Could this be the Mark of the Beast?

CHIIP-IMPLANT-1At this very moment, world events are running so fast that no one can keep up with them. The stock market around the world is collapsing. Now we are being inundated with very confusing explanations about the mark of the beast. The Bible tells us:

The Antichrist will compel all both small and great, both the rich and the poor, both free and slave, to be marked with an inscription [stamped] on their right hands or on their foreheads, So that no one will have power to buy or sell unless he bears the stamp (mark, inscription), [that is] the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is [room for] discernment [a call for the wisdom of interpretation]. Let anyone who has intelligence (penetration and insight enough) calculate the number of the beast, for it is a human number [the number of a certain man]; his number is 666 (Revelation 13:16-18 AMP).

Without this mark there will be no way to obtain food or transportation or even make a living. It will be practically impossible to survive.  He will come to power at a time of international economic crisis. He will cause craft and deceit to prosper. He will control the citizens using the available technology and he will be watching every move.

Today Bio-chip implants, each the size of a grain of rice, can be tucked under a person’s skin to monitor his health or his buying and selling transactions. Other similar high-tech identification systems have been developed as well: eye scans, facial scans, palm printing, transponders. The technology is already in place to implement such a surveillance system. Remember most of the political leaders in all the parties believe in government abuse of power to intimidate and track innocent people especially Christians.Will they use a microchip implant or its just speculation?

What is an RFID Microchip Implant?

A human microchip implant is an identifying RFID transponder encased in silicate glass which is about the size of a grain of rice and implanted in the body of a human being. RFID stands for radio frequency identification. It contains a unique ID number that can be linked to information contained in an external database, such as personal identification, medical history, medications, allergies, and contact information. RFID chips are found in lots of things we use every day, including credit cards and passports.

In the next video Perry Stone prophesies about the possible government plan of implanting of microchips into our bodies for identification reasons, similar to the mark of the beast spoken of in the Book of Revelation. Stone says by 2017-2018, it will be mandatory for Americans to have this chip implanted in their bodies.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x2mxqgj

Katherine Albrecht the founder of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering also warned us that iWatch, Apple Pay could be sequel to Mark of the Beast here:

 [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1SlpcUewY0]

Remember no one will be able to get the mark without worshiping the beast. So whether or not this is mark of the beast doesn’t matter to those who know and have placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What matters is; do you know Jesus intimately? Are you blood bought, stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit and preserved for glory? The overcoming church of Jesus Christ will not be on this planet when this marking takes place.

God’s people have already been marked on their foreheads. We are already sealed, marked, branded and stamped with the seal of the long –promised Holy Spirit as God’s own secured for the day of redemption through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin. (See Ephesians 1:13) The prophet Ezekiel says:

And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in the midst of it (Ezekiel 9:4).

In the Book of Revelation, we hear the Lord telling the destroying angels, Harm neither the earth nor the sea nor the trees, until we have sealed the bond servants of our God upon their foreheads (Revelation 7:3).

Again in Revelation 9:4 the demon powers unleashed in the last days are told not to injure the herbage of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only [to attack] such human beings as do not have the seal (mark) of God on their foreheads.

In Revelation 22:4 the Lord promises us that, “No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.”

Here is our final lesson. Our hope faith and trust are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it and we are forever in His care. The prophet Daniel says, “He reveals the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him!” (Daniel 2:22) God knows that all these dark days ahead will be overcome when we draw close to Him. He assures us that He will never leave us nor forsake us:

Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me? (Hebrews 13:5 AMP).

 




Discipleship of New Believers

VA_-_Raphael_St_Paul_Preaching_in_Athens_1515-1In the previous post, we talked about how the Jezebel witchcraft Spirit can affect the whole family through the example of Peter. We mentioned that Peter put his faith in the Lord Jesus when he was around 18 years of age, but he had all these problems and confusions because of lack of discipleship as a young believer. Peter says,

The Holy Spirit convicted me that I had to repent and wholeheartedly and completely surrender my life to the Lord. It was around 2001 that I experienced life-changing personal encounter with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit that made a lasting impression on me. I then experienced a deep longing to serve Him and for a more intimate relationship with Him, and in His goodness, the Lord began to reveal Himself to me in His Word and to introduce me to other Bible teachers that have enriched my spiritual, personal and private prayer life.

Certainly Peter had a life transforming encounter with Jesus Christ, but he didn’t seem to have victory especially in the area of finance and he could find no natural or logical reason why he was frustrated. As we discovered, Peter had descended from many generations of idol worshipers which according to Exodus 20:3-5, means a curse down to the third and fourth generations.

The actual experience of Peter’s encounter with the Holy Spirit however, was not the end of his conflict. Why? Because a person who has made a conscious, unreserved commitment to Satan is still regarded by him as his property. Satan will seek continually to re-establish his control, using every kind of demon under his command.

The spiritual struggle for deliverance is often very intense for those who have participated in any kind of satanic rituals. As I mentioned in my book,

We Africans are very defensive about our culture, traditions, and superstitions, which is completely understandable. But adhering to that culture when we’ve been born again causes great conflict. We still suffer from the influence of witchcraft, ancestral worship, and other spiritual strongholds, which has been going on for some time since the history of Christianity in Africa.

It is worth examining that despite the origins of revival in Uganda (East Africa) in the nineteenth century, many Christian leaders from Buganda, which is the largest ethnic group, resented the revival because they felt this move of the Holy Spirit attacked their deeply held kiganda traditions and practices.

The born-again Christians denounced the continuance of traditional practices by Christians and accused the already established Anglican Church of compromising. These new born-again believers declined to have anything to do with rituals connected with the birth of twins or the last funeral rites, all of which the born-again believers felt to be immoral practices.

Once a person has entered the kingdom of God and has wholeheartedly accepted the lordship of Christ, no other culture or tradition may legitimately lay claim to our lives. We have patterns of sin that go back thousands of years and generation after generation of repeating these patterns.

The revival that took place should have broken up these patterns, but most believers combined their traditions with the Word of God. It’s impossible to combine the traditions and culture of any society with the Bible. They will always be in conflict with one another.

Discipleship in a Young Believer

Throughout the New Testament, we are commanded to produce committed followers and disciples, not merely converts. It takes real spiritual fatherhood like that exemplified by the apostle Paul to form real committed Christians. The question is: What is a Disciple and how do we become Disciples?

A disciple is a learner who follows His Master everywhere He goes. His goal is to learn and keep on learning until he resembles the Master. The goal of the disciple should be to know Jesus more intimately. When the seventy disciples had come back from preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and casting out demons, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them.

Jesus told them, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). In other words, don’t rejoice in successful service, but rejoice that you know the Lord intimately. The passion for winning souls and making disciples springs from our relationship with God.

Jesus’ definition of becoming a disciple requires absolute surrender to Him alone. Because Jesus Christ demands obedience to His Word, He calls men to follow Him not as just a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as Lord and God—the Christ, the Son of the living God. In describing what a disciple means, He said,

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters—[yes] and even his own life also—he cannot be My disciple…. So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26, 33 AMP)

The passage makes a pointed contrast between two kinds of people: the great multitudes who were going along with Jesus and the single individual who comes after Him. We are sometimes satisfied with great multitudes who go along with Jesus, but true Christianity should focus primarily on each individual who comes after Jesus.

That’s why the apostles were concerned that people should become disciples; they were not interested in our modern methods of preaching. They realized that disciple making takes time and so Paul would stay in a place for a considerable period of time to make sure that the believers were established.

In Ephesus he taught about the kingdom of God every afternoon from 12 until 4 o’clock for two years in order that young converts might learn and new people would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In fact those who came to faith were commonly known as disciples or followers of the way. It was perseverance on the journey that mattered, not a one-off decision that has little effect on daily life.

Repentance is an ongoing, daily requirement in the life of every disciple of Jesus Christ. The call of discipleship sets the Christian in the middle of daily temptations against sin and the enemy. Every day and every hour we encounter new temptations, and we must be called to suffer, carry the cross, and follow Christ, denying ourselves.

