Eternal allegiance to Christ Jesus, the Mighty Victor over sin and death

There are several questions I would like to ask when I get to heaven someday. One of them is: How many of the Jews who stoned Stephen to death eventually repented of their evil ways and received Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and how many of them later became victims of Christ-haters and were martyred and killed themselves? As a reminder that nothing has changed since the beginning of time, I would like to quote to you some verses from Genesis 4 and Acts 7.

Genesis 4:3-10

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

Acts 7: 51-60

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Please, if you will, take note of the passages I have emphasized and bolded when you read the following excerpts from a report by Robert McCurry in The Wake-Up Herald of 10 August 2009. While reading this shocking news we need to ask ourselves whether we as the Bride of Christ are really and truly obeying our Lord who commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for them (Matthew 5:44). I earnestly ask you to keep in mind when you read this that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6;12). Also keep in mind that Satan and his demons have already been conquered by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary and that he is merely doing what he has been doing since the beginning (John 8:44). Therefore the children of God can rejoice in the knowledge that we ought to have no fear of those who can kill the body and not the soul but rather that we should fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28). We should fear God and no man.

Will Christianity become a crime in America?

by Robert McCurry

Are you willing to go to prison for your Christian faith? This would be a bizarre question to ask of any average American who considers themselves to be a Christian, but not so for those living somewhere other than the United States. In a world that cries for tolerance and equality, Christianity is becoming the new minority worldwide. And while we sit comfortably in our easy chair nestled in the safety of a perceived freedom, it is folly to be so naive to think that Christianity can not become a crime in America.

All over the world, Christians are finding themselves face to face with the choice of either their lives or their faith. A 33-year-old mother was executed in North Korea for distributing Bibles. Her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her June 16 execution. In Dong Hoi, the capital city of Quang Binh province in Vietnam, nearly 150 worshipers were in their regular church service when police and security officials attacked them with teargas, batons, sticks, and stun guns. What about the recent public displaying of the Bible in a British art gallery? On lookers took the opportunity to deface the Bible by scrawling foul, obscene, and explicative narration across the pages. . . .

The United States?

While addressing leaders of the Middle East, President Obama made his now famous declaration that “America is no longer a Christian nation” while trying to assure the world that America would be tolerant of all faiths. However, he seems to be correct as more and more Americans are saying that they hold no religious affiliation. . . .

Is America becoming intolerant of its Christian heritage? Already legislation has been passed expanding current Hate-Crime Law. Proponents of the bill argue that its expansion is for the inclusion of sexual preference, but opponents see an opportunity for it to be used to silence Christian faith at its very heart, the pulpit.

Meanwhile schools, airports, courts rooms, and any other building accessible to the public are finding that Christian insignias are being removed and banned. With every court battle and every threatened lawsuit, the secular left moves forward driving Christianity out of the public eye. Christianity has become the target and whipping post of most media venues. One important question remains for every American. If Christianity becomes a crime in the United States, what will my response be?

What should our response be?

Should the Bride of Christ be alarmed, dismayed, and bewildered by the worldwide escalation of persecution, killings and martyrdoms many Christians are experiencing? What does the Bible teach us:

1 Peter 4:12-14

12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Philippians 1:27-29

27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Robert McCurry continues his report as follows:

A Headline in the August 3, 3009, World Net Daily:

Muslims torch Christians for alleged ‘blasphemy’ of Quran. More than 100 houses ablaze as women, children face slaughter by mob.

On Saturday, a frenzied mob of three thousand Muslims stormed the tiny Pakistani Christian village of Gojra. Enflamed by (unconfirmed) charges that a Christian had burned pages of the Qur’an, the mob burned down fifty homes, burned eight Christians alive, and wounded twenty others. The death toll included women, children and other burnt victims who were unable to reach hospitals for proper medical care. Thousands of Christians fled the area.

Last Thursday, enraged by the same report of blasphemy, another Muslim mob torched seventy-five Christian homes, along with two churches, in Koriyan, a village near Gojra.

Daily Sun – Thursday, August 6, 2009 –

Three pastors beheaded for refusing to accept Islam.

