a worship service simply because he likes it? Songs like the drug culture anthem Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix, music by the "theologians" Arrowsmith, the God glorifying hymn I Love Rock and Roll, and the center of all things worshipful New York New York must be found worshipful to the goats of Elevation church. Of course if you do not find this edifying it's probably because of your diminished intellectual capacity, or in the words of Steven Furtick:

“A lot of people don't like rock and roll in church because they're STUPID.” -Pastor Steven Furtick

Then again, what kind of explanation do you expect from someone who has publicly stated that they believe that Joel Osteen is "a great man of god"? It's not about what the congregation wants, it's not about what the church board wants, it's not even about what Steven Furtick Superstar wants, it's about what GOD wants.

Church Politics for Politics Sake

Recently the Western Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church, elected Rev. Karen Oliveto of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco to serve as a bishop of The United Methodist Church. Rev. Oliveto has been described as “an openly lesbian clergyperson.”

“An openly lesbian clergyperson” is a bit of an understatement as she is married to a woman. In my little town out on the prairie our local Methodist church sent a letter to their parishioners telling them of Ms Oliveto's election and asking for calm. What the letter did not do was address my biggest question: is she qualified for the position? Her qualifications are what must be addressed first, everything after that comes down to personal opinion.

Is she academically qualified? Personally I don't know simply because I'm not familiar with the academic requirements of a Methodist bishop. She has a Masters of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion and a  Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University, she's an  adjunct professor of United Methodist Studies at Pacific School of Religion where she recently served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. So yeah, I suppose she's got all the blocks filled out for educational requirements. 

WWUTT Wednesday - What "Jehovah" Is and Isn't

It's been a while since I've had the Worshipers of the Watchtower come banging on my door, I think they put a secret mark on my house: Beware! This One Knows the Gospel! and they kind of avoid my house lately. Usually doomsday cults don't annoy me, but the Jehovah's Witness cult is particularly heretical.

The Doomsday Cult of the Watchtower gets their understanding of God from the New World Translation. The NWT is the first intentional, systematic effort at producing a complete version of the Bible that is edited and revised for the specific purpose of agreeing with a group's doctrine.

The Jehovah's witnesses believe that Jesus is not God but just Michael the Archangel. Their proof? They don't really have any, but they do fire off few bible verses that mention Michael as a prince and claim they are proof that Jesus is an angel. I'll ignore the fact that according to their teaching the earth is going to end in 1874 1878 1881 1914 1925 1975 you get the idea. They even gave God a name of their own making

Spurgeon Thursday - Is it Bigotry To Preach The Truth?

When discussing Hillary Clinton's past CBS anchor John Dickerson recently asked President Obama: "FDR and Lincoln were both talented at letting both sides of an issue think that they agreed with both of them. Is honesty overrated as a presidential quality?"

Mister Obama said that it was, then danced around the subject for 2 full minutes. Honesty and the truth are the first victim of politics, but that's politics. No sane person truly expects honesty out of an elected official - they're humans which makes them sinners. 

However the pulpit is no place for dishonesty, but dishonesty does creep into the pulpit when the bible isn't there. This quote from Spurgeon was written over 130 years ago, just imagine what it would be like if the Prince of Preachers had heard the likes of Osteen, Meyers, Furtick, and anyone in the NAR.

IS IT BIGOTRY TO PREACH THE TRUTH?

“I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is of the choicest ware? It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel put before the people with enticing words by man who would fain make merchandise of souls; and I marvel at those who have soft words for such deceivers. ‘That is your bigotry,’ says one. Call it so if you like; but it is the BIGOTRY OF THE LOVING JOHN, who wrote, ‘If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.’

Emergent Monday - The NAR Has Their Own Bible Part 4

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

In my past three posts (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), I looked closely at a new translation of the Bible called “The Passion Translation,” produced by NAR apostle Brian Simmons. I showed why it is not a trustworthy translation.

In this post, I will show four things to look for in a trustworthy translation. To illustrate those characteristics, I will contrast the The Passion Translation with another newer translation, the English Standard Version (ESV).

Four Characteristics of a Trustworthy Translation

A trustworthy translation is produced by a team of translators. Unlike The Passion Translation, which was produced by a lone individual, the ESV was produced by more than 100 Bible scholars – an international team from many denominations. Why is team translation work important? It provides checks and balances to make sure that the translation is accurate and doesn’t reflect the pet theological views of just one person or only a certain group of Christians.

