'Earnestly contending for the faith,' (Jude 3 ) as well as sharing encouragement and hope through Scripture (Romans 15:4), and through the poems and posts that I write. One of many voices on the Internet warning Christians of the importance of testing the teachings of men (and women) against the unchanging truth of God's Word. (Acts 17:11) I 'warn you with tears' through much of what I write, to 'be on guard against the savage wolves that will come in among us who will distort the Word of God' as God's Word warns us about in Acts 20:26-31
Hey there! Thanks for dropping by Living4HisGlory! Take a look around and grab the RSS feed to stay updated. See you around!
Earlier last month (Sept. of 2021), I went to my nearby health food store to stock up on some items. As I stood in line I thought I recognized the woman in line in front of me as being a woman who also attended the Assembly of God church that I had attended for 16 1/2 years back in the 1980s, and, long story short, it was her. We began to talk and she asked me what church I go to now, and I proceeded to tell her that I presently am not attending any church and how I had to leave four churches so far because of unbiblical teachings and that I just stay home and listen to some good teachings online. She asked me if I watch Andrew Wommack on t.v., and before I had a chance to answer her she began to tell me what a wonderful teacher he is. I cringed and prayed for God to give me wisdom. What happened over the next few minutes was a spiritual battle as I realized just how deceived she sadly was! She encouraged me to listen to him but I told her that I don’t listen to him because he is involved in the Word of Faith movement. [NOTE: The Word of Faith Movement teaches that faith is a force and your words are the containers of that force, and your words can create/speak things into existence. This is a pagan/cultic teaching and is not Biblical!]
I reminded her of what happened at the church that we had both attended back in 1982 when a dear woman had prayed for the healing of her precious little three year old girl who had a brain tumor and how she was faithful to go to the hospital every day to pray for her and to play Christian music in her hospital room, and how when her little girl died she was told by many women in the church that her daughter died because she (the mom) did not have enough faith! I told her how the Mom certainly believed that God could heal her daughter. She proceeded to tell me that we are not to pray for our healing but to thank Him for our healing and how Jesus provided for our healing when He died on the cross. She quoted Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:24 both Scriptures that I know very well, claiming that physical healing is guaranteed for us when Jesus died on the cross. I tried to point out to her that those Scriptures mainly teach about our spiritual healing from sin. Twice during our short conversation I tried to help her to see the error in these teachings by saying, “We’re all going to die,” but her reply was chilling!! I don’t remember her exact words, but basically she implied that if we had enough faith we wouldn’t die! That shows you the depth of deception that one can fall into by listening to professing Christian teachers like Andrew Wommack who tell you that you simply confess that you are healed and thank Him for your healing. Many have died because they also stopped taking their medicine believing that if they would continue taking it that it would be a denial of their healing. I told this woman that we must test everything against Scripture and she said that Andrew Wommack preaches the truth and that she knows that God led her to attend his Charis Bible College (located in Colorado).
I want to say right now that I totally believe that God still heals people of incurable diseases today, but for whatever reason, He does not choose to heal everyone. If some people choose to embrace this teaching that Jesus always wants everyone to be healed, ultimately it will lead some to accept the blasphemous teaching that we are divine just as God Himself is, which many in the Word of Faith Movement actually teach, and I might add, so does the Catholic church, which I will address in an upcoming post at some point in the future –Lord willing!!
I am sure that Andrew Wommack is a very kind and likeable man, but the only thing that truly matters is: does he teach what God’s Word actually says?
Here are some videos so that you can hear some of the many unbiblical things that Andrew Wommack teaches:
In this first video beginning at the 7:45 minute mark you will hear Andrew Wommack say the following shocking statement, thus denying the preexistence and eternality of Jesus Christ:
“It’s really very appropriate to call Jesus “the Word” because God spoke Him into existence through dozens or possibly a hundred different people over a four thousand year period of time, the Holy Spirit took these words and impregnated Mary.”
IN CLOSING:
Please be sure to test everything that every professing Christian pastor and teacher says against Scripture (Acts 17:11) and never hold up a teacher in such a way that you would dismiss the possibility that they could teach error!
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through [by] him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1)
“He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn [first in rank and privilege] over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6,7)
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us –whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:13-15)
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” (2 Peter 2:1-3)
“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
“Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22)
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Welcome to another post in the Category of posts that I have entitled, ‘False Teacher Friday – Learning The Importance of Being a Berean.’ Lord willing, when time allows, I will be presenting you with information that you need to be aware of concerning certain popular Christian teachers or pastors, and information concerning some teachers or pastors that are not so well known. Their teachings will be misleading at the least, and heretical at the worst. If embraced, some of these teachings will lead you to a wrong understanding of Scripture, and others will lead you away from Biblical truth and the true Jesus Christ and into the world of mysticism and the occult.
Some of the teachers that I will be writing about will not be completely false, which is why their false teachings often go unnoticed, and this is what makes them so extremely dangerous. Their teachings can be over 97% Biblical truth, but if just that little bit of error is overlooked because we are not testing what they say in light of Scripture as God’s Word shows us we need to be doing (Acts 17:11), then slowly we will be led astray because we have placed our trust in man, instead of in God and the truth of His Word.
One day we will all stand before God, and each of us will be responsible for what we choose to believe as truth. If we clearly refuse to test the teachings of those we listen to in light of Scripture and ignore the many warnings that God has given us about false teachers and how some of them would arise from among us and we end up being led astray, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Some of these pastors and teachers that I will be writing about may be at the very top of your ‘Favorite List,’ but if you truly love Jesus and the truth of His Word, then you will be willing to hear the truth as hard as it may be for you to hear it at first. I am probably going to lose some followers to this blog because of what I may be writing in the months ahead, but as a Christian who loves God and His Word and who desires to please God and not man, and as a Christian who desires to expose error and wake Christians up to the extreme importance of being followers of Jesus Christ and not being a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, I must speak out and not remain silent. All I ask is that you would please pray for discernment, read and listen to all the information that I will be sharing with you, and examine the Scriptures to see if what these pastors and teachers say is true or not. The decision you make next will be entirely up to you. But you can never say, “No one cared enough to warn me.”
Now for today’s False Teacher alert:
LEARNING TO DISCERN TRUTH FROM ERROR
A VERY STRONG WARNING CONCERNING STEVEN FURTICK
After seeing the above video this morning and hearing what Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, shockingly preached at his church back in January of 2020, I knew that I needed to set aside some time to write a short post so that more people will become aware of this heretical teaching of Modalism that, IMHO, Steven Furtick clearly presented more than once in his sermon entitled, “GHOSTED,” which you can watch below:
Steven Furtick is very close friends with known Modalist pastor, T D Jakes, and oftentimes T D Jakes comes and preaches at Elevation Church. As you will see from the quick capture below, T D Jakes has preached at Elevation Church twice so far in 2020 at the time of writing this post:
Yes, I will admit that Steven Furtick is a very good public speaker. However, he is supposed to be a pastor who preaches God’s Word rightly and able to discern truth from error. Clearly he is being effected doctrinally by listening to T D Jakes’ unbiblical sermons. This is why it’s so very important for us to be extremely cautious regarding the relationships that we form with those who profess to be Bible believing Christians; we must be certain that they hold to sound, biblical views regarding God, salvation, and many other important essentials of the Christian faith so that we will not be led astray.
