Fairy Lights &
Singalongs

So, here we are again! Walking sardines trying to negotiate town centres crammed with urgency and an enforced jollity. Some get their fix by partying all weekend in nightclubs. And some wait until Christmas before they can let their hair down and ‘enjoy’ themselves.

As an old cynic I don’t think all those jolly folk whose jollity emerges at Christmas are jolly at all. It seems to me that their jollity is a last-ditch mental attempt to deny the banality and uselessness of a godless existence. For a while, at least, they escape the humdrum and numbing nature of their lives.

Fairy lights go up, and now UK folk are copying the more garish USA Christmas over-the-top lighting systems outside their homes. It is amusing, but of what value, really? 

With much justification, many unsaved people – and many Christians, too! – think that Christians must not and do not enjoy themselves. In some circles it is almost a sin to show enjoyment. In others, enjoyment is the goal and people get really silly. (There’s nothing more wearing than someone who is always joking; constantly playing the fool can often be used as a way of avoiding reality and depth of relationships).

Calvinists are portrayed as dour and humourless as they trudge this earth in dark suits and ties, with barely a smile, let alone a laugh. (Those who have never met me have a mental image of just such a person…they read the literature and assume I am as dour as the men in black. Oh dear, what a shock when they get to know me!).

Occasionally, I have to remind our little church to enjoy their lives. Yes, we deal with some very heady stuff in our meetings. We don’t skip hard parts and we do a thorough job of Bible study, as we apply what we learn to our every day lives. But, we still have the capacity to enjoy our lives.

Nearly every Christian with knowledge now knows that Christmas is an invention of the Roman Catholic organisation. We have pointed out before that Christ was not born in December, but in Autumn or Spring. Even our current year appears to be wrong. We have also said before that our church does not celebrate Christmas…not out of dourness, but because there is no Biblical reason to hold an annual celebration.

However, we recognise that some Christians wish to celebrate the fact of Christ’s human birth. Jesus Himself allows for this kind of personal celebration of holy days important to individuals. If whole churches have such a wish, then they are free to celebrate with a good conscience. Perhaps, though we feel no inclination presently, we, too, may also occasionally celebrate in the future, though we have not done so thus far.

We believe that fairy lights and singalong carols have no bearing on Christian beliefs and practice. On the other hand, we do not object to Christmas as a mere holiday season. For us, stripped of its veneer of invented ‘Christian’ content, Christmas can be a quiet and decent holiday, for rest and family get-togethers.

Nor do we object to houses being festooned with lights and decorations per se…after all, don’t we do similar things at weddings and birthdays? Christians must be real. We must not restrict our lives because some with dour faces prefer to be dressed in black, both clothing-wise and in their minds! 

I must admit here and now that some Christians are so intense, I prefer not to meet with them. It is as if their intensity suffocates any semblance of humanity until they have a negative effect on all around them. Such folk tend to call others stupid or sinners, but they do not recognise their own follies and sins. They verbally batter Christians who sin, or who make genuine mistakes, and bring about conformity to their version of Christianity by force. No sir, that’s not for me. I see in the Christian faith a place for laughter and happiness, and believe that these arise from a real and true joy. 

Especially as a pastor, I know that to force others to conform is a recipe for disaster and enmity. People whose souls have yet to be worked on by the Holy Spirit will inwardly fight any pastor or Christian who tries to force them to change. 

I have sometimes had to observe for years, whilst Christians fight their own consciences to maintain a belief or practice that is not quite what it ought to be. It is my task to show them what is Biblical – but never to force them to comply. Yes, in extreme cases I must use proper authority, including the rare act of shunning and casting out…but everyday force is never an option. I leave that to ‘shepherding’ charismatics, and the black suit brigade.

To force your own brethren to conform is akin to locking up your own child in a dark cupboard because he does not act as you wish him to act. The result is defiance and fear, not love and conformity based on truth and a happy compliance. A local church is a family, brothers and sisters in the Lord. They are not there to be mentally beaten by those who claim to have authority! Encourage with love and sometimes a stricter rebuke, but don’t become an ogre or a dictator!

So, if you want fairy lights and wish to sing carols (so long as they do not contradict scripture), that’s fine. If you wish to celebrate Christmas, that’s also fine. My only proviso is this – Christians who celebrate Christmas must do so honestly. I remember all those years when I was led to believe that attending a dank and cold church service on December 25th was somehow a virtue. Those who attended were proving their allegiance and those who did not were suspect! 

What utter nonsense. I enjoyed the singing but that was about all. The service was devoid of truth and aim, and few really wanted to be there. So why do it? In days of apostasy we need truth and honesty, not dourness (or enforced ‘happiness’) built upon false beliefs and false actions.

