PLUNGING INTO APOSTASY - UPDATE on PLUNGING TOWARDS APOSTASY

~ By James Fire

About nine years ago Anne Kisly, one of the writers for TTUF wrote the article Plunging Towards Apostasy and given the situation we see in this world, and how much worse things have gotten (in less than a decade!), I thought an update would be essential.

It is the saint’s duty to expose the “unfruitful works of darkness” (EPH 5:11) in warning both the church and the world of the impending judgment that will come upon these works. Such evil will only increase as the approach of the LORD Christ Jesus draws near (MATT 24:12) – and so while these things in and of themselves can be burdensome and grievous to see, it is also a token for hope, because it means the signs of the Last Days are coming to a close and the Messiah’s Reign of Righteousness will soon be inaugurated!

In the meantime, it behooves us workers of the kingdom to continue working in our respective callings from GOD while it is still light, for the night is soon coming when no one will be able to work (JOHN 9:4)!

In Anne’s comprehensive and detailed article, she discussed various points involving apostasy:

She made observations regarding some fellowships of Emergent Church philosophy, citing many verified examples of such (and now that Brian Broderson is at the lead, we can see such associations even more blatantly apparent – and this in turn has caused a major break among the many fellowships associated with this ministry).

She tied in the false doctrines and practices of “Emergent/New Age/Positive Thinking/Universalist and Global philosophies that are sweeping the Church [which] are not the Gospel of truth, nor the Gospel message of the Bible! It is deception, it is apostasy and it is a rejection of the God of the Bible and his plan of redemption for mankind! It is a complete mockery of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection power that has brought the sinner to salvation” which the evangelical church isn’t ignoring much less rebuking, but rather uniting with.

John Piper allowing Rick Warren to share his pulpit for example; also, Calvary Chapel Albuquerque attending the National Worship Leaders Conference with the likes of Leonard Sweet (ultimately, he was asked to step down from speaking, however, other prior associations had been made at other such conferences for three consecutive years.

Anne gives a detailed expose on Dr. Leonard Sweet – futurist, Emergent Church Leader and New Age sympathizer, who is being lauded by churches far and wide, accepted into ‘evangelical Christianity’ which is really a new world order-style evangelicalism
See this three-part series on Ken Blanchard, Wayne Dyer and Leonard Sweet – WOLVES In WOLF’s CLOTHING.

She then draws solid connections between Rick Warren and his mentor, Robert Schuller who brought Sir John Marks Templeton to the fore in public light. 

Templeton is “an evolutionist, pantheist, Universalist, and occultist and in no unequivocal terms rejects the God of the Bible, Christ as the only Savior and only way to God. He claims that heaven and hell are states of mind we create here on earth, that truth is relative, and that Christianity is no longer relevant.” (John Marks Templeton, Discovering the Laws of Life, 1994 inside front of jacket).

Anne then returns to the depths of compromise as she lists other speakers and participants of the National Worship Leaders Conference – Roman Catholic Matt Maher; Buddy Owens, an associate pastor with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church; Scott Dyer who spent 14 years on staff at Willow Creek Community Church, formerly pastored by Bill Hybels (of latest sexual scandals involving numerous of his secretaries); Randy Swanson, who served as Executive Director for the Robert Schuller Performing Arts Center, and many others besides.

Lynn Hybels, the wife of Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek during this time was writing for the website (Sojourner) of Rev. Jim Wallis, a pro-Marxist who has intentions on bringing down Constitutional America.

She then asks the pertinent question:

“So why are doctrinally sound pastors yoking themselves up with those who teach a false gospel? Are they themselves being deceived? Are they truly God’s under shepherds? Are they themselves wolves? Are they compromising in order to be a part of the “mainstream” mega churches? I don’t know the answer, but I know that there are many warnings in the Bible about the apostasy of the last day’s church. Jesus himself warned us not to be deceived (MATT 24:4,5,11) . We must take heed lest we too are caught up in the deception sweeping the church!”

She cites further evidences about Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet that reveals their true colors.

Again, this was only a short nine years ago – at that time, these things were horribly shocking to Bible believing Christians; today, it’s ‘old hat’ and seldom raises an eyebrow.

Are we witnessing an even more deplorable degradation in the church? 

Sadly, this is all too true, and heart breaking when we remember what the church was like well over a generation ago. Those who came out of the Jesus Movement and matured in the faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit were instrumental in revitalizing the body of Christ. Some of these entered into pastoral care of fellowships across this nation – it was a time when Christians began to turn their backs on traditions and religious affinities and fully embraced the Bible, and biblical teaching.