We are to produce not fellow travelers but committed followers of Jesus Christ. If you know you cannot follow up your converts, you had better go back in the secret place and talk to the Lord to give you a discipleship strategy. Jesus Christ emphasized this when He asked the Apostle Peter three times if he loved Him, he was to take care and feed His lambs. (See John 21: 15-17)

Peter indeed obeyed this command by preaching his first sermon after being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Peter knew that unbelief was the first sin that man committed. Therefore it had to be the first sin which the Holy Spirit convicted the 3,000 on the Day of Pentecost. Peter said,

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.’ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ (Acts 2:36–37)

He then called his listeners to repentance:

Repent (change your views and purpose to accept the will of God in your inner selves instead of rejecting it) and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of and release from your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

The sequence is to believe, repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why would Peter include the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It is quite possible to have some of the Spirit’s presence and work in the heart and yet come short of that special fullness and work known in the Bible as the baptism or filling with the Holy Spirit. It is only the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of the sin of unbelief, the righteousness of Jesus, and of a future judgment to come. (See John 16:9–11)

Without the moving of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the people, we would be religious and deny the power that can make us godly. (See 2 Timothy 3:1-5) Religion apart from the moving of the Holy Spirit can be very dangerous because it keeps us in a false sense of security and indifference without considering the destiny of our souls. We have an example given by Rees Howells during the Welsh Revival:

The Revival proved what the Holy Ghost could do through a company of believers, who were of one spirit and of one mind as on the day of Pentecost……The one aim was the saving of souls. The Saviour said there is joy among the angels over one sinner that repents, and they could say there was joy in the church over converts.

The bells of the heaven rang every time, and there was a shout of victory in the camp. Under the influence of the Spirit there was an irresistible power. The feeblest ones were often clothed with a majesty that was indescribable, and their words were with unction, as they showed how the Saviour was “slain for our offences and raised again for our justification.

Whole congregations were melted, and people were crying out in agony of soul, “What must we do to be saved?” Multitudes experienced the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse from all sin. But the real problem arose as the revival proceeded and thousands were added to the churches. There were more children born than there were nurses to tend them.

The establishing or discipling of the converts became the greatest need, which if not met would be the most dangerous weakness of the Revival. As enthusiasm abated, there were bound to be many who had depended more on feelings, and not yet learned to have their faith solidly based on the Word of God. The devil took advantage of this, some became cold and indifferent and the spiritual conflict began.

So in Peter’s situation, which affects most new believers, no one took the time to explain to him that individual sinfulness in this case, witchcraft can have an effect on the whole family or nation. The best example of this is found in Joshua 7. After the fall of Jericho, Joshua commanded that all living things should be killed and all the treasures should be taken into the treasury of the Lord’s house.

A man named Achan took some of the treasures for himself and hid them. We are told that as a result of his action the Israelites were defeated at Ai. Joshua and the leaders spent a whole day pleading with the Lord and seeking to discover the reason for the curse.

Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. They have taken some of the things devoted [for destruction]; they have stolen, and lied, and put them among their own baggage. (Joshua 7:11)

Now it’s easy to baulk at this incident and ask, why blame the Israelites? It was Achan who sinned, not the whole of Israel. Unfortunately, the sin had tainted the whole of Israel and therefore the whole nation had to pay for the sin of one man. Achan’s personal sin had an effect on the whole of Israel as well as himself and his own family.

In the Old Testament we find the leaders representing the whole group before God. Time and time again the prophets came before God to plead before Him to forgive their iniquity.

In the New Testament, Paul is also aware that the sin of each individual taints the whole. In 1 Corinthians 5 he dealing with the report that a man is actually sleeping with his father’s wife. As if that wasn’t bad enough the church had colluded in this sin by not expelling him and Paul’s judgement causes a severe shock:

You are to deliver this man over to Satan for physical discipline [to destroy carnal lusts which prompted him to incest that his spirit may yet be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5) Paul then explains why it is dangerous to turn a blind eye to sin within the body:

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (Verses 6-8)

The individual sin cannot be seen in isolation from the family or nation and therefore, like yeast in the dough, it can spread throughout with grave consequences for the whole family or society. That’s why it’s important to stand in the gap and plead to God for the release of the family from the consequences of sin or condemnation and to ask God for mercy.

Peter had to be taught that its power of the Holy Spirit and the cross that nullifies witchcraft. Peter needed the help of committed disciples of Jesus Christ to stand with him so that he could learn to resist every pressure by continually affirming and confessing the Scriptures that guarantee deliverance and victory. The Christian life is a conflict and warfare and the quicker we find it out the better.

In this, Jesus is our example. When devil tempted Him in the wilderness, He countered the temptation with one all sufficient response: It is written…it also written…. (See Luke 4:1-12) Then Jesus went back full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him spread through the whole region round about. (Verse 13-14)

This experience of the Holy Spirit was foretold by John, promised by the Father and experienced at Pentecost. (See Acts 1:8) I’m sure you’ve noticed that the vast change that took place in the apostles after this experience. Before, they had been timid and powerless men. Afterwards, they did receive the power that Christ spoke about. They healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead. The same men who had hidden themselves at the crucifixion went on after this experience and changed the world.

But someone might ask, I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I have obeyed the Lord in all these matters of repentance and faith, why am I still frustrated in many areas of my life? The answer is we must recognize that there is a higher level of blessing than what we can see with our own eyes—the material. For example, when Moses turned his back on the wealth of Egypt, the writer of Hebrews tells us that:

He preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense). (Hebrews 11:24-26)

The motivation to believe, repent and be baptized in the Holy Spirit should not be to acquire selfish material wealth. In his book on Prayer, Andrew Murray teaches us that:

We need to realize that in our relationship to God, who has created and redeemed us; our first posture ought to be that of subjection. The surrender to His supremacy, His glory, His will, His pleasure, ought to be the first and uppermost thought in our mind. The question is not how we are to obtain and enjoy His favor or blessing, for the motivation here may still be self.

But rather what does God rightfully claim of us—and is infinitely and unspeakably worthy of: that His glory and pleasure should be our one object. Service and obedience were the thoughts uppermost in the mind of the Son when He dwelt on earth. Service and obedience must also be the chief objects of our desire and aim.

The motivation of the disciple should be love for Jesus and His people which enables us to do God’s will. Once our motives are tested and purified and our faith has stood the test, the Lord will release whatever blessing and abundance that He can trust us to use for His glory and for preaching His gospel wherever, and whomever He decides to send us to.

Image credit: Paul delivering the Areopagus sermon in Athens, by Raphael, 1515. Public Domain




The Jezebel Witchcraft Spirit in the Family

Blessings or CursesAs we’ve seen in previous posts, any person with a controlling spirit tries to control and manipulate everyone under their influence. They control their lives, decisions and will do everything possible to have influence and power. They want to control their lives, and the lives of those around them, so that they would get things done their own way.

Many of us are under the power and influence of someone with a controlling spirit. This can be a parent, spouse, boss at work or anyone in a position of leadership. The same controlling spirit may manifest in very different ways.

For instance a controlling, manipulative mother will often be horrified when her daughter grows up to be exactly like her or even worse. Little does she know that she released that very curse into her child’s life! This mother will not be content with the exercise of her legitimate authority, therefore she will exploit all her children spiritually, emotionally, and financially.

Let’s look at one example: A boy is brought into this world by his mother. She feeds him, nurtures him, protects him, sings baby songs to him, and he really becomes mama’s boy. The shift comes when a boy begins to seek out his father’s affection, which is how masculinity is bestowed.

This sometimes is very hard in a mother’s life when the father now replaces her as the main influence in the boy’s life. If a mother insists on controlling the boy, instead of letting go, things can get very nasty later in life—most especially in marriage. The boy develops an emotional bond with his mother that is hard to break. His loyalties are now divided.

When a man marries a woman, he cannot do anything without the advice and consent of his mother. The mother tells him everything to do and not what to do. She even controls the raising of their children. The mother of the man is not physically in the couple’s home with her son, but controls him.

In this case the man (husband) is under the influence and authority of his mother. It’s as if the man is married to his mother. She does everything in her power to destroy the marriage and if possible to cause a divorce so that she can regain the control of her son to herself. This results in a controlling spirit which leads to full blown witchcraft!

When the mother insists on clinging to his son and direct his life and decisions, the boy will try to tear himself away from her sometimes violently. The mother of course will feel rejected and will try to do everything to gain illegitimate control of her son.