Knowing how videos and important documented information strangely disappear when Christians begin exposing false teachings, I decided to quick capture many of the problematic things that Steven Furtick said in his sermon, mainly where he teaches that Jesus “changed forms,” — which is exactly what the heretical teaching of Modalism is — and put them together in a slideshow for you just in case Elevation Church decides to take the video down as the warnings about this particular sermon (hopefully) begin to increase.
NOTE: Closed caption is not always completely accurate regarding transcribing what someone is actually saying, and this is true at the 26:03 minute mark where it states that Steven Furtick said, “He didn’t leave, He changed for us,” when Steven actually said, “He didn’t leave, He changed forms.”
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Modalism teaches that God the Father changed forms/modes and became God the Son, and then changed forms once again to become God the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven.
No, I’m sorry, Steven. God did not lead you to preach this sermon as you claimed that He did. He would not lead you — or any pastor — to present the heretical teaching of Modalism which denies the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity, one of the essentials of the Christian faith!
Although the word Trinity is not found anywhere in Scripture, the concept of three Persons in one God clearly is. Consider the following Scriptures below for now. (Lord willing, I will update this post by adding more Scriptures after I finish writing PART 13 in the series in which we are testing many of the teachings that can be found in the Catechism Of The Catholic Church against Scriptures in a Catholic Bible to reveal who Jesus truly is to precious Catholics).
THREE PERSONS
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”(Genesis 1:26)
“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)
“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16,17) (Mark 1:11) (Luke 3:22)
“For in Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)
The following two verses show that God the Father and God the Son are two distinct persons:
“And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.” (Mark 9:7)
“Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (John 12:28)
ONE GOD
“Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.” (Deuteronomy 4:35)
“Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.” (Deuteronomy 4:39)
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
“Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.” (Nehemiah 9:6)
“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” (Isaiah 45:51)
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he ” (Mark 12:29-32)
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again, Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
“Do not be misled Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16)
RELATED VIDEOS
[NOTE: I do not endorse James White because of how he views many things from a Calvinistic/Reformed Theological perspective. I do, however, appreciate some of his debates and how he demonstrates in the above video that T D Jakes is a Modalist in spite of the fact that he was declared to be a Trinitarian by James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll during the Elephant Room 2 Conference back in January of 2012. Hearing all that happened — and what failed to happen — during this particular session that James White shared in this video was the main reason why I left Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows after being a member there for almost 14 1/2 years. I just could not stay at a church where a pastor allows people to wrongly believe that T D Jakes now holds to a Biblical view of the Trinity when he clearly does not.]
Thank you very much for stopping by today.
God Bless You
~Mary Dalke – Living4HisGlory
UPDATE:
Lord willing, new post in the Catechism of the Catholic Church Compared to Scriptures in a Catholic New Testament Bible series coming by Wednesday evening.
As Christians we’ve probably all done this at one point: We see a thought-provoking quote that some well known professing Christian from the past had made, and without really knowing very much about him or her we retweet or repost their quote. C S Lewis is one of those people who is often quoted by Christians, but did you ever take the time to check out all that he actually believed? It still deeply grieves me, but I am one of those people who failed to do so, and when I was very young in the faith I ended up giving my children the audio tapes of The Chronicles of Narnia (which I recently shredded, along with a few other tapes). Red flags began to rise when I first heard some of the mythological characters that were in these stories, but I tried to assure myself that they must be okay since C S Lewis is supposed to be a Christian. How wrong I was!
When I should have known better I also gave a co-worker who was considering the claims of Christianity C SLewis’ book, Mere Christianity because it was highly recommended by a Christian co-worker as the book that I should give to him because it supposedly brought many to place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I was going to buy him a Bible, but he told me that he already had one. Giving him that book is something that I still regret to this day!
In the past I had more free time to be able to do my own research for all of my False Teacher Friday posts, but since the following videos have some very thorough and in depth information on C S Lewis, I think this will be enough for now. With that being said, when time allows I hope you will watch these videos and read the article that I shared below so that you can become aware of the many troubling things concerning C S Lewis, such as how he embraced many of the unbiblical teachings of Catholicism like, infant baptism, devotion to the Virgin Mary, purgatory, and more. He was also very intrigued by mysticism and paganism, which becomes quite clear to anyone who takes the time to read one of his books such as ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’
Here are just a few of the many alarming things that C S Lewis once said that should cause every true follower of Jesus Christ to end their reposts and retweets of his quotes once and for all:
“I have the deepest respect for Pagan myths, still more for myths in the Holy Scriptures.” (The Problem of Pain – page 71)
“I have therefore no difficulty accepting, say, the view of those scholars who tell us that the account of Creation in Genesis is derived from earlier Semitic stories which were pagan and mythical.” (Reflections on the Psalms – page 110)
“I had some ado to prevent Joy and myself from relapsing into Paganism in Attica! At Daphni it was hard not to pray to Apollo the Healer. But somehow one didn’t feel it would have been very wrong – would have only been addressing Christ sub specie Apollinis.” (C S Lewis: A Biography – page 276)
“There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been in this position.” (Mere Christianity – page 162) – Source for above quotes – http://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/6456-dangerous-false-teacher-c-s-lewis.html
Did you know that the Chronicles of Narnia are required reading for those who are considering becoming witches because it teaches them the basic mindset of the craft? So says former witch, now pastor, David J Meyer, as you will hear Brian Moonan say in the following video:
Are you finally coming to the point of realizing that we are to follow Jesus Christ alone, and how we are not to follow any man or woman and their ministry, no matter how well respected they may be? I pray that you are.
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3)
“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)
“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ.”Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)
“You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:3-17)
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN READING THE FOLLOWING:
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary/Living4HisGlory
UPDATE:
Lord willing, coming later this year I hope to have a few more False Teacher Friday posts which will focus on people such as, Priscilla Shirer, Neil Anderson, and a few others that need to be brought to your attention. These will be very in depth reports, not just a short one as this one was.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Welcome to another post in the Category of posts that I have entitled, ‘False Teacher Friday – Learning The Importance of Being a Berean.’ Lord willing, once every month or so, I will be presenting you with information that you need to be aware of concerning certain popular Christian teachers or pastors, and information concerning some teachers or pastors that are not so well known. Their teachings will be misleading at the least, and heretical at the worst. If embraced, some of these teachings will lead you to a wrong understanding of Scripture, and others will lead you away from Biblical truth and the true Jesus Christ and into the world of mysticism and the occult.
Some of the teachers that I will be writing about will not be completely false, which is why their false teachings often go unnoticed, and this is what makes them so extremely dangerous. Their teachings can be over 97% Biblical truth, but if just that little bit of error is overlooked because we are not testing what they say in light of Scripture as God’s Word shows us we need to be doing (Acts 17:11), then slowly we will be led astray because we have placed our trust in man, instead of in God and the truth of His Word.