Today it is precisely the opposite:

2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

The word for “fables” is interesting, as it relates the idea of having a conversation among the elect to convey ideas that resemble truth without bearing any semblance to actual truth. Fables in this sense was dealt with by the church when it challenged Gnosticism and Jewish mysticism. 

This is a perfect description of the Emergent Church philosophy, as they are all about “dialogue” and “having a conversation” in order to convey ideas which in some way may be enlightened and containing something of truthful ideas, but with none of the certainty of objective, prepositional, ontological, verifiable truth. They reject out of hand, the Narrow View of Scripture. 

As Brian McClaren has stated, the church wants more to do with mystical wonder than material evidences for truth. Brian, speak for yourself: I will take the Bible over mysticism any eight days of the week!

Whereas before we were plunging towards apostasy, I believe today we are plunging deeply and speedily into apostasy!

For the remainder of this article, we will examine what passes as ‘Christianity’ today, but before we do, I need to address the objective of Alice Bailey of the Theosophical Society and how the Globalist powers in this world are making these objectives a reality, which can  be readily demonstrated by their corrupt and putrid, evil fruit.

Bailey spoke of the West and the East coming together to form a one world church that will welcome the World Teacher – read that, the anti-Christ or the Beast of Revelation.

So not only do we see a merging of West and East, with so much infiltration and corruption occurring within Christendom and the professing church (which is not at all the same thing as the genuine body of Christ), we see New Age dogma becoming an integral part of what is seen as ‘Christianity’ This will resolve into what the Bible speaks of as the Great Whore of Babylon (REV 17 & REV 18).

WHERE DO WE STAND TODAY?

The Old Lies of New Age at Home In the Church now

Geri Ungurean, author and researcher of Absolute Truth from the Word of GOD, wrote an article last November on how New Age beliefs are now common among professing Christians (read the entire article at this link provided):

“Most American adults self-identify as Christians. But many Christians also hold what are sometimes characterized as “New Age” beliefs – including belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees. Many Americans who are religiously unaffiliated also have these beliefs.

“Overall, roughly six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of these New Age beliefs. Specifically, four-in-ten believe in psychics and that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects, while somewhat smaller shares express belief in reincarnation (33%) and astrology (29%).”

Fortune Favors the Foolish in Today’s Church

FIGHTING for the FAITH ministries brings to the fore this promotion of tarot cards in the church! 

An Australian group called Christalignment, is using what they call, ‘Destiny Cards’ to ‘prophesy’ (read that divination, a practice expressly forbidden in Scripture: DEUT 18:10; JER 14:14; EZEK 13:6) for Christians concerning their future. 

Along with this, we have also have Christian - - witches. No, I am not making this up (I wish I was!)!

From The Christian Post we have the following:

Christian Witch Claims Christ Followers Can Practice Witchcraft, Despite Biblical Warnings

“Despite biblical warnings against the practice of witchcraft, the Rev. Valerie Love, who describes herself as a practicing Christian witch and an ordained minister of spiritual consciousness, is insisting that there is nothing wrong with Christians being witches and has recently launched a school to help Christians tap into magic.

"Stop thinking you can tell people how to worship [but Jesus said those that worship GOD must do so in spirit and in truth, and that He Himself is truth – that GOD doesn’t accept any worship outside of prescribed biblical truth (JOHN 4:23-24; 14:6)]. Stop thinking you can tell people how to connect with the divine [Jesus is the only acceptable mediator between GOD and humanity (1 TIM 2:5)]. See, you can't tell me how to worship. That's between me and God. You cannot tell me how to pray," a defiant Love declared in a recent rant on Facebook.

“She explained that she was ‘born a witch’ but was forced to stifle her identity as a Jehovah's Witness from age 4 to 30 when she finally left the ‘cult’.

"Where do we get off believing that we can actually dictate to other people how they worship. ... It's not our lane," Love said. ‘I was born a witch and I love it. I'm so thankful. People are afraid of the word [witch] because of fear and ignorance and I am here as a minister of the living God to dispel fear and ignorance’."

“At her Christian Witches website, Love also shares her story and offers a number of resources to help Christian witches including her recently launched Covenant of Christian Witches Mystery School which recently launched in Salem, Massachusetts. The school, according Love's website, was launched to "inspire, teach, share wisdom, and support magickal beings in owning and embracing magick, practicing magick and utilizing magick as a path to SELF-REALIZATION.’” 