If Christmas is a time when you have to muster a ‘happiness’ which quickly fades by the New Year, then search your motives and beliefs. If anyone relies on a special day or action to be ‘happy’ then they are not happy at all. It is just a pretence. 

True happiness is the result of true, inner, joy, and one cannot invent joy – it is a combination of obedience to the Lord and knowledge of genuine doctrine. When these are observed and practised from hearts won over by the Holy Spirit, we can live in the freedom of Christ. Without it we become dour, unhappy, superficial, unrealistic, and rather sad/tense to be around.

So, friends, have a happy and good seasonal rest. Enjoy your Christmas break because of its holiday effect. If you wish, celebrate the birth of Christ – but only if your desire is authentic and prompted by God. And please – smile and enjoy life, even in the midst of prevailing circumstances. Live life to the full, as God gives you breath. Even if you are ill or unable to live as others do, you must still enjoy whatever you have. If you do not, and do not praise God for even the smallest of benefits, then you are shutting God out of your life.

God bless you all, and may you know the freedom in Christ that evades so many Believers who are bound by tradition and false beliefs.

The Greatest Show on Earth?

Forget that awful ‘glass cathedral’ owned by that over-the-top televangelist in the USA. Forget that crude ‘Bible Theme Park’. The greatest show on earth right now is the Alpha course!

As many readers know, we continually warn against this deception, as we do against one of its big-time supporters, the Evangelical Alliance. We do so not out of personal prejudice, but out of Biblical and doctrinal necessity.

Just a few days ago, a local Pentecostal pastor sent me an email calling on me to stop saying that many Pentecostalists may not be Christians. Then he boasted about having the head of the Apostolic churches to preach at his church. He pointed out that he could do so even though the Apostolics have, as part of their constitution, a belief that we may lose our salvation, etc. He is able to turn a blind eye to this error by invoking the ‘unconditional love of Christ’ (which does not exist, scripturally).

In turn, I advised that anyone who is ‘saved’ by Arminian preaching is not saved at all, because it is ‘another gospel’. And to accept a preacher who believes we may be lost after salvation, is to accept grave error, based again on Arminianism.

Which brings me back to Alpha, for Alpha is Arminian in spirit and in practise. Just read the present edition of Alpha News, or watch repeats of the Alpha documentary that was on UK ITV, and you will see for yourself that I am not just making it all up.

The whole edition is a huge presentation of ‘me, me, me’. It is a blunt example of both Arminianism and spiritism. It is not for nothing that the TV cameras were asked to leave before the weekend meeting began to use tongues and folk started to fall on the floor! Some of those who attended said they were scared by what happened and resisted people coming up to them asking if they could pray over them. One said that he suddenly realised he was on his back, though he had not sought such a response.

On both TV and in the Alpha News, the story is much the same – people attending a course and then saying they have ‘changed’. Any mention of Christ causing them to repent and be saved is not found, as humanistic Arminianism flaunts its ugly head time and again. Yes, people had changed – but this is not salvation! (See more detailed article; ‘Latest Alpha News’).

Alpha continues to grow in spectacular fashion. As we said before, Toronto was the ice-breaker for the ‘theological arm’ of Satan’s charismaticism, which includes Alpha. 

Another email asked why I had to start my 32 page Alpha critique with reference to Toronto. The gentleman thought it was a separate issue. But it is not – Alpha is a Satanic gem set in the midst of his variety of charismatic ‘waves’. It is part and parcel of the whole charismatic deception and cannot be separated from it.

Do you think Alpha would have got so far ahead if Toronto had not softened-up the people worldwide? No – it would have been dubbed Satanic! Toronto both terrorised and deceived at the same time.  Like a plague, it spread everywhere so fast and furiously, no-one was able to resist, unless they were well-grounded in true faith.

And few noticed how the Alpha course quietly began to fix its tentacles to every church affected by the phenomenon, as Toronto did its job of disorientation and division. The term ‘divide and conquer’ comes to mind.

As a psychiatric nurse in a hospital, before I realised I was wrong, I used to use a technique of disorientating my patients, for the sole purpose of making them go along a road I had devised for them, enabling them to accept whatever solution I gave them for their ‘illnesses’. Toronto did a similar job, preparing the way for a far more subtle foe.

Alpha is a huge part of Satan’s strategy and thousands are falling for it every day. Alpha, then, is not simply ‘linked’ tenuously to Toronto – it is a major part of it!

Alpha is out to conquer the churches, and I know that it will, save for a faithful few. Read the separate article and understand what is really going on! Alpha is set to become the measure of Christian belief and activity, with its own ‘police’ in every town. It is there, in black and white, in Alpha News.

