To whom would you liken Me,
And make Me equal and compare Me,
That we should be alike? . . .
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me . . .
—Isaiah 46:5, 9, NASB

In his chapter “A Breakfast of Champions” (By the way, I like WHEATIES too!), The Shack’s author, Paul Young, places these words in the mouth of the Holy Spirit, Sarayu, as she addresses Mack, the allegory’s main character:

“Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’ as your ancestors termed it. What you are seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power.” (The Shack, 122)

The Shack is big on relationships. Forty-odd times the author employs the word “relationship(s).” Indeed, one of the strengths of the story, though perhaps overdrawn, exaggerated, and even at points, profaned, is the emphasis upon “relationships” between the allegorical members of the trinity and Mack.

But to understand the covert message of the book we need to look at the overt picture of God drawn by the author as we ask the question, from whence might Paul the author have derived his image of the goddess? As we proceed, we shall look at pieces of evidence to see if, in goddess religion, there exists any resemblance to “Papa-Elousia,” the first member of the polymorphous trinity in The Shack. We shall attempt to connect the dots to discover where the author’s picture of God might be “sourced.” And then, seeing how The Shack’s composite picture of deity is linked to “goddess-ism,” we will address the potential implications of such theology for those who might seek to cultivate a relationship with the feminine-divine. In developing the implication of goddess-ism’s invasion into the Christian faith, we will employ the Apostle Paul’s paradigmatic description of the fall into apostasy and idolatry in Romans 1:19-32. Generally, the Apostle describes the deconstruction of God to come in three phases.

Phase One: Imagination

Believes Many Paths Lead to God

The Faith of Barack Obama written by New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield was released in August by Thomas Nelson publishers. The book carries the endorsement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the front cover. Tutu, one of the global "Elders," calls the book "perceptive and well-written." The publisher's description of the book reads: 

"...takes readers inside the mind, heart, and soul of presidential hopeful Barack Obama--as a person of faith, as a man, as an American, and possibly as our future commander in chief."

Mansfield, says: "If a man's faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life."

According to Mansfield, Obama is "raising the banner of what he hopes will be the faith-based politics of a new generation . . . and he will carry that banner to whatever heights of power his God and the American people allow."

Recently, when Obama was interviewed by Rick Warren, Obama told Warren that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior. Yet this "banner" Obama raises is one that has an inter-spiritual foundation, representing a new kind of "Christianity," one that looks more like Brian McLaren's spirituality than traditional, biblical Christianity.

What emerges from this book is a glimpse of a man who has New Age philosophy, believing that other religions are legitimate paths to God, and all humanity is connected together (spiritually speaking - i.e., God is in all):

"Obama does clearly believe that the form of Christianity that he committed to at Trinity Church in 1985 is not the only path to God. 'I am rooted in the Christian tradition,' he has said. Nevertheless he asserts, 'I believe there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.'

"He first saw his broad embrace of faith modeled by his mother. 'In our household," he has explained, 'The Bible, [t]he Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf ... on Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to a church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.'" (p.55 of Mansfield's book, quoting from Audacity of Hope, Obama, p. 203).

After his inter-spiritually-based upbringing, Obama later spent twenty years in a church, which promotes the panenthestic (God in all), inter-spiritual approach. In a 2006 article in United Church News, Obama stated that the teachings of the UCC (United Church of Christ), of which he was a member (Trinity United Church of Christ) until recently, are "foundation stones for his political work." Just what are those "teachings" comprised of? On Trinity's website, on the Yoga page, the following statement is highlighted:

"Within each [of] us is the seed of Divinity. Each Soul is divine. I bow to the divinity in us all!"

This is classic Hinduism that teaches that divinity resides in every human being. It is also the message of the New Age movement -- man's divinity!

In Obama's own autobiography, Audacity of Hope, he calls himself a "progressive" (i.e., emerging or postmodern) and says: "We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal" (p. 216). Echoing the sentiments of Rick Warren (a close friend of Obama, says Warren), he clarifies that partnerships between "religious and secular" will have to be built, and "each side will need to accept some ground rules for collaboration" (p. 216). He adds:

"Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers." (p. 218)

Obama insists that to base national "policy" on biblical truths "would be a dangerous thing" to do (p. 220).

There is one sentence in Audacity of Hope that sums up Barack Obama's spirituality. He states:

"When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not a static (stable) text but the Living Word and that I must be continually open to new revelations." (p. 224) In other words, just as Tony Jones said in his book The New Christians, and just as other emergents consistently say, the truths in the written Word of God, the Bible, are not unchanging and cannot be looked upon as stable or immoveable. "New revelations" can bring about new "truths" . . . truth is fluid.

To be interspiritual (all paths lead to God), to be panentheistic (divinity is in all), to reject God's Word, and to embrace mysticism is to be what Alice Bailey called a rejuvenated Christian, who is one who follows "another gospel" and "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4).