One day we will all stand before God, and each of us will be responsible for what we choose to believe as truth. If we clearly refuse to test the teachings of those we listen to in light of Scripture and ignore the many warnings that God has given us about false teachers and how some of them would arise from among us and we end up being led astray, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Some of these pastors and teachers that I will be writing about may be at the very top of your ‘Favorite List,’ but if you truly love Jesus and the truth of His Word, then you will be willing to hear the truth as hard as it may be for you to hear it at first. I am probably going to lose some followers to this blog because of what I may be writing in the months ahead, but as a Christian who loves God and His Word and who desires to please God and not man, and as a Christian who desires to expose error and wake Christians up to the extreme importance of being followers of Jesus Christ and not being a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, I must speak out and not remain silent. All I ask is that you would please pray for discernment, read and listen to all the information that I will be sharing with you, and examine the Scriptures to see if what these pastors and teachers say is true or not. The decision you make next will be entirely up to you. But you can never say, “No one cared enough to warn me.”
Now for today’s False Teacher alert: (Updated Saturday, 2:45 P.M. 2/27/16).
LEARNING TO DISCERN TRUTH FROM ERROR
A VERY STRONG WARNING CONCERNING JOHN HAGEE, SENIOR PASTOR OF CORNERSTONE CHURCH IN SAN ANTONIO TEXAS
One of the clearest ways to determine if someone is a false teacher or not is to look very carefully at what they teach concerning who Jesus Christ is. Do they deny His deity? Do they say that He was just a good man, a great teacher, or that He was a prophet? Or do they teach that He was God wrapped in human flesh who came to this earth to live the perfect, sinless life that we could never live so that He could become the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and that He came to give His life as a ransom for all men?
Those of us who are truly born-again Christians believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that every word is God-breathed. Therefore, we need to be certain that we test the teachings of every pastor and teacher against Gods’ Word to see if what is being said is true. (Acts 17:11)
Let’s take a close look at God’s Word to see what it has to say about who Jesus is, and what His purpose was in coming to this earth:
Jesus is God in the flesh:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14)
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11)
“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:12-20)
Jesus claimed to be God and many realized what He was saying.
“And again He entered into Capernaum, after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and He preached the word unto them. And they come unto Him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto Him for the press, they uncovered the roof where He was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, “Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” or to say, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?” But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.” And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.” (Mark 2:1-12)
“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute Him. In His defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:14-18)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” (John 8:51-59)
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from My Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (John 10:27-33)
Why did Jesus come?
“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mathew 20:28)
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3,4)
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”(1 Timothy 1:15-17)
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:24-26)
Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:5-10)
“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for thesinsofthewholeworld.” (1 John 2:2)
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9,10)
Jesus was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God:
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto Him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) NOTE: Please consider reading the following article by Ron Rhodes in which he gives a good Biblical explanation regarding Jesus becoming sin for us, because many have completely distorted this verse and teach that Jesus actually became sin. If that were true then Jesus would not have been the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:4-6) but He did not become sin itself. – HOW WAS JESUS “MADE” SIN
“Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22)
“And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5)
Sadly, I must admit that many years ago, because of my deep interest in Bible prophecy, I used to listen to John Hagee, who is the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church in because of his strong emphasis on end time events and Bible prophecy. However, upon discovering that the Christian movie that I had rented for my children to watch, that his ministry, along with another Christian ministry had produced had swears in it, I shut it off and returned the movie and requested a refund after giving them my explanation. I then decided that since his ministry chose to compromise by imitating the world instead of honoring God with their message by reflecting His Holiness with what they presented in their movie, that I would no longer listen to him. I had no idea what he actually taught about Jesus until years later when I came across this video! You will hear John Hagee — in his own words — say some of the following shocking things:
“In Defense of Israel will shake Christian theology. It Scripturally proves that the Jewish people as a whole did not reject Jesus as Messiah.”
“It will also prove that Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah.”
“Since Jesus refused by word and deed to claim to be the Messiah, how can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered?”
In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, God’s chosen people, knowing the destruction that would come upon them:
“And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
In Matthew 23:37 Jesus said the following:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Another totally heretical teaching that John Hagee presents (that I forgot to include when I published this post two minutes before midnight last night, but came to my mind as my head hit my pillow at around 1:00 A.M. this morning), is that he says there is no need to preach salvation to the Jewish people because they already have a relationship with God, and that their salvation comes through the Old Covenant. Some of his actual words are as follows:
“I’m not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith.”
“In fact, trying to convert Jews is a waste of time.”
Here is the article that I first discovered on Facebook in January 2016 that revealed some of John Hagee’s heretical teachings to me:
According to the following information that I found on Facebook John Hagee has actually been teaching this for at least a few years now:
John Hagee constantly writes about why Christians should support Israel, and yet for him to say “trying to convert Jews is a waste of time” is to withhold eternal life from them and condemns them to hell for all eternity!
Today, more than ever before, we must be certain to test everything that every pastor and teacher says in light of Scripture –regardless of how Biblically solid they may have been in the past! I hope you are beginning to see the importance of doing so, because many pastors and teachers today who were once trusted to preach God’s Word for so many years without compromise have shocked many of us as we have watched them give in to unholy alliances with those who are false teachers, and begin teaching many things that are totally unscriptural!
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 3:16,17-4:1-4)
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7: 13-15)
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men. after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:1-12)
“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:3-9)
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:10-12)
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:6-8)
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoid profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:20,21)
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)
“But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13)
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary/Living4HisGlory
RELATED VIDEOS
UPDATE:
My part-time job (that I truly enjoy) which began with me working just three days a week, has now become a job in which I will need to work four days a week. This means that my free time will be even more limited because of other responsibilities that I also have, which unfortunately means that my posts will not be as frequent as they have been, as well.
Lord willing, I will be using much of the little free time that I still have left to search through Scriptures, to continue doing research for upcoming posts, as well as praying for God’s wisdom concerning what I will (Lord willing) be presenting to you later on this year.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Welcome to another post in a new Category of posts that I have entitled, ‘False Teacher Friday – Learning The Importance of Being a Berean.’ Lord willing, once every month or so, I will be presenting you with information that you need to be aware of concerning certain popular Christian teachers or pastors, and information concerning some teachers or pastors that are not so well known. Their teachings will be misleading at the least, and heretical at the worst. If embraced, some of these teachings will lead you to a wrong understanding of Scripture, and others will lead you away from Biblical truth and the true Jesus Christ and into the world of mysticism and the occult.
Some of the teachers that I will be writing about will not be completely false, which is why their false teachings often go unnoticed, and this is what makes them so extremely dangerous. Their teachings can be over 97% Biblical truth, but if just that little bit of error is overlooked because we are not testing what they say in light of Scripture as God’s Word shows us we need to be doing (Acts 17:11), then slowly we will be led astray because we have placed our trust in man, instead of in God and the truth of His Word.
One day we will all stand before God, and each of us will be responsible for what we choose to believe as truth. If we clearly refuse to test the teachings of those we listen to in light of Scripture and ignore the many warnings that God has given us about false teachers and how some of them would arise from among us and we end up being led astray, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Some of these pastors and teachers that I will be writing about may be at the very top of your ‘Favorite List,’ but if you truly love Jesus and the truth of His Word, then you will be willing to hear the truth as hard as it may be for you to hear it at first. I am probably going to lose some followers to this blog because of what I may be writing in the months ahead, but as a Christian who loves God and His Word and who desires to please God and not man, and as a Christian who desires to expose error and wake Christians up to the extreme importance of being followers of Jesus Christ and not being a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, I must speak out and not remain silent. All I ask is that you would please pray for discernment, read and listen to all the information that I will be sharing with you, and examine the Scriptures to see if what these pastors and teachers say is true or not. The decision you make next will be entirely up to you. But you can never say, “No one cared enough to warn me.”
