Incursion of Mysticism Into the Pentecostal-Charismatic Stream

…it’s hard for me to fathom the evangelical church buying into the religious occultism of Roman Catholicism. It makes no sense. Visit any country where that religion is taken seriously. What becomes obvious is a people who are in the bondage of superstition. On the other hand, I shouldn’t be surprised. Apostasy is growing rapidly, the religion of the Antichrist is taking shape, and mysticism, whether it’s the Catholic variety, the Sufism of Islam, yoga and the gurus of Eastern mysticism, the Shamanism of native religions, or otherwise, is a common yet powerful magnet that draws all religions together. We need to be watchmen on the wall as we see this evil invading the church, warning especially — should our Lord delay His return — our next generation of believers. They are the clear targets of this mystical seduction.

12 Reasons “Covenant Agreements” Are Not of God

Recently, I interfaced and interacted with a group whose primary commonality is their claim to be apostolic leaders, which, in my view, is extremely dubious in the case of but only a few. In the aftermath, a great disappointment and matter of dismay to me was being made aware, despite the decades of disapprobation and disrepute, some of their number, including some of their senior leaders, continue to employ in working/relating “covenant relationships” with junior leaders of their group such “spiritual covenants” of the ilk described and referenced herein. I was deeply grieved in my spirit by what I saw, discerned, and experienced at that conference.

The Problem With Messianic Judaism

I wonder how the Apostle Paul would react today if he were to tune into some religious broadcast extolling the virtues of a prayer shawl or hearing the clamor over blood moons and shemitahs. Added to that is the constant reminder that this is the beginning of such and such a feast or festival.

25 Reasons Abusive Church Leadership IS Disqualifying

In the previous post I indicated my strong disagreement with the conclusions of the group of elders and an overseer who identified themselves as the “investigators” who conducted an investigation into the long train of abuses, misdeeds, and other allegations against the founding senior leader of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mark Driscoll. Those men concluded that “While we believe Mark needs to continue to address these areas in his life, we do not believe him to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.” I ended that post by saying that abuse of spiritual authority is one of the most, possibly THE most, egregious affronts in existence to the One who is the Source of all legitimate authority, and that in a follow-up post I would offer 25 reasons why that is so that immediately come to my mind. This post consists of those 25 Reasons.

Mars Hill Church “Investigators” Claim Driscoll’s Transgressions Not Disqualifying

God’s people – leaders and laymen alike – need to give heed to the judgments of God that are clearly and undeniably manifesting all around us, and begin to earnestly and thoroughly “Humble (themselves) under the mighty hand of God!” (1 Pet. 5:6) for “God is opposed to the proud but gives His grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It is much better for one to humble himself, as Scripture commands, than to refuse and leave it to an angry and avenging God to do the humbling.

Nicolaitanism in the Modern Church

One of the common denominators of false cults, false religions, and the occult is that their doctrines and practices are predicated upon the “isms” of vain, humanly invented philosophies. The same is true of the heretical hyper-authoritarian Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines, dogmas, and practices that were infused into the fabric and foundation of the Neo-Pentecostal church, which fact is further corroboration that they are all of the aforementioned characterization: cultic, false, and occult. One of the most significant “isms” of the Discipleship heresy is one that is specifically mentioned and condemned in the Bible—Nicolaitanism.

14 Biblical Reasons Women are Precluded from Governmental Authority in the Church

The preponderance of Scripture establishes that women are precluded from authority roles and positions in the Church. The sum of the role of women is that they have been anointed and appointed by God as “facilitators” of sorts in the framework and operations of both the family and the church.

Confronting the Error of Hyper-Grace

The biblical message of grace is wonderful, glorious and life-transforming. We can’t live without it for one second of our lives. But there is a message being preached today in the name of a new grace reformation, mixing powerful truth with dangerous error. I call it hyper-grace.

One of the foundational doctrines of the hyper-grace message is that God does not see the sins of his children, since we have already been made righteous by the blood of Jesus and since all of our sins, past, present and future, have already been forgiven.

That means that the Holy Spirit never convicts believers of sin, that believers never need to confess their sins to God, and that believers never need to repent of their sins, since God sees them as perfect in his sight.

It is easy to see how such teaching can be dangerous, especially to a believer being tempted to compromise.

The Perilous Path of Doctrinal Deviation

Doctrinal deviation, degeneration, and denigration, which is being advocated more and more by some Christian leaders of all stripes and affiliation as a bridge to so-called “unity,” is an extremely perilous path to travel. It is an undeniable and unavoidable law of physics that the most infinitesimal degree of deviation from a straight line results in a wider and wider angle of deviation as it extends forth. While it is so very true that the Church is guilty of “majoring on the minors, and minoring on the majors,” yet established foundational Truth, i.e., sound doctrine, cannot be violated or deviated in order to achieve Biblical unity.