Self-realization is not an idea expressed anywhere in Scripture but is a product of Hinduism, Jainism, psychology and other philosophies – the realization that "there is no difference between self and the divine".

However what we must realize about self (“the flesh”) is there nothing good dwells there; the human heart, unregenerated is wicked (JER 17:9; MATT 15:19).

If this wasn’t so tragic and offensive, it would be funny – but not only are people starting to find such beliefs in our increasingly syncretistic society acceptable in the church, statistics are showing that the number of witches here in the USA now outnumber the Presbyterian population. Wicca and paganism are growing astronomically (uh - no pun intended). 

One of the primary practices in witchcraft is mystical meditation, and we are seeing increasing practitioners of such esotericism in the church under the guise of contemplative prayer. There are many adherents, promoters and teachers of contemplative prayer as Brennan Manning, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster and Dallas Willard and also Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Contemplative Teacher Airing on Calvary Chapels Costa Mesa KWVE Radio

From Emergent Watch ministry we have this article:

“The most recent addition to the line-up of preachers on Calvary Costa Mesa’s KWVE Christian radio is author & speaker Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. Demoss was exposed by Pastor Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries, as far back as 2012, as a promoter of contemplative mysticism and spiritual formation – See Nancy DeMoss Turns listeners to Richard Foster for Guidance here in this article here”

A Box of New Age Butterflies

Roma Downey what with her associations with Christians, as well as the production of the popular television series, Touched By An Angel, and later, the cinematic film Son of God, has been perceived as being Christian herself. However the thin veneer of anything biblical is shown for what it truly is: a camouflage for New Age philosophies and propensities for all things mystical and unbiblical.

Her latest book, Box of Butterflies, should have been further evidence of her true allegiance to apostasy, but instead of exposing this book and its author for what they really are, pastors and church leaders far and wide have written warm, glowing endorsements for it!

Gregory Reid of Youthfire! and writer for Lighthouse Trails, has produced an expose in the booklet Butterfly Illusions; read an excerpt and find the link to order your own copy here.

Merging Within Mother of Harlots Heart

The Emerging Church Movement (ECM) and New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) are beginning to merge together into a super-merger amalgam of apostasy. 

For decades these two separate movements have grown exponentially, but independently; then there was some overlap between them. We’ve seen in particular that the ECM found common ground with New Age Movement’s (New Spirituality as it’s called today) The Vision Project, at the behest of Brian McClaren.

Now we are seeing adherents and promoters of each of these two formidable groups beginning to merge together and ‘pool their resources’. Of course, we know that ultimately, every false religious system will merge together and form what Scripture speaks of as the Whore of Babylon (REV 17; REV 18), the false church that will worship the Beast. All of this is passing off as ‘modern Christianity’.

The Message of Molech Received Into Too Many Churches

And then there is the subject of abortion, the situation in the professing church is deplorable. . .

If ever there should be an unquestioned, fundamental and foundational belief of Christians is the sacredness of human life; yet for all those who understand this, there are increasing numbers of professing Christians who are gravitating towards a ‘right for the woman to choose’ as something God-given and good (?!).

The offering up of infants in sacrifice was always a staple of pagan religious beliefs, but we are seeing more churches than ever before adopting this heinous practice – and if any think that such offerings are not given to ‘gods’ then they need to learn the nature of Satan’s M.O. and his demonic kingdom!

As the church of Jesus Christ, the pillar of truth, founded on the Word of GOD, the only true and unshakable foundation, let us receive our Marching Orders Against Molech.

Professor Rebecca Todd Peters made the following comment about what is not ‘Christian’ regarding abortion:

“. . .women should not have to justify their reasons for aborting an unborn baby. There is nothing Christian about requiring women to ‘justify’ their reasons for abortion,” Peters wrote. “And there is certainly nothing Christian about forcing women to continue pregnancies against their will.” This quote is from the following article.

Other ministers from various denominations also support abortion by signing letter.

The good news is that many states in the Union are coming forward and declaring abortion as an illegal act. Other states are remaining staunchly pro-abortion, to the detriment of that facet of the population which cannot protest for themselves but are at the mercy of forceps and scalpels in the death clinics that snuff out their lives.

The Marring of Man, Marriage and The Resulting Offspring

Churches that affirm and support the LGBT movement are growing; there is a Unitarian Universalist church just down the street from where I live and openly endorses 'alternate life styles' and even the minister advocates and endorses such. Here is another such church.