Now for today’s False Teacher alert:
LEARNING TO DISCERN TRUTH FROM ERROR
A STRONG WARNING CONCERNING CHUCK MISSLER
It has been quite a while since I have written a False Teacher Friday post for you. So before I spend most of my weekend trying to focus completely on finishing the post on mysticism that I have been telling you about, I decided to put together this short post in order to warn you about Chuck Missler.
For those of you who are avid followers of his, please keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how interesting his presentations may be, or how intelligent or knowledgeable he may be, or how many conferences he has taken part in over the years. What truly matters concerning him and with everyone who claims to be a Christian and who presents information to other Christians is: Does his or her life reflect the character of Jesus Christ in all that he or she says and does? Does everything that the person is saying line up with Scripture? Is Jesus Christ being exalted through everything that is being presented? Or is there a rather unbiblical message being presented that is leading those who are listening to the person’s presentation away from Scripture and into unbiblical teachings or even into the realm of the occult? Please keep these things in mind and pray for discernment as you listen to everyone you look to for Biblical teachings, and now specifically as you listen to the following video of Susan Puzio and her interview with Sarah Leslie of DISCERNMENT MINISTRIES, (who is also an excellent writer for the HERESCOPE BLOG), Gaylene Goodroad, who once held two black belts and now speaks out and warns about the martial arts, (You can read her testimony HERE. She also writes some very informative and thought-provoking articles for the HERESCOPE BLOG, and you can read one of her articles HERE), and finally, you will also hear Susan Puzio interview David James of THE ALLIANCE FOR BIBLICAL INTEGRITY on which he ‘discusses important curent theological issues facing the church.’ He is also the author of The Harbinger Fact or Fiction.
Here is just one of the many important questions that was presented to Susan’s guests during this interview:
“Who is Chuck Missler and why are his teachings dangerous?”
You are about to find out!
Please listen to this interview when time allows, so that you can learn to discern:
RELATED SCRIPTURES:
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:1)
“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:13)
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary/Living4HisGlory
UPDATE:
Lord willing, new post hopefully coming by Monday evening, December 14, 2015
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Welcome to another post in a new Category of posts that I have entitled, ‘False Teacher Friday – Learning The Importance of Being a Berean.’ Lord willing, once every month or so, I will be presenting you with information that you need to be aware of concerning certain popular Christian teachers or pastors, and information concerning some teachers or pastors that are not so well known. Their teachings will be misleading at the least, and heretical at the worst. If embraced, some of these teachings will lead you to a wrong understanding of Scripture, and others will lead you away from Biblical truth and the true Jesus Christ and into the world of mysticismand the occult.
Some of the teachers that I will be writing about will not be completely false, which is why their false teachings often go unnoticed, and this is what makes them so extremely dangerous. Their teachings can be over 97% Biblical truth, but if just that little bit of error is overlooked because we are not testing what they say in light of Scripture as God’s Word shows us we need to be doing (Acts 17:11), then slowly we will be led astray because we have placed our trust in man, instead of in God and the truth of His Word.
One day we will all stand before God, and each of us will be responsible for what we choose to believe as truth. If we clearly refuse to test the teachings of those we listen to in light of Scripture and ignore the many warnings that God has given us about false teachers and how some of them would arise from among us and we end up being led astray, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Some of these pastors and teachers that I will be writing about may be at the very top of your ‘Favorite List,’ but if you truly love Jesus and the truth of His Word, then you will be willing to hear the truth as hard as it may be for you to hear it at first. I am probably going to lose some followers to this blog because of what I may be writing in the months ahead, but as a Christian who loves God and His Word and who desires to please God and not man, and as a Christian who desires to expose error and wake Christians up to the extreme importance of being followers of Jesus Christ and not being a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, I must speak out and not remain silent. All I ask is that you would please pray for discernment, read and listen to all the information that I will be sharing with you, and examine the Scriptures to see if what these pastors and teachers say is true or not. The decision you make next will be entirely up to you. But you can never say, “No one cared enough to warn me.”
Now for today’s False Teacher alert:
LEARNING TO DISCERN TRUTH FROM ERROR
A VERY STRONG WARNING CONCERNING KONG HEE
Kong Hee is the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church that is located in Singapore. I had never heard of Kong Hee until the end of 2012 when I heard his message that I posted for you below which is entitled, ‘WAS JESUS POOR.’ Unfortunately the full version of that message was removed shortly after I heard it, but the videos that I posted for you below captures the majority of it. When I heard his message I was deeply troubled by the way he distorted Scripture to try and teach that Jesus was rich. But that pales in comparison to his completely blasphemous interpretation of a certain passage of Scripture concerning Jesus which I will share with you shortly.
Before I give you the opportunity to analyze his message and test it in light of Scripture, here’s a little more information on Kong Hee:
He was arrested in 2012 for allegedly dipping his hand into his church’s $41 million church fund to further his wife’s music career. After he was accused, he appeared before the people in his church, and, in part, he had this to say:
“I maintain my integrity.”
“You have no idea how broken I feel standing here tonight in front of you.”
“Many allegations were made in the media…please know there are always two sides to every story. I look forward to the day that I can tell you my side of the story in court.”SOURCE
THIS ARTICLE by the Christian Post, dated July 3, 2015, brings this ongoing story up to date by stating that Kong Hee has put his co-owned $10 million luxury penthouse on the market, explaining that he also had to sell other properties to help pay for all of his attorneys’ fees. The article goes on to say that:
“Kong and five other CHC members are currently on trial facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted of having misused $19.2 million in church funds on the pop music career of Sun Ho, the pastor’s wife.”
When time allows, please test Kong Hee’s message that I added to the end of this post against Scripture to see if what he says is true. (Acts 17:11)
Here are just two of the many unbiblical things that you will hear him say:
“You will end up the way you choose to believe.”
“A poverty mindset will block the prosperity of God from coming to you.” ”
Many of you will recognize from these statements that Kong Hee is one among many Word of Faith preachers and teachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Gloria Copeland, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, etc.
For those of you who may not be aware of what these Word of Faith teachings are, they believe that faith is a force, and your words are the containers for this force. They teach that you can create your own realityby speaking it into existence. They believe that God wants all believers to be healthy and wealthy, and if you’re not, then there must be some unconfessed sin in your life, or you just don’t have enough faith.
But that’s only the beginning of their false teachings. They also teach that Jesus went to hell and was tormented by the demons and that He died spiritually and was the first born-again man.Many of their teachings limit the power of God and give man the authority to command God to do what he desires to be done. As you will soon see, their teachings go so far as to demote God to a position where He can do nothing without man’s help, and they deify man to be as God.
