When “light” becomes darkness

Please read Stephan Joubert’s comment “Who wins when light and darkness cross swords?” on his blog before reading my rebuttal to his comment. I am very concerned about Stephan Joubert. I really am. As you may know I have written several commentaries exposing the man’s heresies and pleading with him to break his ties with false teachers like Ron Martoia, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet. In one of my recent comments “The Moreleta Park DRC re-imagined” I emphasized the fact that you can only accompany someone on his spiritual journey when you are in full agreement with him on matters of vital importance (Amos 3:3). I have also shown how their path is fraught with error, deceit and gross misrepresentations of God and his Son. And yet Stephan Joubert continues to walk on this path with the three Emergent Church stooges. At least the original three stooges, Moe Howard, his brother, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine had the knack to make you laugh. The three Emergent Church stooges can only make you cry — indeed, weep over their souls. On May 18th Stephan wrote in his prayer (he always includes a short prayer at the end of his commentary):

I pray Lord, sometimes it feels as if I’m alone When I look around me, it looks as if a cloud of disbelief is washing over this world Teach me not to stare myself blind against everything that’s wrong Open my eyes to see your light Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ

What a fine an agreeable little prayer! I can really and truly add an amen to it, especially the very last sentence “Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ.” It reminds me of John the apostle of love who once wrote “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). Think of it, John was not overjoyed because his spiritual children walked in health, wealth and prosperity or in the re-imagined or repainted post modern paradoxical truths of the three stooges, but in the Truth of Jesus Christ. I can understand why John pinpointed Jesus’ TRUTH as the ultimate joy-maker and not these other Benny Hinnish Word of Faith and Emergent Church heresies, because the TRUTH of Jesus Christ is the only TRUTH that sets you free — free from error, deceit, deception, false Christs, false apostles and false teachers. Stehan’s prayer, “Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ” automatically entails the proposition to walk in the light of Christ. The two are inseparable. You cannot walk in His truth without walking in His light and you cannot claim to walk in his light when you do not speak the truth in accordance with God’s Word.

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Emphasis added).

The question remains: Does Stephan Joubert together with his three Emergent buddies, Ron Martoia, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet speak according to God’s Word? Let’s begin with Leonard Sweet and listen carefully to what he says about “light,” one of the main features of Stephan Joubert’s blog commentary.

A surprisingly central feature of all the world’s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s “inner light,” Krishna’s Lord of Light, Böhme’s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini’s fire erupting from their fontanels, and so on. (1)

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Leonard Sweet is not referring to Jesus Christ as the Light of the world but a light that emanates from the angel of light, Satan himself (2 Corinthians 11:13 and 14). Don’t get me wrong Stephan, I’m definitely not scared of people who do not believe the way I do but I’m concerned about the multitudes who are being led astray by the likes of Leonard Sweet and his false light, and what’s more you are doing nothing to warn people against him. (Please note: I am not associating Moses’ burning bush and Paul’s blinding light with Satan. In both these instances it was Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate epiphany who personally appeared to Moses and Paul. However it is exceedingly blasphemous to associate his two appearances with Moses and Paul with Muhammad’s light-filled cave, the Quakers’ [George Fox’s] inner light, Krishna’s Lord of light and the Bodhisattvas’ Kundalini light or fire erupting from their fontanels.) Stephan Joubert  emphatically states that the Pharisees believed that darkness wins. Here are his words:

Jesus differs radically from this hide-and-criticize mentality. He was not scared to move around among the unclean ones. Lepers and sinners could even touch Him (Mark 1, Luke 5). That upset the overly religious ones, but Jesus was not scared that sinners or their sins were “contagious”.

Indeed, Jesus was never afraid to walk amongst sinners and allow them to touch him. As a matter of fact He had no other option but to walk amongst them because everyone He encountered was a sinner, even those who had already been redeemed (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8 and 9). His mission on earth was not to move amongst sinners because He was not scared of their sins being contagious (perish the thought) but to save lost sinners (Luke 19:10). And yet Stephan’s good friend and fellow journeyman, Ron Martoia unequivocally states:

Preaching about forgiveness from sin becomes increasingly ineffective in a postmodern world where a sense of guilt and obligation is less often operative. In contemporary American culture, one can no longer assume that people identify themselves as sinners in need of grace. People may not think of themselves as sinners going to hell, but they seek wholeness and recognize they’re not there, (Emphasis added).

Martoia is blatantly belittling the office of Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit who was sent to convict the world of SIN, of righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-10). People who refuse to believe they are lost sinners on their way to hell are resisting the Holy Spirit and forfeiting the opportunity to be saved for all eternity. In fact, as long as they refuse to identify themselves as lost sinners, they cannot be saved (Matthew 9:11 and 12). Martoia and the people who do not think of themselves as sinners going to hell, are doing exactly what the Pharisees in Jesus’ time were doing, and that was to believe that they were the righteous ones who had no need of Jesus to redeem them from their sins and lost status. Contrary to Martoia who sagaciously (sagely) asserts that people no longer identify themselves as sinners in need of grace, Jesus declared that His entire mission to the world was to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Who is the liar here —  Jesus Christ or Stephan Joubert’s esteemed fellow emergent traveller? Why was Jesus made sin or rather why did His Father treat Him as a sinner? So that people may boast that they are not lost sinners because they no “longer assume that people identify themselves as sinners in need of grace?” What about his cross? Wasn’t that God’s ultimate demonstration of his divine and holy hatred of sin and his love for sinners? All the people, including Ron Martoia, who do not believe that they are sinners in need of grace, actually believe that the cross of Jesus Christ is foolishness.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1Co 1:18 KJV)

These are the men with whom Stephan Joubert and his e-church love to associate and in whose “light” he has chosen to walk. He boasts that he has reported to God as a “one-man army” who is not afraid of the abundance of disbelief in the world. Nonsense! If he’d been a “one-man army” he would never have been so keen to cuddle up to men like Ron Martoia, Leonard Sweet and Rob Bell. His eyes are fixed on them and what does the Bible say when your eyes are wrong?

The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. (Luke 11:34-35 KJV)

The eye cannot function properly without light and the body cannot function properly without the eye. I fell over a chair yesterday and hurt my left leg. Although the sun was shining outside the curtains were drawn and I could not see the chair which I and my wife usually sit on when we have our telephone conversations. Wham! The chair didn’t feel a thing but flesh and blood did. Anyway, in the spiritual realm this is equally true.  When your eye is single (receptive to the light of Jesus and his truth and the curtain of false doctrine is not drawn over your spiritual eyes) you will not stumble, fall and hurt yourself. The only difference between my fall over the chair and a fall into doctrinal error is that the latter does not only hurt you but others as well. Whenever Jesus taught his disciples in parables pure light shone on them and when they in turn took his light (teachings) and made it to shine on others they shared His light according to His will. When the eyes (like lamps) reacted properly to His light, they were able to function properly in the spiritual realm. Being receptive to Jesus’ teachings (light) would show that they were full of light (there was no darkness in them) and were benefiting from His teachings. I was shocked to read Stephan’s words:

Who wins when light and darkness meet? Well, the Pharisees believed that darkness wins. When holy and unholy was on the same terrain, they were of the opinion that the unclean walked away with the victory. That’s why religious folk had to avoid sinners. Even today many church people believe this. That’s why they make so little impact for God. They’re continually hiding in religious shelters and moaning about evil being on the increase. (Emphasis added)

The fact that evil is increasing is not a figment of one’s imagination but a biblically stated reality. Paul wrote to Timothy:

. . . evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2Ti 3:13 KJV)

The word “seducers” – γόης goēs – appears only here in the entire New Testament. It means, a “juggler, or diviner;” and then, a “deceiver, or impostor.” Here it refers to those who by seductive arts, lead persons into error, deceiving and making others believe that which is false and wrong is true and right. They are under delusion themselves. Indeed, the worst kind of delusion are the deluders themselves who sincerely believe that they are teaching others the light (truth) of Christ and not really knowing that they are in serious error (in utter darkness).

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The “apartheid-ization” of nations from God

“Apartheid” (separation) is a worldwide phenomenon. In fact, we learn from the Bible that God Himself determined the boundaries or borders of nations. The reason for their allotted boundaries is to present every nation an equal opportunity to seek Him for salvation.

Act 17:26, 27 And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes), So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.

Think of it: God separated nations so that their separation from Him (by virtue of their sin and lost status) may be eradicated. Why?  . . . . because any attempt other that God’s own way of uniting people in Christ Jesus His Son, is futile. Nimrod’s Tower of Babel is a good example of man’s puny little endeavours to unite mankind in a loving and caring brotherhood and a similar futile venture under Antichrist is closing in on the world very fast. The argument is this: “God has given to each nation its proper opportunity to learn his character. Idolatry, therefore, is folly and wickedness, since it is possible to find out the existence of the one God from his works.”

There is a growing tendency amongst post-modern South African clergy to vilify “Apartheid,” not only with an intent to expose its dark and ugly history, but to project its atrocities onto biblical Christianity and to discredit it as false by trying to prove that it too separates people. Sakkie Spangenberg of the Nuwe Hervormers (New Reformers) ventured to do just that in a debate between himself and Dr William Lane-Craig at the Musaion in Pretoria on 12 May. Some of their adherents have written several articles on this subject (here, here and here). The result is that the majority of the post modern preachers are compromising the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are even prepared to blend it with other religions in order to remove the stigma of Apartheid. How else are you going to advance the abysmal marriage between the New Science (Quantum Physics, fractal theory and chaos theory) and the new quantum spirituality which claims that God is not only separate from his creation but that He is simultaneously immanent (in everyone and everything). Warren Smith in his book “A Wonderful Deception” wrote:

The New Age/New Spirituality is already heralding quantum physics as a “scientific” basis for their contention that God is not only transcendent but also immanent—”in” everyone and everything. Physicist Fritjof Capra’s 1975 best-selling book on quantum physics—The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism–was the first to present this proposed scientific/spiritual model to a mass audience. In it, Capra explains that he gained new spiritual insights through a mystical experience he had sitting on a beach in Santa Cruz, California in 1969:

Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. . . . As I sat on that beach my former experiences [research in high-energy physics] came to life; I ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus. (1) (Emphasis added)

As a matter of interest, Cobus van Wyngaard as most of the other post modern clergy in South Africa, is an ardent admirer of Fritjof Capra. Nevertheless, let us continue.

Apartheid (separation) in the sense of looking down with disdain on peoples of other races and confining them to social positions down the ladder, separate from your own, is wrong — totally wrong.