A trustworthy translation is produced by reputable scholars. Apostle Simmons’ single credential – other than the fact that he claims to be an apostle – is that he assisted in a translation project of the New Testament for an indigenous people group in Panama. But he apparently has no formal academic training – only the on-the-job training he received during his eight-year stint in Panama working with New Tribes Mission.

Emergent Monday - The NAR Has Their Own Bible Part 3

A fragment of a Greek manuscript of the 

Gospel of John that dates to the second 

century. This fragment is housed at the 

John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

In my last two posts (Part 1 and Part 2), I wrote about a new NAR translation of the Bible, called The Passion Translation, which features drastically changed verses of Scripture. See three of those changed verses here.

In this post, I show how the translator of this NAR Bible, apostle Brian Simmons, attempts to justify his changes to Scripture.

In short, Simmons claims that the vast differences in meaning are the result of his decision to translate many verses from Aramaic manuscripts – not Greek manuscripts.  (Yet, I must mention that even those verses he claims to translate from the Greek are still drastically different.)

Simmons said the reason he decided to translate from the Aramaic is because new discoveries have revealed that the New Testament was originally written in the Aramaic language, not Greek.

Here is what Simmons says, in his own words.

“For centuries, it has been believed that the New Testament was first written in Greek. … Some scholars now lean increasingly towards the thought that Aramaic and Hebrew texts of the New Testament are the original manuscripts, and that many of the Greek texts are copies, and a second generation from the originals! This is radically changing translation concepts, and will result in many new translations of the New Testament based on Aramaic.” [Excerpted from “Translator’s Introduction” to Letters from Heaven by the Apostle Paul, the fourth installment of The Passion Translation]

Astounding Claims

These are astounding claims. If what Simmons says is true, then that would mean that all the standard English Bible translations–including the King James Version, the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the English Standard Version – are not based on the earliest and most trustworthy manuscripts and should be replaced by new, more reliable translations, such as Simmons’ Passion Translation. 

Emergent Monday - The NAR Has Their Own Bible Part 2

Apostle Brian Simmons and wife
Candice

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

In my last post, I wrote about a new translation of the Bible called “The Passion Translation”–released by New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) apostle Brian Simmons.

In this post, I will show you three of the verses Simmons has drastically changed in his new translation to make it look like the Bible promotes NAR teachings. I will contrast Simmons’ translation of the Bible with the standard English translations.

Galatians 6:6

Standard English Translations

• Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. (New International Version)
• Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. (New King James Version)
• Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. (English Standard Version)

The teaching being promoted: Church members should take care of the financial and other material needs of their spiritual leaders.

The Passion Translation

• And those who are taught the Word will receive an impartation from their teacher; a transference of anointing takes place between them.

The NAR teaching being promoted: The divine authority to minister with a specific miraculous gift–such as the gift of prophesying or healing people–can be imparted or transferred from church leaders to their followers.

Emergent Monday - The NAR has their own Bible.Part 1

Holly Pivec at Spirit of Error is doing an outstanding job and exposing the New Apostolic Reformation so while my job has been quite ratcheted up, I'm going to repost these articles that Holly has revisited regarding the NAR bible. (Remember what I said about a cult? "Stay away from any group that has made their own bible")

First a quick update. Since I wrote this series back in 2013, Simmons has released more installments of his NAR Bible: Proverbs, Matthew, Acts, Hebrews and James, and Romans. NAR leaders, including Bill Johnson, continue to promote this translation and quote from it in the pulpit. And rave reviews from Simmons’ readers pour in. I’m disappointed to report that the Passion Translation has been selling extremely well based on its rank at Amazon. For those who have never heard of the Passion Translation, you can get up to speed by reading my first post.

A New NAR Bible

Beware: An NAR apostle has come out with his own NAR translation of the Bible, called “The Passion Translation.”

Apostle Brian Simmons, of Stairway Ministries, is the lone translator of this “groundbreaking” project. To date, he has released four installments of his new translation:

• Psalms: Poetry on Fire
• Song of Solomon: Most Amazing Song of All
• Luke: To the Lovers of God
• Letters From Heaven by the Apostle Paul

Next in line is Proverbs, Wisdom From Above, due out in Fall 2013.