"Jesus saith unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.'" (John 14:6)

I don’t believe in vampires, or the supernatural, but sometimes you get the feeling (especially when you’re in the middle of nowhere) that things ain’t that kosher.

As legend holds, the ancient plaque acted as a seal to keep something from coming out and not to bar intruders from entering.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great ordered a church be built on top of this ground, and over this plaque, in order to sanctify it. The church builders also constructed a statue of the Archangel Michael, armed with shield and spear, the statue looking down with the spear pointing towards the plaque.

The statue was destroyed by some nomad barbarians while the saint’s eyes were scratched as an act of sacrilege by the occupying forces of 1940. The plaque still remains intact but is showing signs of corrosion. The local inhabitants claim that on certain nights one hears unholy morbid voices emanating from the abandoned church. Some of the inhabitants fear that with the erosion of the plaque, forces may be unveiled by him that lives longer than longest, and His hand may be forced into the war that will end all wars; the final battle.

Of course logical positivism indicates that all of this is bunk….I mean fools only follow that which cannot be logically deduced and mathematically  proven (or eventually proven)….RIGHT?

So I don’t believe in vampires (at least not the undead ones), but just to be safe, I revoke my invitation!

PS>

What ya say to a Hippie Vampire ? Keep Ghoul man, keep Ghoul !

From a liberal site that does not represent Christianity. My goodness, whoever wins, persecution against actual Christians in this country who truly believe in the Bible and serve the real Jesus Christ will increase. I wonder if Albert Mohler and the other serious Christians have had a chance to see this yet. When they do, will they pass it off as just another liberal attack, or really ask themselves whether the anti - Christ globalists chose this woman to advance their agenda for a reason?

Now my record of predicting things is very poor, but I now believe that McCain will win. But even if the ticket loses, this woman will be back in 2012. Trust me. The right wing blogs are already talking about even if McCain wins, his retiring after one term and a mega - showdown between Palin and Clinton in 2012. Who would win? WHAT DOES IT MATTER? That is the point. Whether it is the Stalins on the left represented by the Democrats or the Hitlers on the right represented by the Republicans, THEY BOTH SERVE THE SAME MASTER. The only question, professed Christian, is which master do YOU serve?

You think Obama’s Pastor problem was bad? Palin’s is off-the-charts

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Well, we see Palin embraces the zealotry of the Evangelical fundamentalist POV, just as Bush does. I feel sorry for the real Christians who actually believe and follow Jesus’ teachings, and understand, as our founding fathers did, the necessity for separation of church and state. This is not Christianity. This is fascism.

From Huffington Post:

Palin’s Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview

By Nico Pitney and Sam Stein

Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God.

Her speech in June provides as much insight into her policy leanings as anything uncovered since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate.

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

Religion, however, was not strictly a thread in Palin’s foreign policy. It was part of her energy proposals as well. Just prior to discussing Iraq, Alaska’s governor asked the audience to pray for another matter — a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in the state. “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said.

Palin’s address, much of which was spent reflecting on the work of the church in which she grew up and was baptized, underscores the notion that her world view is deeply impacted by religion. In turn, her remarks raise important questions: mainly, what is Palin’s faith and how exactly has it influenced her policies?

A review of recorded sermons by Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, offers a provocative and, for some, eyebrow-raising sketch of Palin’s longtime spiritual home.

The church runs a number of ministries providing help to poor neighborhoods, care for children in need, and general community services. But Pastor Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war “contending for your faith;” and said that Jesus “operated from that position of war mode.”

It is impossible to determine how much Wasilla Assembly of God has shaped Palin’s thinking. She was baptized there at the age of 12 and attended the church for most of her adult life. When Palin was inaugurated as governor, the founding pastor of the church delivered the invocation. In 2002, Palin moved her family to a nondenominational church, but she continues to worship at a related Assembly of God church in Juneau.

Moreover, she “has maintained a friendship with Wasilla Assembly of God and has attended various conferences and special meetings here,” Kalnins’ office said in a statement. “As for her personal beliefs,” the statement added, “Governor Palin is well able to speak for herself on those issues.”

Clearly, however, Palin views the church as the source of an important, if sometimes politically explosive, message. “Having grown up here, and having little kids grow up here also, this is such a special, special place,” she told the congregation in June. “What comes from this church I think has great destiny.”

And if the political storm over Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright is any indication, Palin may face some political fallout over the more controversial teachings of Wasilla Assembly of God.

If the church had a political alignment, it would almost surely be conservative. In his sermons, Kalnins did not hide his affections for certain national politicians.

During the 2004 election season, he praised President Bush’s performance during a debate with Sen. John Kerry, then offered a not-so-subtle message about his personal candidate preferences. “I’m not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I’m sorry.” Kalnins added: “If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time.”

Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. “I hate criticisms towards the President,” he said, “because it’s like criticisms towards the pastor — it’s almost like, it’s not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That’s what it’ll get you.”

Much of his support for the current administration has come in the realm of foreign affairs. Kalnins has preached that the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a “world war” over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives.

What you see in a terrorist — that’s called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You’re worried about getting hurt? He’s called us to die. Listen, you know we can’t even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. … I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say “war mode.” Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he’s like the good shepherd, he’s loving all the time and he’s kind all the time. Oh yes he is — but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

As for his former congregant and current vice presidential candidate, Kalnins has asserted that Palin’s election as governor was the result of a “prophetic call” by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory. “[He made] a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know.”

Even Palin expressed surprise at that pastor’s advocacy for her candidacy. “He was praying over me,” she said in June. “He’s praying, ‘Lord make a way, Lord make a way…’ And I’m thinking, this guy’s really bold, he doesn’t even know what I’m gonna do, he doesn’t know what my plans are, and he’s praying not, ‘Oh Lord, if it be your will may she become governor,’ or whatever. No, he just prayed for it. He said, ‘Lord, make a way, and let her do this next step.’ And that’s exactly what happened. So, again, very very powerful coming from this church.”

In his sermons, Pastor Kalnins has also expressed beliefs that, while not directly political, lie outside of mainstream Christian thought.

He preaches repeatedly about the “end times” or “last days,” an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, “I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them.”

He also claims to have received direct “words of knowledge” from God, providing him information about past events in other people’s lives. During one sermon, he described being paired with a complete stranger during a golf outing. “I said, I’m a minister from Alaska and I want you to know that your wife left you — you know that your wife left you and that the Lord is gonna defend you in a very short time, and it wasn’t your fault. And the man drops his clubs, he literally was about to tee off and he dropped his clubs, and he says, ‘Who the blank are you?’ And I says, ‘well, I’m a minister.’ He says, ‘how do you know about my life? What do you know?’ And I started giving him more of the word of knowledge to his life and he was freaked out.”

Kalnins has, of course, preached on a bevy of topics ranging from humility to “overcoming bitterness.” But the more controversial remarks reported above were not out of the norm, appearing in numerous sermons spanning the four years of available recordings.

As for Palin, her views on these topics is more opaque. In the wake of the controversy over Jeremiah Wright, a debate has raged about whether political figures should be held responsible for the comments of their religious guiders. Clearly, however, Kalnins, like many national conservative religious leaders, sees Alaska’s governor as one of his own. “Gov. Sarah Palin is the real deal,” he told his church this past summer. “You know, some people put on a show…but she’s the real deal.”

Creciendo en Gracia (growing in grace) http://www.cegenglish.com/ is a new ministry led by a man named jose luis de jesus miranda who claims to be the new Jesus, the resurrected Jesus and has the mark of the beast tattooed on his body (666), followers of his ministry refer to him as daddy or Jesus and lavish him with expensive gifts and money, and he also travels with presidential type security who were black suits and ear pieces, Miranda quotes "my purpose is to close down every church so the true church can begin...you could say I'm leading the greatest reformation that has ever happened".

Mirandas followers claim that they are gods true chosen and call their children the super race (which sounds a lot like what the Nazis claimed), Miranda also says that the other churches are evil and spread war, disease and poverty, and says that he and his followers are ready to give their lives to fulfill their mission (sound like a terrorist organization to you?) to be the only church, Miranda and his posse of clowns claim that they are the government of god on earth and that they will rule the earth, control the church, the economy, society, education, politics and technology.

In February of 2007 Miranda and his goons tattooed themselves with what is known as the mark of the beast (666), according to them the number 666 Antichrist means " do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth put it on Jesus after the cross", meaning himself, he says that whoever accepts his beliefs as truth can indulge in sin, he says that the devil has been destroyed and hell does not exist (whats the devils greatest trick? making you believe he doesn't exist) and that Christ and the anti-Christ are one in the same.

"Here it does not matter if your a drug attic or even if you have killed someone we accept peoples weaknesses", we all know it is very important to accept people for who they are but to believe that someone can kill or molest a child or rape etc if they believe and accept this religious garbage as truth is ridiculous, no one has the right to take a life or invade someones personal space or harm any one in any way or take what is not theirs etc.

Miranda believes he was told by angels that Jesus was coming to him and that his spirit merged with jesus Christ creating the second coming (false prophet anyone?), since 1998 Miranda has claimed to be the reincarnation of the apostle Paul, El otoro (meaning a demigod who would lay the foundation for the lords return) and then finally in 2004 he proclaimed himself Jesus Christ and the ultimate authority on the gospel, wow so he is the reincarnation of all these people? sounds like multiple personality to me.