James 2:1-10 MY BRETHREN, pay no servile regard to people [show no prejudice, no partiality]. Do not [attempt to] hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Lord] of glory [together with snobbery]! For if a person comes into your congregation whose hands are adorned with gold rings and who is wearing splendid apparel, and also a poor [man] in shabby clothes comes in, And you pay special attention to the one who wears the splendid clothes and say to him, Sit here in this preferable seat! while you tell the poor [man], Stand there! or, Sit there on the floor at my feet! Are you not discriminating among your own and becoming critics and judges with wrong motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and in their position as believers and to inherit the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? But you [in contrast] have insulted (humiliated, dishonored, and shown your contempt for) the poor. Is it not the rich who domineer over you? Is it not they who drag you into the law courts? Is it not they who slander and blaspheme that precious name by which you are distinguished and called [the name of Christ invoked in baptism]? If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well. But if you show servile regard (prejudice, favoritism) for people, you commit sin and are rebuked and convicted by the Law as violators and offenders. For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it. (Emphasis added).

God had to teach the apostle Peter a good lesson to free him from his deeply imbedded belief that a Jew should not sit down to eat with Gentiles because they are allegedly polluted (Remember the vision of the sheet Peter saw let down from heaven? – Acts 10:11-16). Although Peter eventually obeyed the leading of the Spirit and accompanied the men Cornelius sent to summon him to his home, he later fell into the very same “Apartheid-ditch” when Paul had to resist him to his face because — now listen very carefully — because he “walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel.” (Galatians 2:14). Any kind of separation other than the separation God ordained by virtue of the boundaries he set for nations, is wrong — totally wrong. It is not only anti-Gospel but hampers the preaching and the spreading of the Gospel. Calvinism per se pretty much had a lot to do with the institutionalization of Apartheid in South Africa. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or to death. (2)

Can Calvinists honestly say that this statement is biblical, especially in the light of James 2:9 quoted above? Or would they rather argue that Paul was completely wrong when he wrote: “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). He shows absolutely no partiality and anyone who is racially prejudiced is not in tune with God or his Gospel. I recently heard someone say: “You shouldn’t touch him with the longest available pole because he is beyond any hope of redemption and has no hope of ever going to heaven.” Guess who said it and why? Well, of course it was a Calvinist (one of the privileged elect) who referred to a reprobate (one of the underprivileged non-elect who was chosen to be cast into hell before the foundation of the earth).

When the reformed churches in South Africa began to plead for forgiveness for their part in the justification of Apartheid from Scripture, they did not do so from a biblical or Gospel perspective but from a Calvinist one. In fact, they could not have argued in favour of Apartheid from a biblical or Gospel perspective, simply because the Gospel has and never will tolerate it. Had they obeyed the Gospel, they would never have had any proof in defence of Apartheid. But then again, how could they have justified Apartheid from a biblical or Gospel perspective when their own “Gospel” is based on election, the very building block for Apartheid? Their approval of Apartheid was based mainly on scripture from the Old Testament which, in reference to Israel’s unique position as God’s chosen people, is replete with the phenomenon of separateness (Apartheid).

Lev 20:24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. (Emphasis added). (Please bear in mind that God’s decision to separate Israel as a holy nation unto Himself, had nothing to do with racial discrimination. He kept them apart for a single purpose in mind and that was to protect them from the dangerous idolatrous practices of the heathen nations surrounding them and especially to work out his plan of salvation through a chosen Messianic line within the confines of the nation of Israel).

In his article Dutch Calvinism and the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism Irving Hexham (3) writes:

Most books dealing with South African issues mention at some point that the Calvinist religion of the Afrikaner people have played an important role in the development of Afrikaner Nationalism. Writing on “Afrikaner Nationalism” in the Oxford History of South Africa Rene de Villiers says:

There was another factor which, from the outset, played a continuing  role in holding the Afrikaner people together and shaping their political philosophy, namely, the Calvinism preached and practiced by the Dutch Reformed Churches of which 90 percent of Afrikaners are adherent. (4)

In The Last Trek Sheila Patterson illustrates this influence by saying:

To the Boers the Old Testament was a mirror of their own lives. In it they found the deserts and fountains, the drought and plagues, the captivity and the exodus. Above all they found Chosen People guided by a stern but partial Deity through the midst of the heathen to the promised land. And it was Old Testament and the doctrines of Calvin that moulded the Boer into the Afrikaner of today . . . The doctrines which the Boers took with them on their Trek through the veld and the centuries were those of sixteenth century Calvinism. (5)

Their insistence, prior to 1994, on Old Testament passages as sufficient proof for the phenomenon of Apartheid stems from the Calvinist’s view that the Church (and in particular the elect) have replaced Israel as a nation. The next inevitable step was Apartheid because, according to their thinking, God Himself has separated the new Israel (the elect) from the non-elect. Do you see the connection? In the more extreme factions of Calvinism, i.e. the so-called “Boerevolk” (“Israel vision”) who, as they believe, are the ten lost tribes of Israel, the phenomenon of Apartheid has taken on a spiritual dimension because they actually believe that black people do not have a soul and therefore are irredeemable. This, of course, is completely anti-biblical and utter nonsense.

Before you castigate me, I must once again explain that God’s separation of his chosen people from all the other nations was not because he favoured them above the others. He had to choose someone through whom He could bring his Messiah into the world as a man to pay the penalty for all of mankind’s sins. Jesus could only be fully man (while He remained fully God) in the context of legitimate ancestors and a nation of his own and God in his sovereignty chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their decendants to be his ancestors and Israel to be that nation. This is precisely why God declared a blessing on those who blessed Abraham and his physical descendants (the Jews) and a curse on those who cursed them, for to curse them is to curse the very blessing of God through Abraham’s son, Isaac.

The stigma of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, comprising 48 Nazi death camps which Hitler and his cronies built in occupied Poland to exterminate the Jews during World War II and in which at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and some 19,000 Roma (Gypsies) were mercilessly butchered, has become a useful rod in the hands of anti-Semitic activists in America and elsewhere in the world. It is no surprise because America and England are only continuing what they had begun during Word War II. In his book “Judgement Islam, Israel and the Nations” Dave Hunt exposes America’s and England’s reluctance to at least obstruct Nazi Germany in her heinous murder of Jews at Auschwitz.

It was not until January 16, 1944, at the urging of a minor official who presented to him once more the staggering information already known, that Morganthau persuaded Roosevelt to take action. The motive, however, was not to rescue Jews from Hitler’s ovens, but to defer political criticism that could hurt him in the upcoming elections and his bid for an unprecedented fourth term. The War Refugee Board was formed, but its efforts were too little and too late. To the very end of the war, U.S. and British military leaders turned a deaf ear to Jewish pleas to bomb the railroad lines leading in and out of Auschwitz and other death camps.

American journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote in Hitler’s day, “It is fantastic commentary on the inhumanity of our times that for thousands and thousands of people a piece of paper with a stamp on it is the difference between life and death.” And even the proper piece of paper proved worthless as the bloodlust reached new heights worldwide. (6) (Emphasis added).

The abominable word “Auschwitz” is no longer used only to remind us of the atrocities of Nazi Germany against the Jewish nation but has become a rallying cry against the Jews who are supposedly committing genocide against the Palestinians, and to make it worse they inappropriately and absurdly link Auschwitz to the Apartheid system in South Africa. The YouTube site is stacked with home-made clips that pin the Apartheid stigma on the Jews: Titles such as the following are numerous:

• Racism in Israel
• Apartheid Paradigm: Palestine-Israel Noam
• UN Official calls Israel “Apartheid”
• Stop US aid to Apartheid Israel

Here in my own country, South Africa, things aren’t any better. Our young post-modern clergy in particular have no clue whatsoever what the difference is between the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Apartheid. To them it is one and the same thing, conveniently forgetting that in the years prior to 1994 black on black violence was often more hideous than Apartheid itself. Apartheid is GONE but not the VIOLENCE amongst blacks. Take a look at the latter link to a CNN video clip and please tell me whether this is not Apartheid? (Xenophobia).

Cobus van Wyngaard, pastor of the Kameeldrif DRC and a staff member of the Centre for Public Theology at the University of Pretoria, recently wrote two comments on the Apartheid system in South Africa. On 3 May 2010 in his comment “Auschwitz and Apartheid: which do we know better?” he very cleverly links Apartheid to the Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz. On page 32 of his book, Judgment Day, Dave Hunt quotes John Loftus and Mark Aarons:

For more than twenty centuries, the Jewish people, more than any other segment of humanity, have been persecuted, uprooted, and annihilated. It is true that many ethnic and religious groups have suffered grievously at the hands of tyrants, but there is a crucial difference. More Africans were killed in the era of slavery, but there was no determined intent to eradicate the entire Negro race. A higher percentage of Armenians perished in the Turkish genocide before World War I, but the main intent was to deport them, not extinguish their genetic pool. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Suharto murdered millions of their own citizens, but the motive for those crimes was political power, not racial animus. In each of these cases, the genocide was intended to serve a deeper purpose—the conquest of territory, the acquisition of wealth, the enlargement of political power…. In contrast, the genocide of the Jewish people was not intended to be a means to an end. It was not attempted in order to achieve a more fundamental purpose. It was the fundamental purpose. This is what makes the Nazi Holocaust unique in human history. (7)

There is a vast difference between the Hitlerian and Islamic jihad to entirely annihilate the Jews (and by the way they have expressed their gratitude for Hitler on several occasions) (8) and separate development (Apartheid). The UN, America, England and the other nations have tried for decades to vie for an independent Palestinian state in the Middle East, separate from the Jews. Isn’t that Apartheid?

In an attempt to broaden Cobus van Wyngaard’s narrow scope on Apartheid and its atrocities, I wrote a comment on his blog to remind him of the atrocities being perpetuated under the ANC Government.

I’m not saying that Apartheid was the best thing that ever happened in South Africa. However, there is more Apartheid in our country now than before. Four million people (a great deal of them whites) are jobless. Why? Because their skins are white. I’m merely asking you to make a fair assessment between Apartheid and the other atrocities against mankind. Auschwitz in your estimate is a good yardstick to measure Apartheid but please be fair and mention the other atrocities as well, like for instance the ongoing murder on white South African farmers. Did you speak out against Malema’s love song “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer”?

