Your sermon of the week is What Every Catholic Should Know by Mike Gendron. This is a good message on the soul-damning errors of the Romish system.
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Also download John MacArthur’s sermons Unmasking the Pope and the Catholic System from this previous post and Exposing the Idolatry of Mary Worship from this previous post.
The doctrine of Salvation by Sacraments is a deadly delusion, the overthrow of the gospel, the destruction of souls and the path to perdition.
–John Campbell
Another health, wealth, and prosperity preacher is headed to divorce court. According to this report from Fox News, Suzanne Hinn, wife of heretic faith healer Benny Hinn . . .
Filed papers in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 1, citing irreconcilable differences.
The LA Times is also reporting that the request for divorce came “without notice.”
Benny can now join the growing list of divorced (or living depraved) big name preachers like Ted Haggard, Todd Bentley, Juanita Bynum, and Paula White.
For those of you not familiar with Suzanne Hinn, back in September 2007 DefCon featured the following video of her “preaching.”
Thanks for the heads-up Lyn
The Sun is reporting yet another big name entertainer who has gotten too big for his britches. Openly homosexual musician Elton John claims that:
“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.”
But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31
I’m sure this will upset the applecart of those who see no problem with having one foot in the church and the other foot in the world (namely its entertainment), but for anyone who plans on seeing the film Avatar, below is some food for thought from Doug Phillips. And for those who have seen it, here’s what you’ve exposed yourself (and possibly your family) to:
Twelve Things I learned From Avatar: A Worldview Review of the Top Film of 2010
There is so much that could be said about James Cameron’s riveting and technologically advanced blockbuster, Avatar, but I thought it would be helpful to very simply distill some of the most important messages I learned from this film which is now the highest grossing film in all of history, and which will likely be the most popular film of 2010. Below are the headlines from a forthcoming review of the film:
- We can experience liberty when our spirits possess alien bodies.
- Business men are evil because they rape the earth for profit.
- It is noble to be a savage.
- The earth is our mother.
- God is female.
- Animals are our brothers.
- In noble cultures women are the spiritual leaders.
- Nudity is freedom.
- Heroes have foul mouths.
- Shamanism and demonic possession is a means for healing.
- Enlightened cultures are spiritually unified with animals and plants.
- Men are born-again as they commune with the earth.
Bonus Lessons From Hollywood:
- Pantheism is the religion of the Hollywood elite.
- Darwinism, with its emphasis on evolution as the defining process for understanding the universe, is at the heart of Hollywood pantheism.
- A primary mission of Hollywood pantheism is to destroy the Dominion Mandate, the doctrine of Creation and the Creator/creature distinctive detailed in the Bible.
- Science fiction is the primary genre used as an evangelism tool for Hollywood’s religion of pantheism.
- Films are more important than schools, pulpits or politics, for training disciples of this new Hollywood religion.
Bonus Lessons About Christians and Hollywood:
- Most professing Christians will check their spiritual discernment at the door of a movie theater for a cheap thrill.
- Most professing Christians love fantasy more than reality.
- Fantasy books, films and television shows have trained professing Christians to be polytheists—individuals who believe that you can worship many gods at the same time—in this case, the gods of pantheism and the gods of Christianity.
- Most professing Christians have greater delight in a pantheistic Hollywood film about non-reality, than in reading the Bible or hearing a sermon about truth.
Hollywood understands that the demographic of film consumption by non-Christians and Christians is essentially the same—both look to Hollywood for a fatty diet of entertainment to help them escape from reality. – Doug Phillips on February 15, 2010
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the pied pipers of the mile-wide, inch-deep church in America drop one rung lower on the ladder as they continue to lead the masses of goats down the broad path of destruction.
I thought the pragmatism of Laodicean evangelism techniques couldn’t shock me anymore but this article from the New York Times has left me speechless. Here are a few quotes form the article:
Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events. The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”
The sport is seen as a legitimate outreach tool by the youth ministry affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches.
Nondenominational evangelical churches have a long history of using popular culture — rock music, skateboarding and even yoga — to reach new followers. Yet even among more experimental sects, mixed martial arts has critics.