Recently Miranda has taken a liking to attacking the catholic church (as said on his website http://www.cegenglish.com/) particularly the pope, he claims that the pope is not a Representative of god but represents child abusers, pedophiles and rapists and claims that the pope is worse than osama bin laden himself, but I thought it was OK to accept peoples weaknesses? and who is he to claim such things when he himself says it is perfectly fine to indulge in sin which would include raping if you want or taking a child as your woman if you wanted or if you got angry enough  I suppose it is OK to kill? Miranda is nothing more than a hypocritical loony.

I am not christian, I am wiccan but I don't agree that this man and his cult are sane and he is leading others blindly into peril, the evidence is clearly shown, the time of change and evolution is here and many will try to disrupt the evolutionary process so remember stay vigilant and always trust only yourself and your guide and you will not be lead astray.

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LAKELAND, Fla. — Todd Bentley has a long night ahead of him, resurrecting the dead, healing the blind, and exploding cancerous tumors. Since April 3, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous "supernatural healing revival" in central Florida. To contain the 10,000-plus crowds flocking from around the globe, Bentley has rented baseball stadiums, arenas and airport hangars at a cost of up to $15,000 a day. Many in attendance are church pastors themselves who believe Bentley to be a prophet and don't bat an eye when he tells them he's seen King David and spoken with the Apostle Paul in heaven. "He was looking very Jewish," Bentley notes.

Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read "Joel's Army." They're evidence of Bentley's generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that's gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other "hyper-charismatic" preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.

"An end-time army has one common purpose — to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion," Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. "The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel's Army. … Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God's kingdom on earth."

Joel's Army followers, many of them teenagers and young adults who believe they're members of the final generation to come of age before the end of the world, are breaking away in droves from mainline Pentecostal churches. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they base their beliefs on an esoteric reading of the second chapter of the Old Testament Book of Joel, in which an avenging swarm of locusts attacks Israel. In their view, the locusts are a metaphor for Joel's Army.

Despite their overt militancy, there's no evidence Joel's Army followers have committed any acts of violence. But critics warn that actual bloodletting may only be a matter of time for a movement that casts itself as God's avenging army.

Those sounding the alarm about Joel's Army are not secular foes of the Christian Right, few of whom are even aware of the movement or how widespread it's become in the past decade. Instead, Joel's Army critics are mostly conservative Christians, either neo-Pentecostals who left the movement in disgust or evangelical Christians who fear that Joel's Army preachers are stealing their flocks, even sending spies to infiltrate their own congregations and sway their young people to heresy. And they say the movement is becoming frightening.

"The pitch and intensity of the military rhetoric of this branch of the global Dominionist movement has substantially increased since the beginning of 2008," writes The Discernment Research Group, a Christian watchdog group that tracks what they call heresies or cults within Christianity. "One can only wonder how long before this transforms into real warfare with actual warriors."

'Snorting Religion'
Joel's Army believers are hard-core Christian dominionists, meaning they believe that America, along with the rest of the world, should be governed by conservative Christians and a conservative Christian interpretation of biblical law. There is no room in their doctrine for democracy or pluralism.

Dominionism's original branch is Christian Reconstructionism, a grim, Calvinist call to theocracy that, as Reconstructionist writer Gary North describes, wants to "get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God."

Notorious for endorsing the public execution by stoning of homosexuals and adulterers, the Christian Reconstructionist movement is far better known in secular America than Joel's Army. That's largely because Reconstructionists have made several serious forays into mainstream politics and received a fair amount of negative publicity as a result. Joel's Army followers eschew the political system, believing the path to world domination lies in taking over churches, not election to public office.

Another key difference between the two branches of dominionism, which maintain a testy, arms-length relationship with one another, is Christian Reconstructionism's buttoned-down image and heavy emphasis on Bible study, which contrasts sharply with Joel's Army anti-intellectual distrust of biblical scholars and its unruly style.

"Some people snort cocaine, others snort religions," Joel's Army Pastor Roy said while ministering a morning program at Todd Bentley's Lakeland, Fla., revival in late May.

As this article went to press, Bentley's "Florida Outpouring" had been running for more than 100 days straight. Many attendees came in search of spontaneous physical healing and a desire to be part of a mystical community marked by dancing, shouting, gyrating, speaking in tongues and other forms of ecstatic release.

Snide jabs at traditional church services are fairly common at Bentley's revivals. In fact, what takes place onstage at the Florida Outpouring looks more like a pro wrestling extravaganza than church. On stage, Bentley and his team of pastors, yell, chant, and scream "Fire!" and "Bam!" while anointing followers.

The audience members behave as if they are at a psychedelic counterculture festival. One couple jumps up and down twirling red and silver metallic flags. Dyed-haired teenagers pulled in by the revival's presence on Facebook and MySpace wander around looking dazed. Women lay facedown on the floor, convulsing and howling. Fathers wail in tongues as their confused children look on. Strangers lay hands on those who fail to produce tongues or gyrate wildly enough, pressuring them to "let it out."