Guess what? Our very reverend Cobus van Wyngaard refused to place my comment on his blog, simply because he and his buddies walk around South Africa and in their pulpits with blinkers over their eyes. They only see what they want to see and damn the rest. In another comment here he wrote “I want to talk about Apartheid.” How on earth can you talk about Apartheid when you do not know what the difference is between the Nazi’s atrocities and Apartheid? As I have already pointed out, the worldwide plea for a separate Palestinian state in the Middle East is nothing else but pure Apartheid.

Because of man’s innate wickedness these atrocities will continue until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to set up his Kingdom of peace on earth. In fact, things are going to become much worse prior to Christ’s return when a man who is going to make Hitler and his Nazi atrocities look like a Sunday School picnic will appear on the world scene in the very near future, and like Hitler try to exterminate the Jewish nation. His most dangerous ploy will be to present himself as Israel’s long awaited Messiah which, in the long run will end in disaster for Israel and the rest of the world. The prophet Daniel says that he will destroy many by peace (Daniel 8:25) when Israel signs a peace treaty with him at the beginning of the seven year tribulation. The post-modern churches and in particular the Emerging Church are paving the way for the Antichrist to deceive the entire world which, in closure, brings me to the most dangerous form of Apartheid – another gospel, another, Jesus and another spirit. The false doctrines of false teachers are the worst kind of Apartheid; it is a spiritual Apartheid that alienates and separates people from God. It draws you away and separates you from Jesus Christ and drives you into the arms of the Antichrist. It may indeed be called the Apartheid-ization of nations from God.

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(1) Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1999), p. 11.

(2) Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Section 21, 5

(3) Irving Hexham is currently Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He wrote the article The Irony of Apartheid: The Struggle for National Independence of Afrikaner Calvinism against British Imperialism.

(4) M Wilson and L Thompson eds. The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. 2 (London 1971), p. 370

(5) S Patterson, The Last Trek (London 1957), p. 177

(6) Dave Hunt, Judgement Day: Islam, Israel and the Nations, The Berean Call, p. 36

(7) John Loftus and Mark Aarons, The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 18.

(8) Hitler declared that the “final objective [of] rational anti-Semitism…must be the removal of Jews altogether.” (Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Museum (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 1933), 105.)

It is no surprise, then, that to most Muslims, especially those living in Muslim nations, Hitler is one of their greatest heroes. Mein Kampf in Arabic remains a perpetual bestseller in Muslim countries, especially among “Palestinians.” Hitler was, in fact, a partner with Haj Amin Mohammed Effendi al-Husseini (great uncle and mentor of Yasser Arafat and still a hero to Muslims), a murderous terrorist, appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by Britain, and personally responsible for the concentration camp slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jews. (From the Mufti’s private diary, cited in Arab Higher Committee: Its Origins, Personnel and Purposes, citing captured Nazi records submitted as documentary evidence to the United Nations, May 1947, 6.)

On November 21, 1941, Hitler promised the mufti “a solution to the Jewish problem” in exchange for al-Husseini’s recruitment of thousands of Arabs to fight with Hitler. (Ibid). (Taken from Dave Hunt’s book Judgement Day: Islam, Israel and the Nations, The Berean Call, p. 33

Wolwe in Skaapsklere – deur Japie Grobler

Sowat 2000 jaar gelede het ons Here aan die dissipels van Sy tyd gesê dat Hy hulle uitstuur soos skape tussen wolwe. (Matt 10:16) En dit is vandag nog steeds die geval. Daar is egter ’n ander kant tot hierdie begrip wat vir gelowiges die uiterste gevaar en misleiding inhou. Dit kom in die vorm van ernstige waarskuwings by monde van verskeie sprekers in die Nuwe Testament.

Die Here Jesus waarsku in Matteus 7:15, “Pas op vir die vals profete. Hulle kom na julle toe in skaapsklere, maar in werklikheid is hulle verskeurende wolwe.” Dieselfde waarskuwing kom van Paulus in Handelinge 20:29, “Ek weet dat daar ná my vertrek wrede wolwe onder julle sal indring, en hulle sal die kudde nie ontsien nie.” Petrus sê dat, “…daar ook onder julle vals leraars kom. Hulle sal verderflike dwaalleer insmokkel en die Here wat hulle vrygekoop het, verloën.” (2 Pet 2:1) Timoteus waarsku in 2 Tim 4:3 & 4, dat die mense wat nie deur die misleiding sien of na waarskuwings wil luister nie agter hierdie leraars sal aanhardloop omdat hulle dinge sal sê wat lekker op die oor val “…daar sal ’n tyd kom wanneer die mense die gesonde leer nie meer sal verdra nie. Hulle sal hulle eie begeertes volg en vir hulle leermeesters bymekaarmaak wat net sal sê wat hulle graag wil hoor. Hulle sal die waarheid nie wil hoor nie en hulle tot verdigsels wend.” Die Ou Vertaling stel dit so, “…omdat hulle in hul gehoor gestreel wil wees.” Die Bible in Basic English is so duidelik, “…shutting their ears to what is true, [they] will be turned away to belief in foolish stories.” Die feit dat hierdie vals leraars “…uit julle eie geledere…na vore [sal] kom…[en] met leuens die gelowiges agter hulle aan sal probeer verlei” (Hand 20:30) maak dit juis meer gevaarlik en kommerwekkend. Hierdie misleiding sal soveel meer oortuigend wees omdat magsvertoon, vals tekens en wonders deel van hierdie misleiding sal uitmaak. Ons sien egter dat omdat die mense agter hierdie goed en vals leraars WIL aanhardloop God die oordeel oor hulle gaan bring deur hulle aan die dwaling oor te gee en dat hulle die leuens van die vals leraars SAL glo! Dit wil dus voorkom asof hulle blind en doof sal bly vir waarskuwings en die waarheid.

“Deur die werking van die Satan sal die verskyning van die wettelose gepaard gaan met groot magsvertoon en allerhande vals tekens en wonders en met gruwelike misleiding van dié wat verlore gaan, omdat hulle nie die waarheid liefgehad en tot hulle redding aanvaar het nie. Dit is ook waarom God hulle aan die mag van die dwaling oorgee, sodat hulle die leuen sal glo.” (2 Tess 2:9‑11)

Die gevolg is duidelik in vers 12, “…so sal almal wat nie die waarheid geglo het nie, maar die ongeregtigheid verkies het, veroordeel word.”

Dit is belangrik om raak te kyk en op te let dat die misleiding uit die Kerk (“uit julle eie geledere”) kom. Hierdie vals leraars verskyn daagliks op televisie deur die CBN/TBN-kanaal in hulle snyerspakke met veel bravade en gladde tonge wat mens amper oorweldig laat. Ons sien selfs hoedat hulle voor groot gehore allerhande “wonders en tekens” verrig en so “geloofwaardigheid” aan hulle optredes verleen. Daar word onomwonde deur hulle verklaar dat die Heilige Gees aan die werk is in hulle vermaaklikheidsoptredes, want dit is allesbehalwe eredienste. Selfs hulle is mislei. En so word ook 2 Kor 11:3‑4 waar:

“Maar ek is bang dat julle gedagtes weggelei sal word van die onverdeelde en suiwere toewyding aan Christus, net soos Eva verlei is deur die listigheid van die slang. Ek sê dit omdat julle so maklik daarmee genoeë neem as iemand ’n ander Jesus kom verkondig as wat ons verkondig het, en julle neem net so maklik ’n ander gees en ’n ander evangelie aan as dié wat julle van ons ontvang het.”

Hulle gees is NIE die Heilige Gees nie. Hulle verkondig ’n ander evangelie en boonop nog ’n ander Jesus ook. Omdat die misleiding wat so vermaaklik is so lekker is om agter aan te loop het ons hier waarlik met die breë weg te doen, “Die poort wat na die verderf lei, is wyd en die pad daarheen breed, en dié wat daardeur ingaan, is baie.” (Matt 7:13)

Soos wat die profete van die Ou Testament en die apostels van die Nuwe, vals profete en dwaalleraars by name genoem het is dit ook vandag nodig om dit doen. Dit sal egter niks help om net name te lys nie, maar daar sal ook geluister moet word na wat hulle sê sodat hulle eie woorde oor hulle sal oordeel. Oordeel? Hierdie vals leraars en hul aanhangers en baie Christene reageer gou op kritiek teen dié leraars met die woorde, “jy mag nie oordeel nie”. Daarom is dit nodig dat kortliks hierby stilgestaan word. Hierdie is ’n verkeerde toepassing van die gedeelte in die Skrif wat oor die veroordeling van mense gaan en nie oor die BEoordeling van hul woorde nie. In soverre dit oordeel (veroordeel) aangaan, net God het die reg om iemand hel toe te stuur of in Sy hemel toe te laat. Dit is nie waaroor dit gaan wanneer iemand se woorde aan die Skrif gemeet word nie! Inteendeel, die Christen word verantwoordelik gemaak om juis dit te doen. Kyk maar na Handelinge 17. Paulus kom met die Evangelie na die mense van Tessalonika en gaan vandaar na Berea toe. Hierdie mense van Berea aanvaar nie net sommer summier wat Paulus sê nie, maar het “…elke dag die Skrif ondersoek om te sien of dit is soos Paulus sê.” (v.11) Die New International vertaling stel dit so: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Die Ou Vertaling sê die mense van Berea was meer edelmoedig as die van Tessalonika—juis omdat hulle die Skrif ondersoek en dit wat Paulus gesê het daaraan gemeet het. Dalk is edelmoedig ’n meer akkurate beskrywing van die oorspronklike eugenes. Dit beteken in die Grieks eerbare persoon, eerbaar (nobleman, more noble, noble, noble minded). Johannes skryf ook in sy eerste sendbrief, “Geliefdes, moenie enigeen glo wat sê dat hy die Gees van God het nie, want daar is nou reeds baie vals profete in die wêreld, maar ondersoek elkeen, ondersoek of sy gees van God afkomstig is.” (1 Joh 4:1) Paulus stel dit so in 1 Kor 14:29, “Wat die profete betref, twee of drie kan aan die woord kom, en die ander moet beoordeel wat hulle sê.”

Die mens is G[g]od

Laat ons dan na ’n paar van hierdie bekende TV evangeliste luister en hoor hoedat hulle verkondig dat die mens eintlik G(g)od is: John Avanzini:

“…the eternal purpose of God has been through the ages…that He is duplicating Himself in the earth.” Morris Cerullo: “…from the beginning of time the whole purpose of God was to reproduce Himself…when we stand up here, brother, you’re not looking at Morris Cerullo; you’re looking at God. You’re looking at Jesus.”

Charles Capps:

“God duplicated Himself in kind!…Adam was an exact duplication of God’s kind!”