Emergent Monday - Yes, Bethel Redding and Bill Johnson are part of the New Apostolic Reformation

Bill Johnson

Once again Holly Pivec at The Spirit of Error blog exposes more information on one of the most dangerous cults of all times, the New Apostolic Reformation. This time she exposes Bethel Redding and their leader Bill Johnson and their ties to the NAR. Bethel Redding is all about Matthew 24:24, when Bill Johnson took over in 1996 he changed the teaching of the church from Jesus to training people in prophecy, healing and other "supernatural gifts of God". Bethel is a Word of Faith movement that teaches that faith is a force through which anything can be done. The goats at bethel come not for the gospel but that warm fuzzy feel-good feeling and miracles. They come for signs and wonders like speaking in tongues, gold dust, diamonds, and angel feathers...

Yes, Bethel Redding and Bill Johnson are part of the New Apostolic Reformation

Following Christianity Today’s recent cover story on Bethel Church in Redding, California, I’ve been contacted by people wondering about Bill Johnson’s statements made in that article distancing himself from the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The two specific statements he made are that his church does not have any official ties to theNAR and that he’s “not completely clear on what it is.”

Despite Johnson’s distancing himself from the NAR, he very clearly is part of it. Let’s look at his two claims.

What makes the NAR the NAR?

One of Johnson’s claims is that he’s not completely clear on what the NAR is. Interestingly, the author of the Christianity Today article said he laughed with disbelief. I. too, find Johnson’s claim hard to believe because the NAR is all about apostles–and Johnson clearly sees himself as one. 

WWUTT Wednesday - The End Is Near!

What do the Christadelphians, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mormons, and Pat Robertson have in common (besides the obvious)? To these people the second coming of Christ has come and gone without anyone noticing. In some cases it was rescheduled but the predicted apocalypse was again a non-event.

The Christadelphians had some very interesting predictions. Their founder, Dr. John Thomas, predicted that the end times would start in 1866 with the resurrection of the prophet Daniel and come to a climax in 1911. Robert Roberts who took over after John Thomas' death went one better than Dr. John claiming that Christ would return in 1910. Charles P. Wauchope of Adelaide, South Australia noticed the complete lack of Christ's return in 1910 and 1911 and predicted Christ got delayed, but would be back in 1934 dressed in the tattered robe of a beggar and thief and come quietly into the British headquarters where he would establish His Kingdom. Again He failed to uphold their predictions. Their latest prediction would be Christ's return in 1988, and there's been no update to that.

Charles T. Russell founded the Jehovah's Witnesses and they STILL use the date that Russell set  as the second coming: 1914. When Christ didn't come, Russell claimed he was right, but that Christ came invisibly! Up until about 1996, Jehovah's Witnesses continued to teach that the world would end within one generation after 1914 AD. Even the May 15, 1984 Watchtower magazine echoed this false prediction. Like all cults and date setters, they quietly stopped making the prediction based upon one generation after 1914 and keep going door to door with their ever changing lies and deceptions.

Emergent Monday - IHOP and the Perils of Passion

Scott Pursley is the Senior Pastor at Lamb of God Fellowship in Livingston, NJ. He is a teacher who is well grounded in the Word. This article was originally presented in sermon form (mp3). Pastor Scott reformatted his notes for publication at BeyondGrace and are reposted here

The International House of Prayer, located in Kansas City Missouri is principally the vision of one man, its founder and chief doctrinal spokesman, Mike Bickle. Therefore a critique of IHOP is in the final analysis a critique of Mike Bickle’s teaching ministry. However, because of the unusual beginnings of Mr. Bickle’s ministry and rise to national prominence it is also necessary to focus on the teaching/preaching ministries of two alleged prophets, Paul Cain and Bob Jones. Their ministries are parallel developments and significantly influence and shape Mr. Bickle’s perception of IHOP’s divinely authorized origins.

The multi-million dollar ministry that is IHOP has it roots in the modest beginnings of the Kansas City Fellowship of the early 1980’s. According to Mr. Bickle, IHOP is a direct fulfillment of prophecies delivered to him by Bob Jones and Paul Cain. Repeatedly Mr. Bickle has declared that no one has been more integral to establishing the prophetic in his ministry than Bob Jones. Part of the mythology of Mr. Jones legendary status as a prophet are numerous false prophecies, now largely forgotten. These include claims of California being destroyed, nuclear weapons being detonated on the East and West Coast, and an oft repeated story of a drought confirming special ‘divine’ authorization on Mr. Bickle’s ministry.