Bentley is considered a prophet both by his followers and by other leaders of the Joel's Army movement, whose adherents claim to be reviving a "five-fold ministry" of prophets, apostles, elders, pastors and teachers, as outlined in the Book of Ephesians. Not every five-fold ministry is connected to the Joel's Army movement, but the movement has spurred an interest in modern-day apostles and prophets that's troubling to the Assemblies of God, the world's largest Pentecostal church, which has officially disavowed the Joel's Army movement.

In a 2001 position paper, Assemblies of God leaders wrote that they do not recognize modern-day apostles or prophets and worried that "such leaders prefer more authoritarian structures where their own word or decrees are unchallenged." They are right to worry. Joel's Army followers believe that once democratic institutions are overthrown, their hierarchy of apostles and prophets will rule over the earth, with one church per city.

Warrior Nation
According to Joel's Army doctrine, the enforcers of the five-fold ministry will be members of the final generation, for whom the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade constituted a new Passover.

"Everyone born after abortion's legalization can consider their birth a personal invitation to take part in this great army," writes John Crowder, another prominent Joel's Army pastor, who bills his 2006 book, The New Mystics: How to Become Part of the Supernatural Generation, as a literal how-to guide for joining Joel's Army.Both Bentley and Crowder are enormously popular on Elijah's List, an online watering hole for a broad spectrum of Joel's Army enlistees, from lightweight believers who merely share an affection for military rhetoric and pastors who dress in army camouflage (several Joel's Army pastors are addressed by their congregants as "commandant" or "commander") to hardliners who believe the church is called to have an active military role in end-times that have already begun. Elijah's List currently has more than 125,000 subscribers on its electronic mailing list.

Rick Joyner, a pastor whose books, The Harvest and The Call, helped popularize Joel's Army theology by selling more than a million copies each, goes the furthest on Elijah's List in pushing the hardliner approach. In 2006, he posted a sermon called "The Warrior Nation — The New Sound of the Church," in which he claimed that a last-day army is now gathering and called believers "freedom fighters."

"As the church begins to take on this resolve, they [Joel's Army churches] will start to be thought of more as military bases, and they will begin to take on the characteristics of military bases for training, equipping, and deploying effective spiritual forces," Joyner wrote. "In time, the church will actually be organized more as a military force with an army, navy, air force, etc."

In a sort of disclaimer, Joyner writes at one point that God's army "will bring love, peace and stability wherever they go." But several of his books narrate with glee what he describes as "a coming civil war within the church." In his 1997 book The Harvest he writes: "Some pastors and leaders who continue to resist this tide of unity will be removed from their place. Some will become so hardened they will become opposers and resist God to the end."

Two years later, in his book The Final Quest, Joyner described a vision (taken as prophecy in the Joel's Army world, where Joyner is considered an "apostle") of the coming Christian Civil War in which demon-possessed Christian soldiers enslave other, weaker Christians who resist them. He also describes how the hero of the novel — himself — ascends a "Holy Mountain" in order to learn new truths and to acquire new, magic weapons.

Kids on Fire
Bentley, who claims to be a supernatural healer, is no less over the top, playing his biker-punk appearance and heavy metal theatrics to the hilt. On YouTube, where clips of his most dramatic healings have been condensed into a three-minute highlight reel, Bentley describes God ordering him to kick an elderly lady in the face: "I am thinking, 'God, why is the power of God not moving?' And He said, 'It is because you haven't kicked that women in the face.' And there was, like, this older lady worshipping right in front of the platform and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and the gift of faith came on me. He said, 'Kick her in the face … with your biker boot.' I inched closer and I went like this [makes kicking motion]: Bam! And just as my boot made contact with her nose, she fell under the power of God."

The atmosphere is less charged with violence at "The Call," a 12-hour revival of up to 20,000 youths led by Joel's Army pastor Lou Engle and held every summer in a major American city (this year's event was scheduled for Washington, D.C. in August).

Attendees are called upon to fast and pray for 40 days and take up culture-war pledges to lead abstinent lives, reject pornography and fight abortion. They're further asked to perform "identificational repentance," lugging along family trees and genealogies to see where one of their ancestors may have enslaved or oppressed another so that they can make amends. (Many in the Joel's Army movement believe in generational curses that must be broken by the current generation).

As even his critics note, Engle is a sweet, humble and gentle man whose persona is difficult to reconcile with his belief in an end-time army of invincible young Christian warriors. Yet while Engle is careful to avoid deploying explicit Joel's Army rhetoric at high-profile events like The Call, when he's speaking in smaller hyper-charismatic circles to avowed Joel's Army followers, he can venture into bloodlust.