Kenneth Copeland:

“God’s reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself…He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even.”

Hierdie is natuurlik die leer van die “vader” van Rhema, Kenneth Hagin:

“Man…was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness of inferiority…God has made us as much like Himself as possible…He made us the same class of being that He is Himself…Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms equal with God…[T]he believer is called Christ…That’s who we are; we’re Christ!” Hierdie helse leer kom natuurlik uit die tuin van Eden: “Toe sê die slang vir die vrou: ‘Julle sal beslis nie sterf nie, maar God weet dat julle oë sal oopgaan die dag as julle van daardie boom eet en dan sal julle soos God wees deurdat julle alles kan ken." Dalk is die Engels duideliker: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Die idee dat die mens ’n god is of kan word is natuurlik inherent deel van die Oosterse godsdienste. New Agers leer nie net dat die mens god is, of dat god in alles is nie, maar ook dat die mens die Christus kan wees. Vir hulle is Christus net ’n beginsel. En Kenneth Hagin verkondig dit alles! Al die leraars uit die “Word of Faith”-kamp leer presies hierdie of ander growwe dwaling. Dit is net hierdie paar wat aangehaal is nie, maar dit sluit ook ander bekendes en minder bekendes, nie almal is “Word of Faith” nie, in soos John Arnott, Mike Bickle, William Branham, Paul Cain, Stacey Campbell, Paul (David) Yongghi Cho, Randy Clark, Gerald Coates, Paul en Jan Crouch (TBN), Jack Deere, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Bob Jones, Ray McCauly, George C Otis, Frederick KC Price, Rick Joyner, Oral Roberts, Agnes Sanford, Jerry Savelle, Robert Schuller, Robert Tilton, Peter Wagner, John Wimber.

Jesus in die hel

Nog ’n belangrike dwaling van hulle is dat Jesus hel toe moes gaan. Daar was Hy deur die Satan oorwin en het Hy geestelik gesterf sodat Hy wedergebore kon word. Nêrens in die Skrif is een enkele woord hieroor te vinde nie. Dit is niks anders as satans-geïnspireerde verdraaiing van die Skrif,” met EW Kenyon as “vader.” Benny Hinn vat hierdie dwaling wat ook deur ander soos Copeland, Hagin, Price en vele ander verkondig word, mooi saam:

“Before He died, I should say, on that cross, something happened to Him which began the wheels of the New Creation moving that was this: He died spiritually!… Jesus Christ understood that spiritual death is union with the satanic nature. … What is spiritual death? Separation from God. He who is the nature of God became the nature of Satan when He became sin. First, He died spiritually, and then He died physically, and He was carried for three days and three nights into the underworld as a prisoner. Jesus Christ knew the only way He would stop Satan is by becoming one in nature with him. … He [Jesus] did not take my sin, He became my sin. Jesus Christ had to die spiritually to understand what it means to be dead spiritually. He could not have been a perfect Savior had He not experienced all you’ll ever experience. When Jesus went down to the underworld. … He did not face Satan in hell as God! For had He faced him as God the devil would have said, ‘not fair, not fair.’ … If Jesus went to the underworld as the Son of God, He did not need the Holy Ghost then to raise Him from the dead; He would have raised Himself!” (G. Richard Fisher & M. Kurt Goedelman, The Confusing World of Benny Hinn, Personal Freedom Outreach, 1997:7‑8)

Let op dat Jesus ook betrokke was by Sy opstanding—een van die bewyse in die Skrif dat Hy God is:

“…die Jode het Hom aangespreek en vir Hom gesê: ‘Met watter wonderteken kan u vir ons bewys dat u hierdie dinge mag doen?’ Jesus het hulle geantwoord: ‘Breek hierdie tempel af en in drie dae sal Ek hom oprig.’ Die Jode sê toe: ‘Ses en veertig jaar lank is daar aan hierdie tempel gebou, en u sal hom in drie dae oprig?’ Met ‘hierdie tempel’ het Hy egter sy liggaam bedoel. Later, nadat Hy uit die dood opgewek is, het sy dissipels daaraan gedink dat Hy dit gesê het, en hulle het die Skrif en die woorde van Jesus geglo.” (Joh 2:18‑22)

Natuurlik is daar ander dele in die Skrif wat sy opstanding aan die Vader en die Heilige Gees toeskryf—weer bewyse vir die bestaan van die Drie-eenheid.

Jesus wedergebore

Nadat drie dae verloop het, het die tyd aangebreek vir Jesus om wedergebore te word—aldus Hinn:

“He [Jesus] is in the underworld now, God isn’t there. The Holy Ghost isn’t there, and the Bible says He was ‘begotten.’ You know what the word ‘begotten’ means? Means ‘reborn.’ … Do you want another shocker? Have you been begotten? So was He. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. … Did the Father leave Him?… That’s death! … Did the Holy Ghost come back on resurrection morning? That’s rebirth! He was reborn! He had to be reborn! … If he was not reborn, I could not be reborn!… Everything I’ve gone through He went through first. So don’t question this teaching. Only the immature question it.”

Hy stel dit so duidelik: Hy is reg en die Bybel is verkeerd! En dit terwyl hy minute voor hierdie lering aan die gemeente gesê het,

“…if I say something; the Bible say something else, you believe the Bible.”

Hoe rym dit met sy woorde dat hy nie bevraagteken (“don’t question this teaching”) moet word nie, en meer nog met dit wat Paulus en Johannes geskryf het soos ons vroeër gesien het? Charles Capps sluit hierby aan:

“Jesus was born again in the pit of hell. He was the firstborn, the firstbegotten, from the dead. He started the Church of the firstborn in the gates of hell…He went down to the gates and started His Church there…The Church started when Jesus was born again in the gates of hell.”

Hierdie idees en sienings van hulle is natuurlik glad nie in die Skrif te vinde nie!

Dit bring ons by ’n ander verdraaiing van die Skrif. Hulle is baie lief om die woorde "Moenie aan my gesalfdes raak nie, moenie my profete kwaad aandoen nie!" (1 Kron 16:22 en Ps 105:15) op hulleself van toepassing te maak. Deur dit te doen maak hulle asof hulle onaantasbaar is en dat die straf van die Here op die mense sal afkom wat kritiek uitspreek teen die dwaalleer (baie kere sommer plein nonsens) wat hulle verkondig en gesag daaraan probeer verleen deur aan te kondig dat dit onder leiding van die Heilige Gees of “the anointing” is. “Anointing” maak dalk nog sin want as mens met erns luister en kyk waarmee hulle besig is dan kan hierdie “anointing” slegs die van die duiwel wees.

Kritici is duiwels

Terwyl hierdie manne onaan-tasbaarheid vir hulle self toe-eien en geen kritiek duld nie is hulle baie ernstig deur openlik die wat hulle kritiseer aan te val en selfs te veroordeel. Luister hoedat John Kilpatrick vir Hank Hanegraaff van die Christian Reaserch Institute in die VSA en alle ander Christene wat kritiek teen hulle leer uitspreek as duiwels tipeer en veroordeel:

“Mr Hanegraaff and all other devils, listen up. I’m making a proclamation. I’m speaking this not just to you friends or to impress you, I’m saying this as a man of God from behind this holy desk in the holy environement in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and I’m not saying this to you, but I’m saying this for the ears of God; this revival shall not deminish and this revival shall turn into a national awakening…and I’ll tell you something else, Hank Hanegraaff you may feel like you can put on the badge of heaven …I don’t know who told you to be the high sheriff of heaven and go around straightening everybody out…I want to tell you one more thing; you may criticize other people and other moves of God and other ministries, but you’d better leave your hands off this one…Mr Hanegraaff, I want to say something else to you; if you want to keep any kind of semblance of ministry you’d better back-off from this revival and what God is doing. I am going to prophesy to you that if you don’t and you continue to put your tongue and your mouth on this move of God, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down—I said within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down.”

Hierdie profesie was op 6 April 1997 gemaak. Dit het nie uitgekom nie, dus is Kilpatrick ’n vals profeet. Lees maar gerus Deut 13:1‑4; 18:20‑22; Jer 23:16‑40.

Benny Hinn aan die woord:

“You wonderful people of God quit attacking men of God by name. Somebody’s attacking me because of something I’m teaching. Let me tell you something brother, you watch it!…There is a group here in California that thinks they are the judgment seat of Christ!…You walk around with your stiff lip and collar on your neck—dear God in heaven I wish I could just—ooh! They call it a ‘ministry,’ my foot! You know I’ve looked for one verse in the Bible,…that says ‘If you don’t like ‘em, kill ‘em.’ I really wish I could find it!…Sometimes I wish God would give me a Holy Ghost Machine Gun—I would blow your head off.” (Fisher & Goedelman:4)

Paul Crouch oor mense wat kritiek oor die programme op sy TBN uitgespreek het:

“I think they’re damned and on their way to hell; and I don’t think there’s any redemption for them.”

Of in reaksie op Hank Hanegraaf se besoek aan hom juis oor hulle kompromieë oor die belangrike Christelike leerstellings, terwyl hy in die televisiekamera se lens inkyk:

“If you want to criticize Ken Copeland for his preaching on faith, or Dad Hagin, get out of my life! I don’t even want to talk to you or hear you. I don’t want to see your ugly face. Get out of my face, in Jesus’s name.”

God ondergeskik aan Satan

’n Verdere verrassing kom uit die mond van Kenneth Copeland:

“I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is…The biggest one in the whole Bible is God…Now, the reason you don’t think of God as a failure is He never said He’s a failure. And you’re not a failure till you say you’re one.”

Dit lei natuurlik daartoe dat God nie meer seggenskap of gesag op aarde het nie. Weereens Copeland:

“Adam committed high treason; and at that point, all dominion and authority God had given to him was handed over to Satan. Suddenly God was on the outside looking in…After Adam’s fall, God found Himself in a peculiar position…God needed an avenue back into earth…God laid out His proposition to Abram who accepted it. It gave God access to the earth and gave man access to God…Technically, if God ever broke the Covenant, He would have to destroy Himself…”

Die gevolg? Copeland laat geen twyfel:

“God’s on the outside looking in. He doesn’t have any legal entrée into the earth. The thing don’t belong to Him…if God’s been running things He’s doing a lousy job of it. He hadn’t been running ’em, except when He’s just got, you know, a little bit of a chance.”

Asof dit nie genoeg is nie gaan Copeland voort om God nog verder te verlaag:

“The Bible says that God gave this earth to the sons of men…It left Him on the outside looking in…He had no legal right to do anything about it…He had injected Himself illegally into the earth—what Satan had intended for Him to do was to fall for it—pull off an illegal act and turn the light off in God, and subordinate God to himself…He intended to get God into such a trap that He couldn’t get out.”