For an in depth presentation on the many false teachings of the Word of Faith Movement, I strongly urge you to watch the following videos when time allows:
Although Kong Hee only focuses on three verses of Deuteronomy Chapter28 in his message, (which I highlighted for you) I posted the entire chapter for you because it’s very important for us to look at verses in their proper context to see if the verses really say what pastors and teachers claim that they say. Below you will also find a few of the other Scriptures that he used in his message, and I highlighted those verses that he mainly focused on, as well. Please pray for discernment, and after you carefully read these verses in context, play Kong Hee’s message to see if what he says completely lines up with the truth presented in God’s Word.
As he begins his message, he poses this question:
“Do we have a poor God or a rich God?A poor Savior, or a rich Savior?”
PART 1:
Matthew 15:1-6
1Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.’
5 But ye say, ‘Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me’;
6 And ‘honour not his father or his mother,’ he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”
Deuteronomy 28:1- 68
1 “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
3Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
6Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
9The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in His ways.
10And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.
11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The LORD shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearkenunto the voiceof the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken Me.
21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.
33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
35 The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36 The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb,and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
44He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
54 So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom,and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The LORD Thy God;
59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.
63 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoicedover you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
68 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be soldunto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. (King James Version– KJV- byPublic Domain)
Kong Hee ends Part 1 by saying,
“Poverty is a curse, prosperity is a blessing.”
“But if you study the Bible very care and objectively…just look at what the Word of God says, you will realize Jesus was never poor in all His thirty three and a half years of earthly ministry.”
Part 2
Now in the very beginning portion of his message is where I want you to focus your attention on. Although this message is the same message that I heard back in 2012, this version is not the complete message because it is divided into two parts. However, it still includes a short clip of the most blasphemous statement Kong Hee said concerning Jesus. At the 4:14 minute mark you will hear Kong Hee say the following:
“In other words, when Jesus went, He carried money boxes. He carried His treasury. Any time He need it, He’s able to feed tens of thousands of people.”
Do you realize what he is implying by his statement??!! In order to try and prove his prosperity teaching and to try and teach that Jesus was rich and not poor, he reduces the amazing miracles of the feeding of the five thousand that Jesus performed because He was God in the flesh, to a false premise that Jesus was able to do so because He was very wealthy and He was taking money out of the abundance of His money supply that He always had with Him to buy food for all of the thousands of people who! This one teaching alone, is enough to say, “Mark and avoid him!”(Romans 16:17)
Read the following passages of Scripture and you will see that God’s Word clearly reveals enough information to prove him wrong. All the details in the following passages of Scripture shows that they did not go into the village to buy food; these were true miracles that revealed the deity of Jesus Christ:
“As evening approached, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to Me,” He said. And He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.” (Matthew 14:15-21)
“Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then He took the seven loaves and the fish, and when He had given thanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children.” (Matthew 15:32-39)
God’s Word is filled with warnings about false teachers, and we must test the words of every teacher in light of Scripture, no matter how many years they have been in ministry, or how large and successful their church appears to be.
Know God’s Word well, and trust in Him alone; do not place your trust in any man (or woman) and their ministry.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Welcome to the first post in a new Category of posts that I have entitled, ‘False Teacher Friday – Learning The Importance of Being a Berean.’ Lord willing, once every month or so, I will be presenting you with information that you need to be aware of concerning certain popular Christian teachers or pastors, and information concerning some teachers or pastors that are not so well known. Their teachings will be misleading at the least, and heretical at the worst. If embraced, some of these teachings will lead you to a wrong understanding of Scripture, and others will lead you away from Biblical truth and the true Jesus Christ and into the world of mysticism and the occult.
Some of the teachers that I will be writing about will not be completely false, which is why their false teachings often go unnoticed, and this is what makes them so extremely dangerous. Their teachings can be over 97% Biblical truth, but if just that little bit of error is overlooked because we are not testing what they say in light of Scripture as God’s Word shows us we need to be doing (Acts 17:11), then slowly we will be led astray because we have placed our trust in man, instead of in God and the truth of His Word. One day we will all stand before God, and each of us will be responsible for what we choose to believe as truth. If we clearly refuse to test the teachings of those we listen to in light of Scripture and ignore the many warnings that God has given us about false teachers and how some of them would arise from among us and we end up being led astray, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Some of these pastors and teachers that I will be writing about may be at the very top of your ‘Favorite List,’ but if you truly love Jesus and the truth of His Word, then you will be willing to hear the truth as hard as it may be for you to hear it at first. I am expecting to lose some followers to this blog because of what I may be writing in the days and months ahead, but as a Christian who loves God and His Word and who desires to please God and not man, and as a Christian who desires to expose error and wake Christians up to the extreme importance of being followers of Jesus Christ and not being a follower of any man (or woman) and their ministry, I must speak out and not remain silent. All I ask is that you would please pray for discernment, read and listen to all the information that I will be sharing with you, and examine the Scriptures to see if what these pastors and teachers say is true or not. The decision you make next will be entirely up to you. But you can never say, “No one cared enough to warn me.”
Now for today’s False Teacher alert:
LEARNING HOW SPIRITUAL DECEPTION IS ENTERING THE CHURCH
WARNING CONCERNING CURT THOMPSON
Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist and an author, and specializes in the field of Neuroscience. He is also a professing Christian.
Just in case the following video gets taken down one day, here’s a ‘quick capture’ I took of the video, and I typed out every word that he said in the following video for you, as well. (Emphasis in red is mine). I’d strongly advise you to pray for God to protect you spiritually before reading his words and listening to the video below.
While I watched the video, many concerns began to fill my mind. Pray for discernment and test what he says in light of Scripture, and see what concerns come to your mind before you read what I have shared with you below.
“So…I’m going to invite you to do something with me right now. It’s gonna take just maybe two minutes…two or three minutes, and then we’re going to wrap up. I want you to close your eyes. Don’t be afraid. You’ll all still look the same when you ww…when you open your eyes. Okay? [Note: My thoughts – Sounded like he was going to say, “When you (ww)wake up,” but caught himself and change his mind for fear of revealing he was actually usinghypnosis on them.] “Why don’t you take a deep breath. Why don’t you take another one…one more. And right now I going to invite you to allow your mind to imagine, being in a place that you find to be comfortable, and comforting, peaceful…it could be anywhere…wherever you want it to be. (Pause) And as you’re in that place, and for some of us it may take us…a little longer to get there that it will for others…I want you to…now allow… for the presence of God…to join you…in any way…your imagination…allows…to happen. (Short pause). I want you to…take a look at your surroundings. I want you to view that, I want you to sense that, be attentive to that; see it, smell it, feel it…And in that place…where you are…I want you to allow yourself to hear God telling you this, “You, are My son, whom I love. And…in him I ‘m very well please. I am so pleased you’re on the earth. You are My daughter…and I love you. (Short pause) I’m so pleased you’re on the earth.” I want you just to sit with that… for just a moment more…and allow God to tell you…that. And I want you to pay attention…to what this moment…feels like. (Pause) And now I’m going to invite you to just slowly…when you’re ready…but not before…just to simply allow…your attention…to be drawn back to this room, leaving that place, but knowing that that place is not leaving you. (Short pause) And when you’re ready, feel free to open your eyes. (Pause) We who are followers of Jesus, believe that He is in this place. And in that moment, He has made Himself plain to us all. This is no joke. This is real. And your brains have been changed. Because God is serious about doing that. And He meets us in these ways and places. I want to suggest that if you were to do that exercise…that exercise took us three minutes. You do that exercise every day for the next six weeks, your life will be different.”