I can’t even begin to imagine what will come next in the name of “evangelism.”
For more, checkout this post too.
It appears that the Catholic church is continuing to resort to marketing schemes to draw people back to the oppressive, dead religion of Rome.
It was only a few weeks ago that I posted a video highlighting this new trend and–if you thought it was only an isolated incident–I submit for your consideration another example of this Roman Catholic pragmatic approach to church growth found over at A Little Leaven where Chris Rosebrough aptly introduces the video by saying
If you know your Bible this video will give you several more reasons to not return to Rome.
Personally, I think for their number one reason they should have cited Proverbs 26:11
Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
Chris Rosebrough is tackling an unbelievable issue that has crept into the church: The continued march backward into Romanism by supposed Evangelicals (some of which are the golden calves of Americanized Christianity) through the use of monastic meditation practices. He addresses this in his post Purpose-Driven Roman Catholic Monastic Mysticism (which is where I obtained the quotes below).
Roman Catholic Monastic Mysticism is becoming all the rage among innovative post-modern purpose-driven pastors. Practices developed by Roman Catholic Monks such as the Lectio Divina, The Practice of the Presence of God and the Prayer Examen which was created by on [sic] of the arch enemies of the Protestant Reformation, Ignatius Loyola are openly being promoted by an alarming number of seeker-driven / Purpose-Driven pastors. These so-called ’spiritual disciplines’ are being featured at Willow Creek, Saddleback, and Mars Hill to name just a few.
Rosebrough examines an absolutely astonishing sermon from seeker-sensitive pastor Scott Hodge who teaches his whole congregation that practicing the mystical Lecito Divina (like eating at a five-star restaurant) is somehow better than reading the Scriptures for yourself without the magical formula (like eating McDonalds). This is unbelievable when you consider Hodge is considered an evangelical protestant. What in the world did Luther break from Romanism for if this guy is directing his people to place the yoke back upon their necks and return to the bondage of Rome’s dead religion?
Let me be clear here, Pastor Scot Hodge is not promoting meditative practices similar to Lecito Divina, he’s promoting Lecito Divina itself. He spends the overwhelming majority of his sermon singing its praises and he even walks his whole congregation through a Lecito Divina session that will make your hair stand on end (for those familiar with Eastern mysticism and New Age practices).
To hear this unbelievable “sermon” and Rosebrough’s commentary with it, you can download it by right clicking here. It starts at 1:08:08 into the podcast.
While listening to this sermon, keep in mind that this Roman Catholic mystical practice was developed by men who did not believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone by Christ’s work alone. These monks were trying to earn their salvation through their monkery. These practices are not taught in the scriptures. Neither Jesus, his disciples, the prophets nor the patriarchs practiced Lectio Divina. This Roman Catholic practice is pure monastic mythology and spiritual fantasy and rather than helping you experience God, it is more likely that you will experience self deception or demonic spirits.
For those unfamiliar with Scott Hodge, DefCon dealt with him back in 2007 when his video mocking the sacred ordinance of baptism was making its rounds on the internet. You can check out our previous post on Scott Hodge in the post Narcissism Gone Wild.
The fact that seeker-driven and Purpose-Driven pastors are adopting Roman Catholic Monastic practices in droves proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that chasing after relevance has caused them to abandon Biblical truth and they are now being blown about by every wind of false doctrine. (Eph. 4:7-19) Sadly, this is what happens when you try to marry the church to the ’spirit of the age’.
So what do you do when you’re preaching to a church full of people and you want to persuade them to believe that a sin (that’s clearly defined in Scripture) isn’t really a sin?
Well, if you’re Jay Bakker, you first go for the shock of it all then follow it up with making the congregation feel stupid. If that doesn’t work, make them feel guilty. And if that still doesn’t work turn on the tears to manipulate their emotions.
And what do you do if none of this works? If you’re the Sundance Channel you make a short video of the incident, insert some sentimental music at just right spot, and make it available to upload to YouTube.
Recently my grandfather was in the hospital for a week (it was looking pretty serious). On one of my visits to the hospital with my grandmother present, a nice white-haired man in a dress shirt and a tie entered the room. He introduced himself as a Eucharist Minister (I saw where this was going).