Despite the fact that Scripture is abundantly clear on the issue of same-sex relationships, both in Old and New Testament, the acceptance of homosexuality in churches, and even acceptance into the ministry is escalating at a dramatic rate. Those churches (and businesses for that matter) that refuse homosexuals from participation or patronizing are brought to court, found guilty of discrimination and sued.

The issue since the legalization of gay marriage has exploded, wherein transsexuals, metrosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders are all demanding acceptance, and in particular ‘MAPS’ or ‘minor attracted persons’ – read that pedophiles, are now insisting on equal rights.

The Bible and same sex relationships: A review article

From the above article:

“Vines and Wilson claim that they continue to hold to a high view of biblical authority, and that they believe the Bible is completely true, but that they don’t think it teaches all same-sex relations are wrong. Vines argues that while the Levitical code forbids homosexuality (LEV 18:22) it also forbids eating shellfish (LEV 11:9-12). Yet, he says, Christians no longer regard eating shellfish as wrong — so why can’t we change our minds on homosexuality? 

"Here Vines is rejecting the New Testament understanding that the ceremonial laws of Moses around the sacrificial system and ritual purity were fulfilled in Christ and no longer binding, but that the moral law of the Old Testament is still in force. HEB 10:16, for example, tells us that the Holy Spirit writes “God’s laws” on Christians’ hearts (so they are obviously still in force), even though that same book of the Bible tells us that some of those Mosaic laws — the ceremonial — are no longer in binding on us. This view has been accepted by all branches of the church since New Testament times.

“When Vines refuses to accept this ancient distinction between the ceremonial and moral law, he is doing much more than simply giving us an alternative interpretation of the Old Testament — he is radically revising what biblical authority means. When he says “Christians no longer regard eating shellfish as wrong,” and then applies this to homosexuality (though assuming that LEV 19:18 — the Golden Rule — is still in force), he is assuming that it is Christians themselves, not the Bible, who have the right to decide which parts of the Bible are essentially now out of date. That decisively shifts the ultimate authority to define right and wrong onto the individual Christian and away from the biblical text.

“The traditional view is this: Yes, there are things in the Bible that Christians no longer have to follow but, if the Scripture is our final authority, it is only the Bible itself that can tell us what those things are. The prohibitions against homosexuality are re-stated in the New Testament (ROM 1; 1 COR 6; 1 TIM 1) but Jesus himself (MARK 7), as well as the rest of the New Testament, tells us that the clean laws and ceremonial code is no longer in force.”

The Products of Evilution

The church is increasingly migrating to evolution theory as scientific fact, ditching the biblical account of creation.

TTUF has several excellent articles refuting the legitimacy of this flawed, poorly constructed theory, based on false premise. You can read these at the link provided here.

As well as these, see the excellent interviews that Ray Comfort of Living Waters ministry, conducted with university students and even faculty, asking the direct and basic question of origin and request for proof of transitional “kinds” from one kind to another:

EVOLUTION vs. GOD (38 min 26 sec)

If evolution is accepted as fact, and that no particular species of life forms are superior to any other (specifically we humans have no greater or lesser value than the E.coli virus) then this particular view point allows such things as abortion, population control, sexual aberrations and any other immoral or amoral life style and choices as perfectly acceptable.

For more on this, see the article Roots and Fruits by www.creation.com and be sure to check out the related articles at the bottom of the page!

There is actually so much going on that we don’t have time to mention (otherwise this article would be 90 pages instead of 9 pages long!). Yet if you would like to look into this more, feel free to peruse the following links, and do your own research as well!

For even more reports on the diabolical debauchery that the professing church is delving into, visit this web site: Museum of Idolatry by Pirate Christian ministry

As well as the following:

CARM on apostasy 

The BEREAN CALL –

APOSTASY IN THE CHURCH WITH G. RICHARD FISHER (PART ONE)

APOSTASY IN THE CHURCH WITH G. RICHARD FISHER (PART TWO)

Tony Kiar's article: A TALE Of TWO CHURCHES

And TTUF’s Own Listing of articles on apostasy

Remember saints, the darker this world gets, the brighter the Light of JESUS can shine from our hearts, and the LORD is watching to reward His faithful servants, who are emboldened and empowered by the Holy Spirit to stand for righteousness and the truth, in the face of satanic opposition. Maranatha, the LORD RETURNS SOON!