What you have just witnessed is one of the spiritual disciplines that is being highly promoted these days throughout Christian circles in Spiritual Formation classes. Spiritual Formation focuses on different spiritual practices/exercises and disciplines that supposedly help Christians develop a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. In reality, practices like the one you just saw lead Christians away from coming to know God through His Word because it has them focusing on having ‘experiences’ with God instead.
The ‘exercise’ that Curt Thompson just demonstrated in the above video is referred to as ‘visualization’ or ‘guided imagery’ in New Age Mysticism. In “Christian” ‘spiritual formation,’ as Curt Thompson would probably classify this so-called “exercise,” a person, who is sometimes referred to as a ‘spiritual director,’ will attempt to guide your thoughts to lead you to imagine you are some place quiet and peaceful and then he or she will have you focus on your surroundings and sometimes have you imagine you are in a certain passage of Scripture. The person/”spiritual director” may, for example, try and tell you that you see Jesus standing there, and you hear the waves of the Jordan River, and you smell the fish cooking over the fire, and you feel the breeze coming off the Jordan River, etc. It’s an attempt to have you disengage your critical thinking process, and instead have you engage all your senses and “allow” the ‘spiritual director’ to have control over your thoughts. Thus the reason for their continued use of the term “allow.” Those who practice hypnosis know that they can do nothing unless they have your permission; they want you to completely and willingly surrender control of your mind so that they can manipulate your thinking while they give you commands through their ‘guided imagery‘ and ‘visualization‘ techniques.
Curt Thompson has them engage their senses during this exercise by telling them to “see it, smell it, feel it…allow yourself to hear God telling you…” These practices that lead people to ‘engage their senses’ are also popular in the Emergent/Emerging Church movement. (See video on the ‘Emergent Church’ under “RELATED VIDEOS,’ as well as all the other videos I posted for you, to learn more).
TESTING WHAT CURT THOMPSON SAID IN LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE
With a hypnotic tone to his voice, Curt Thompson spoke very slowly to those in attendance at this ‘chapel service.’ He said things like,“I’m going to invite you to do something with me right now…” “allow your mind to imagine being in a place…” “allow for the presence of God to join you in any way your imagination allows to happen,” “allow yourself to hear God telling you,” “allow God to tell you that,” “Now I’mgoing to invite you to just slowly…allow your attention to be drawn back to this room…”
Let’s look at what God’s Word has to say about our imagination, since Curt Thompson is definitely encouraging people to use their imagination in these so-called ‘exercises.’ The following verse is one of the first verses that my very first Bible study teacher had us memorize:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5)
MORE ON WHAT GOD’S WORD HAS TO SAY ABOUT OUR IMAGINATION
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)
“And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21)
“And the LORD said, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Genesis 11:6)
“Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devises which ye wrongfully imagine against me.” (Job 21:27)
“Why do the heather rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Psalm 2:1)
“These six things doth hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart which deviseth wicked imaginations…” (Proverbs 6:16-18)
“But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:24)
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” (Romans 1:20-23)
As you can see, God does not have anything good to say about our imaginations, which is why we are to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are also told in Philippians 4 to:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV 1973,1978,1984)
Nowhere in Scripture did Jesus have His disciples close their eyes and imagine they were in a quiet place. When Jesus prayed, He spoke to His Father. Yes, oftentimes He withdrew from the crowds to be alone with His Father to pray, but Scripture shows us that He always spoke words and did not silently sit and visualize that He was somewhere else imagining being with His Father, nor did He ever instruct His disciples to do such things!
This is frightening! It doesn’t matter what ‘Christian’ terminology may be used during a session like this, the bottom like is there is no difference between these types of exercises and New Age ‘visualization’ and ‘guided imagery’ practices, and a Christian should completely avoid taking part in anything like this! If you ever hear your pastor or teacher tell you to ‘close your eyes,’ or to ‘take deep breaths,’ or ‘focus on your breath,’ or tells you to ‘imagine being in a quiet, peaceful place,’ or somewhere other than where you actually are, etc., a red flag should immediately pop up as a warning sign to you! These are basic steps meant to guide you into altered states of consciousness where your mind will be opened to suggestions by the ‘spiritual director,’ pastor, teacher, etc.
We must never give anyone our permission to have control over our thoughts and our minds! Except for the Holy Spirit, of course!
Now I’d like to draw your attention to Curt Thompson’s comments during this ‘exercise’ when he said:
“Allow yourself to hear God telling you this, “You are My son whom I love. And in him I’m very well pleased.”
The first thing that came to my mind when I heard him say that, was the fact that these were almost the exact words that God the Father said to God the Son, Jesus Christ, in Mark 1:11 when He was baptized by John in the Jordan River:
“As Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10,11)
Curt Thompson continues on by saying:
“I am so pleased you’re on the earth. You are my daughter…and I love you. I’m so pleased you’re on the earth.”
Another concern that crossed my mind as I heard him say that is: What if some of the students in that particular chapel service were not Christians. By hearing Curt Thompson suggest that God is saying those things to them would easily allow students who have not repented of their sins and placed their trust in Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice on the cross as full payment for their sins to rest in a false sense of peace and lull them into believing that they are accepted by God just as they are. Some of them possibly may have never even heard the gospel and therefore may not realize that they are sinners in need of a Savior. If a practice is done like this amongst Christians, not only is it unbiblical and occultic, but also it is presenting “another gospel” with no power whatsoever to save.
I’m sorry, but the Jesus that a person may encounter during sessions like this will not be the Jesus of the Bible! God would never want us to participate in practices that are clearly done in Hindu and Buddhist religions, and practices like this are not forms of Biblical meditation and prayer.
I am sure Curt Thompson is probably a very wonderful man. In the beginning of the many videos that I watched of him in order to do research for this post, I heard him proudly share the fact that he has been married for many years. As of the time of a certain video that I watched that was published in July 2013 he said he had been married for over 26 1/2 years, which is a remarkable and rare thing these days, and it also says a lot about his commitment and his character! However, we as Christians must base whom we choose to listen to as our teachers to be much more than just men and women of good character. First and foremost their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not compromise or contradict it in any way!
One question we must ask concerning Curt Thompson is, “How do the teachings of Neuroscience compare to Biblical Christianity?” That was my main concern as I watched the above video, and I continued my search for more information to find the answer to that question.
Besides leading those who were attending the chapel service that day in the unbiblical ‘exercise‘ using their imaginations, these were the most troubling things that I heard him say:
“We who are followers of Jesus, believe that He is in this place. And in that moment, He has made Himself plain to us all. This is no joke. This is real. And your brains have been changed. Because God is serious about doing that. And He meets us in these ways and places. I want to suggest that if you were to do that exercise…that exercise took us three minutes. You do that exercise every day for the next six weeks, your life will be different.”