Hoedat sulke dwaalleer deur die Kerk van Christus verduur kan word en sulke dwaalleraars as mede Christene (broers) gesien kan word gaan ’n mens se verstand te bowe!

Wortel van Dominionisme

Hierdie dwaalleer lê aan die wortel van Dominionisme—dat die mens alle gesag op aarde het. Dit lei tot die idee van die Nuwe Apostels en Profete-beweging met Paul Cain, George C. Otis en Peter C Wagner as sleutelfigure. Hulle sal weer die Kerk verenig en alle gelowiges as een groot eenheid saamsnoer. Daarom kry ons die Jesus Marse, gebedskettings, 10/40 venster, Transformasies (Otis & Wagner), geestelike oorlogvoering, hek/poortwagters, intersessors—sekere mense wat toegang het tot die Troon en God se oor, NUPSA, Promise Keepers en wat nog meer. Hierdie mense maak erns daarvan dat die gelowiges die aarde moet voorberei alvorens die wederkoms kan plaasvind. As ons na die Bybel kyk dan sien ons dat die dag en uur voor die grondleggeing van die aarde reeds bepaal is, en dat niks wat die mens op aarde doen of nie doen nie dit gaan verander. Die Here Jesus het self gevra, “sal die Seun van die mens by sy koms nog geloof op die aarde vind?” (Lukas 18:8)

Die idee dat die mens in beheer is behoort as arrogansie bestempel te word. Dit word duidelik in Frederick KC Price se woorde weerspieël:

“God has to be given permission to work in this earthly realm on behalf of man…Yes! You are in control! So, if man has control, who no longer has it? God.”

Ons hoor vandag uit die kampe van die poort/hekwagters, intersessors, Nuwe Apostels en Profete en geestelike oorlogvoerders hoedat daar huise, geboue, strate, gebiede, dorpe en stede en selfs lande vir God opgeëis word. Wat het geword van, “Die hemel, selfs die hoogste hemel, behoort aan die Here jou God, ook die aarde en alles daarop.” (Deut 10:14) “Kom tog, o God! Lewer uitspraak oor die wêreld, want al die nasies behoort aan U.” (Ps‑82:8) “…want al die diere in die bos is Myne, die wild op duisende berge. Ek ken al die voëls van die berge; al wat roer op die veld, is Myne. Ek sou jou nie vra as Ek honger sou kry nie, want die aarde en alles wat daarop is, behoort aan My.” (Ps 50:10‑12)???

Weereens waarsku die Bybel, “Sulke mense is vals apostels; hulle gaan oneerlik te werk deur voor te gee dat hulle apostels van Christus is. En geen wonder nie! Satan self doen hom voor as ’n engel van die lig.” (2 Kor 11:13‑14) Van watter mense word hier gepraat? Dié waarna Paulus in vers 4 verwys. Hulle wat ’n ander Jesus, ’n ander evangelie en ’n ander gees verkondig.

Ons hoor ook dat die mens nie eers moet bid dat God se wil moet geskied nie:

“Never, ever, ever go to the Lord and say, ‘If it be thy will…’ Don’t allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth.” (Benny Hinn)

Kruisdood bring nie versoening nie

Wanneer daar aan die leer oor die versoening getorring word is iemand op ’n snelweg, weg van die Christelike geloof na die van die kultes en selfs die okkulte.

Ook die versoening van Christus loop deur onder hierdie leraars. Frederick KC Price:

“Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on the cross? If that were the case the two thieves could have paid the price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God…Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound and they threw a net over Jesus and dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence.”

Hierdie lering kom lank voor Price eintlik van Hagin af. Copeland, Hinn en nog ander “Word of Faith”‑leraars het ook nie op hulle laat wag nie.

Kom ons luister na Copeland se weergawe:

“When Jesus cried, ‘It is finished!’ He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne…Jesus’ death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption.”

Dit is duidelik uit hierdie dwaalleer dat hulle waarlik “…die Here wat hulle vrygekoop het, verloën.” (2 Pet 2:1) Daar is dus weerstand teen die waarheid by hulle en God plaas dit in dieselfde kamp as die sonde van toordery/heksery en afgodery. “Weerspannigheid is net so erg as die sonde van waarsêery; eiesinnigheid net so erg as die bedrog van afgodery.” Of in die woorde van die American Standard vertaling: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim.” (1 Sam 15:23)

Verdere misleiding

Die Christelike boekwinkels is vol van die boeke van hierdie dwaalleraars en dit word selfs deur kerke verkoop. Volgens baie Christene is hierdie boeke waardevol en goeie leesstof, maar langs hierdie weg versprei hierdie dwaalleraars hulle dwaalleer subtiel, ’n verdere aanslag op soekende en niksvermoedende Christene wat erns van hulle geloof maak, en so word hul gedagtes en harte verder besoedel sodat hulle van die waarheid af weggelei word. Luister na Paulus se waarskuwing aan die Galasiërs:

“Dit verbaas my dat julle so gou van God wat julle deur die genade van Christus geroep het, afvallig word en ’n ander evangelie aanneem. Daar is geen ander evangelie nie! Tog is daar mense wat die evangelie van Christus probeer verdraai, en dit is hulle wat vir julle in verwarring bring. Maar al sou een van ons of selfs ’n engel uit die hemel aan julle ’n evangelie verkondig wat in stryd is met die evangelie wat ons aan julle verkondig het—die vloek van God sal hom tref! Ons het dit voorheen al gesê en ek sê dit nou weer: As iemand aan julle ’n evangelie verkondig wat in stryd is met die evangelie wat julle ontvang het—die vloek van God sal hom tref!” (1:6‑9)

In reaksie op besware teen hierdie skrywers se boeke word gesê dat hierdie boeke soos vis is—vol grate. Mens moet net die grate uithaal en die goeie vis daarin soek. Die vraag is, hoeveel mense besit waarlik hierdie onderskeidingsvermoë? Selfs die uitverkorenes kan mislei word. Daarom lê die verantwoordelikheid vierkantig in die hande van die aankopers van die boeke vir hierdie boekwinkels. Mens kry die indruk dit gaan om geld eerder as die waarheid, want hierdie boeke is in groot aanvraag!

Dan is daar ook die opmerking dat daar na die vrugte gekyk moet word. Die vrugte op hierdie manne se werk! Groot opkomste? Neerslaan in die gees? Skreeu en die uiter van nare geluide? Selfs pogings om te ontklee? No ways! Ware vrug is wanneer mense tot opregte bekering kom—die Here Jesus alles in hulle lewe word en hulle lewens dit openbaar:

“Die vrug van die Gees, daarteenoor, is liefde, vreugde, vrede, geduld, vriende-likheid, goedhartigheid, getrouheid, nederigheid en selfbeheersing. Teen sulke dinge het die wet niks nie. Dié wat aan Christus Jesus behoort, het hulle sondige natuur met al sy hartstogte en begeertes gekruisig. Ons lewe deur die Gees; laat die Gees nou ook ons gedrag bepaal.” (Gal 5:22‑25)

Die vrugte wat op hulle werke volg is dronkenskap (dronk van die nuwe wyn), vals genesings, buite beheer neerslaan en skree soos mal mense en die maak van allerhande dieregeluide en meer…. Dit kan as niks anders as vrot vrugte bestempel word nie!

Geen wonder ons Here het gesê:

“…die poort wat na die lewe lei, is nou en die pad daarheen smal, en dié wat dit kry, is min.” Is dit dalk hoekom hierdie manne se optredes mense by die duisende lok? Maak seker u is op die regte pad.

(Aanhalings hoofsaaklik uit Hank Hanegraaf se boek, Christianity in Crisis, Harvest House Publishers, 1993, Oudio bande van sy ander boek, Counterfeit Revival)

A drop of water on an emblazed tongue

With no pun intended I have deliberately chosen the title “A drop of Water on an emblazed tongue for my comment as opposed to Stephan Joubert’s title “Fire on your tongue” to demonstrate how easy it is to use biblical truths for all the wrong reasons.

Agreed, the tongue can be one of the most devastating and dangerous weapons of destruction imaginable. James, the brother of Jesus, makes this clear when he says he following:

James 3:6-11 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

The Barnes Commentary notes the meaning thereof as follows:

And the tongue is a fire – In this sense, that it produces a “blaze,” or a great conflagration. It produces a disturbance and an agitation that may be compared with the conflagration often produced by a spark.

A world of iniquity – A little world of evil in itself. This is a very expressive phrase, and is similar to one which we often employ, as when we speak of a town as being a world in miniature. We mean by it that it is an epitome of the world; that all that there is in the world is represented there on a small scale. So when the tongue is spoken of as being “a world of iniquity,” it is meant that all kinds of evil that are in the world are exhibited there in miniature; it seems to concentrate all sorts of iniquity that exist on the earth. And what evil is there which may not be originated or fomented by the tongue? What else is there that might, with so much propriety, be represented as a little world of iniquity? With all the good which it does, who can estimate the amount of evil which it causes? Who can measure the evils which arise from scandal, and slander, and profaneness, and perjury, and falsehood, and blasphemy, and obscenity, and the inculcation of error, by the tongue? Who can gauge the amount of broils, and contentions, and strifes, and wars, and suspicions, and enmities, and alienations among friends and neighbours, which it produces? Who can number the evils produced by the “honeyed” words of the seducer; or by the tongue of the eloquent in the maintenance of error, and the defence of wrong? If all men were dumb, what a portion of the crimes of the world would soon cease! If all men would speak only that which ought to be spoken, what a change would come over the face of human affairs!

So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body – It stains or pollutes the whole body. It occupies a position and relation so important in respect to every part of our moral frame, that there is no portion which is not affected by it. Of the truth of this, no one can have any doubt. There is nothing else pertaining to us as moral and intellectual beings, which exerts such an influence over ourselves as the tongue. A man of pure conversation is understood and felt to be pure in every respect; but who has any confidence in the virtue of the blasphemer, or the man of obscene lips, or the calumniator and slanderer? We always regard such a man as corrupt to the core.

Can I draw your attention to “Who can number the evils produced by the “honeyed” words of the seducer; or by the tongue of the eloquent in the maintenance of error, and the defence of wrong?” The most dangerous kind of defilement, not only of the perpetrator himself but also of those who listen and respond favourably to the words of his tongue, is to be deceived by the honeyed words of an imposter or false teacher.