This is the story of so many adults who resent their mothers but cannot say why. Remember since the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve, the woman’s God given natural respect for man was damaged, and now she wanted to control any person in her life, her surroundings and relationships. You never hear of a father trying to control his son or daughter before or after they are married. It’s always the mother.

The Curse of Jezebel Witchcraft Spirit in a Family

Here is a true story of Peter who relates his experience resulting from a curse of witchcraft in his family. Peter’s father was a successful construction engineer and managing director of a construction company. However, his success was blighted by polygamy and witchcraft.

He had around 17 children from 10 different women. And as you can imagine, polygamy affects children in every area of their lives. The more women he had; the more the family suffered. There was fear of witchcraft from the different women who of course wanted to be in total control of the man.

All help in witchdoctors, who were brought to Peter’s home and those they visited, were sought in vain as tragedy after tragedy befell the family. His whole extended family had dabbled in witchcraft in which certain rituals were performed and all other strange things not worth mentioning. Finally, it was time for payback from the devil.

Peter’s step-elder brother died along with his two kids. Subsequently, all Peter’s uncles died one by one. Later as expected, the dad died and then the remaining uncle and the aunt. It’s as if they had made a covenant with a spirit of death! Peter says, “My family was very messed up, and if at all it wasn’t the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, I was headed for same destiny.”

Nevertheless, God plan over Peter’s life had to prevail. When Peter was around 18 years old, he happened to attend a gospel crusade in a nearby village. The message was about the power of the cross of Jesus Christ over sin. Peter put his faith in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The problem is, although Peter had trusted in the saving grace of Christ, he was so ignorant of the word of God and he therefore needed a follow-up as young covert in order to be discipled. Peter backslid for almost ten years and as you can imagine, he made very bad choices that he regrets to this day.

Worse still, Peter’s mother unknowingly destroyed his family by controlling and manipulating his dad using witchcraft. Peter’s dad was now a victim of witchcraft and he was being slowly poisoned by the mother of his kids so that she could totally have control of his life and everything he owned including his children.

Peter told me his dad lost the good use of his faculties and worse still he was medically diabetic, always looking weak, sickly and almost paralyzed. It was as if something was sucking life out of him. So when he was deteriorating to the point of mental imbalance, most people thought it was diabetes. Yes, his sickness played a part, but it was mainly witchcraft that destroyed him.

I asked Peter how he found out that his mother was practicing witchcraft and he told me, it all started when Peter’s mum was physically abused by the dad.

Peter believes his mum unconsciously lost her utmost respect to his dad. Desperate to be in control and never to be abused again, she resorted to witchcraft to control the man and all his remaining financial assets.

Remember two of the strongest desires or cravings of human nature are the desire for knowledge and the desire for power. If someone is not fully satisfied with what he/she obtains, they will turn inevitably to supernatural sources. It is at this point that they become entrapped in witchcraft.

The problem is, when you give the devil an inch, he takes a mile. Peter’s mum didn’t stop. As the years passed, she had to maintain this practice, ignorant of the fact that she was slowly and but surely killing the father of her kids because of selfishness.

According to my friend, his mum to this present day practices real witchcraft on her children by using the same witchcraft tactics he used on their father to the point that she has almost directed the course of their lives.

The family that was once vibrant and loving is now a mess…land sold and the money used in reckless living, self-indulgence, and giving to witch doctors in order to gain more control and power.

Unfortunately, Peter’s sisters are not aware of the extent of this control. When Peter tried to awaken his sisters about this issue; they almost seemed to be in a state of denial and defended the mother at all costs to the extent that Peter was now the enemy who wanted to kill his mother.  Ignorance does not absolve us from the guilt of our sins, but it may dispose God to show us mercy if we repent and turn to Him.

Peter told me that all through the years of his marriage, he has labored against this curse of witchcraft. He and his wife have had continuous financial problems. Although Peter knew clearly the call of service to which God had called him, he could not move into it.

Everything he did seemed to end with a small measure of fruitfulness. Peter has all the professional qualifications and yet seemed to be facing frustration and hopelessness.

This struggle had gone on for years….then one day after spending sometime in prayer and fasting, Peter perceived and discerned through a series of dreams and circumstances that there was a curse in the family.

This curse revolved around a spirit of witchcraft that has operated through his mother. This spirit had operated in several generations of Peter’s family especially in the area of finance.

 A Financial Curse

Remember money is an important element in God’s plan for our lives. It’s important to know how you spend, or whom you give your money. You need to ask yourself whether you spend it wisely and in accordance with God’s will, plan, and purposes.

In Peter’s case, he and his wife were sending money to Peter’s mother who in turn probably used this money unknowingly in paying witch doctors and using it in other self-indulgent lifestyles. This, by all means, caused a financial curse in Peter’s life.

When we offer money to someone, we are offering a major part of ourselves to that person. It is similar to giving an offering to God. When you invest your money, you are investing in a major part of yourself for good or evil. You are giving that person your time, strength, talents and probably your inheritance.

Now the question is how could be free from this curse? First Peter had to forgive his mother and realize that his mother was not his enemy. He also had to acknowledge that the spirit of witchcraft had been influencing both of them.

Secondly, Peter had to stop sending money to her mother in Africa because as we’ve seen, money is a part of us. When we give money to someone, we give a part of ourselves. Peter wasn’t aware that the money sent to her mother was channeled to witchdoctors. His mother herself was also a prisoner and in bondage not knowing that her selfish actions are causing all of this.

Keep in mind that a big percentage of African “Christians” still believe in witchcraft and spells. They believe in sacrificing goats and chickens when working on different projects especially construction, because if they don’t; “something terrible” might happen!

They go to church on Sunday and visit a witch doctor on Monday. These are Christians as long as food, clothes, and money keep coming in especially from relatives abroad. So Peter and his sisters didn’t know that their mother still practiced witchcraft rituals to control them.

Lastly, Peter had to face the fact that a curse was at work in the family. He released himself from the curse by repenting and asking forgiveness for any sins that exposed him to a curse. He asked the Lord to release him from the consequences of his parents’ and ancestors’ sins.

He also confessed daily that “Christ has redeemed me from the curse…. (Galatians 3:13-14)….Through the sacrificial offering of Christ on the cross I have been purchased out from under the curse and have entered into the blessings of Abraham, whom God blessed in all things.”

Peter didn’t see the changes in his life immediately, but at least he’s now sensing a degree of hope and direction in his life. He is beginning to see productivity and fruitfulness as a result of his labors.

Although the mother might be ignorant of her selfish actions, her ignorance doesn’t set her free from the consequences or guilt of her sins and neither does it free any of us from the guilt of our sins. But the good news is that God may show us mercy if we repent and turn to Him.

The Lord of Heaven and Earth does not Dwell in Handmade Shrines

In his message to the Athenians, the Apostle Paul knew they had been an earthquake in Athens many years before which destroyed the city. Being polytheistic, the Athenians assumed that they had upset one of their gods, and were anxious to know which one. So they decided to let some sheep loose in the main street. Whichever idol the sheep lay down nearest to would indicate which god the Athenians had upset.

However, the sheep refused to follow the plan and ended up lying down in the middle of a field. So the council met and concluded that if they still did not know which god they had upset there might be a god they had forgotten, who was upset at the absence of an altar for him. So they erected an extra altar, inscribing upon it the words “To the unknown god.”

So Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus Mars Hill meeting place, said:

Men of Athens, I perceive in every way [on every hand and with every turn I make] that you are most religious or very reverent to demons. For as I passed along and carefully observed your objects of worship, I came also upon an altar with this inscription, To the unknown god. Now what you are already worshiping as unknown, this I set forth to you. The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines. Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people]. (Acts 17:22–25 AMP)

He further declared to them that from one Man, Jesus Christ, He created all nations throughout the whole earth and decided beforehand when they should rise and fall and determined their boundaries (see Acts 17:26–28). Paul goes on to tell us that we should not think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone, or a representation of human art and imagination.

But rather, since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, of the nature of a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented. Such former ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent (to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins), because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:29–31 AMP)

Paul concludes that God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. In the past God permitted all nations to walk in their own ways, but He did not leave them without any evidence of Himself and His goodness. He sent rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with nourishment and happiness.