So, to those who continue to see good in Alpha, I say, ‘Stop fooling about! Heed the signs of the times. Observe the teachings. Pull back before you, too, are sucked in to the bottomless pit where Alpha comes from!’

Why not just pick out the bits that are good and ignore the rest? To ask this question is to show a lack of understanding of the principles involved – would you use teachings from a pagan or witchcraft source just because it contained stuff about, say, ‘love’? Of course not.

To use ‘bits’ of heretical literature for Christian teaching is to be hooked without realising it. Start using one small piece and before long you will be using far more until you, too, are deceived. It’s just not worth it.

More Error from the EA

With typical double-talk, the Evangelical Alliance says it is okay to watch the Harry Potter film and read the books. So, there you have it from a ‘Christian’ authority!

It does not matter what their justification is (like the pastor who gave certain folk pornography ‘for a good reason’). No doubt its members, who themselves need ‘guidance’ from groups external to Christ (because they are not founded on truth), will follow its advice and introduce their kids to this ‘soft’ version of witchcraft. God help them!

For their own reasons, it seems that some like to think I hate charismatics or that I treat them with contempt. I find this most odd, as nothing indicates such an attitude in this ministry.

Yes, I hate, and have contempt for, their beliefs and actions. This is valid and required by God, for their beliefs and practises are outside of scripture and opposed to it. As such these things are anathema and to be condemned.

This does not mean, however, that I therefore hate charismatics or treat them badly. I will take all the time necessary to counsel a charismatic. Some respond well and learn what God really says. Some even repent and turn from their error. Those who were supposedly ‘saved’ under charismatic preaching sometimes admit that they are wrong and were never saved at all, so they seek God truly and are later saved according to God’s word.

Yet others listen politely and ‘prefer’ to carry on in their errors. I will then warn them of their dangers and of the way God loathes deliberate rejection of His commands and doctrine. If such sin continues and gets worse, I have no option but to stop correspondence and to leave them to their own devices, with the strongest of warnings and rebukes.

But, at no time do I treat them badly or hate them. Sadly, many take rebuke to mean hatred. This is very wrong, for the rebuke is given in love, though sometimes couched in the strongest of terms.

As for the literature produced by me on charismaticism, this remains as written and will not be altered. That is because it is all true and charismaticism is against God and His word. Charismatic preaching is ‘another gospel’, and no true Believer can accept it as authentic.

And we cannot accept such preachers as our brethren if they continue to preach without repentance. Nor can we accept their churches as genuine or as warranting the love of Christ.

The love of Christ/God is not unconditional as so many claim! Nowhere in scripture do we find unconditional love. Rather, God and Christ demand obedience before general love can be given. Once the love that brings us salvation is given to us freely, we have no option but to obey, if we wish to receive His love in our Christian lives. This is what God says in His word.

There is no way we can, or should, accept any form of sin from fellows who call themselves our brethren. For that pastor to say he can accept deviations from truth under the guise of ‘the love of Christ’ is not acceptable, for he himself sins in doing so. Scripture tells us to tell the one who is sinning, to stop and repent. We must not allow them to preach when they teach unscriptural doctrines of devils!

And if such sin is public, as preaching is, we must rebuke them publicly. See 1 Timothy 5:20 & 21…”Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge (thee) before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.”

I can assure everyone that these words are applied to myself and my family, as well as to others, and I have demanded that our church apply it to me as well, if needs be.

Charismatics are in grave danger. Please don’t allow them to just carry on, without warning them. If you love your child you will stop him from putting his body in the fire. You will even stop him from walking toward it. So, why do you allow a charismatic friend to carry on without saying anything? There is no love in that kind of neglect.

As I have said before to the question “How much sin can we allow before we rebuke?”, the answer is very simple – “None!” It is our calling to rebuke each other when we sin, and then to exhort to righteousness. We have no mandate from God to give the ‘love of Christ’ to anyone who sins, unless we firstly rebuke and warn. The rebuke can begin softly, but we must never shirk our duty to rebuke in hard words when it is necessary.

I have even been told that by rebuking we might turn someone against Christ or the Church. Friends, this is nonsense! If they do so, they do it because they are unsaved sinners…or they are so far down the road of sin, God has removed His presence. Do not blame the Christian who is doing what he must do!

Beware - More to Come, Soon

Back in the mid 1990’s I wrote, by God’s prompting, that the Toronto Blessing was just the start of new ‘waves’ of evil from Satanic sources, and that the coming phenomena would be even greater. Since that time bits and pieces have come from charismatics, suggesting that they have received ‘fresh revelations’ about coming events, far bigger than Toronto.