It’s quite obvious that he is not joking about what he said. However, the God of the Bible does not “meet us in these ways and places” because these practices are rooted in eastern religions. Therefore, it seems to me that he is presenting “another Jesus” and “another gospel.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4, Galatians 1:6-9) Is he? How do the teachings of Neuroscience compare to Biblical truth and to the gospel? In my search for information to answer those very questions, I first found the following videos:
‘CURT THOMPSON: NEUROPLASTICITY AND SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES’
Please pray for discernment as you read and listen. This is most of what he had to say in the following video:
“The term Neuroplasticity really refers to the capacity of neurons to flexibly change.”
“And as it turns out, Neurons are far more flexible than we ever thought they were. And by flexibility, by Neuroplasticity, or the neurons capacity to be flexible, plastic or malleable, we mean the following. First of all that neurons are able of regeneration.”
“All three of these things — regeneration, growth in length and diameter, and growth in density of connection — means that our mind has the capacity for doing things even after damage that we didn’t think it could do before. What does that have to do with Spiritual Transformation? We like to say that, in the brain, nothing changes without neurons changing. If I learn a new thing, if I put a new practice into a disciplined place, all of those things require the redirection of neurons to do things that they weren’t doing before. Neuroplasticity is something that we want to enhance in order to make that flexibility more accessible. Things like spiritual disciplines; fasting, confession, prayer, solitude, and so forth, do a couple of things. One, they open our awareness to things that our mind is sensing, feeling, evoking, that we typically are not paying attention to. If I am now paying attention to these new things, I’m asking my brain’s neurons to do things they weren’t doing before. And as such, I open up windows into connecting functions of my mind; experiences of my mind that were not being connected before. And so, the flexibility of Neuroplasticity, is, in some respects, almost interchangeable with Spiritual Formation. You can’t really talk about Spiritual Formation without invoking the activity of Neuroplasticity.”
Even though Curt Thompson shared a lot of interesting things about the brain and neurons in the above video, it seemed to me by what he said that he was forgetting all about the miraculous transforming power of the Holy Spirit to change a person’s life, and making it all about man’s ability to achieve transformation by incorporating ‘spiritual disciplines‘ to bring change to our brain’s neurons and thus bring change to our habits and lives. If so, this indeed is “another gospel” that has no power to save.
Notice also his focus on ‘spiritual disciplines‘ and how he says they “open our awareness to things that our mind is sensing, feeling, evoking…” Instead of him saying, ‘If a Christian reads God’s Word it will bring about spiritual transformation,’ he focuses on leading Christians into having ‘experiences’ as you saw demonstrated in the very first video.
In order to dig deeper into what else he teaches, I continued to search for more videos, and found this one:
‘CURT THOMPSON: A PATHWAY TO TRANSFORMATION’
Please continue to pray for discernment before you read and listen. Here again is most of what he said in the following video:
“We are much more likely to embody behavioral change, when what we are doing with our bodies…whether that means…what I’m saying, what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, what I’m acting…if those things make sense to me.”
“And so, for example, if someone says to me, “The more you pay attention to certain things, the more you establish that those things will become more permanent not just in your thinking, but literally in your brain,” and then I’m invited to pay attention to other things that can change the nature of how my brain is wired, I’m much more likely to do that, especially if you give me concrete practices such as meditation practices, for example, that can change the way my brain is wired. Those, and many other elements of Neuroscience I think become grist for the mill where by which I can begin to make sense out of why I do what I do.”
“The reason we even talk about wanting transformation is because at some point in our life we can look around and say, “My life is doing things that I wish it weren’t doing, and I want that to be different in very concrete practical ways. How can I make that happen.” We hear preached, we hear taught all the time things like, “Be renewed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I have no idea what that means in real life.”
As I listened to all that he said in this video many Scriptures came to mind, as well as the thought that what he described sounded more like ‘behavior modification.‘
The reason someone might say, “my life is doing things that I wish itweren’t doing,” as Curt Thompson suggests that some may say, is not because of “the nature of how our brains are wired,” as he suggests, but because of the sinful nature within all of us that can only be changed through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit by first coming to faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and through the renewing of our minds (something that he claims he has a hard time understanding what that means) through the reading of God’s Word. Let’s look at some Scriptures to find the truth in God’s Word concerning all of this, and pray that Curt Thompson will one day come to understand the truth that is presented in God’s Word:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”
“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
“Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that doit, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There istherefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”
“Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortalbodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Romans 7:12-25 – 8:1-17 )
‘CURT THOMPSON: SPIRITUALITY, NEUROPLASTICITY, AND PERSONAL GROWTH (FULL INTERVIEW)’
‘CURT THOMPSON: PREACHING THE GOSPEL
IN THE LANGUAGE OF NEUROSCIENCE’
In the following video, Curt Thompson mentions the names of a few people that I had never heard of before. After searching and finding information on them, the evidence became even more clear that he was indeed promoting mindfulness meditation, contemplative prayer, etc.
At the 7:43 minute mark in the above video, he asks,
“How many of you know of Brene’ Brown’s work?”
Upon searching for information on Brene’ Brown I found this. Need I say more?
Continuing on with more of what I discovered while listening to Curt Thompson’s video: At the 8:19 minute mark he said the following:
“You may not know this, but, starting tomorrow there is a major conference at UCLA being run by my good friend, and a number of others called, ‘How People Change.’ Dan Siegel and his friends are running this program…” ‘How People Change – Relationships and Neuroplasticity in Psychotherapy.’
Here’s some of the information that I found on Curt Thompson’s “good friend,” Dan Siegel. Note the very last thing I included in the ‘quick capture’ below, which says:
July 31 – August 1 Rhinebeck NY Omega: Mindfulness & Education Conference: Bringing Mindfulness Practice to Children Grades K – 12
In the following video, Buddhism is clearly spoken about. Dan Siegel first talks with Jack Cornfield who then leads the people in a ‘mindfulness meditation‘ exercise. Again, please pray for discernment and protection before you watch. Note the Buddha statue in the background:
I also found this very disturbing video in which, as you can see from the title, Dan Siegel presents a session of ‘Guided Meditation.’ I truly do not want to post this, and I could only bring myself to watch less than thirty seconds of this video, but sometimes we need to make Christians aware of just how these New Age/New Spirituality occult practices are entering the church. Also, since Curt Thompson makes it clear that Dan Siegel is his “good friend,” then I see this as related and very important information to add to this post to establish my valid concerns about him. I strongly urge you to pray for God’s protection and discernment if you choose to watch this video.
Realizing that Curt Thompson is a frequent speaker at Biola University by watching many of his videos, I decided to check out Biola’s website:
Not only did I want to see what other information I could find on Biola’s website concerning Curt Thompson, but also I wanted to see who else they invited to speak there, and what subjects they chose to speak about.
In the ‘quick capture‘ I posted for you below, the video entitled ‘How Mindfulness Can Change YourBrain‘ captured my attention. Once again, I saw it as a confirmation of Curt Thompson’s connection with the unbiblical practice of ‘mindfulness meditation.’ Sadly, these new age/new spirituality practices are taught at many ‘Christian’ colleges these days, and we as parents must make our children aware of these spiritually deceptive practices and make them realize the importance of testing things in light of Scripture so they will not be deceived and led astray from Biblical truth.