Joubert’s choice of the prophet Isaiah’s experience in chapter 6 of his prophetic book is an excellent one. it proves beyond any doubt that every conceivable iniquity of the tongue, including honeyed words of deceit, dishonesty. falsities, erroneous doctrine and treachery MUST of necessity be purified and cleansed by a fiery coal from the altar, representing the Burnt Offering of Jesus Christ on the cross. Joubert intones:

After that, Isaiah could speak God-honouring language. From then, he could share words of hope and life with others.

Much of the God-honouring language Isaiah spoke had nothing to do with sharing hope and life with others but with God’s vengeance and righteous judgements on the nations. (chapters 13 to 23) and one of the abominable things that triggered God’s judgment on Judah was their spiritual fornication with Eastern philosophies and practices.

Isaiah 2:6 Surely [Lord] You have rejected and forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled [with customs] from the east and with soothsayers [who foretell] like the Philistines; also they strike hands and make pledges and agreements with the children of aliens.

The adage “history repeats itself” is so true. The Emergent Church, of which Joubert is a close and ardent follower, is making itself guilty of the very same sins as Israel. She is saturated with the philosophies and spiritual practices from the East. Two of his biggest mates, Rob Bell and Ron Martoia, have proven this without a dash of doubt. Stephan Joubert is noted for saying things that are entirely alien to the Christian doctrine. His tongue has been in need of the purification of the fire from the altar for quite some time. On March 1, 2009 in a sermon at the Kemptonkruin Dutch Reformed Church he said the following:

“He [Rob Bell] says you must engage the culture. You must listen to the Buddhists. You must listen to what they have to say. It startles Christians because they do not clearly hear what Rob Bell is saying. He does not say: become like them. He says: read their stuff; find out why they are so important. They too may have truth. Truth is not only in Christianity. You find truth in Judaism. You can find truth in atheism. You can find truth wherever. God’s general truth is a little wider, but you say ‘Jesus is Lord.’” (Emphasis added).

What does God say?

Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Joubert once affirmed that everything that comes from the mouth (tongue, lips) of Rob Bell is pure Gospel truth. Are the following words from his tongue pure Gospel?

[In Yoga] it’s not how flexible you are, it’s not whether you can do the poses, it’s not how much you can bend yourself, it’s can you keep your breath [breathes in and out] consistent [breathes out] through whatever you are doing.

And the Yoga Masters say this is how it is when you follow Jesus and surrender to God. Is it’s your breath being consistent. It’s your connection with God regardless of the pose you find yourself in. That’s integrating the divine into the daily.

In similar vein Ron Martoia says of yoga the following on his blog Velocity Culture.

“Seven years ago I started down the yoga trail. Ashtanga Yoga is the power yoga, get a hard sweaty workout type of yoga. Some of you hear the word yoga and all sorts of red flags go up. Get a grip and do some reading. Yoga practice does not require you to be Buddhist, so relax. My nearly daily practice has improved so much. Yoga’s interface with a centering practice is actually a very interesting interplay. Maybe sometime I will write a post on that.” (Emphasis added).

What a load of nonsense! Anyone will tell you that yoga practice does not require you to become Buddhist but does that exempt you from the consequences of the practice? The word “yoga” means to be yoked or joined to the Supreme Soul and the merging of the individual will with the cosmic will. The Supreme Soul is not the God of the Bible because Jesus’ yoke is diametrically opposed to and radically different from the yoke of yoga. What does Jesus say?:

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Like Stephan Joubert, Ron Martoia’s tongue is in dire need of the purifying fire from the altar. His leniency toward yoga makes him a perfect candidate for tongue purification, especially when you take into account that yoga proclaims that man is essentially perfect and that it is a so-called scientific technique to attain Divine Perfection and Immortality. How far on the road to Divine Perfection and Immortality has Ron Martoia and his Yoga-buddies advanced? It is flagrant blasphemy to participate in yoga which claims to be the path to Divine Perfection and Immortality while Jesus Christ said that He alone is the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25). Do they really want us to think they are Bible-believing Christians? You must be joking!

Of course, the cherry on the cake is Thomas Keating, Martoia’s and Joubert’s centering guru, who eagerly champions the fusion of Christianity and Eastern mysticism. In the book Finding Grace at the Center, written by Keating and Basil Pennington, the following advice is given: “We should not hesitate to take the fruit of the age-old wisdom of the East and ‘capture’ it for Christ. Indeed, those of us who are in ministry should make the necessary effort to acquaint ourselves with as many of these Eastern techniques as possible . . . Many Christians who take their prayer life seriously have been greatly helped by Yoga, Zen, TM and similar practices . . .“ Wow, this looks like a page from Judah’s history in the book of Isaiah when the prophet warned them of their impending doom which was the result of their own idolatrous Eastern mystic practices. (Isaiah 2:6).

Whose tongues need purification by fire —those of the guys who earnestly warn them of impending doom if they should continue on their maddening course or their own tongues that disseminate heretical and dangerous doctrines? Allow me to remind them of the man who desperately pleaded that someone dip his finger in water and cool his tongue.

Luke 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

The Moreleta Park DRC Re-imagined

Let’s just drop the bomb right from the word go and ask ourselves: “Is the Moreleta Park DRC a Christian church or what?” Well, of course they are, you may  protest immediately. How can we doubt their sincerity, enthusiasm, love and commitment to the Christian cause when you read the following statement on their website.

We are a congregation that aims to be like Jesus, act like Jesus and to take other people with us on our journey.

God has been on a journey with people throughout the ages. The Bible tells of God’s concern for and involvement with people. He is on a journey with each one of us.

He also has a unique plan for our congregation’s journey. Let us go on this journey together. Live near to the Father, walk in Jesus’ footsteps, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. On this road you are going to meet travellers who will love you and to whom you may be of service. Build a relationship with them from without your relationship with God. Obey the Word of God and serve one another in love.

Their point of departure is to be:

True and faithful to Scriptures

Filled with the Holy Spirit, and to

Pray

In their above “statement of faith” (?) the MPDRC uses the word “journey” no less than five times, indicating that they seem to be very serious about their journey. However, it is not the journey that determines your ultimate destinatination (heaven or hell) but the path on which you journey.

Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

No one will deny that their virtues are indeed Christian values but the question is whether they are following the Jesus of the Bible when they invite speakers who publically violate Christ’s immutable and infallible doctrines? All the above wonderful Christian virtues mean very little when you allow your flock to sit under the teaching of modern-day false prophets and apostles who have no qualms whatsoever to preach another Jesus, another spirit and another Gospel. Are the pastors, the elders and deacons of the Moreleta Park DRC truly faithful to God’s Word when they wilfully disobey God’s command in 2 John.

Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it does not have God. The person who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your home or even greet him, for the one who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

On the eve of their Missions Fest in February last year I wrote and extensive comment on the heresies Tony Campolo, their main speaker at that event, espouses. The fact that the leadership team of the Moreleta Park DRC, (Dirkie van der Spuy, Sarel Visser, Elza Meyer, Johan Smith, Dolf Kruger, Peet Grobbelaar, Willem Badenhorst, Pieter Badenhorst and last but not least Stephen Temeki) are quite prepared to host men like Tony Campolo proves that they are also quite willing to take him and other heresy preachers along with them on their spiritual journey and by doing so to show that they are in full agreement with their heresies. To what, you may ask, do I owe this? The Bible very distinctly says that you can only join in on someone’s journey when you are in full agreement with them on matters of vital importance (Amos 3:3: “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?”).

I really think the above pastors who are responsible for the shepherding of the Moreleta Park DRC flock owe their congregation and the alleged 90% Christian population in South Africa (according to oom Angus Buchan) an explanation and they should tell us whether they are in full agreement with the many heretical things the false apostle, Tony Campolo, has said in the past. Let us now take a thorough look at some of the things Tony Campolo has said or written and decide for yourself whether it is in harmony with God’s Word. Please remember the following severe warning from Scripture.

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Mr. Campolo, you now have the floor. Please speak up loud and clear so that our beloved friends above may hear you plainly. Let’s conduct a mock interview where I ask the questions and you answer them (Reader, please note that Campolo’s answers are not fictitious; they are genuine answers that came from his lips but the questions are devised in accordance with his answers.)

Thomas: Mr. Campolo, in Romans 8:9 Paul of Tarsus asserts that only those who have the spirit of Christ living within their innermost beings belong to Him. Would you say that this is an accurate assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers?”

Tony: “I’m not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians.” (Tony Campolo, Charlie Rose show on January 24, 1997)

Thomas: As you also most certainly may recall, Paul said that the cross of Jesus Christ is the power and wisdom of God to those who are being saved but sheer nonsense and foolishness to those who perish (1 Corinthians 1:18). How does his assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers compare with your own and would you say that anyone who rejects the blood of Christ’s cross are as equally redeemed as those who believe in the blood of his cross?

Tony: “What I am trying to say is that Jesus who incarnated God 2,000 years ago is mystically present and waiting to be discovered in EVERY person you and I encounter” (Tony Campolo, “A Reasonable Faith” 1983 page 171)

Thomas: John, the apostle of love, reiterates Paul in 1 John 5 when he says: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.” Surely, you should be reluctant to argue against God whose own testimony asserts that there are some who have the Son of God and others who do not have Him. Are you prepared to reject God’s own testimony in regard to believers and unbelievers?

Tony: “One of the most startling discoveries of my life was the realization that the Jesus that I love, the Jesus who died for me on Calvary, that Jesus, is waiting, mystically and wonderfully, in every person I meet. I find Jesus everywhere.” (Tony Campolo in an address at Prestatyn in the UK, 1988) . . . “I do not mean that others represent Jesus for us. I mean that Jesus actually is present in each other person.” . . . and  “That a new humanity will be brought forth from this Christ consciousness in each person.” (Tony Campolo “A Reasonable Faith” 1983 page 192 and 65.)

Thomas: If the cross of Jesus Christ is not the determining factor in making a true assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers, what would you say is the common denominator between Christians and believers of other faiths?

Tony: “Beyond these models of reconciliation, a theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God, which seem at odds with their own spiritual traditions but have much in common with each other.” (Tony Campolo, “Speaking My Mind,” Page 149).