Our report on whole charismatic churches soon to have Jesus and angels walk physically in their midst is just one example. More lately, the news from USA charismatic leaders is that new waves are coming very soon.

God’s word to us, then, has been verified, and Christians everywhere are warned to be on their guard. As ever, we would encourage you to learn pure doctrine; do not allow sin to get worse in anyone, whether yourself or others; do not attend heretical churches or hold such folk as close friends; do not hold to denominational teaching unless it is scriptural, and be honest before God; do not accept any part of teaching from churches or preachers who are in error; reject Alpha completely. (See latest BTM ‘Alpha Update’).

One World

Two small pieces in The Universe (RC newspaper: 2nd December) caught my eye. Those who monitor and analyse RC publications will no doubt agree with me that they are becoming more and more geared to a single global religion.

The pope met with the latest version of Anglican/Catholic unity groups that has grown out of the older ARCIC group. He advised the group to cast aside doubts and to listen instead to the Holy Spirit. One of the leaders of the new group is, of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury – I hope that readers realise that this man has made himself an heretic by thus siding with error.

This call by the pope is exactly the kind of advice given by charismatics to those who reject their heresies and antics. Charismaticism and Rome will be a large part of the coming One World religion.

The other small piece is about the pope saying that because of the growing global fear and violence, we should all join together with a global charitable organisation to combat the problems caused by these elements. Yet another strand to a global religion! Keep watching, friends.

Muslim Terror is Inbred

We have given examples elsewhere of the way many Arabs are brainwashed institutionally by their mosques and governments. What else can explain the awful acts of Muslims strapping explosives to themselves and blowing up Israelis?

In our articles we say that Israel is still God’s chosen people. They are temporarily under His judgement for their rejection of the Messiah, but they will one day soon return to be His nation. So, do not be fooled by the constant claim by extreme Muslims that Israel is causing global violence. As other writers have pointed out, violence is part of everyday Muslim life in the Middle and Far East. Even before the Jews returned to Israel in the middle of the last century, Muslims were at each other’s throats and lived barbarically. Now, of course, Israel is their treasured ‘whipping boy’, a convenient peg on which to hang all their fury and inbred violence.

World leaders say that only ‘talks’ will ‘end the carnage’…but God Himself said that the descendants of Ishmael would hate everybody, and be hated, for their warlike stance. When his race finally produced the Koran, some 600 years after Christ, they continued in their bloodshed, in order to gain reluctant converts.

Do not, then, make the mistake of going against Israel. They are still God’s people though they make many serious errors. And they will soon re-inherit (in God’s eyes) the land given to them by God, when they repent and are saved.

A bin Laden Boy’s Error

One of the Taliban fighters captured when the Northern alliance subdued a prison riot in Afghanistan was thought to be an Arab. But, it was discovered that he is a USA citizen, 20 year old John Walker. He moved to Pakistan to learn about Islam, well before the New York attack, but he joined the Taliban. Young as he is, he will now face criminal charges in the USA, for treason. This carries a penalty of death. He was a very foolish young man, deceived by the junk taught him by Muslim terrorists, and seeing violent struggle as a romantic Islamic right. Now he may pay the ultimate penalty, and rightly so. Sin is sin, and crime is crime. How many young men and women think-through their many evils and silly mistakes? Let us teach our own children the folly of error, so that they may live, both spiritually and physically.

Is She Charismatic?

“I feel this is my calling, and I’m being guided. It’s really blind faith I’m working from.” Sounds just like a charismatic, eh? I don’t know if she is, but 32 year old American (who else!!) Kim Corbin made this dramatic and sincere proclamation about her world-shattering new movement…skipping!! On a mere whim or ‘calling’ she gave up a well-paid job to hop to glory! You’ve got to admire the depth of her charismatic-style superficiality, eh?

First Aids

If someone with HIV gives you first aid for, say, a bad cut, and that person has HIV, you stand the risk of contracting HIV and dying of AIDS. A surgeon with HIV can pass on his virus to you. I have noted over the years how reluctant the government is to do the right thing…is it because too many ministers are homosexual, to cause a fuss?

The number of people with HIV is growing sharply, in spite of so-called ‘education programmes’ about ‘safe sex’. We repeat – the only way to stamp out HIV is for people to only have sex within marriage…one marriage, that is.

The courts have recently overturned the rule that health authorities can stay silent about their workers who have HIV. They now say that people have a right to be told if they are at risk from HIV carriers. Frankly, I think they ought not be employed in the first place – there are enough super-bugs in hospitals already without adding HIV to the list!