However, the appointed time has come when He expects and charges all men everywhere to repent, and turn from their ignorance, witchcraft, idolatry, and superstition, because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Jesus Christ, whom He has proved to everyone by raising Him from the dead.

Peter told me that he still praying for His mother who is religious but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit that could make her godly. We are to give ourselves to prayer and intercession with fresh determination and expectancy knowing that God is faithful and can be trusted to save our relatives once we don’t give up interceding on their behalf.

Recommended Reading: Blessing or Curse You can Choose, Derek Prince, Published by Chosen Books © 1990, 2000, 2006

Image Credit: Heavens Call




The Jezebel Spirit Destroyed one of the Greatest Revivals

REVIVAL WALES PICTUREThe great Welsh revival of 1904 has been described as one of the greatest revivals, dubbed the “Pentecost greater than Pentecost.” Unfortunately, the revival’s demise is also an excellent example of how the Jezebel spirit works against the church.

In just two years, over 100,000 people were saved. Welsh society was revolutionized. Entire towns recorded no arrests for over a year. Places that formerly were hotbeds of vice suddenly became transformed. Police departments were forced to lay off idle officers. Professional sports teams disbanded because no one was willing to miss church for a game.

Services continued virtually around the clock and there were demonstrations of God’s presence and power. When God begins a work, he usually begins with a man. It is been rightly said that Evan Roberts (1878-1951) was not the author of the Welsh Revival. The author of the Welsh Revival was none other than the Holy Spirit of God, Himself.

EVAN ROBERTS

Evan Roberts

Although Evan Roberts became the popular figure in the movement before the press and the public in November 1904, it is well to note that the great Awakening in Wales had its beginnings two years before this time in many parts of the principality. And when the river of God was at full spate in the latter part of the year 1904, it was found that the Spirit was using for His instruments at least a hundred pastors, evangelists and so-called “lay people” for His work.

While the Spirit’s workings in revival spread into almost every nook and corner of the country, the ministry of Evan Roberts was in the main confined to one of its 12 counties. The fire of God burned in towns and villages which he did not visit. And in many of the places which he did visit, he found the fire was already there.

Evan’s visit only fanned the flame. Sometimes the revivalist sat among the people, praying silently, and then left without saying a word. Visitors from different parts of the world were astonished to sit in crowded gatherings where people sang, prayed and testified without the young prophet even being there to take part.

The saintly F. B. Meyer, a matured Christian leader, upon watching him in the meetings, explained, “He will not go in front of the divine Spirit, but is willing to stand aside and remain in the background unless he is perfectly sure that the Spirit of God is moving him.” Then he added, “It is a profound lesson for us all!” But why did it end prematurely?

To briefly learn about how the Welsh revival ended prematurely, I recommend God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon and The World Aflame by Rick Joyner.

Penn_LewisMany people had became associated with the revival as it grew. Among these was a well-to-do woman named Jessie Penn-Lewis. For years Penn-Lewis had considered herself a Bible teacher, but she had never found a broad acceptance for her message.

Let’s look at Rick Joyner’s book, The World Aflame. Rick says, it seems probable that Jessie Penn-Lewis played a significant part in bringing the great Welsh Revival to a premature end, even though she seemed to have had the best of intentions. The reports were that she persuaded Evan Roberts to withdraw from the revival because she thought he was getting too much of the attention that should have gone only to the Lord.

As is the case with many great leaders, their strengths can be also their weaknesses. The thought of stealing God’s glory horrified Evan Roberts and he began to think that perhaps someone else would lead the revival.

At first, Jessie Penn-Lewis appeared as a friend and financial supporter to Evans Roberts. She gained his confidence, and began speaking into his life. Long time friends of Evans Roberts expressed concerns that she appeared to isolate Roberts too much, but Roberts trusted Penn-Lewis completely. She began to minister certain messages to Roberts, which appeared to him to be profound corrections from the Lord.

Evans followed Jesse Penn-Lewis advice and withdrew. When he did the revival quickly died. The idealistic would contend that if it had been a true revival then removing any man would not have made a difference. The entire testimony of both Scripture and history testifies differently. Because the Lord entrusted the authority of this earth to men, He always looks for men or women to stand in the gap when He wants to move on the earth. True revival can only be ignited by God, but God will always move through men.

It is often a religious spirit, which is an evil spirit that seeks to deny man that union with God in His work, usually with idealistic delusions of man getting too much of the glory. It is right to acknowledge that man is but the “earthen vessel” and that the glory is all God’s, but it is humanistic idealism that, in a sense, denies that the glory of the Lord should be in an earthen vessel at all.

It would be unfair to indict Jessie Penn-Lewis for single handedly stopping the Welsh Revival, even though many of Evan Roberts’ friends and co-workers in the revival did just that. Evan Roberts left the work and went to live in the Penn-Lewis home where he effectively became a spiritual hermit, never again being used in ministry.

Years later, Roberts and Penn-Lewis co-authored a book entitled War On The Saints that was used to condemn the emerging Pentecostal revival as the “work of an invading host of evil spirits.”Penn-Lewis had reacted strongly during the Welsh Revival to the Pentecostal demonstrations, and this book seemed to be a reaction to her dislike of their overly emotional influence.

Later editions of War On The Saints were edited by the publishers to remove the extreme and offensive attacks on Pentecostals, but it still contains, in my opinion, a general tenor that can hinder the believer’s ability to move in the gifts of the Spirit….. A sincere jealousy for God to receive the glory that is due Him permeates Jessie Penn-Lewis’ book, and they do contain many sound principles, but much of her teaching is both reactionary and sown with idealism.

Many of Evan Roberts closet friends and associates denied that War On The Saints was a true reflection of the Evan Roberts they had known. They testified that the book was contrary to the spirit of the revival, and decried the fact that Evan would no longer relate to the body of Christ or even his own family again after moving in with the Penn-Lewis family.

He was kept guarded in the Penn-Lewis home completely dominated. He spent many dark years of depression in her house. By the grace of God he eventually broke all ties with Penn-Lewis, but not until his health was broken and his ministry a shadow of its former glory.

But as with the case of many great leaders, Jessie Penn-Lewis may be one of the classic historic examples of how heresy hunting or idealism can be used by the enemy to derail true works of the Holy Spirit. Some teaching imparts more faith in the enemy to deceive than faith in the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.

One of the greatest revivals that saw 100,000 salvations in 24 months and a glory some called greater than Pentecost was destroyed by someone seeking control in order to gain recognition and acceptance. That my friend is a Jezebel controlling spirit!

Image credit: Virtue Online




The Jezebel Controlling Spirit

1280px-Jezabel-and-Ahab-Meeting-Elijah-in-Naboth-s-Vineyard678Jezebel, the Biblical character, first appears in First Kings 16, when she marries Ahab, king of Israel. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, the king and high priest of the Baal worshipping Sidonians. She married one of the worst kings named Ahab whom she used to achieve her own evil ends. It was her scheming, for example, which arranged the death of a neighbour, Naboth, so that Ahab could take possession of his vineyard.

Jezebel had such a strong controlling, discouraging and intimidating spirit that the king, the leaders and all the people of Israel gave way to her. Even Elijah yielded to that spirit and ran for his life.

The prophet Elijah was a Tishbite from Gilead, in the Trans-Jordan region, and was regarded as one of the finest of Israel’s prophets. He is best known for his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah built an altar and challenged the prophets of Baal to build their own altar alongside his and call on their gods for fire to burn up the sacrifice. (See 1 Kings 19:1)

The altars of Baal had a tunnel underneath where a priest would be concealed to set fire to the wood when the people cried out to the god. Elijah asked them to build their altar in the open and promised to build his altar in exactly the same way, only he would also add water to make the challenge greater.

His boldness led him to mock the priests in such a way that if his experiment had failed he would surely have been killed. He encouraged them to shout louder, suggesting that maybe their god was on either musing, or he had gone aside, or he was on journey, or perhaps he was asleep and could be awakened. God sent the fire, Elijah’s sacrifice was burned up and Israel knew who was truly powerful. The prophets of Baal were defeated.