This March, at a "Passion for Jesus" conference in Kansas City sponsored by the International House of Prayer, or IHOP, a ministry for teenagers from the heavy metal, punk and goth scenes, Engle called on his audience for vengeance.

"I believe we're headed to an Elijah/Jezebel showdown on the Earth, not just in America but all over the globe, and the main warriors will be the prophets of Baal versus the prophets of God, and there will be no middle ground," said Engle. He was referring to the Baal of the Old Testament, a pagan idol whose followers were slaughtered under orders from the prophet Elijah.

"There's an Elijah generation that's going to be the forerunners for the coming of Jesus, a generation marked not by their niceness but by the intensity of their passion," Engle continued. "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Such force demands an equal response, and Jesus is going to make war on everything that hinders love, with his eyes blazing fire."

Although Joel's Army theology is mainly directed at people in their teens and early 20s via events like The Call and ministries like IHOP, sometimes the target audience is even younger. In some of the most arresting images in "Jesus Camp," a 2006 documentary about the Kids on Fire bible camp in North Dakota, grade school-aged kids dressed in army fatigues wield swords and conduct military field maneuvers. "A lot of people die for God and they're not afraid," one camper told ABC News reporters in a follow-up segment.

"We're kinda being trained to be warriors," added another, "only in a funner way."

Cain and the Intellectuals
Both Christian and secular critics assailed the makers of "Jesus Camp" for referring to the camp's extremist, militant Christianity as "evangelical." There is a name, however, that describes Kids on Fire's agenda, if you're familiar with their theology: Joel's Army. Pastor Becky Fischer, who runs the camp, said that a third of the kids at her camp were under 6 years old because they are "more in touch in the supernatural" and proclaimed them to be "soldiers for God's Army." Her camp's blend of end-times militancy and supernaturalism is perfectly emblematic of the Joel's Army movement, whose adherents believe their cause is prophesied in the Old Testament chapter titled "An Army of Locusts."

The stark, evocative passages of that chapter describe a locust swarm that lays waste to Israel (to this day, the region suffers periodic locust invasions): "Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come." As remarkable as the language is, most biblical scholars agree that it is a literal description of a locust invasion and resulting famine that occurred sometime between the 9th and 5th centuries B.C.E.

In the Book of Joel, the locust invasion is described as an omen that an Assyrian army to the north may attack Israel if it fails to repent as a nation. But nowhere is the invasion described as an army of God. According to an Assemblies of God position paper: "It is a complete misinterpretation of Scripture to find in Joel's army of locusts a militant, victorious force attacking society and a non-cooperating Church to prepare the earth for Christ's millennial reign."

The story of how an ancient insect invasion came to be a rallying flag for 21st-century dominonists begins just after World War II in Canada. Out of a small town in Saskatchewan, a Pentecostal preacher named William Branham spearheaded a 1948 revival in which he claimed that his followers lived in a new biblical time of "Latter Rain."

The most sinless and ardent of his flock would be called "Manifest Sons of God." By the next year, the movement was so strong — and seemed so subversive to some — that the Assemblies of God banned it as a heretic cult. But Branham remained a controversial figure with a loyal following; many of his followers believed him to be the end-times prophet Elijah.

Michael Barkun, a leading scholar of radical religion, notes that in 1958, Branham began teaching "Serpent Seed" doctrine, the belief that Satan had sex with Eve, resulting in Cain and his descendants. "Through Cain came all the smart, educated people down to the antediluvian flood — the intellectuals, bible colleges," Branham wrote in the kind of anti-mainstream religion, anti-intellectual spirit that pervades the Joel's Army movement to this day. "They know all their creeds but know nothing about God."

The Gates of Hell
Branham was killed in a car accident in 1965, but his Manifest Sons of God movement, the direct predecessor of Joel's Army, lived on within a cluster of hyper-charismatic churches. In the 1980s, Branham's teachings took on new life at the Kansas City Fellowship (KCF), a group of popular self-styled apostles and prophets who used the Missouri church as a launching pad for national careers promoting outright Joel's Army theology.

Ernie Gruen, a local pastor who initially promoted and gave citywide credibility to KCF pastors in the early 1980s, cut his connections in 1990. Concerned about KCF's plans to push its teachings worldwide, Gruen published a 132-page insider's account, based on taped sermons and conversations and interviews with parents who had enrolled their kids in KCF's Dominion school.

According to Gruen's report, students at the school were taught that they were a "super-race" of the "elected seed" of all the best bloodlines of all generations — foreknown, predestined, and hand-selected from billions of others to be part of the "end-time Omega generation."

Though he'd once promoted these doctrines himself, Gruen became convinced that the movement was turning into an end-times cult, marked by what he summarized as "spiritual threats, fears, and warnings of death," "warning followers to beware of other Christians" and exhibiting "a 'super-race' mentality toward the training of their children."