One of the victims of last week’s attack by the Yusufiya sect in Borno State has given a shocking account of how the Islamic extremists killed three pastors who were captured along with other victims on the second day of the insurgence. The victim was among those held hostage in Yusuf’s enclave.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun in Maiduguri, the eye witness who preferred anonymity disclosed that the three pastors were beheaded on the instruction of the sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf shortly after bringing them out of his inner chamber.

“The pastors alongside one Ibo man were asked to change their faith to Islam like they did to other people taken as hostages. I think there was an argument by one of the pastors which gave the others some level of confidence to also resist accepting Islam.”

Corroborating the account of the killing, a Senior pastor with Good News Church, Wulari Maiduguri Rev. Baba Gata Ibrahim told Daily Sun in an interview that a pastor in his church, Pastor George Orjih was beheaded on the instruction of the Boko Haram leader because the clergy man refused to accept Islam.

“An eye witness who was also captured by the Islamic militants gave us details of how the pastor was killed. He told us they were persuading him to accept Islam and he said over his dead body. He was even said to have preached Christ to Mohammed Yusuf and that reportedly angered the sect leader who then as he ordered that the pastor and others be killed immediately,” he disclosed.

Muslims are not persecuting Christians only in Pakistan. On July 18, Muslims in Alexandria, Egypt kidnapped a sixteen-year-old Christian girl, Amira Markos, while she was on her way to work. Shortly thereafter her mother received a phone call: “At 10 o’clock of the same morning someone called me and asked if I was Amira’s mother. He introduced himself as Sheikh Mohammed, and said that my daughter is fine and will convert to Islam. When I cried and begged him to let me have my daughter back, he said he would let me see her again after her conversion to Islam, and ended the call.”

With each instance, the practice of abuse towards Christianity has become normal, if not expected. So much so that the average person in America has become desensitized to the violence.

Like Stephen’s murderers who gnashed their teeth and stopped their ears from hearing his preaching, these Muslims also closed their ears to Pastor George Orjih’s preaching and brutally murdered him. What should our response be? Hatred? A Spirit-filled child of God cannot but feel pity and love for the murderers while they rejoice in the fact that the three beheaded pastors remained faithful to God to the very end of their lives and are now (this very moment) seeing the indescribably beautiful face of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. They, like so many others before them who had been martyred and killed for the sake of Jesus Christ and his Gospel, are going to receive the martyrs crown of victory at the Bema judgement seat of Christ, immediately after the Rapture which is closer than we think. My concern is for those Muslims who think they have done God a favour when they killed the three pastors. They desperately need Jesus Christ to save them because it is not His will that any should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of His salvation (2 Peter 3:9).

I sincerely hope and pray that the beheaded and martyred pastors as well as I will someday meet up with some of Stephen’s and the three pastors’ martyrs and murderers in heaven. Is that at all possible? Well, Saul of Tarsus who left the dirty work of stoning Stephen to the Jewish rabble and consented to his death is now in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. If God was able to save a murderer like Saul who later became Paul, He is capable of saving the worst of murderers.

To close my comment I would like to remind you that the persecution Christians are experiencing even in Western countries these days is not against the Christian per se, but against Jesus Christ Himself. Listen to His words in Acts 9:4 when He confronted Saul who was on his way to persecute the Christians in Damascus?

Acts 9:4 And he [Saul] fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

Killing Christians is not going to get rid of God because you CANNOT kill Him. Jesus ever lives after He had been killed and risen from the dead and He is eventually going to return to judge the nations and every individual who wilfully and rebelliously refuse to repent of their evil ways and receive Him as their Saviour.

Revelation 22:20

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

E-church heresies or “genuine copies of the original”

I have it on the highest authority that the sowing of doubt is one of the most dangerous forms of telling a lie. Think of it . . . the most idyllically beautiful place on the earth became the backdrop for the downfall of the whole of mankind and it all started with “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” or as the Amplified Bible renders it.”Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?” No wonder the author of Genesis described the serpent as the most subtle and crafty beast of the field and Jesus called him the father of all lies from the beginning whose lies are murderous tools, killing, maiming and destroying everyone who believes his lies. Another equally dangerous way of sowing doubt is to juxtapose the truth with the lie without demarcating the lie from the truth. In layman’s terms it is called NOOMA /015 or “YOU ARE THE GOSPEL.” I’ll explain what I mean in a minute or two. [You can watch the video clip here.]