From the very early days of Mr. Bickle’s ministry he adapted his own version of the so called ‘Latter Rain’ teaching of the late 1940’s made popular principally through the writing of George Warnock’s ‘Feast of Tabernacles’ (As well as a hand full of other, now obscure Pentecostal heretics). This parallel has been pointed out to Mr. Bickle on numerous occasions necessitating a public denial of IHOP’s dependance on Latter Rain teaching. However, no actual substantive explanation has ensued from Mr. Bickle regarding this allegation. The false teacher and Latter Rain proponent William Branham was very influential in the theological formation of the disgraced prophet Paul Cain. Paul Cain in turn influenced greatly both Bob Jones (who frequently referred to Mr. Cain as the greatest prophet of God on the earth) and Mike Bickle who often appeared with Mr. Cain in large venues around the U.S.

WWUTT Wednesday: Praying in Tongues

Believe it or not, there's actually people out there who believe that if you're not praying in tongues, you're not saved. According to the father of the word-faith movement, Kenneth Hagin, "peaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit." So if you're not speaking in tongues, you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to say that continuing to pray and to worship God in tongues helps us to be ever-con­scious of His indwelling Presence. And if you are conscious of the indwelling Presence of the Holy Ghost every day, that is bound to affect the way you think and live... When you pray in tongues, your spirit is in direct contact with God, who is a Spirit. When you speak in tongues, you are talking to Him by divine, supernatural means.

Is this true? Is this biblical? The answer is "of course not". These quotes came from the NAR's own Kenneth Hagin who has said a lot of silly things, the least of which is his false teachings on praying in tongues

Spurgeon Thursday - Rubbish

"The church of Rome and her teachings are
a vast mountain of rubbish covering the truth."

Continuing from Monday's posting of Mike Gendron's expose of false teaching in the Roman Catholic Church, let's step back in time about 140 years and see what the Prince of Preachers has to say about the Roman Catholic Church. You'll see that C.H.Spurgeon is a bit more direct in his assessment. Although a bit more brash, Spurgeon does base his criticisms in love, love for God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, those poor folk who have based their salvation on false teachings. But love for those false teachings and false teachers is tough love:

GENERAL

I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. - MTP Vol 11 pg. 510. 

If your heart be not right with God, you shall perish with the sacramental bread in your mouth, and go from the baptismal waters to the fires of hell. Beware of the peace which is drawn from the stagnant pool of superstition. It will carry death into your soul. - MTP Vol 36 pg. 426.

I have seen, to my horror, a picture of God the Father represented as an old man, whereas the Lord has declared that we should make no image of him or represent him in any way. The attempt is blasphemous. (Exodus 20:4) - MTP Vol 55 pg. 526.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter. - MTP Vol 30 pg. 459

I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration. - MTP Vol 40 pg. 505 .

Galatians 2:20 - The Roman Catholic hangs the cross on his bosom; the true Christian carries the cross in his heart. And a cross inside the heart is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart - Christ crucified in you - all the cross of this world's troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it. - NPSP Vol 4 pg. 428-429 . 

"Ignorance is the mother of devotion," according to the Church of Rome. "Ignorance is the mother of error," according to the Word of God. What we want our fellowmen to possess is spiritual knowledge. Especially do we desire that they may have knowledge with regard to God's righteousness, for men do not know what that righteousness is which God requires. - MTP Vol 37 pg. 387 

Three Common Errors of False Teachers

Mike Gendron

Being a recovering Roman Catholic I have a great affinity to Mike Gendron. For 34 years Evangelist Mike Gendron was a devout Roman Catholic and a strong defender of the "one true church." In 1981, at an evangelistic seminar, Mike heard for the first time that salvation is not by works or sacraments but by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He also discovered the Bible must become his authority in all matters of faith. After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1991, Mike began this ministry to reach the many Catholics who currently are where he was for most of his life - believing he was heaven-bound but, in reality, destined for a Christ-less eternity. Mike is recognized internationally as being gifted at lovingly explaining the false teaching of the Church of Rome and why their doctrines are wrong according to the Word of God. Thanks and a hat tip to Defending. Contending. for finding this important article by Mike Gendron. ( I will be back with my series on the NAR soon)