He was “doing his rounds” throughout the hospital visiting those who listed themselves as Roman Catholics on their intake papers and wanted to know if my grandfather wished to take (the heretically distorted version of Rome’s) holy communion. Of course both my grandparents were anxious to do so and stopped their profanities, taking of God’s name in vain, and all their other pet sins long enough to be good Catholics for a moment in the presence of such a holy man.
This man asked if we were all Roman Catholics and after my grandparents said yes, I said, “No, I’m a Christian.” Immediately realizing that his response was inevitably going to be “we’re all Christians,” I cut him off before he had a chance to tell that lie and I added, “Protestant,” for clarification.
My grandfather jokingly replied, “We won’t hold that against you.” And of course this stranger representing Rome agreed, confirming they don’t hold anything against anyone. (How kind of him.)
Because challenging this man in front of my grandparents would do more harm than good, I bit my tongue. He then wasted no time as he leapt into ecumenical action requesting that since we were all Christians “let us pray to God together.”
I stood and watched as this man who knows nothing about my grandparents, their lives, their sins, their struggles, or even their current relationship with God, blasphemously stood in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ as their mediator and prayed for them to be forgiven of their sins.
And what sin of my grandparents did this stranger clairvoyantly hone in on as their biggest sin, requiring special emphasis and forgiveness from? Why, none other than their needing to be forgiven of their sin of not realizing how close God is to them and that God is near to them at all times.
After this feel-good prayer of pseudo-repentance while avoiding the real issues of their sin nature in all its abhorrent wretchedness and hostility toward God, we were now ready for communion! (If only the hospital was this quick with their formalities before moving on to administer care and medicine.)
The man then reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out a round object. It was very similar to an Altoid tin. This man then opened the lid to reveal a bunch of white squares resembling Chiclets gum. He removed one of the squares, and holding it between his two fingers, held it in front of him so that my grandparents could see it. He then presumptuously announced, “This is the Lamb of God.” I could endure no more and removed myself from the room with an exhale that I’m certain he heard.
This false teacher peddling his false assurance had the audacity to call a little piece of food the very Lamb of God; what utter blasphemy. Yet my grandparents clung to every word of this fork-tongued tool of Satan, and now had clean consciences to continue about their normal lifestyles of rampant and impenitent sin.
Sadly, late at night while I sat alone by my grandfather’s bedside trying desperately to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ to him (Law first), he remained completely averse to it. After all, the nice priestly mediator already prayed for him and he took communion, so what need does he have of a propitiation for his sins?
Not even his brush with death that put him in the hospital could rouse him from his spiritual slumber. My grandfather opined that God understands that he’s just a human, and with a nice condescending pat on my arm he assured me that all will be well . . . all will be well.
“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.” – Jeremiah 16:14
Recently Joel Osteen “blessed” Annise Parker, the new mayor of Houston, Texas who is openly homosexual. (See articles here, here, and here.)
“… We ask that everything we do would bring honor to you … and we just lift up especially Mayor Annise Parker. … Lord, we thank you just for raising her up and just for your goodness, your mercy in her life, and just for supernatural wisdom, Father. We honor her today and our other officials, and Lord, we count it a joy and honor to be here in your presence with all of our friends and we just thank you for this day. In Jesus name, amen.”
This is as mind boggling as the wolf who “blessed” an abortion mill, calling it “sacred ground.”
Ingrid Schlueter hits the nail on the head regarding Joel Osteen with this excerpt from her commentary:
We bring honor to God by asking Him to bless a woman who is living in conduct that He calls an “abomination”? Does Joel Osteen even possess a Bible?
A sad trend as of late is that many supposed professing Christians are unifying with and even returning to Rome (like a dog to its vomit) and taking many of the undiscerning with them.
But what I find ironic is that while an exodus out of Biblical Christianity and into Roman Catholicism is taking place (i.e. A great falling away), simultaneously the church of Rome appears to be borrowing from evangelicalism the very pragmatic methodologies that’s killing evangelicalism.