Genuine copies of the original

As a kid, years ago, I saw a movie that fascinated me. A bunch of criminals hired (by “gentle” persuasion) an amateur painter who had an exceptional talent to reproduce the oil paintings of the old masters. The thieves would then break into art museums, swap some of the original paintings with the reproductions and make a fortune by selling the  stolen paintings on the black market. The reproduced paintings were so perfectly done that even the most educated art dealer was unable to distinguish between the fake and the original paintings. However, there was one man who had studied the original paintings all his life and was able to effortlessly detect a fake painting. Needless to say, the criminals tried to kill the man but he outwitted them again and again.

Reproductions or copies in the spiritual realm are one of Satan’s cleverest methods to steer people away from Jesus Christ and his salvation. In fact, he is a past master at reproducing a “gospel” that comes so close to the original that multitudes of people are led astray on a daily basis. Peter, whose testimony that Jesus is the Son of the living God became the rock on which Christ promised to build his church, had scarcely finished uttering these profound divinely inspired words when Satan viciously and maliciously provoked him to not have the things of God in mind but the things of men (Matthew 16:23). Multitudes of deceived preachers and teachers who believe they have the things of God at heart are being used of Satan in a similar way to promote his counterfeit “gospel.” Rob Bell, one of the more popular young preachers in the emergent church, who has been dubbed the new Billy Graham, is one of the major proponents of the emergent church’s Gospel reproductions. His presentation of these reproductions, particularly in his series of videos called NOOMA, are so convincing that the unsuspecting listener is easily hood-winked into believing that it is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is very alarming to see that the electronic church in South Africa, known as e-church and e-kerk under the  auspices of Stephan Joubert, Dries Lombaard and Dries Cronje are increasingly promoting him on their blogs and websites. In a short article written by Dries Cronje that appeared on e-church (6 June 2008) he sings the praises of Rob Bell that just about tops the praises Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to present Himself publicly and openly as the Jewish Messiah. In his discussion of Bell’s NOOMA video #15, Dries Cronje makes the following statement:

Rob Bell sketches the background for his important message by sharing the origins of words like evangelical and ecclesia from his vast knowledge of the first century world. He touches issues at the heart of what it means to be a Christian and part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Then he reaches a stunning conclusion. I don’t want to spoil the NOOMA for you, but he makes the bold claim that… You are the good news. You are the gospel.

Only someone who does not know the original and genuine Gospel is capable of saying something so utterly anti-God and anti-biblical. He may as well have said “You are God” because the Gospel (the Word of God) was made flesh and dwelt among us as Immanuel (God with us). Where did this anti-God and anti-biblical reproduction of the Gospel stem from? It has its roots in the infamous incarnational spirituality that espouses the belief that Christ ought to be incarnated into the world cultures by means of community service and the doing of humanitarian deeds. It was probably Eugene Peterson, the author of a transliteration of the Bible called The Message, that introduced the idea of an incarnational spirituality to an unsuspecting church. His transliteration of 1 Thessalonians 1:7-10 reads as follows:

^7-10Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.

Jim Montgomery from DAWN Ministries, claims that the LORD spoke to him these words.

‘See to it that I, the Lord, truly become incarnate… in every small group of people on earth.”

In an interview with Relevant Magazine Leonard Sweet responded as follows to one of their questions:-

Relevant Magazine: You’ve said a bit in the past about the church needing to use the medium of pop culture as a vehicle for the Gospel. Why is that?

Leonard Sweet: Because it’s the Roman road; it’s the road people are traveling on; it’s the dominant global culture. For the church not to speak to pop culture, not to use images that come from it and sounds that come from it, smells that come from it, well … that’s not being very incarnational … In order to incarnate Christ into the culture that is there, then we have to look to redeem pop culture.