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.” He wiped them out. Jezebel is angry because she got her authority and power from these false prophets. (1 Kings 19:2-3)

When Jezebel heard about Elijah’s victory and the death of her prophets, she threatened Elijah:

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

Despite his victory over the 400 prophets of Baal, Elijah ran for his life to Horeb. When Elijah ran from Jezebel, he had just slain all the prophets of Baal with the sword. He had seen the mighty hand of God. He had enjoyed supernatural protection for seven years. He watched fire fall from heaven and defeat his enemies, All Israel fell at his feet in repentance, worshiping the true God. Elijah was the man of the hour. He was vindicated, victorious, and clearly in charge.

Yet when a single angry woman threatened him one time, he lost every shred of vision and ran away. Anxious, depressed, and miserable, he cried out to God: It is enough, now Oh Lord, take away my life. This doesn’t make sense at all. This is a great example of Jezebel’s powerful spirit to intimidate, create fear, and cause men of God to withdraw. The prophet was emotionally and spiritually exhausted, so God graciously sent an angel to cook him a meal, and later assured him of his presence and provision for the future of Israel. God had already set aside Elisha to continue the work.

The Jezebel Witchcraft Spirit in Society

A witchcraft spirit is not casting spells and using all kinds of portions. A person exercises witchcraft when he or she seeks to control. It has a deep hatred of true spiritual authority, and uses emotional pressure, witchcraft and obsessive sensuality in its pursuit of power. It uses subtle persuasion to gain influence and get close to those in control.

Though this incidents deal with ministry, the principles apply to every sphere of life. Today Jezebel is visible in every sphere of society. For example, Jezebel is the power behind lawlessness. She cleverly manipulates civil debate and positions herself behind every influence of public policy. She uses the power and influence of others to accomplish her goals and control the environment.

The Bible tells us in 1 Kings 21:8 that Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles of the city.” This is typical of Jezebel. She prefers to remain anonymous, while she manipulates situations and leaders.

Jezebel was raised in an atmosphere where sex was a path to power and influence. That’s why she is the ultimate seducer and the one releasing all kinds of seducing spirits. She is the arrogant spirit in the area of morality—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. These lusts are merely tools used to weaken us in order for her to accomplish her goal of control.

She is the spirit behind the so called Planned Parenthood (abortion), screaming it’s my life and my choice… Who are you to tell me what to do with my body? She has cleverly manipulated debate and positioned herself behind seats of power. She is behind the explosion of the sex trade and internet pornography.

She is the spirit behind the coldness in our marriages because of the lust and pornography that prevents intimacy. Its targets are the people in positions of leadership, both men and women. She is the one who brings condemnation and guilt to men of God who were once powerful in the Word and prayer, but now they are under the spell of condemnation. Yet God loves them and still wants to restore, free, and use these men of God in business, academia, government and very sphere of life.

Jezebel Witchcraft Spirit in the Church

In the church Jezebel likes to appear close to leaders, and use their influence. Although we mainly refer to Jezebel as “she”, we must conclude that as a spirit, Jezebel is gender neutral. Paul rebuked the Galatian church which must have included both male and female:

O you poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians! Who has fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you, unto whom—right before your very eyes—Jesus Christ (the Messiah) was openly and graphically set forth and portrayed as crucified? (Galatians 3:1)

This bewitching might not have come from spells or portions. Yes, there is another form of witchcraft or control that conjures up demonic spirits. But a Jezebel witchcraft spirit seeks control through intimidation and manipulation. However, witchcraft is much more than this. Galatians 5:19 refers to witchcraft as a“work of the flesh”and flesh is the realm where it is usually found. Witchcraft is using anything unholy to manipulate or dominate others. People use emotions to dominate and control others… that’s witchcraft!

When Paul confronted the Galatian teachers, they had disobeyed what the Holy Spirit had clearly revealed to them and had perverted the central truth of the Gospel. These teachers were not practicing the occult, but they did have a controlling spirit which affected the whole church. Why do the impure seek to intimidate those with pure motives? The answer is to relieve themselves of conviction and to maintain control.

Jezebel’s witchcraft will attack Christians, especially leaders. And her target area is mainly through intimidation. If you under attack, you might awaken on morning feeling very discouraged and all joy seems to have gone. Your spiritual life seems irrelevant and meaningless. Demonic voices echoing in your mind “you might as well give up…something’s wrong with you!”

Sometimes you might suddenly find yourself in unreasonable anxiety, fear, loss of courage, apathy, hopelessness, fearing tragedy or death. In fact much of what is called “depression” in the life of Christian is simply the Jezebel witchcraft spirit!

Depression and Loss of Vision

Jezebel will also steal your vision. The vision that was birthed in the power of the Holy Spirit and clarity instead becomes clouded. She whispers doubt, confusion and unbelief to your weary soul. This spirit will tell you they are insurmountable, impossible, and overwhelming. Jezebel will make you feel like dying when in reality, you are God’s man or woman of the hour.

The only answer for those under Jezebel’s attack is to immediately discard the voices of Jezebel and not to entertain them. Intimidation is a spirit and must be fought with spiritual weapons:

For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Recommended Reading: John Bevere, Breaking Intimidation, Charisma House Publishing,1995.

Image Credit Wikipedia




Obedience to Christ costs too much–But at what price?

700_Club_logoGordon Robertson never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Coming from a prominent Christian family, Gordon saw the contrast between the life of hardship his parents practiced as ministers, and the wealthier life his grandfather lived as a Senator.

As a child, he decided ministry costs too much. But at age 5 the prophetic words started: “You will be a host of The 700 Club.” He had no desire to follow his parents’ footsteps and instead became a lawyer. Now when he teaches there’s a river of healing. And the Holy Spirit had different plans for Gordon.

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It’s 460 AD in Rome: This won’t be Fixed

1920px-Colosseum_in_Rome,_Italy_-_April_2007Another American election cycle is upon us, and large numbers of people are lining up to pour their time and money into the sewer of politics, to be lost forever.

This system will not be fixed. Period. This is Rome in 460 AD. The rulers, as in Rome, are liars, mad, or drunk (these days, drugged)… or all three.

The “fall of Rome,” of course, was far more complex than we learned in school, but through all the many years of its decline, Rome was full of well-meaning people trying to reform and save it. And by the way, among the people who tried the hardest to keep the Roman game going were the Goths. They tried hard to keep Rome operational… and they failed too.

Let me be clear on this: Once ruling hierarchies get beyond a certain point, they cannot be reformed. And I am sure that the modern West is beyond that point.

  • Do we really believe that central bankers will just lay down their monopolies?
  • Can we seriously expect a hundred trillion dollars of debt to be liquidated without any consequences?
  • Do we actually believe that politicians will walk away from their power and apologize for abusing us?
  • Do we really think that the corporations who own Congress will just give up the game that is enriching them?
  • Does anyone seriously believe that the NSA is going to say, “Gee, that Fourth Amendment really is kind of clear, and everything we do violates it… so, everyone here is fired and the last person out will please turn off the lights”?
  • And does anyone believe that the military-industrial complex will stop encouraging war, or that corporate media will stop worshiping the state, or that your local sheriff will apologize for training his cops to be viscous beasts?
  • Do we really believe that public school systems will ever stop lauding the state that pays all its bills?

I could go on, but I think my point is made: This system will never allow itself to be seriously reformed. Trying to fix this is like trying to revive a long-dead corpse. The systems that rule the West will fail.

Whether the wider Western civilization fails is up to us: Do we have civilization inside of us? Or was it all just a pattern that we followed?

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Paul Rosenberg is the CEO of Cryptohippie USA, a leading provider of Internet privacy technologies. He is the author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and individual privacy.




Pergamum, The Spear of Destiny, and the Hydrogen Atomic Bomb

According to the account of Dr Walter Stein and other historical experts on the religious and occult underpinnings of the Holocaust, the young Hitler whilst living as a down and out in Vienna undertook a penetrating study of the occult meanings underlying Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s Thirteenth Century Grail Romance, “Parsival“.

Stein through various contacts with Hitler became convinced that he was deeply involved with the Occult and had an experienced spiritual mentor, possibly linked to the infamous “Blood Lodge of Guido Von Liszt.”

Hitler was not a Christian, but neither did he openly rebuff Christianity until later on. In the public, like most politicians in power do, he often made remarks that made people believe he was pro-Christian. But all these were made for political gain and evil purposes.

He was an occultist, a devil worshipper and he used the swastika, a Hindu symbol, to symbolize the creation of a new religion and a new master race of Aryans which I might add is being implemented today.