When contacted by the Intelligence Report, Gruen's spokesman said that Gruen stands by everything he published in the report but no longer grants media interviews.

The Kansas City Fellowship remains in operation and has served as a farm team for many of the all-stars of the Joel's Army movement. Those larger-than-life figures include John Wimber, the founder of a California megachurch, The Vineyard, who, before his death in 1997, proclaimed that Joel's Army would not only conquer the earth but defeat death itself. Lou Engle founded The Call based on the Joel's Army visions that KCF "prophet" Bob Jones (not to be confused with Bob Jones III of Bob Jones University) received while at KCF. Mike Bickle, another KCF member, stayed in Kansas City to form the International House of Prayer.

IHOP members and other Joel's Army adherents are well aware of how their movement is perceived by other conservative Christians.

"Today, you can type 'Joel's Army' into a search engine and a thousand heresy hunter websites pop up, decrying the very mention of it," writes John Crowder in The New Mystics. Crowder doesn't exactly allay critic's fears. "This is truly warfare," he writes. "This battle is not a game. They [Joel's Army warriors] will not be on the defense; they will be on the offense — and the gates of hell will not be able to hold up against them."

So far, few members of the secular media have taken notice of Joel's Army, even as they report on Protestant dominionists like Pat Robertson or the more outrageous calls for the stoning of gays and lesbians emanating from Reconstructionist circles. There are exceptions, however. On the DailyKos, a well-read, politically liberal blog, a diarist has been blogging for two years about her experiences as a walkaway from a Joel's Army church. She writes under a pseudonym out of fear of physical reprisals.

She may have real cause for concern. As Wimber, the late founder of The Vineyard, put it in one of his most famous and fiery sermons, one that is still frequently cited by Joel's Army followers: "Those in this army will have His kind of power. … Anyone who wants to harm them must die."

However, being over here to witness the whole Election/Race for Presidency business has been interesting to say the least. Nowadays I find myself all fired up, yelling at the television/laptop, following up on the news & following up on the politics from the Blogsphere.

To cut a long story short. I ended up at the-f-word.org last night, where I discovered I am indeed not the feminist I long thought I was. To put it simply, I witnessed these so called feminists carve up another woman simply because they do not share her beliefs.

While Palin has fallopian tubes, the staunch pro-life, anti-gay governor — like her running mate — is no friend to feminism.

I mean, what an insult! But isn't it typical.

Even better though, was the article our dear Rachel Richardson, the so called "award-winning journalist" linked to back up exactly how "anti gay" Sarah Palin is.

Since we're at that bridge - I didn't know they were giving away awards for copy & paste jobs but hey ho - figures she's a Joe Biden fan - Plagiarism much?!.

But a) Said article was on Gay.com & b) an article where she had actually vetoed a “Anti-gay” bill.

Can we have a collective "Dip Shit" now?!

After lowering my right brow, & following her "Open Post - Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts below." I wrote her a comment which surprise, surprise hasn't been published, argued, nothing - she hasn't even removed the.... Christ, I don't even think there's a word for it, erroneous? Ambiguous? Completely & utterly laughable link??

And another one for shits & giggles since there were comments being published left & right (or should I say all from the left) after me.

So to avoid repetition, Bear didn't need much encouraging to write a post on the matter, so really all I'm doing here is pointing you in his direction. Oh yes, he strikes again!

http://casualnonsense.wordpress.com

News travels fast: My comment has swiftly been published, along with a "Holiday weekend" excuse - like I don't have my own life too. Not to mention the links removed with no retort. Luckily I've linked all I need to here so nobody misses out!

Now I get why the most unrestrained media  call Obama a "Lightworker." Lucifer literally means "light-bringing."

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God's Purposes:

What does the Bible reveal about God's ultimate purpose in his dealings with mankind? What is the theme that runs from Genesis through Revelation and that transcends both testaments?

Some may say it is Jesus Christ. That is true - the whole of Scripture reveals Him. He appears on every page and Jesus Himself said that the Scriptures speak of Him. (John 5:39). But what is God trying to achieve through Jesus? What is that ultimate purpose?

Many say that God's ultimate purpose is to save man and that the Bible is the account of God's great plan of salvation. Some even refer to it all as "redemptive history" - the account of God working out His plan of salvation for man. This view is very popular, but is it true?

Personally, I have a problem with that idea. Yes, we read about God's attempts to save man, in spite of himself, from the very first pages. But what has His dealings with Israel to do with that purpose? If His purpose is to save man, then why did He not go straight to the nations, rather than spend two thousand years dealing with Israel first? And what did the two thousand years between Adam and Abraham have to do with that purpose?

The problem is that if God's ultimate and highest purpose is to save man, then God is man-centered and not God-centered. This makes man an idol to God and that surely cannot be. Yes, we like to think that it all revolves around us, and that everything that God does is about us, our salvation and our ultimate happiness. But that kind of thinking takes us straight back to the garden where Satan tempted Eve to think about things from her perspective, rather than God's.