I remember some time ago a dear sister of mine in the Lord, who makes much ado about nothing (Peterson’s The Message), told me that we should stop preaching the Gospel and start living it. Well! that sounds just grand, but is it the Gospel truth? Even Jesus, the only Person who ever lived a perfect sinless life and did more good deeds of love and compassion than anyone else in the entire family of the human race, once said: “ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (Johan 15:3). The preaching of the Gospel, the spoken word of God, is sharper than a two-edged sword that divides asunder soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and not you or your wonderful life of community service to put a broken world back together again. Saving faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel of God (Romans 10:17). If I were to sum up the main purpose of those who espouse an incarnational spirituality I would have to say their main aim is to downplay and even openly denigrate the uniqueness of God’s Word. If you can get people to believe that the Bible is just another holy book with no inherent uniqueness of its own, and indeed to sow seeds of doubt as to the distinctive matchlessness of the Bible, you can mesmerize people into believing just about anything you say. This is exactly what Rob Bell sets out to do in his NOOMA video no. 15. Let us now place some of the things he says in his video under the microscopic scrutiny of the Word of God to see whether the things he says are true.

He kicks off by saying “Sometime in the First Century, around the year 30, a movement was started by a group of Jews who insisted that their Rabbi, a man named Jesus from the Galilee region in Israel had risen from the dead after being crucified by the Roman Empire. They claimed that after His resurrection they had seen Him and that they had had conversations with Him and eaten meals with Him. And then they said that He had ascended to heaven and that someday he would return.” I would like you to take special note of two things he says that are completely out of touch with the Word of God.

• A movement was started by a group of Jews. (The Christian faith is not just a movement that was started by a group of Jews. In fact, his disciples were hardly in any position to start anything due to their timidity and fear of being captured and crucified like their Lord subsequent to his crucifixion, resurrection and shortly after his ascension. When Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome went to Jesus’ grave to anoint his body, they found the great and heavy stone that sealed the sepulchre rolled away. Inside they saw a young man clothed in a long white garment who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. Did they immediately go out to start a new movement proclaiming that He had risen? Hardly! because the Bible says the women who first visited his grave were sorely afraid and did not tell anybody that He had risen, despite the angel’s bidding to tell his disciples that He was going to meet them in Galilee. Only when Jesus  personally appeared to Mary Magdalene did she take courage to tell the disciples that she had met with Him and seen Him. What were the disciples reaction when they heard the awesome news of his resurrection? Did they immediately start a new movement insisting that He had risen from the dead? Hardly! because they did not believe Mary Magdalene. Eventually, when more and more of his followers were informed that He had risen from the dead but failed to believe, He rebuked them sternly for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 16:14). It was only on the Day of Pentecost, when the promise of the Holy Ghost’s indwelling power became a reality, that the disciples and everyone who received the life quickening empowerment of God’s Spirit were able to preach the Gospel with conviction and without fear. Jesus and His Spirit inaugurated the Christian faith. They did not merely start a movement or a club or an institution. They did not even establish a Gospel, but the Gospel and the only Gospel that saves sinners from God’s eternal judgment in hell. None of these facts are even once mentioned by Rob Bell in his NOOMA video. Could it be that he is following a certain agenda and this this agenda is to rethink and re-interpret the Gospel?)

• The Roman Empire crucified Jesus Christ. (The Roman judicial system put Jesus on trial and through a series of illegal processes found him guilty and crucified him. Roman soldiers drove the nails through his hands and feet and it was a Roman soldier who pierced his side with his spear. But, it was the Jewish Sanhedrin, through the heinous betrayal of Judas (a Jew), who delivered him over to the Roman authorities. And yet Jesus declared that no man had the power to take his life unless He willingly and lovingly laid it down Himself [John 10:18]. He expressly told Pilate at his bar that he could have no power at all against him except it were given him by his Father [John 19:11]. Isaiah 53: 10 says that it pleased God to bruise his Son and Peter declared on the Day of Pentecost: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” [Acts 2:23]. The wicked hands that crucified Him were merely the instruments God used to prove his unfathomable love and to accomplish his will in saving the many who would believe. These facts are supremely important and cannot be ignored because they speak of the magnanimity of God’s love for a dying world. Nevertheless, Rob Bell fails to mention these facts even once. The question is: why does he circumvent the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the omission of these facts?)