Several volumes have been written detailing the deeply occult nature of Hitler and the Nazi regime and recently researchers claim that there was a connection between the city of Pergamum which is the “seat of Satan” and Nazi Germany. 

In a two-part series documentary, (see videos below), Gordon Robertson describes how Pergamum’s Altar of Zeus was excavated and taken to Germany where it later inspired the architecture of Adolf Hitler. He reported that the theater in Pergamum could seat 10,000 people at a time. It was built into the side of a mountain and it was the steepest theater in the ancient world. So it was this very altar that was referred to by Jesus in the Book of Revelation as “the throne of Satan.”

To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of Him who has the sharp double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. (Revelation 2:12-13)

The Seat of Satan: Ancient Pergamum

Gordon Robertson takes an in-depth look at the ancient Greco-Roman city Pergamum called “the dwelling place of Satan” from the book of Revelation.

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Pergamum and Nazi Germany

Pergamum’s Altar of Zeus takes center stage as it is excavated and taken to Germany where it later inspires the architecture of Adolf Hitler.

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The Pergamenes invented parchment (paper made out of calfskin) as a substitute for papyrus after the Egyptians stopped exporting papyrus to Pergamum. The Egyptians stopped the exports out of fear that Pergamum’s library would become larger than the great library of Alexandria in Egypt; the world’s largest at the time. The Asklepion at Pergamum has been called “the world’s first psychiatric hospital.”

In the first century BC, the Roman general Marc Antony gave the library of Pergamum to his new wife, Cleopatra of Egypt, as a wedding gift. The gift was significant because Antony’s mentor, Julius Caesar, had burned the great library in Alexandria when Rome had invaded Egypt several years earlier.

Human sacrifices were usually performed to people who refused to worship the Roman emperor, and were offered inside a bronze bull. When the person had been burned to death, his bones were carved into beads for bracelets worn by pagan priests. These bone bracelets were considered to be holy objects to pagans. When the Altar of Zeus arrived in Berlin in the late 19th century, there was no museum large enough to house it, so a new museum had to be built to display it.

During World War II, the Pergamon Altar was dismantled and hidden near the Berlin Zoo to protect it from Allied air raids. It later fell into the hands of the Red Army, who took it to the Soviet Union, where it was stored in the Hermitage Museum. In 1958, the Altar was returned to Berlin’s Pergamon Museum in East Berlin, which at the time was also under Communist rule.

Adolf Hitler chose Nuremberg for the Nazi Party Rallies because of the city’s historical significance: it had once been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Those who have studied the letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor in the Book of Revelation have reached a conclusion that Pergamum was the centre of pagan doctrines that entered the church. It compromised with immorality and doctrinal truth in order to achieve political and social power.

“Approximately two thousand years after Revelation 2:13 was written,” says author Thomas Horn,  “German archeologists removed the massive altar of Zeus from the ruins of Pergamos and took it it to Berlin.  Ironically, fast forward another seventy years, another charismatic young politician mesmerized huge German crowds with a rousing speech in Berlin.”

History tells us that many Protestant and Catholic leaders endorsed Hitler and the Third Reich. Wherever the church of Jesus Christ allows itself to be used by one political party or leader, it has entered into the error of Pergamos. There are many Christians who voted for Hitler because he claimed to be a Christian. He deceived the Christians by promising them that he was going to restore Christian values.

Albert Speer said that “one seldom recognizes the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.” We should not believe the devil, even when he is telling the truth. “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

The Spear of Destiny

In the Hofburg Library in Vienna, there is a spear that is believed, by most experts to have supernatural occult powers attached to it. It was called the spear of Longinus because legend has it that the spear was the one that Longinus, a Roman soldier, used to pierce the side of Christ as He hung on the Cross. The Roman Emperor, Constantine, took possession of it and was said to be fascinated by its “serpent powers.”

In the Bible, Satan is described as the serpent, so there is no way the powers ascribed to this spear could be described as divine. Constantine was supposed to have held the spear to his breast when he addressed leaders of the Church and said he was the “Thirteenth Apostle.” He later converted to Christianity after reportedly seeing a fiery cross in the sky on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine then signed the Edict of Milan under which Christianity became legal and a tolerated religion.

When Constantine converted to Christianity, a major turning point occurred in the history of the Church. His rise halted the persecution of Christian and initiated Christendom into the Roman Empire which was good. Unfortunately, according to one author Merrill Bolender, “paganism also infiltrated and polluted the true Christianity.”

The Church now prospered under State protection and support, and this completely severed the Church from its Jewish roots. Christian Rome ended the usage of the Jewish calendar, including Jewish Sabbaths and festivals. The Roman calendar we still use today was the result. Scripture was filtered almost exclusively through a Greco-Roman paradigm. Church government, architecture, scriptural date keeping, doctrines and Church life changed radically. But here I digress…..

Over the years, this spear was supposed to have passed into the hands of various rulers in Europe. It was said that Charlemagne, father of the Holy Roman Empire, always kept it his side and won great battles by the magical powers of the spear.

After his death, the spear was passed down from one Holy Roman Emperor to the next. When you fast- forward to more recent times, you then come to Adolf Hitler who is reported to have been fascinated by the legend that whoever possessed that spear would rule Europe and the world. A few years prior to World War I, when he lived in Vienna, he could often go to the Hofburg and spend hours gazing at the spear.

To Hitler, the spear was the blueprint for world conquest by Nazi power. Hitler believed he would one day fulfill a historic destiny. How he would do this was not clear until he was 21.While in the Hofburg Treasure House in Vienna, Austria, Hitler heard the words which he said were to change his whole life.

A museum tour guide stopped in front of a display of an ancient spear and told of a legend that whoever possessed it would hold the destiny of the world. The guide said the spear was supposedly the one which a Roman Centurion thrust into the side of Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion. After the group departed, Hitler stepped forward for a closer look.

Hitler then confided to a his friend Walter Stein, that for the first time he saw the Spear, he had witnessed extraordinary visions of his own destiny unfolding before him. He said “I knew with immediacy that this was an important moment in my life, and yet I could not understand why an outwardly Christian symbol should make such an impression on me,” After his initial experience with the Spear of Destiny, Hitler studied the history of the ancient relic. He was intrigued and amazed at its incredible story.

For more than 1,000 years, the spear had been a symbol of power to the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Century after century, the legend of the Spear had been fulfilled for good or evil. Constantine the Great claimed the spear guided him through providence. The Frankish General Karl Martel used the spear in battle. Emperor Charlemagne lived and slept within reach of the spear, and attributed 47 battle victories to its powers. In all, 45 emperors over 1,000 years claimed the Spear of Destiny as a possession. Hitler decided he had to possess it.

According to legend, possession of the Spear would bring its owner the power to conquer the world, but losing it would bring immediate death. Over the next three years, he made countless trips to the museum to gaze in awe at the spear. He recalled that one day as he stood in front of the display, he went into a trance. “I slowly became aware of a mighty presence around it — the same awesome presence which I had experienced inwardly on those rare occasions in my life when I had sensed that a great destiny awaited me.” By his own testimony, it was during one of those visits that he yielded his soul as a vessel to the will of the mighty spirit, which was the power behind the spear.

In 1933, when Hitler rose to power, his 25-year obsession to possess the spear could be realized. In April, 1938, he marched his army into Vienna and took possession of the spear and took it to Nuremberg. One year later, he invaded Poland. On April 30, 1945, the same day Hitler supposedly killed himself; the American army invaded Nuremberg and took possession of the spear.

800px-jap-youre_next_well_finish_the_job_-_nara_-_513563-2In the months that followed, America unleashed the most destructive force ever known to man: the atomic bomb. While in possession of the Spear of Destiny, America became the undisputed ruler of the world. And as they say, the rest is history….. Since then the war on civilians has escalated as Gary North says:

With the two bombs, the technology of civilian destruction advanced, in one technological quantum leap, to such an extent that it terrified the world, and for good reason. In Japan, the United States had been using high-altitude incendiary bombing against 67 Japanese cities ever since March 10, 1945, the first raid on Tokyo. The war on civilians continued to escalate. This matched the war on civilians on both sides by Germany and England that had taken place in World War II. But that war ended in May. Now it was Japan’s turn to experience the devastation that the allies had imposed on Dresden the previous February. The ruthless annihilation of civilians would continue……

Further Reading:

  1. The Spear of Destiny, Trevor Ravenscroft,Neville Spearman, London, 1974.
  2. Ninety Days, Sam Yarney,Victor Newman Books 2002.