” . . . .what can I say to an Islamic brother who has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked? You say, “But he hasn’t a personal relationship with Christ.” I would argue with that. And I would say from a Christian perspective, in as much as you did it to the least of these you did it unto Christ. You did have a personal relationship with Christ, you just didn’t know it.” (Tony Campolo EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

Thomas: I take it that this means that anyone can have a personal relationship with his wife without knowing it – a kind of incognitant, incognita relationship? Wouldn’t any woman be offended to find out that her husband has an intimate relationship with her but he doesn’t know it? I would like to suggest that Tony Campolo be introuduced to oom Angus Buchan who would tell him in no uncertain terms that you cannot possibly have a relaitonship with someone without knowing it.

Tony: “We cannot allow our theologies to separate us” (speaking on the relations between Muslims and Christians) (Tony Campolo EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne)

Thomas: Could you please elaborate a little more?

Tony: “What can we learn about that kind of spirituality that can help us find common ground? No theological statements were made, no compromising beliefs, no attempts to come to a common denominator. And yet, a kind of spiritual oneness.

That’s the place where we come together, in common need and common suffering, as we reach out to one another in love, leaving judgment in the hands of God, sharing out of our own faith. I mean the last thing we are asking in those times is—is your theology the same as mine?—and vice-versa. All of the sudden in the hour of suffering there is a commonality. And that’s where we meet. It’s in mystical spirituality and in communal mutuality that’s where we come together.”

“It seems to me that when we listen to the Muslim mystics as they talk about Jesus and their love for Jesus, I must say, it’s a lot closer to New Testament Christianity than a lot of the Christians that I hear. In other words if we are looking for common ground, can we find it in mystical spirituality, even if we cannot theologically agree, can we pray together in such a way that we connect with a God that transcends our theological differences?” (Tony Campolo, EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

Thomas: Am I correct in saying that the kind of prayers you refer to as being the catalyst for the different religions to find common ground and to connect to a God that transcends our theological differences are the contemplative or centering kinds of prayer?

Tony: “…during times of reflection I sensed that believing in Jesus and living out His teachings just wasn’t enough. There was a yearning for something more, and I found that I was increasingly spiritually gratified as I adopted older ways of praying—ways that have largely been ignored by those of us in the Protestant tradition. Counter-Reformation saints like Ignatius of Loyola have become important sources of help as I have begun to learn from them modes of contemplative prayer. I practice what is known as “centering prayer,” in which a sacred word is repeated as a way to be in God’s presence.”

“I’ve got to push everything out of mind save the name of Jesus. I say His name over and over again, for as long as fifteen minutes, until I find my soul suspended in what the ancient Celtic Christians called a “thin place”–a state where the boundary between heaven and earth, divine and human, dissolves. You could say that I use the name of Jesus as my koan.”
(Tony Campolo “Mystical Encounters for Christians” www.beliefnet.com)

Thomas: Are you suggesting that contemplative spirituality (centering prayer, labyrinths, lectio divina, meditation, etc.) is in the process of supplanting any religious doctrines, especially the Christian doctrine as we’ve come to know it since the time of Jesus’ apostles and does it conveniently put to death the warning of Jesus in Matthew 6:7 that  “. . . when ye pray, [we should not] use vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

Tony: “Today, some of the most spiritual people I know claim to be without religion.” (Tony Campolo “Mystical Encounters for Christians” www.beliefnet.com)

Thomas: I’m sure you will agree that the salvation of mankind is the most important doctrine there is and that all Christians are duty bound to uncompromisingly spread it far and wide so that people may be saved and go to heaven when they die?

Tony: “He saved us in order that He might begin to transform His world into the kind of world that He willed for it to be when He created it. … When Jesus saved us, He saved us to be agents of a great revolution, the end of which will come when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God” (Tony Campolo “It’s Friday but Sundays Coming”, page 106)

“Our call is to be God’s agents, to rescue not only the human race but the whole of creation.” (Tony Campolo TEAR TIMES, “Why care for creation?” 1992)

Thomas: Oh! and I’ve always thought, as I’ve learnt to believe since my Sunday School days, that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Isn’t that still God’s main priority today?

Tony: ” . . . Isn’t God’s message to sinful humanity that He sees in each of us a divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son so that our divine potentialities might be realized? . . . The hymn writer who taught us to sing “Amazing Grace” was all too ready to call himself a “wretch” . . .  Forgetting our divinity and over-identifying with our [Freudian] anal humanity . . . Erich Fromm, one of the most popular psychoanalysts of our time, recognized the diabolical social consequences that can come about when a person loses sight of his/her own divinity . . . ” (Tony Campolo “Partly Right” 1995.)

” . . . going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia . . . There are many ways . . . .It doesn’t make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place.” (Tony Campolo “Carpe Diem: Seize the Day”, 1994, pages 85-88)

Thomas: The hymn writer who called himself a wretch was in full agreement with what Paul once said: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is obvious that they had chosen to go on the same journey and to agree on matters of vital importance. Its a real pity that Paul and the hymn writer didn’t know of their own innate divine nature which was of such worth that God sacrificed His own Son so that their divine potentialities could be realized. Nonetheless, let us continue. If everyone is going to heaven, as you say, then hell which you admit exists, will only be occupied by Satan and his angels. Am I correct? Or should we rather remain faithful to the biblical doctrine of Jesus who said: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.” (Matthew 7:13 and 14). (Emphasis added)

Tony: We don’t have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don’t convert, they are God’s people, God loves them, and we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. (Tony Campolo, EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

What’s the point in trying to convert people to Jesus Christ when the unconverted are already God’s people? It more or less sounds like the woman who wanted to make a custard pie out of an already fully baked custard pie. Does that sound like an impossibility? You bet! It reminds me of Calvinists who preach the Gospel to people who by virtue of their total depravity are entirely incapable of understanding the Gospel and yet they continue to proclaim the Gospel because God has already predestined His elect before the foundation of the earth to go to heaven. A staunch Calvinist once said: “Jesus died on the cross for us who are going to heaven.” Although they wouldn’t admit it, it resembles your (Tony Campolo’s) assumption that we are so wonderfully worthy that He sacrificed His own Son for us on the cross. The only difference is that you proclaim that all people are worthy of Christ’s death on the cross (Universalism; syncretism) while the Calvinists avow that only the elect are worthy of his death (Monergism). What the man I quoted earlier actually said was not that Jesus Christ died on the cross because we are all hell deserving creatures (including the so-called elect) but that He only died for the elect who have been bound for heaven since time immemorial (or before the foundation of the earth). Wow, how much worthier than that can you get?

Anyway, thank you Tony. I’m sure your friends in the Moreleta Park DRC have a much clearer view of your beliefs. There’s just one last thing. If we all end up in the same place as you said and yet you simultaneously assert that we cannot make the judgement of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, where is this place we are all going to — heaven or hell? I agree that we cannot know who will eventually end up in hell because many people who are at present unrepentant may still repent and be saved. However, we can know that anyone who refuses to accept Jesus’ vicarious death on the cross as the only means for their redemption, will end up in hell if they remain unrepentant. Jesus said: “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

But wait a sec. The Moreleta Park DRC’s woes do not end with Tony Campolo. They have invited another false prophet, Bruce Wilkinson, to address them during their Pentecost services from 16-19 May this year. On the morning of 18 May he will be speaking on the subject of leadership and how to grow in the sphere of influence, and during five consecutive sermons he will speak on his new book “You were born for this.” As you may know he is famed for his very popular book “The Prayer of Jabez.”

One of today’s most popular buzz words in the world of psychology and sadly also in the church is “self-esteem” and many post-modern religious leaders who have come under the influence of men like Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller have gladly jumped onto this deceptive bandwagon. I use the word deceptive because the unbiblical doctrine of “self-esteem” has taken on new meaning with nice sounding expressions such as “God’s dream for you,” “miracle workers,” and “how to make friends and influence people.” The catch phrase “God’s dream for you” has become popular amongst believers as well as unbelievers.

Who does not want his personal dreams to come true? In fact, it is one of the major traits of man’s deceitful and desperately wicked heart (Jeremiah 117:9) to always want things to go his way. Indeed, it actually undermines the biblical truth that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). I have often wondered what today’s super apostles would do if they too had to be content with the dream (will) God had for Paul of Tarsus? “ . . . he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake (Acts 9:15).

If you truly love God with all your heart, soul and strength you will always be content with HIS PURPOSE for your life (not Rick Warren’s infamous and deceitful “Purpose Driven Life”). If it is his will for you to be cast in prison so that HE may reach a single prison ward for his Son Jesus Christ, He will do so. So what’s your big dream, fellow Christian? To become rich and prosperous? . . . to become a popular super televangelist? . . . to be a great miracle worker and healer of the sick? . . . to be one of the most influential Christians in your church and teach others how to pray a prayer that God ALWAYS answers? . . . to positively teach others how to be positively positive in all things? . . .  to incarnate Jesus Christ into all the cultures through your good philantropic work amongst the poor (aka the Emergent Church) so that YOU may bring God’s Kingdom on earth? . . . to transform the society by virtue of your puny little norms and values (aka Jannie Pelser of the Dutch Reformed Community Church in Rand and Dal, Krugersdorp)? Do you want to succeed in all these things? Don’t fret, its as easy as eating choclate icecream. Bruce will teach you how to pray his magical Jabez prayer and voila you will succeed at what you were born to do.

Jesus’ apostles who were martyred and put to death death and all the subsequent Christian martyrs who followed suit never needed to pray Bruce’s magical prayer so that they may accomplish their “dream of martyrdom.” It was done for them by God’s enemies. Think of that! They needn’t have done anything, let alone pray a prayer that Bruce says God always answers, to suceed at what they were born to do. No Bruce, the only thing they needed to do was to pray “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup (of suffering and martyrdom) from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Now don’t you listen to Benny Hinn whose supercharged anointed lips Satan and the Dragon from the deepest abyss manipulated to say: “Never ever, ever, go to the Lord and say ‘If it be thy will . . .’ Don’t allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth.” Nevertheless, we shouldn’t rock the Moreleta Park DRC boat too much because there are many of its congregants who just adore and worship Benny Hinn. This, at least seems to be standard procedure at the Moreleta Park DRC because the post modern garbage that we should not allow doctrine to divide poeple but rather unite them in love applies.

The children of God needn’t look to others and their popular books to find out what God’s dream (will) is for their lives. They only need to study the Word of God to know exactly what his will (dream) is. They only need to memorize and put into practice 1 Peter 1:16 to guide them on the right track for their spiritual journey: “You must be holy because I am holy.” Transformation or change in a child of God’s life can only be accomplished when he obeys God’s command in 1 Peter 1:16. And yet, contrary to God’s Word, Bruce Wilkinson has developed a new dream machine.