Others will say that the church - the bride of Christ - is God's highest purpose. For them everything revolves around the church, and the church is the ultimate end of all of God's dealings with mankind. But that is also not true since it once-again makes us, the members of the church, the focal point, and makes Old Testament saints inferior since they are not part of the church.

Unfortunately, modern Christianity has become so man-centered so that the Lord and His purposes hardly figure in any of our thinking. It has all become about us and what God can and does for us. We have forgotten that the highest of all beings is God Himself. He is greater than you and me and He is greater than the church. God himself said that we should not have any other gods before or next to Him (Exodus 20:3). To many, their salvation, the church or themselves have become things they worship and that has become the end of all things.

But God is the end and center of all things. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).

Look at the end of that verse again. "...of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." He is the source of everything, everything has to be done through Him and, most importantly, all things are to Him. This means He is the purpose and end goal of all things. Jesus said "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (Revelation 21:6). Everything begins and ends with Him, not with me, you, the church or our salvation.

Colossians 1:16-18 says: "All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in 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 may have the preeminence." There is the key - all things are so that He might have the preeminence - that He might be the first, the only, and the most important of all. 1Corinthians 8:6 says: "there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him." Did you get that? We are for Him and His purpose, not the other way around.

So God's highest purpose is Himself. This does not make God selfish or prideful. He is the Supreme Being and He is the First, the All-in-all. Thus He is entitled to the preeminence. What makes man's self-centeredness wrong is the fact that man is not entitled to being the center of the universe - that is God's place, and when we place ourselves there we usurp God's position.

To be more specific, the ultimate goal of all things is to bring glory to God. The angels exist to give Him glory and even the earth was not created as a wonderful place for man, but rather to give glory to God: "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). Man was created to glorify God, but rather "although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God... and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man..." (Romans 1:21,23).

In the Millennium we will see Jesus restored to His rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords as He becomes the focus and Sovereign of the whole world. "And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 14:16).

Even Heaven, the New Jerusalem, is not about us as many think. Heaven is about the Lord and about the worship of the Almighty. The glories of the New Jerusalem are not primarily for our enjoyment, but are a perfect setting to reveal the Glory of the Great King, just as a ring is crafted to display the glory of the stone it houses.

When the angels announced the arrival of the man Jesus, they did not begin their announcement with the words "mankind is so fortunate;" no, they began by saying "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14). Jesus, in giving a model for prayer opens with bringing glory to the name of God and closes with "Yours is... the glory for ever" (Matthew 6:9-13). Almost every book in the New Testament contains the words "to whom be glory forever and ever," yet we never pay it much attention to those words.

Creation, man, our salvation and the church are not the end goal. These things are all simply there to bring Glory to the One who is the source and end of all things. God's goal should be our goal as well. Everything we do and say should have one purpose - to glorify Him. If we do things for any other purpose we have lost the point of it all.

Does every aspect of your life glorify God?

The Truth:

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen" (1Timothy 1:17).

by Anton Bosch

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The problem I have with him; other than the fact that he stands for abortion, a false gospel, and he lies constantly, is that he acts like the anti-Christ. Now do I think Barack Obama is "the anti-Christ," I don't know. Probably not, but he definatly is operating in the spirit of the anti-Christ.

If you want to know how a guy will persuade almost the whole world then look at Obama. The guy has absolutely NO experience in government (I don't count the first 2 years of getting his feet wet.) He has NO plans about how to accomplish the things he wants to accomplish. Whenever he is questioned about an issue he always finds a slick answer that makes you feel like he answered but didn't actually give any facts or conclusions. Yet people swoon over him.

The guy is a sweet talker with no experience, and no plan for our nation. He is filled with the concept of change but empty on how to do it. But that's the interesting part. We have been so conditioned that we don't care about the product as long as the image is pleasing. That my friends is anti-Christ. Jesus came to deal with the heart issues of man and not what things look like from the outside.

So how will the anti-Christ rise? Just like Barack Obama. He will rise with a plan that ultimatly won't work but seem great. He will decieve many people (even the elect) with slick talk and empty promises. He will proudly speak about religion and the necessity for it, but deny the need for a true relationship, heart connect with Jesus Christ. He will be propelled by some kind of "celebrity" status that seems almost intoxicating.

All of these things look familiar to me. I'm watching them happen right before my eyes. Is Barack Obama the anti-Christ? I'll say I'm about 10% sure he isn't, but I'm 100% sure that spirit is at work.

SEC OKs plan that could lead to global accounting rules

Please note that he claims to be the Messiah, and look at the Sun Symbolism.  Chrsitian will worship the Antichrst, at least some will.  It is sad to see the level of ignorance.