Although it is evident that Bell has no intention of putting “the movement a group of Jews started,” as he refers to the Christian faith, on par with many other religious movements that existed during the reign of the Roman Empire, the inherent danger of his statements is that they may and actually do sow doubt in the hearts of his listeners. To prove that the Jewish movement was not regarded as that unique in the Roman Empire and that its first century citizens were not particularly impressed by these Jewish Christians’ claim that their God had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, he mentions several idolatrous practices in those days that also believed their gods had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. He proceeds to explain that the gods Mithra and Attis were believed to have risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. In his short history lesson he also mentions that the Caesars were worshipped as gods and that many of the words the early Christians used to describe their movement were derived from the Caesars vocabulary — words such as euangelion and ekklesia which the Caesars used to propagandize their military conquests and political achievements, and the places of worship they established where their subordinates declared them to be Lord. The new Jewish movement usurped these words and changed them into evangelical and church, according to Bell, and used them to describe their own places of worship where they declared Jesus Christ as their Lord. Bell’s interpretation of the meaning of these words aren’t correct. For one, the word ekklesia or ecclesia means “called out ones” and expresses the essence of the new birth which is to be called out of the corrupt world system and to be grounded in God’s Kingdom where everyone worships and obeys Jesus Christ as their Lord and King. Paul explained this spiritual principle in Colossians 1:12-14.

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Emphasis added)

The alarming thing about Rob Bell’s Nooma video is that, while he downplays the very core of Christianity by juxtaposing Christ’s death and resurrection with those of other Roman gods such as Mithras and Attis, he brings to the fore both the Roman Caesars’ and the early Christians’ efforts to make a better place of this world. Both had the same idea but the only difference is that the Roman Empire with her Caesars pledged to do it through military might, coercion and strict laws while the Christians ventured to do it through love, compassion and service. Here’s what Bell says in his video:

Now, for them [the Christians], this future restoration had nothing to do with leaving this world, it was all about the restoration, the renewing and the reclaiming of this world. And so they saw in Jesus’ resurrection the beginning of this universe-wide movement to put it all back together. Well. This, of course, brought them into direct conflict with the Roman Empire, because remember, for the Caesars, it was all about Caesar’s belief that he was making a better world through his power, through his armies and through his wealth . . . For them, this Gospel was about serving the world, especially those on the underside of the Empire. For them it was about serving, not ruling. And so they took this Empire propaganda term “gospel,” and they used it to describe this new world that Jesus and his followers were making right under the nose of the Empire, because their way, the way of Jesus, was totally opposed to the way of Rome. And so, when we read accounts of how they lived, we read that they shared their possessions, they fed the hungry and that they carried each other’s burdens. Well, it’s because the Gospel for them was a whole way of life, a whole new world, right in the midst of this one.

The Gospel according to Bell which is a very clever counterfeit of the original Gospel of Jesus Christ, revolves around the restoration of the world through acts of love, compassion and selfless sacrificial living amongst the poor, the destitute and especially those on the underside of the world. Although these humanitarian deeds should be part of every Christian’s make-up, Peter and the disciples seem to have been very careful not to place too much emphasis on it for fear that it might deter them in the preaching of the Gospel, something Bell hardly ever does according to Scripture.