Not recognizing who the man was that is pictured in the ‘Mindfulness’ video, I discovered that his name is Jeffrey Schwartz:
Even though Biola U invites some well respected Christians to speak there such as Alistair Begg, as you can see from the ‘quick capture’ below, they also have speakers such asRichard RohrandRuth Haley Barton(Lord willing, I will be sharing information on them with you at a latertime)that would cause many discerning Christians to become very concerned because of their strong promotion of the unbiblical, mystical practice of Contemplative Prayer, among other things.
Reading that information again confirmed my hunch that Curt Thompson teaches New Age ‘mindfulness meditation.’ I only recently learned about this form of meditation mainly from the teachings of two Christians in particular who were once deeply entrenched in the New Age Movement –Warren B Smith, and Marcia Montenegro.
Just the other day as I was going through some things that I had previously written but decided for one reason or another not to post on my blog, I came across something that was absolutely perfect for this post! Back in 2012 I had written something about Steven Furtick and I had added a Playlist to this post that I put together on my YouTube channel that I entitled, “Christian Brothers and Sisters! Are You Being Deceived?‘ In this ‘Playlist’ I not only had many videos concerning Steven Furtick, but I also had many videos about ‘Contemplative Prayer,’ and many others things because I always try to alert Christians to the importance of testing things in light of Scripture. To my amazement I discovered that the very first video that I had added to this Playlist is the one you see below! In this video, beginning at the :27 second mark, you will hear Curt Thompson clearly mention ‘meditation‘ and ‘Centering Prayer.’ Again, please pray for discernment, and test what he says in light of Scripture. In part, he said the following:
“…when people meditate inCentering Prayer exercises, for instance, that the density of neurons that are lighting up in the prefrontal cortex change over time and become more dense. So we know that when people become new in that sense, this is really something happening in the brain. It’s not just a metaphor, it’s not just in the abstract. When we who follow Jesus say things like, “When we are in Christ we are a new creations,” what I’m suggesting is that even though St. Paul wasn’t a Neuroscientist, that this is exactly what he’s talking about. That this is real change, that is concrete, that is measurable, and it tells us that God’s not really kidding when He’s creating newness within us. “And this kind of concrete change is the kind of change that we’re now looking for that gives us some hope in some sense that, yes, there is real transformation that’s taking place, in my mind and that when I have the mind of Christ, when my mind is being transformed, that’s no longer just…language. That’s real things that are happening in real bodies.” (Emphasis in red is mine).
‘ANATOMY OF THE SOUL: WHAT DOES IT MEAN’
If you’d like to watch the whole Playlist of 63 videos (at last count), here it is:
Here’s some more solid evidence that Curt Thompson is not only promoting New Age/New Spirituality meditation, but also he is completely distorting God’s Word. This is an excerpt from his book, ‘ANATOMY OF THE SOUL.’
Now let’s look at Scripture and discover what God has to say about meditation and prayer:
Psalms 1:1-6 – Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (Read More…)
“But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
“My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart [shall be] of understanding.” (Psalm 49:3)
“When I remember thee upon my bed, [and] meditate on thee in the [night] watches.” (Psalm 63:6)
“My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.” (Psalm 104:34)
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119:11)
“I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.” (Psalm 119:15)
“My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:48)
“O how love I thy law! it [is] my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119:97)
“Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on Thee]: because he trusteth in Thee.” (Isaiah 26:3)
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful (note: The NIV version uses anxious) for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9)
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” (Matthew 6:7)
“And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said unto them, “When ye pray, say,” (Luke 11:1,2a)
Prayer and meditation for Christians is not going through a process of blanking our thoughts out of our minds by repeating a word over and over. Nor is it a process by which we close our eyes and imagine being in a peaceful place and allowing God to say things to us as Curt Thompson suggests that Christians do as demonstrated in the very first video that I posted for you. As you can see from these verses, Biblical meditation is Christians simply filling their minds with the truth of God’s Word and using our minds to dwell upon the truths presented in Scripture.
And prayer for a Christian is having the amazing privilege of coming before the very throne of God and being able to express not only our love and appreciation to Him, but also being able to express our concerns that weigh heavily upon our hearts to Him instead of worrying about the overwhelming things we face in life, and trusting that He will work things out in His way and in His timing for our good and for His glory.
A FEW EXAMPLES OF PRAYER IN SCRIPTURE
1) ELISHA – “And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see. Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17)
2) HEZEKIAH – “And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth…” (2 Kings 19:15)
3) DAVID – Expressed his heart in words to God in many of the Psalms: “Save me, O God by Your name; vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.” (Psalm 54:1,2)
“Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught…” (Psalm 55:1,2)
4) JONAH – Inthe belly of the fish:“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and You listened to my cry.” (Jonah 2:1,2)
5) DANIEL – “I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “LORD, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and keep His commandments…” (Daniel 9:4)
6) JESUS – on the Mount of Olives: “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:41,42)
He prays for Himself: “After Jesus said this, He looked up toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:1-3)
7)PAUL AND SILAS – “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them…” (Acts 16:25)
IN CLOSING
Time does not permit me to go into all the concerns that I have about what Curt Thompson said in the videos I shared with you. Let me just once again stress to you that these forms of spiritual practices are leading many astray because they are preaching a false gospel that leads people to believe that man has the ability within himself to bring change to his behavior by means other than by repenting and coming to Jesus Christ as a sinner in need of a Savior, and being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and by having our minds renewed by reading the truth of God’s Word. We are all wretched sinners in need of a Savior, and there is no other hope for man outside of Jesus Christ.
To Curt Thompson’s credit I did hear him share with his audience in one of his video presentations that he is a sinner. However, as I have demonstrated to you by his own words and by all the information that I added to this post, his main focus in his presentations is on telling people that by practicing these exercises (which are unbiblical and rooted in the occult) the neurons in our brains will begin to change, and this will bring change to our thinking and our behavior. This is not the gospel! The only way we can come to Him is with godly sorrow in our hearts because of the sin in our lives, and we will find and receive His mercy and His amazing grace and be transformed by His Spirit. Then, and only then will we have the ability to obey because we will have His Holy Spirit within us. We now have the power to choose to walk by the Spirit and not our flesh and we obey out of love and appreciation for what Jesus did for us when He took all of God’s wrath upon Himself and died in our place, satisfying God’s wrath that He has towards us because of our sins. God then sees us covered with the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, and our sins are as far as the east is from the west, and they are cast into the depths of the sea never to be remembered again. (Philippians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:18, Psalm 103:11,12, Isaiah 43:25, 1 John 1:9, Micah 7:18,19, Romans 4:7,8)
We can come to know Him in a very real way through reading His Word, not by seeking to have ‘experiences’ that will only lead us away from Him and into spiritual deception and bondage.
When we place our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation and if we choose to live our lives to please God and not man, when our life on earth comes to an end I can say by the authority of the Word of God that we will then hear Him speak to us. Those of us who are true followers of Jesus Christ and live to honor Him long to hear these words:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:1-5)
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7: 13-15)
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men. after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”(Colossians 2:8)
“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel– which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:3-9)
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:10-12)
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 3:16,17-4:1-4)
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:6-8)
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoid profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace [be] with thee. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:20,21)
“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)
“But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13)
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Mary Dalke - Living4HisGlory
Living4HisGlory 