After watching the following video it seems that Rome is trying to model the same seeker-sensitive, feely-touchy, charismatic, man-made methodology that has left so many evangelicals disenfranchised with Christianity and is the impetus behind why so many are running into the arms of the Romish organization.
Here’s the Roman Catholic Life Teen promo video chalk full of images explicitly Romish along with images indistinguishable from modern Churchianity, devotion to a dead woman, and typical Romish heresy.
Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) offers a sobering warning from the grave:
If the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot . . . If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and less work, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result—complete and abject failure. Why did the Goths and Vandals and other barbarians conquer the ancient Roman Empire? Was it by superior military power? Of course not! Historians know that there is only one answer: the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world—the games, the pleasures, the baths. The moral rot that had entered into the heart of the Roman Empire was the cause of Rome’s “decline and fall.” It was not superior power from the outside, but internal rot that was Rome’s ruination. And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries. This slackness, this indiscipline, the whole outlook and spirit is characteristic of a period of decadence. The pleasure mania, the sports mania, the drink and drug mania have gripped the masses.
The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining. – Neil Postman
As a follow-up to Unworthy 1’s post on the International House of Prayer (found here) I’ve decided to post the following eye-opening video I just discovered. The video is a news piece from CBN and is done in a favorable light (imagine that coming from false prophet Pat Robertson’s broadcasting network).
Not only does IHOP’s Mike Binkle have ties to Bob Jones, but in the beginning of the video the commentator claims that Binkle says that Christ’s return is dependent upon man.
If I had a nickle for every time one of these Charismatic Charlatans claimed that God was powerless or helpless to do what He wants, and He must rely on us for His will to be accomplished, I’d be a rich man.
The following great piece comes from Jake Hunt at WiserTime:
You’ve seen these, right? They make me mad. Why? Because they don’t really mean what they say.
Let’s break it down. We’ll call each worldview by the letter it’s supposed to represent. So:
- C = Islam
- O = Pacifism
- E = “Gender equality” (=the LGBT agenda)
- X = Judaism
- I = Wicca / Pagan / Bah’ai
- S =Taoism / Confucianism
- T = Christianity
And let’s assume a very broad definition of “coexist”: living together without calling for the destruction of each other. Here are the problems with that:
- C wants to kill E, X, T, and (by implication) O. If they achieved the world they wanted, I and S would also no longer exist.
- O doesn’t allow for effective resistance or defeat of C.
- E stands in direct opposition to C, X, and T, and accuses those who speak against them of hate speech. Also, they’re trying to edge X and T out of public schools in favor of their own agenda. (They’re afraid C will be offended, so they get less trouble.) E is actually very, very intolerant.
- X’s existence is threatened not only by C but also by O, who invariably supports C over X.
- I and S are statistically insignificant and are mainly on there to complete the bumper sticker.
- T is who the bumper sticker is really arguing against, but poses no physical threat to any of the others.
Historically, T has brought about more tolerance– “coexistence” if you will– than any other movement. But the kind of “coexistence” the people who make this sticker envision is one where at least X and T are completely marginalized.
Sometimes you can just use a good laugh.
The following video is a great follow-up of the post Woe Unto You.
And this video is a great follow-up to The Idolatry of Celebrity Worship.
I found this short and interesting video debate between a Roman Catholic (who includes Evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons under the umbrella of “Christian”) and an Atheist on the subject of Christmas.
The Roman Catholic is a Foxnews anchor, and the Atheist is from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Yes, the same Freedom From Religion Foundation that honors the bloodthirsty racist Margaret Sanger as a great “Free Thinker.”
All in all, a very entertaining video.
After a class was instructed to sketch something that reminded them of the Christmas holiday, one student drew a crucifix. Apparently, however, according to the godless government-run public school, not only did Christ’s birth have nothing to do with His birth (like they know anything about theology anyway), but it also warranted this child’s removal from school and necessitated a psychological evaluation. Read more about this shocking story from Massachusetts.
Welcome to a brave new world.
In the news: The Duggar’s welcome child number 19 and a feminist who wants the planet to adopt China’s limited child policy (video).
Christ Alone Wyoming 