Three Common Errors of False Teachers

by Mike Gendron

Since we are now living in the age of religious tolerance and ecumenical unity, there are some people who will immediately call this article unloving and divisive. Others will ask, "What right do you have to judge another religion?" The answer is given in Scripture. All God-fearing people are called to make right judgments, judgments that have already been established by the objective principles of God's Word (John 7:24). There may be nothing more important than warning people who are being deceived about their eternal destiny. If we do not lovingly confront them with God's Gospel, they may never know how to escape the eternal fire of God's punishment. Clearly, the most unloving thing we can do is to ignore them and let them continue down the road to destruction. For this reason, I am always willing to offend people with the offense and exclusivity of the Gospel in the hopes that God may grant some of them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2: 25). Let us look at three fatal errors of false prophets and how to handle them: 

Emergent Monday - The NAR and Their Day of Infamy

3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

“Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I can't lay claim to calling the NAR-Todd Bently debacle the "Day of Infamy" the honor of coining that phrase goes to Steven Kozar and the Messed Up Church blog, but the question did come up last week. When I wrote about the NAR's Spiritual Mapping gimmick, Alec Satin speculated that one would expect a great deal of immorality behind the scenes or perhaps even openly, so maybe a review of the Day of Infamy would answer questions like this.

Todd Bentley was born in Gibsons, British Columbia, a small community on the western coast of Canada. As told in his autobiography, his parents divorced while he was a child, and he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction¹ Even though criminal records of juvenile offenders in Canada are sealed, several media outlets have reported on Bentley's conviction at age 15 of sexually assaulting a much younger boy when he was 13. Bentley later said that the original article was true2 At age 17 Bentley was hospitalized after an overdose of amphetamines and hallucinogens. At 18 he converted to christianity and changed his lifestyle completely.  

Emergent Monday - The Spiritual Map of George Otis and the NAR

Spiritual Mapping is a discipline used by the New Apostolic Reformation to... to... to be honest I couldn't figure out what exactly they use it for. But according to the NAR it's really important. I looked up Spiritual Mapping and was lead to a spiritual mapping webpage at isaiah54.org and found a page chock full of different type faces and colors, huge type, small type, shadowed type, italicized type, bold type, subscript type, superscript type, even Micosoft WordArt type, so spiritual mapping is clearly very important. And, a good thing, there was no explosive use of exclamation points so obviously the webmasters at isaiah54.org are not crazy. 

However the meaning and definition of Spiritual Mapping seemed to escape the webmasters notice. In their section titled WHAT IS THE DISCIPLINE OF SPIRITUAL MAPPING? they defined the word "Discipline" and completely ignored the whole Spiritual Mapping part. The page is covered with blather about spiritual warefare, partial bible quotes, bible quotes used utterly out of context and nonsense like 

"Like enemy intelligence gathering during wartime Spiritual Mapping gathers the strategic information necessary for effective intercessory "smart prayer" deployment." 

There is one quote worth paying attention to which came from Georg Otis Jr, the inventor of spiritual mapping:

(Spiritual Mapping is) "Superimposing our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain onto places and circumstances in the material world."  (from "The Last of the Giants" by George Otis Jr.)

I didn't say it made sense, I just said it was the one quote worth paying attention to. I first came across the term 'spiritual mapping' in a description of John MacArthurs sermon The Modern Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. In this sermon Dr. MacArthur never actually says "spiritual mapping" but he does utter the finest definition of the NAR ever spoken, and his definition has become a classic in Christianity

Emergent Monday: What Is The NAR?

24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 Behold, I have told you in advance. (Matthew 24:24-25)

I didn't want to write about the New Apostolic Reformation, I just wanted to expose the false prophesy of Rick Joyner who, had he actually received a prophesy from God about the Carolina Panthers it would have been "Broncos by 14". But lately I've been seeing the NAR almost everywhere in the blogosphere and in media. As many Christian bloggers can tell you, sometimes you just have to write something on a particular subject. While not wanting to wax Pentecostal, I believe that the Holy Spirit occasionally wants a subject to be broadcast and I've noticed that when I feel His push to write about a subject I often see that several other Bloggers will write about the same subject too.

For those that have never heard of the New Apostolic Reformation, you're in luck, I'm going to be writing a bit about them, for a while at least. The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a title invented by C. Peter Wagner to describe a group of people that seeks to establish their own form of Christendom. The conspiracy theorist would call their vision the "New World Order", and you know something? They would (for once) be right: