2009 – Out With A Bang!

BANG # 1 – THE TV LADY AND THE LESBIAN PRIEST

Our television set went on the fritz. All the colors on the picture tube became blurred and the scenes and people became distorted. That is how the month began, and I should have known, as I was soon to discover, that it was prophetic.

A very attractive and sweet senior lady at the fixit-shop counter kindly processed our broken television as the newest patient in the TV Hospital. She reassured me that she was quite sure that our sick television set could be made well by the electronic doctors, for as she said, “I have seen this same thing many times before.” That indeed was hopeful, good news. However, the good news was soon to be lost in what followed.

As I often do with folks who are new to me, I attempt to segwey myself into evangelism by asking them if they have a church of their own in the area. This dear lady answered, “Yes, I go to the Episcopalian Church where I am very involved.” I responded, “That’s great!” Then she said, “I don’t know how great it is, for we now have a head priest who is a lesbian, and I really don’t know what to think about it all. I’m confused. I hate to make trouble so I just mind my own business and go about my ministries in the church.”

Bang #1! Another customer was standing nearby who I knew overheard the brief exchange. Awkward to say the least! We were not talking here about animals in a zoo. Nothing so benign! We were walking about lesbian priests behind pulpits and communion tables. Far more volatile and lethal!

I honestly don’t remember what I said in response, at least not exactly. Probably some inane comment! I think I said, “Whoops!” I was caught off guard and I must have appeared as well as sounded like a computerized dummy in a Christmas store window that recites words while moving his mouth and blinking his eyes.

I have ridden with my wife past this lady’s church dozens of times and commented on how stately it appeared. Little did I know the tragic unstately mess that her church was in! I was momentarily in a state of verbal paralysis which is highly unusual for me. We shall soon be having this dear woman over for lunch, which invitation she said she would love to accept. Especially when I told her that I was a pastor. I know that she wants to talk! So do I!

What gripped me deeply was her comment, “I don’t know what to think about it. I’m confused.” I ask myself, “Confused? How can there be even the slightest confusion when everything in the Word of God written about and against the sin of homosexuality is written as it were in bold, capital letters?” Leviticus 18:22 condemns homosexuality:

“AN ABOMINATION.”

Romans 1:26 calls homosexuality:

“A DEGRADING, UNNATURAL PASSION.”

II Corinthians 6:9 calls homosexuals and lesbians:

“THE UNRIGHTEOUS WHO ARE EXCLUDED FROM

THE KINGDOM OF GOD“

Which means that the woman’s Episcopal Priestess is an abominable, degrading, unnatural, unrighteous, Kingdom-of-God reject. What could be more non-confusing than that? Except, the smooth-operating devil knows that if he can attach the adjective LESTBIAN to the noun PRIESTHOOD, he can perhaps give lesibanism a sanctified endorsement. Crafty devil indeed!

However, though “Lesbian Priesthood” is as slick though transparent a fallacy and blasphemy as there could ever be to those who are Biblically knowledgeable, still today church leaders and church laity are somehow today walking in a densely-fogged confusion that is unprecedented in mainline, historic “Christian Denominations.” Yes, the church! A corruption of beliefs and practices has infected the very organism to whom has been committed by God Himself the very laws of God and all of the Holy Spirit inspired instruction about purity and virtue.

If the Christian church and home are anything to our children, they are to be constant role models of what a Christain should look like! After all:

“SEEING GOD CALLS US SAINTS IN HIS WORD, DON’T YOU

YOU THINK IT IS INCUMBENT UPON US TO

LIVE LIKE SAINTS?”

A radio announcer for the New Orleans Saints was describing the play-by-play action of a game in the Seattle Kingdome between the Seattle Seahawks and the New Orlean Saints. It was late in the fourth quarter. It looked like the Seahawks were going to win. However, the Saints got one more chance. A few plays were successful. Anticipation was growing. The announcer then said, “The Saints are marching down the field. It now looks like the Saints are going to win in the Kingdome.”

Oh how I want to shout with that announcer the following:

“THE SAINTS OF GOD ARE MARCHING DOWN THE FIELD. IT NOW

LOOKS LIKE THE SAINTS OF GOD ARE GOING TO WIN

IN THE KINGDOM.”

However:

“WHILE THE LORD PRESENTS HIS CHURCH IN HEBREWS 11

AS A VICTORIOUS HALL OF FAME, SATAN IS DOING HIS

WORST TO DEGRADE THE CHURCH INTO A DEFEATED

HALL OF SHAME.”

So now, as if under some demonic spell, not only are churches endorsing homosexuality as a valid, alternative lifestyle, but ordaining perverts as priests and pastors as well. And in so doing:

“THE MODERN CHURCH IS HURRYING OUR GULLIBLE AND

IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN ALONG CROOKED PATHS OF

PERVERSION AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SPIRITUALLY

AS WELL AS MORALLY CRIPPLING THEM FOR THE REST

OF THEIR LIVES.”

Have we forgotten “Paradise Lost?” Have we forgotten the following, namely that:

“THE DEVIL’S GREAT MASTERPIECE AND FIRST ART OF RUINING

MAN IS TO SOW SEEDS OF FALLACY AND ERROR IN THEIR

CHIEF GUIDE OF FAITH AND CONDUCT – THEIR

UNDERSTANDING?”

It is better known as DEVILISH DELUSION. And now the church of Jesus Christ that is to be the light of Christ to the world, darkens the Son and defiantly out-stares the Light, as well as calls the night day and the day night. 

Think about it! We see the outcome of some famous trial  like that of the O. J. Simpson double murder trial, and we shake our heads at the outcome and say, “How could it come out like that? Were there a bunch of morons  on that jury? Couldn’t they see that he was as guilty as sin?” No they couldn’t, for Satan’s delusional spells cause people to call sin righteousness, and guilt innocence.

So too, we hear about a church commission on the national level taking some outlandish and disgusting stand on a controversial issue and we think to ourselves and maybe even say to others, “How can they be that misguided? Can’t they see what is as plain as the nose on their face?”

We could use many metaphors to explain this, but they all say the same thing. There is a dense, hellish fog that is being cast over and in the world and the church today. Or if you will, the church is becoming a garden overrun by weeds in pestilential proportions. Or if you will, the fountains of truth are being poisoned so that now even her priests, pastors and teachers are perverts and perverters of God’s Word – preachers and practitioners of heresy and immorality. But behind it all is the one talked about in Revelation 12:9.

“…the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who

deceives the whole world….”

Our warfare is not against flesh and blood ultimately, but against the master of deception who has no off-season, especially in the church. That is why we as preachers of God’s Word must do what we are commanded to do in II Timothy 2:2-4,

“Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove,

rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;

but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for

themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires;”

“and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn

aside to myths.”

And if we don’t, even as Santa Claus dominates Christmas, and the Easter Bunny dominates Easter, so it will be that Perverts will dominate Sunday pulpits and sacraments. Even as stuffed animals multiply unchecked in your children’s bedrooms because they have no natural predators, so too perverts will multiply unchecked in the church pews and pulpits because they have no true preachers-of-righteousness or holy combatants. Mark my words, no, not mine, His! Your people will turn away from the truth and turn to myths.

BANG #2 – YOGA CHURCH GROWTH

It was only a couple of days later when the aging and contemptuous 2009 spit at me right in the face a second time in two days. I must add that in these last days of human history, it is not uncommon to have the feeling that we are always in the eye of the storm waiting for the next big blow at any moment.

Anyway, I bumped into a colleague of the cloth from the Methodist Church and asked him how things were going. He told me that things were going very well and that they were growing in numbers of late. I asked him what he attributed the increase in numbers to. He then said:

“WE ARE HOLDING YOGA , TAI CHI AND TAE KWON DO CLASSES IN

OUR CHURCH AND ALL OF THAT IS BRINGING PEOPLE IN.”

In other words: “YOGA, TAI CHI AND TAE KWON DO EVANGELISM AND CHURCH GROWTH.” All of that under the categories of “Weight Watchers” and “Health/Wellness” ministries in the name of Christ!

Amazing! I find of late that there are so many pastors walking around who really ought to be taken over the knee then and there and given a good martial arts spanking with the shout Kiai (or something like that)!! Their willingness to pastor dangerously, irresponsibly and yet seemingly shamelessly stuns me.

It was obvious that the eye of the storm had passed over, and we were in the full force of the “Category Five Heresy Hurricane” once again. There seems to be no let up in sight. I was so discouraged and heavyhearted when I left him that I walked away scuffing my shoes on the icy sidewalk and that not for safety purposes.

However, to make it worse, he is not alone! There are over ten million Americans involved in Yoga, without the slightest idea of what they are actually involved in. I am told that there are thousands of Christians across the country enrolled in Yoga classes. They even call them “Christian Yoga Classes.” Which of course is a first class oxymoron, for Yoga is rooted in Hinduism, and Hinduism cannot be separated from Yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that most literally means:

“YOKED WITH BRAHAM.”

Yes:

“BRAHAM WHO IS THE TOP GOD IN THE HINDU

PANTHEON OF GODS.”

Furthermore, many of the “mantras” that yoga instructors have their followers chant, though they don’t know it,  are actually the names of Hindu deities. In any case, Hindu meditations and mantras are designed to enable the “Yogaist” to contact and call forth Hindu gods. We read in Exodus 23:13 Jehovah God’s strong words,

“Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be on

your guard; and do not mention the name of other gods,

nor let them be heard from your mouth.”

And oh, by the way, people just don’t dabble in Yoga. They may think that they are dabbling, but the majority do not remain dabblers. Most of the people who get involved with Yoga also get involved in Hinduism, New Age Religions and the Occult.

Many Christians get sucked into Yoga as “Just An Exercise Program” (Satan’s thinly disguised propaganda program), but later on they end up getting deeply involved with Hinduism or some other false meditative religion as their Gospel shoes get sucked off in the muck and mire of Satanic deception.

But take the “Indian Gurus” words on it:

“YOGA AT ITS ESSENCE IS PURE HINDUISM.”

If you will:

“BY PARTICIPATING IN YOGA, YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN A

TOTALLY FALSE RELIGION.”

And be sure of this:

“THE REASON THAT DABBLERS ARE UNWARE THAT THE DEVIL HAS

BLINDED AND DECEIVED THEM IS THAT HE HAS

ALREADY DONE SO.”

Always remember:

“THE DEVIL RULES OVER NONE BUT THOSE WHOM

HE FIRST DECEIVES.”

What in the world is going on here? Nothing more or less than another one of Satan’s flanking maneuvers to come at us where we are ignorant, unaware and therefore weak and vulnerable. Hosea 4:6 holds true every time,

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge….”

Here ignorance is not bliss! To Satan, ignorance is bliss! That is, Satan, the relentless enemy of the truth is fully cognizant of the fact that what people don’t know will hurt them bad. If you will:

“SATAN’S STRONG STRATEGY IS TO FIRST MAKE PEOPLE STUPID

SO THAT HE CAN TEACH THEM WHATEVER HE DESIRES.”

Or again:

“SATAN SEEKS TO BLIND THE EYES OF PEOPLE’S MINDS SO THAT

HE CAN LEAD THEM WHEREVER HE WOULD.”

For we must understand this principle:

“WHEN PEOPLE ARE IGNORANT OF THE TRUTH, THIS DOES NOT

MEAN THEY BELIEVE IN NOTHING. WHAT IT DOES MEAN IS

THAT THEY WILL BELIEVE IN ANYTHING

AND EVERYTHING.”

The Devil’s intensified last-days “Theater of Operations” is the church. Of course, his goal has always been to destroy Christianity. He is the spirit of anti-Christ! If we as Christians fail to see the power behind all of this, then we are as discerning as a brick wall. If that is the case, no doubt it is because we have already fallen prey to sloppy agape, easy-going standards and Satanically-imposed ignorance in our ministries.

Whether it is Yoga, or Tai Chi which is an ancient system of movement and meditation practiced by Buddhist monks, or Tae Kwon Do which is a form of Korean martial arts meaning to hit or break with fist or foot, none of these heathen philosophies and concepts may have any place in the church of Jesus Christ. They are totally against the letter and the spirit of  Christ’s teaching and practice. He trains us to turn the other cheek, not to break someone’s head.

In short we must never forget:

“THE ENTIRETY OF THE WORLD’S PHILOSOPHIES AND RELIGIONS

ARE IN PERPETUAL SLAVERY TO SATAN’S DECEITS.”

Therefore:

“NO ONE CAN ENTER INTO HEATHEN CONCEPTS WITHOUT ALSO

BECOMING HEATHEN IN THEIR DELUSIONS.”

God help us! God help us as ministers to instruct our people and fiercely protect them from Satan’s ploys!

Since my prostate cancer surgery recently, I have been struggling with incontinence which is a common result of a radical prostatectomy. Please pray for me! Thank you. To counteract that I must do muscle exercises at the bottom of my torso.

However, far worse is the fact that the devil in these last days is doing brainectomies on churchgoers who no longer can control their thinking. We now have people who spiritually and doctrinally are like drooling, incontinent little trolls who are soiling themselves with pagan philosophies and practices. We must lead them in doing Biblical spiritual and doctrinal brain exercises at the top of their torsos in these dangerous and delusional days. The battle is for people’s minds and we cannot for a second allow a dumbing down in the Body of Christ, for Satan will then decimate the church.

So that as the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 5:12-13 (KJV),

“For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness:

for he is a babe.”

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who

by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern

both good and evil.”

BANG #3 – BOB – THE BIG BAD DIVIDER

Old man 2009 was not done with his assault on my Christmas spirit. The very next morning after the day of my confrontation with the Yoga, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do pastor, I received an email from a very close friend and a long-standing acquaintance in the Body of Christ who accused me and my ministry of Whole Truth Help and our fight for truth, as well as my recent book Modern Christianity Corrupted, of causing divisions in the church of Jesus Christ. Bob the big, bad, divisive one!

It was a difficult moment for me as if I needed another one. I realized again that the battle for the truth of God’s Word was doing what it always has done, and that is to cause a chasm to open to separate even family and close friends. Jesus warned us about and prepared us for this sort of thing when he said in Matthew 10:36,

“And a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

I already with my wife and family had strongly experienced that years ago in our battle to fight for the Bible’s truth about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and restoring them to the church. It will never be different in this world. And after all, he who sticks his head up for truth is not exempt from beanballs, sniper fire and shrapnel. As they say, “It goes with the territory.”

Moreover, even baseball players wear those hard-plastic batting helmets. They are a must when you play hardball! Thank God for the Helmet of Salvation, the Breastplate of Righteousness and the Shield of Faith!

But more importantly is what is really behind all of this today. I have met this lethal concept before and will no doubt meet it again. So have you! It is this:

“ALL THAT IS REQUIRED IS THAT A PERSON BELIEVES IN JESUS AS

HIS SAVIOR, AND AFTER THAT THERE ARE VAST SPIRITUAL AND

MORAL SPACES TO ROAM IN ONE’S CONVICTIONS.”

If you will:

“UNITY AT ALL COSTS, EVEN AT THE EXPENSE OF TRUTH.”

This is now commonplace, especially in “Ecumenical” and “Seeker Friendly” church environments. They are invitations to loosey-goosey doctrinal and ethical belief systems all in the name of Christ. Or should I say, “Christian Non-Belief Systems.” At which point the line of demarcation between “Unbelief” and “Non-Belief” becomes very narrow!

It all reminds me of our childhood baseball games in the fieldlot across the street from our house. Of course, there were no boundaries or out-of-bounds lines, so most everything was a fair ball unless it hooked or sliced at least fifteen to twenty feet right or left of first and third base and killed a cow in the adjacent pasture. Then maybe, and only maybe, was it a foul ball. Endless arguments ensued as to what was fair and what was foul.

Modern feel-good churchianity has solved all of that. There are no out-of-bounds lines as long as you love the team manager – Jesus Christ. Play ball! Heavy on the word “Play!”

First of all, we may not and in fact cannot separate Christ from the whole Word of God, or the whole Word of God from Christ. Why is that? Simply but profoundly because Jesus Christ is “The Word!” So much so that we read about Jesus in Revelation 19:13,

“And His name is called ‘The Word of God.’”

And again, we may not and in fact cannot separate Christ from the whole Truth of God’s Word, or the whole Truth of God’s Word from Christ. Why is that? Simply but profoundly because Jesus Christ is “The Truth.” So much so that we read about Jesus in John 14:6 where He says about Himself,

“I am the Truth.”

So then:

“WE CANNOT BE ONE WITH AND IN JESUS WITHOUT BEING ONE

WITH AND IN THE WHOLE WORD OF GOD, FOR WE MAY

NOT AND CANNOT SEPARATE THE TWO.” 

Or:

“WE CANNOT BE ONE-IN-HEART WITH CHRIST AND EACHOTHER

WITHOUT BEING ONE-IN-HEAD WITH CHRIST

AND EACHOTHER.”

Again:

“CHRIST AS OUR SAVIOR NOT ONLY DEMANDS THE TRUST OF OUR

HEARTS, BUT AS OUR LORD HE REQUIRES THE HOMAGE OF

OUR UNDERSTANDINGS AND THE SUBMISSION OF OUR

WILLS TO HIS WORD.”

The communion of the saints and the unity of the Body of Christ is nothing but a blasphemous charade apart from oneness in the Lord of the Word and the Word of the Lord. Otherwise, all that the church will be is a unified nest of nasty little church mice that eat holes in the church structure as well as in the Bread of Life. They recklessly take what they want and leave the rest contaminated and ruined.

Just as obese Americans have relaxed dietary laws, so much of the modern church has relaxed God’s moral laws on divorce, adultery, homosexuality and fornication. Churches now preaching and preparing teens for safe-sex! Before they leave the youth meeting the offer is – condoms anyone? We’ve lost our cotton-picking minds!

Frankly to get your feeding in the modern church of selective preaching in an age of doctrinal diluting and moral relativism, you would be much safer eating chili prepared by the boys and girls in a juvenile home. At least you would get the real, super-strong stuff! Tums anyone?

All of this is exactly why Jesus commands us in Matthew 22:37,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your

soul, and with all your mind.”

Likewise II Timothy 3:16-17,

“All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for

reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

“that the man of God may be adequate (complete), equipped

(thoroughly furnished) for every good work.”

The fact is that to be a Christian we must be so with our whole being. God will have our heart totally trusting in Him, our minds totally in agreement with Him, and our wills totally cooperating with Him or He will have none of us.

There is no such thing as a “Half-Truth” or a “Part-Way Christian,” even as there was no such thing in the Bible as a “Part-Way Leper.” Even as the partly infected leper was pronounced totally unclean, so the part-way believer is pronounced a total unbeliever. “Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, but only those who do the will of my Father,” says Jesus.

If you will:

“A PERSON WITH A BELIEVING HEART IN CHRIST AS SAVIOR BUT A

SLOPPY AND UNCONVICTED MIND AS TO HIS WORD

IS STILL AN UNBELIEVER.”

Fact:

“THEN WE ARE REDUCING CHRIST TO A MINDLESS FOOL, AND THE

LIGHT OF THE WORLD TO A BURNED OUT CANDLE.”

The fact is:

“WE CANNOT GIVE CHRIST OUR HEARTS WITHOUT

BOWING OUR HEADS.”

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not

come to bring peace but a sword.”

“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against

her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Just when I thought I was safe! I admit that by this time even I had been weakened and was, quite unlike me, willing to compromise. Even Jingle Bells was starting to sound good although it doesn’t have a blessed thing to do with Christmas. Yes, and Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire was beginning to have somehow a holy fragrance. Man oh man, was I beginning to lose it or what?! God wasn’t done testing me, no matter if I was beginning to feel indifferent as to whether I passed or flunked.

We next in this three week period were visiting with some very dear and close relatives, when all of sudden it just popped out like a burp from too much Christmas punch. Probably too many Christmas goodies and then a sudden expelling of excess gas! Out it came from our dear, loved one’s mouth, “Bob, I am really beginning to wonder about homosexuality. We have friends in our church circle of acquaintances who believe that homosexuality is a genetic irregularity and that homosexuals, i.e. gays and lesbians, are born predisposed to homosexuality and should be accepted as such. That is what is going around today in our web of Christian friendship. I don’t know anymore what to think.” And then she said, “I should add that those who are promulgating this have in some instances homosexual children.”

I QUEERied her, “I see! In other words, you have fellow believers in Christ who are saying that:

“HOMOSEXUALITY IS A GENETIC ACCIDENT AND NOT

A MORAL CHOICE?”

If you will:

“HOMOSEXUALITY IS AN ABNORMAL NORMALCY THAT SHOULD BE

ACCEPTED AS SOMEHOW WRONGFULLY RIGHT?”

And again:

“HOMOSEXUALS IN THIS CASE SHOULD BE VIEWED AS

NON-CONSENTING VICTIMS RATHER THAN

RESPONSIBLE MORAL AGENTS?”

And again the response from our confused Christian precious one, “I don’t know what to think!”

I don’t know why, but then again as a pastor/evangelist maybe I do, as I somehow thought immediately of the pastors past and present of these misguided parishioners. How could these things be dripping into their brains like rainwater dripping down the neck of a person whose umbrella is far too small to protect him? It is like the roof of protection in the church today has been built with roof boards that were cut way too short. And at best the dangerously porous roof has been covered over with cheap tarpapered and canvassed theology that allows the devil’s delusions to drip through unto and into their heads.

But I was in no mood now to engage my dear relative in intense diaLOGue. My brain logs were all burned up and burned out by this time. Well, not totally, as I shot back firmly and pointedly with still some fire in my eyes “Then do you mean to tell me that God fried the Sodomites and Gomorrahites with fire and brimstone, as recorded in Genesis 19, because those poor perverts had screwed up DNA? Do you believe that God would turn helpless, genetic victims into burnt toast?” She said, “Oh, I get your point.”

Then I saw a glimmer of hope that for her the day had dawned and the sun began to shine as the smoke of incinerated cities and perverts ascended before our minds’ eyes. The subject was mercifully dropped and I felt some measure of victory and relief as the Holy Spirit had graciously led us into  truth.

CONCLUSION

So until next time dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, co-laborers with Christ, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Occupy till He comes. With all of our might, let us bring God glory and give the devil fits in 2010.