Acts 6:1-4 NOW ABOUT this time, when the number of the disciples was greatly increasing, complaint was made by the Hellenists (the Greek-speaking Jews) against the [native] Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked and neglected in the daily ministration (distribution of relief). So the Twelve [apostles] convened the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not seemly or desirable or right that we should have to give up or neglect [preaching] the Word of God in order to attend to serving at tables and superintending the distribution of food. Therefore select out from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good and attested character and repute, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom, whom we may assign to look after this business and duty. But we will continue to devote ourselves steadfastly to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Negligence of the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of humanitarian deeds of love and compassion is not a service but a gross disservice to the community. In that case you may as well become a second Mother Theresa who abounded in deeds of love and compassion but sent thousands into a Christ-less eternity because she believed it was her duty, not to make the people she cared for disciples of Jesus Christ, but to make of a Hindu a better Hindu, of a Muslim a better Muslim and of a Catholic a better Catholic . . . and in doing so to make a better place of our crooked and corrupt world. Or perhaps, like Rob Bell, you may want to attend one of the Dalai Lama’s Seeds of Compassion Conferences and learn how to join hands with other religions in making a better place of our world. The incarnational spirituality doesn’t seem to care by whom or what the incarnation is done. All that matters is the restoration, the renewing and the reclaiming of this world which is nothing short of a giant resurrection rescue of this world as Rob Bell describes it. Really? Is that what Jesus taught his disciples to do — to restore this world to a new euphoric Garden of Eden where everyone may continue to live as he pleases, worship whom he pleases and to just love, love and compassionately love one another without really caring where people are going to spend eternity?

Did Jesus send his disciples out to restore all things and to renew and reclaim the world?

The word “ecclesia” as I mentioned earlier means “that which is called out,” and conveys the idea that a sent messenger heralds a stern warning to everyone to come out (separate) themselves from the world of the lost and indeed the world of Satan. In the book of Revelation this herald not only sounds a word of warning to come out of the world but also out of the Babylonian religious system (end-time church) which is going to provide a haven for every conceivable religious persuasion (Revelation 18:4). Therefore, the call of God is not to restore, renew and reclaim the world but to separate oneself from it. This of course does not mean that the present-day disciples or followers of Christ should turn a blind eye to the suffering caused by sin and the injustices in the world; it means not to compromise the Gospel of salvation for the sake of an interreligious collaboration to make a better place of our world. It is not of God. In fact, the Spirit of the Lord expressly warns that in the last days when all the religions of the world begin to work together to bring about peace through love, compassion and service, sudden destruction is going to come upon them (11 Thessalonians 5:3).

From whom or what must we reclaim the world? From Satan, the god of this world?

When Satan tried to tempt Jesus into worshipping him by offering Him all the kingdoms of the earth, He did not deny the devil’s claim that all the kingdoms of the earth belonged to him. Indeed, he is presently the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4: 4) and will not capitulate his position until He is forced to do so by Jesus Christ when He returns to set up his Kingdom of Peace for a thousand years. Only then all things will be restored (Isaiah 65; Revelation 20).

Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The Emergent Church may be of the opinion that they are restoring, renewing and reclaiming the world and that they are instrumental in the giant resurrection rescue that is allegedly underway, but they are actually succumbing to Satan’s temptation to worship him in return for the kingdoms of the earth. This is no surprise because God’s Word clearly states that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). The most dangerous deceivers are those who claim to be Christians but have no qualms in asserting that there are truths in religions other than the Christian faith. E-church and e-kerk, engineered by Stephan Joubert, Dries Lombaard, Dries Cronjé and others, have openly supported Rob Bell’s claim that there is truth in other religions such as Buddhism. Some of you may query my allegation that they are succumbing to the wiles of the devil and actually bowing to his whims to grant them the kingdoms of the earth if they but worshipped him. Paul clearly states in 1 Corinthians 10:20 “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” The worst form of fellowshipping with idolaters who sacrifice to devils is when you unashamedly allot truth to those religions while Jesus Himself said: “I AM the Truth.” He is the complete embodiment of truth and anything or anyone from whatever religious persuasion that rejects His claim as being the only truth are not in fellowship with the Triune God and neither are those “Christians” who avow that there is truth in other religions.

Are you the Gospel?

No you are NOT the Gospel. If you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you are a child of God, then you are merely a sheep of the Good Shepherd who has sent you out amongst ravenous wolves to preach the unadulterated Gospel of God (Matthew 10:16) so that others may be saved according to Scripture (remember Colossians 11:12-14).