Photo courtesy: The Pergamon Altar as reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.




Power Kills…. and Absolute Power Kills Absolutely!

Editor’s Opening Thoughts:

The American people, including American Christians, were psychologically prepared to accept and even applaud the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  As Howard Zinn noted, “the use of the Atomic Bomb on the Japanese was made possible through years of dehumanizing the enemy and prepared the public for the use of such weapons.” In his Templeon Address, entitled Godlessness, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn said,

Only a godless embitterment could have moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity. The same kind of defect, the flaw of a consciousness lacking all divine dimension, was manifested after World War II when the West yielded to the satanic temptation of the “nuclear umbrella.”

It was equivalent to saying: Let’s cast off worries, let’s free the younger generation from their duties and obligations, let’s make no effort to defend ourselves, to say nothing of defending others-let’s stop our ears to the groans emanating from the East, and let us live instead in the pursuit of happiness.

If danger should threaten us, we shall be protected by the nuclear bomb; if not, then let the world burn in Hell for all we care. The pitifully helpless state to which the contemporary West has sunk is in large measure due to this fatal error: the belief that the defense of peace depends not on stout hearts and steadfast men, but solely on the nuclear bomb…

Today’s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!”Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it…

Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction. The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly, day in and day out, participates in the life of each of us, unfailingly granting us the energy of existence; when this assistance leaves us, we die. And in the life of our entire planet, the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force: this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour.

To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned.

Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing. Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind. But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested. If we perish and lose this world, the fault will be ours alone.

On the Dangers of Thanking God for the Atom Bomb

Christopher O. Tollefsen, 08/06/2015, Public Discourse

There are often great temptations to violate the absolute norms against intentional killing and against lying. On the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs over Japan, we should remember what is at stake in such decisions and how agents constitute themselves in their choosing.

Seventy years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. And earlier this week, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “Thank God for the Atom Bomb, Bret Stephens spoke for many in complaining that once again the anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs over Japan will be met with “cant.” There will be, he writes, demands for an apology from the US, calls for nuclear disarmament, and handwringing over man’s inhumanity to man. Near the end of his essay he describes a “U.S. public [that] is ‘consumed with guilt for sins they did not commit.’” And he proposes the expiation of all these ills: “Watch the light come on at night in Hiroshima. Note the gentleness of its culture. And thank God for the atom bomb.”

I cannot help but feel some doubt as to the accuracy of Stephens’s description. Each August I am rather struck by the vociferous support for the atomic bombings, often expressed by those with whom I share what I take to be basic pro-life commitments to the inviolability of human life. Those commitments play themselves out in resolute opposition to abortion and euthanasia. But often they seem to have no purchase on the issues of capital punishment or just conduct in warfare.

No Intentional Killing: Proposed Exceptions

Where capital punishment is concerned, the divergence is intelligible, and the position of those opposed to abortion but supportive of the state’s right to execute convicted criminals is defensible, though I think in error. For the victims of abortion are innocent of all wrong and threat. Their killing is not only a violation of the sanctity of life; it is also manifestly unjust. No victim of abortion consents to his or her own death for the sake of another. And so the wrong of intentional killing—of acting in a way directly contrary to the basic good of human life—is compounded by the wrong of acting unjustly. This is hardly surprising: most killings are surely unjust.

The case of euthanasia is a bit trickier. If we assume that some, presumably very small, percentage of those who request physician-assisted suicide (PAS) or euthanasia do so entirely voluntarily, then we must concede that no injustice is done to them if they are killed, or are helped to kill themselves, for, as Aristotle and Aquinas both held, no one suffers injustice willingly.

A terrible wrong against the good of human life is still committed, of course. And, what is more important from the perspective of political morality, there is no way at all of legalizing and institutionalizing PAS or euthanasia that does not unjustly put at risk those who cannot freely consent, whether from depression or some other incapacity, and those who will be pressured unjustly by family members, doctors, or others into accepting an early death. So the practice of PAS and euthanasia is also always unjust.

The injustice in capital punishment may be reasonably denied, at least if adequate safeguards are met. But, as I have argued, it is nevertheless always wrong, for it is always wrong to intend the death of any human person, even when that death would not be unjust. So the combination of opposition to abortion and defense of the death penalty is an erroneous, but not unintelligible combination.

Killing, Both Intentional and Unjust

But defense of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is different. There can be no doubt, nor does Stephens evince any, that the bombings were carried out with the intention of inflicting massive civilian casualties in order to demoralize Japan and break its leadership’s will. These civilians included the aged and infirm, women and children, all of whom were innocent in the relevant sense of just war doctrine—they posed no threat—and the last of whom were categorically innocent in every way. The proposal carried out in the bombings was to kill enough such persons, and show a willingness to kill more, that Japan would surrender unconditionally.

Such killing is both contra-life, in that it involved a massive attack on human beings with the intent of ending their lives; and unjust, in that it involved an attack on the lives of human beings who themselves posed no threat in any reasonable sense of the word. Its proponents even now justify it primarily, as does Stephens, not by denying the intention of killing the innocent, but by reference to casualties prevented, a consequentialist justification.

About consequentialism, much could be said. Appeal to the consequences as the sole justifying factor requires that those consequences be capable of measurement by a common standard. But there is no such standard by which the true multiplicity of consequences, including not just lives lost versus lives saved (and why should the goodness of those lives be strictly commensurable?) but also the consequences for the character of those taking, and those losing their lives may be measured. This point bears some consideration, going, as it does, to the difficulties we should find with Stephens’s concluding line.

Self-Constitution Through Choice

The choice to use atomic weapons over Japan was just that: a choice. As such, it did more than simply bring about an external state of affairs in which, possibly, though not definitely, more lives were saved than lost. Rather, that choice had lasting consequences for three groups of agents.

First, those individuals who made and carried out the choice constituted themselves as persons willing to kill innocent persons for the sake of good consequences. Unless repented of, this choice became part of the character of those agents, surely shaping their subsequent moral deliberation. Would they have stopped after two bombings, even if Japan had not surrendered? Why would they have, having now become persons willing to go this far?

Second, there was the nation over whom these agents possessed political authority. As exercising that authority, Truman chose for the United States. When Stephens speaks, albeit slightingly, of a public consumed with guilt, I think he is not far off, for through Truman and his agents, the country acted. Of course, there is a moral difference between those who acquiesced in Truman’s authoritative decision to drop the bombs, and those who did not. But Truman’s authority brought with it the possibility of self-constitution for the United States, and much of the country endorsed and internalized precisely the choice that Truman made on their behalf.

Did this self-constitution on the part of our country have its own consequences? It surely did. Stephens describes a chastened Japan, one dedicated to peace. But he passes over the subsequent history of our nation, a history that includes further acts of indiscriminate killing during the Vietnam War, a standing resolution to destroy the Soviet Union if it were first to attack us with nuclear weapons, and the eventual adoption by the nation in its domestic affairs of death as a solution to be embraced for its consequences—before birth, as in abortion or human embryo destructive research—or at the end of life, in PAS and euthanasia.

These are, sadly, natural choices for a country swayed by consequentialist justifications; the way to those choices was paved by the literally catastrophic choice to destroy Japanese cities (as before them, German cities) for the sake of military gain.

And this leads to the third set of persons for whom that choice had, or may yet have, consequences: Those of us today who are faced with the question of whether to rejoice or grieve at the choices made by others now seventy years ago. For the reason I have given, grieving is the better path; in so responding, we reject the choice, and set our hearts against the killing of the innocent.

But consider instead Stephens’s suggestion: that we thank God for what was done. Is there any greater endorsement of Truman’s decision, and surer way of internalizing in our own character the choice that was made? I doubt that there is.

Caution for the Present

Over the years on Public Discourse there has probably been only one issue on which I have written that has angered those who otherwise are my pro-life friends more than the issue of killing in capital punishment and in war, and that is the issue of lying for a good cause. Currently, pro-lifers are again decrying, and rightly, the barbarism of Planned Parenthood, with their officials’ callous indifference to the real, and not merely monetary, value of the human beings destroyed in abortion. But knowledge of that indifference, and the actions rooted in it, seems to have come about once again by means of techniques that involved lies.

If so, then the actions of the Center for Medical Progress ought not to be celebrated any more than the actions of Truman and the United States in their military conduct in WWII. Celebrating either brings, for pro-lifers, a specific danger, the danger of internalizing a willingness to act contrary to basic goods, and to violate absolute norms, for the causes we believe to be most important. That is not the path to righteousness, whether as individuals or as a nation; it is not the higher ground the pro-life movement is called to occupy. We should give thanks when we are given the strength and courage to occupy that ground, not for the willingness to abandon it.

Christopher O. Tollefsen is professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute. He is the author of Lying and Christian Ethics (Cambridge, 2014).

Photo courtesy: Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)




9 Reasons People Leave the Church When the Church Isn’t to Blame

1280px-CrystalCathedral-1Crystal Cathedral Church interior. Photo Credit: Public Domain

They’re Leaving in Droves?

The question, “Why are people leaving the church?” raises several issues critical to the health and life of the church, especially the church in North America.

Once possessing a “favored place at the community table” along with other community leaders, with portfolio and reputation to boot, the church in North America is now hemorrhaging members at an alarming rate.

Further, the indifference toward the church by non-attenders and unbelievers has been a shock to the often insulated and isolated members of an all too often recalcitrant church. To make matters worse, most people in the church are clueless as to the reasons for this indifference.

Recent studies have recognized the difficulties facing the church in reaching a new generation of unbelievers and unchurched people. In a recent summary of his new book in the Lifeway publication Facts and Trends, The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated, James E. White analyzes the challenge of reaching people who are, at best, indifferent to the church and seemingly unmoved by the message of the Gospel. White notes ten characteristic of the “nones”:

  1. he is a he — women tend to be more open to spiritual things, while men are more skeptical, less committal;
  2. he is young;
  3. he is white, although a growing number of non-white persons are showing interest in religious traditions other than Christianity;
  4. he is not necessarily an atheist — God, at best, is a universal spirit, a deist theological position;
  5. he is not very religious — choosing not to identify with an organized, religious body, while, at the same time he considers himself spiritual;
  6. he’s most likely a Democrat;
  7. he thinks abortion and same-gender marriage should be legal — thereby turning traditional definitions of marriage and family upside down and inside out;
  8. he considers himself morally liberal to moderate at best;
  9. he is not necessarily hostile toward religious institutions — institutions, he might say, too concerned with money and power; these institutions are non-essential; and,
  10. he is more than likely a Westerner — someone located west of the Mississippi River.

White’s analysis of the current religious terrain reflects the research by such respected institutions as Barna Research Group, Lifeway Research, and other reputable groups that analyze such data.

In sum, White said people are leaving the church because:

  1. the church is too narrow-minded and unbending on moral issues;
  2. the church is more interested in propping up the institution of the church rather than fulfilling the mission of the church;
  3. the church is legalistic and not gracious and merciful enough;
  4. the church has isolated itself from the lives of real people and is, therefore, disconnected from the reality of life;
  5. the church is anti-intellectual, rejecting the claims of science and modernity;
  6. the church is antiquated in its methodologies, methodologies that were effective at one time but are no longer essential and effective;
  7. the church is not very warm and loving, failing to recognize people want intimate and personal settings for relationship building in order to work out their spiritual and personal issues, not systems that are large, cumbersome, and unwieldy — and the list could go on as to why people are leaving the church.

The church in North America is in trouble.

  1. But Is That the Whole Story?

While I agree with many of the criticisms that are leveled at the church, I would like to look at the question — “Why are people leaving the church?” — from a different angle.

What troubles me most about this question is that the church is usually the one on trial rather than the motives of the unchurched and unbelieving. Why is the church always on trial? Why is the church always in question? Why are the motives of the church always under the spotlight and never the motives of the unbelieving community? It goes without saying that the church does put itself in the bulls-eye by claiming to have exclusive rights on the truth. Yet, is it fair to always blame the church? I think not.

I want to offer an alternative list of answers to the question — “Why are people leaving the church?” — that may explain the indifference many have to the church itself and the gospel she preaches.

  1. People leave the church because the gospel way is truly narrow. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt. 7:13-14). Why are we surprised when people decide not to enter the narrow way of salvation that leads to eternal life? To enter the narrow way means that we have to drop everything to follow Christ.
  2. People leave the church because the gospel requires repentance and faith; the gospel is about turning away from sin/self and turning by faith to the Savior, a repentance and faith that is not about self-fulfillment or self-actualization. “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). Repentance requires self-denial, the very thing most sinners dislike. Faced with the call to repent, it is easy for the sinner to accuse the church of being narrow-minded and unloving when, in actuality, it is simply being true to the gospel message.
  3. People leave the church because of the demands of holy living. While holiness can morph into legalism, it is also true that holiness is the by-product of the Spirit’s work in the life of the believer. We are called to be holy (1 Pt. 1:16), to reflect the character of Jesus Christ as a by-product of the Spirit’s work (Gal. 5:22ff.). The label of legalism is too easy of an accusation to be used against the church, especially when that charge is motivated by unholy people for unholy purposes. To be holy is critical to the Christian life. “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14) Holiness doesn’t mean isolation. Holiness means to be set apart for a special or specific purpose; it means to reflect the very character of God. One can be holy and be connected to real life at the same time. If holiness means isolation from the world then it has misunderstood the meaning of holiness.
  4. People leave the church because they are not truly rooted and grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While many people give the appearance of “being saved” for a season; time and truth have a way of exposing the true nature of a person’s profession of faith, a faith commitment that may be disingenuous and inauthentic, where the person “has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately falls away” (Mt. 13:21).
  5. People leave the church because a “gospel-less commitment” is eventually overcome by “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfaithful” (Mt. 13:22). They have no appetite for the things of God because their appetites for the world have not been curtailed or assuaged.
  6. People leave the church because their understanding of the gospel does not comprehend the nature of gospel commitment, consecration, and endurance. As a result, many ‘try out’ Christianity to see if it works for them, without truly understanding the gospel, soon departing when they realize that the gospel is not all about “me” but about the Lordship of Jesus Christ: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 Jn. 2:18-19).
  7. People leave the church because they love the world and their own lives more than they love Jesus Christ. They fail to understand that Christianity is not about self-fulfillment, self-actualization, or a some grandiose social project; instead, the gospel is not about making bad men good or good men better – Christianity is about making dead men live, about life transformation (Eph. 2:1-10; Rom. 12:1-2). Many people are O.K. with being God-centered so long a God is man-centered or me-centered. It is a hard thing to be radically God-centered. It is a shocking truth for many to discover that while God’s gracious work for us and in us through Jesus Christ brings with it many benefits, in the end, all things are for God’s glory, a glory he will not share with anyone (Isa. 48:11).
  8. People leave the church because the church resists the desire for the individual to build a smorgasbord belief system, picking and choosing those things they like about Christianity and rejecting those truths about Christianity that may be less-desirable, on their way to constructing a personal theology that is more individualistic than biblical. This could be what the Apostle Paul was getting at when he wrote these penetrating words to Timothy: “For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching (doctrine), but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). While there is great latitude for individual self-expression and giftedness, we are not allowed to make up our own theological or belief system or to separate out the things we like about Christianity from the things we don’t like. Some people leave when they realize that there is a “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), a faith that is the sum and substance of the Gospel itself and that cannot be substituted by a diminished or degraded Gospel.
  9. Finally, people leave the church because they are unconverted. They need to be saved. Genuine salvation presupposes many of the aforementioned points.

In Summary

While the church is not innocent when it comes to accounting for the many reasons people leave the church, it should also be said that those who leave the church carry with them a great degree of duplicity and guilt in this matter.

The church is not solely to blame. In fact, we should not be surprised when people leave, especially those whose hearts have not been truly transformed by a well-articulated, well-understood Gospel that aims at redirecting the self from sin to the Savior, a turning that produces a level of commitment and consecration that can endure the challenges of living a holy life in an unholy world and the often ugly nature of a church that is all too imperfect.

Source: Christian Post via Watchman Research Media