The journey toward your Big Dream changes you. In fact, the journey itself is what prepares you to succeed at what you were born to do. And until you decide to pursue your Dream, you are never going to love life the way you were meant to. (Bruce Wilkinson, “The Dream Giver,” Pages: 76)

Psycho babble? . . . Pop Psychology? No not really! Just plain nonsense. Have you noticed the phrases “your Big Dream changes you,” “what you were born to do,” and “to love life the way you were meant to?” If the dream you should follow is supposed to be God’s dream for your life, why does he call it “your big Dream?” Most people’s big dream is to become rich in the shortest possible time, drive the hottest and most recent car and to live in a house that outdoes that of their next door neighbour. You only have to visit the homes of the most successful and influential Word of Faith preachers to see what I mean. And of course, to accomplish your Big Dream you will obviously need a mantra which you can repeat over and over again so that you may visualize and realize your Big Dream. Here again Bruce has come to the rescue when he wrote his blockbuster book, “The Prayer of Jabez.” In the opening words to his book, the author writes:

Dear Reader, I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief  – only one sentence with four parts –and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God….

Thousands of believers who are applying its truths are seeing miracles happen on a regular basis. Will you join me for a personal exploration of Jabez? I hope you will! (Emphasis added)

Its a great pity that neither Jesus nor Paul knew of Jabez’s prayer because if they had they never would have prayed the way they did: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (He prayed it three times). Paul also prayed three times: “And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Ah but Bruce has found a prayer that God always answers, no matter who you are and what you have done. Not even sin in your life will prevent God from listening and answering your Jabez-prayer which completely and effectively cancels out God’s warning in Isaiah 59: 1 and 2: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Do you remember the verse I quoted from Isaiah earlier? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”? How, you may ask, are Bruce Wilkinson and his followers (including the Moreleta Park DRC) dodging God’s Word? First of all his statement that “your big Dream changes you” is grossly unscriptural. If it were possible for your big dream to change you then each and everyone’s personal big dream, of which there may be millions, are capable of changing you equally well. If, for instance, my big dream and my wife’s big dream differ, whose big dream is the better one too change us? However, when a single criterion from God becomes the universal yardstick for change then all the other manmade models (such as your big dream) are all null and void. They mean nothing. Is there such a criterion from God? Well I should think so when we look at Romans 12:2:

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Your own big dream automatically tends to conform you to this world system which is bent on success, wealth, prosperity and a bright future. God’s will or dream for believers does not necessarily include these things as we’ve already seen in His dream for Paul of Tarsus (John 16:33; Acts 14:22). Has Bruce Wilkinson together with the many pastors of the Moreleta Park DRC ever included suffering for Christ and his Word in their big dreams? Neither did Paul but he humbly and worshipfully submitted him to God’s dream without ever having to pray the prayer of Jabez. When God told Ananias to tell Paul “this is my dream for you” he didn’t protest and say, “I had something more congenial and benevolent in mind. Wouldn’t you consider making a slight alteration in your dream to suit mine?”

“The phrase “what you were born to do” and the title of his book “You were born for this” is an extension of Robert Schuller’s “possibility thinking” and “big dream” dreams. In the introduction to his YouTube publicity video he says that “GOD wants to use YOU to do miracles. EVERY DAY . . .” Who is the YOU in his book? To present us with a biblical answer we first need to say with unequivocal certainty that all people are born but not all people are born again. Do you, as I, sense the ecumenical serpent slithering in through the back door?

It is quite evident that Bruce Wilkinson wants to include all people and not only Bible believing Christians in his army of miracle workers. This alone immediately poses a huge problem. Having admitted that God alone can do miracles, the implication is that only those who have received God (the Holy Spirit) in their innermost being through the new birth can be the delivery persons or facilitators of God’s miracles to other people. Nah! humbug! you may say. God is capable of using anyone, even people of other faiths, to deliver his miracles. Yes indeed, God is all-powerful and can use whomsoever He wills; He even uses Satan sometimes as the book of Job so eloquently proves.

Be that as it may, the question is not whether He can or cannot use unbelievers; the overriding question is whether He would use them as facilitators of His miracles when they themselves are in need of the greatest miracle in the entire universe – the new birth in and through Jesus Christ? You see, the carnal crave after miracles most often prevents unbelievers from finding and experiencing redemption in and through Jesus Christ. In stead of leading unbelievers to Jesus Christ, these so-called miracles present them to a false Jesus (demonic entity) whose main aim it is to destroy their lives. A case in point is another blockbuster book called A Course in Miracles. Many readers testify that they have encountered Jesus Christ through “A Course in Miracles”  . . . but who is this Jesus in reality? The following excerpt comes from an article the ex-New Ager, Warren Smith, wrote here.

New age leader Marianne Williamson claims that a number of years ago, after a “nervous breakdown” and in the midst of her study of A Course in Miracles, she met “Jesus.” One night she said she felt the presence of “Jesus” by her bed. “I was not normal and I knew it,” she said. Not understanding the deceptive spirit world and the importance of testing the spirits, she started talking to the presence that she assumed was the real Jesus:

“So I said to Jesus, ‘Look, if you can give me back my life, if you can restore me somehow, then I will do whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life.’ Like people make a pact with the devil, I made a pact with Jesus.” (1)

Williamson’s career skyrocketed after her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles was enthusiastically endorsed by Oprah Winfrey on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Williamson has been an internationally recognized New Age/new gospel leader ever since.

She and Neale Donald Walsch co-founded The Global Renaissance Alliance—which includes many prominent New Age leaders—to further the New Age teachings that would soon be alternately described as the “New Spirituality.” The “Jesus” that Williamson follows is the false New Age “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles, not the real Jesus of the Bible.

Once again I would like to draw your attention to God’s word in Amos 3:3: “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?” The apostate church is increasingly walking in agreement with New Agers, especially when you consider the who’s who list of speakers invited to address their churches. Robert Schuller, our Hour-of-Power-Chrystal-Cathedral veteran and disciple of the 33rd degree Freemason Norman Vincent Peale, had no qualms whatsoever to invite Gerald Yampolsky to be the guest speaker at his church on 17 October 2004. According to Warren Smith the entire series of books written by Yampolsky are based on “A Course in Miracles.” Schuller sang the praises of all of Yampolsky’s “fabulous works” on his TV show “Hour of Power” and even boasted that some of Yampolsky’s books were for sale at their bookstore. Schuller even hosted “A Course in Miracles” study groups in his church for some time. What doctrines do A Course in Miracles teach?

• Jesus is not God incarnate but merely “an elder brother entitled to respect for his greater experience.” The Jesus of the Course explains, “There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you. I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other” (A Course In Miracles, Vol. 1, p. 5).
• “There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left. But there is need for help beyond yourself as you are circumscribed by false beliefs of your Identity, which God alone established in reality.” Helpers are given you in many forms. There names are legion, but we will not go beyond the names the course itself employs. The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. “Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusion. Jesus became what all of you must be”. (Thus Jesus was nothing but a mortal man with the Christ consciousness like any other man to demonstrate that the world is only an illusion [the Hindu word is “Maya”]). One of the Course’s main purposes is to “teach the Course’s reinterpretations of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering, forgiveness, Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion” (Foundation for A Course In Miracles, “Forgiveness,” p. 4).
• As the Course declares, no one has left Heaven. We are all presently and in reality still in the presence of God, but we have created this illusionary World that is supposedly separated from God through sin and rebellion from “. . . false perceptions. It is born of error, and it has not left its source”. Because Man believes he is separated from God, through his own ego and mistaken beliefs, Man has created the reality in which he now finds himself. “The effect of the ego’s belief in separation, which is its cause; the thought of separation given form; the world, being the expression of the belief in time and space, was not created by God. . . . The World of separation reinforces the ego’s belief in sin and guilt, perpetuating the seeming existence of this world” (Glossary-Index For A Course In Miracles, p. 168).
• “Once an individual has been caught in the world of perception he is caught in a dream. He cannot escape without help, because everything his senses show him merely witnesses to the reality of the dream.” (A Course In Miracles: What Is It?, p. 7). If the world is merely an illusion then everything you do in your physical body is also but an illusion. Hence the doctrines of sin and the consequences of sin (death) is also merely an illusion. “. .  sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause” (p. 179). A similar claim is made on death’s behalf. “Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem” (Vol. 3, p. 63). (Emphasis added)

Where does Bruce Wilkinson fit into this cacophony of lies, deceit and treachery? Well, to begin with, he is an ardent admirer of Robert Schuller  who just loves to promulgate Gerald Yamposky’s miracles. Here is how he sings the praises of Robert Schuller during an Hour of Power binge on April 24, 2005:

I love this church. I love being here. I love walking on this property. I just felt like I was one step away from heaven when I came on this property this morning. I read a book this [Mair's] past week. Somebody gave it to me, and it traced the past fifty years of Christianity in America and it began to talk about how the transition occurred in our country that eventually led to seeker service, it led to Rick Warren, it led to Bill Hybels and Willow [Creek]. And do you know this book – you probably haven’t even seen it yet – this book brought all that back to a person who said this was the grandfather of it all who influenced this person, this person, and this person and from that it became the massive movement it is today. And the person that they named in the book was none other than the pastor of this church. That’s amazing ladies and gentlemen! Truly amazing! It is truly amazing! Yes! [The congregation gives Schuller a standing ovation] You know it’s only if you are a visionary do you know the price tag it takes to be the real leader, I mean way out front on the edge. People like to shoot people on the edge. (2)

What does Bruce Wilkinson’s “one step from heaven” look like?

• It is permeated with the positive thoughts of Norman Vincent Peale who said:

“There is, as I see it, nothing like Masonry. It is unique in its fellowship which spreads over much of the earth, in addition to our own country.  Moreover, this in-depth fellowship spans the years, even the centuries, running back into antiquity. To me it means a personal relationship with great historical personalities and, taken by and large, also with about the finest body of men whom it is possible to assemble anywhere”. (Peale in the Introduction to “Freemasonry, A Celebration of the Craft,”)

• It is defiled with the teachings of Freemasonry who says amongst many other things, the following:

“When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the Mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands” (Manly Hall, 33rd degree Mason, in Lost Keys of Freemasonry page 48).

“Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God.  . . .  Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil”. (Albert Pike, 33rd degree Mason, Grand Commander, and author of Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, in his Instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the World on July 14, 1889)

• It is permeated with the ill-founded and ungodly beliefs of Robert Schuller:

“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition”. (Robert Schuller, in Time magazine, March 18, 1985)

The most effective mantras employ the “M” sound. You can get the feel of it by repeating the words, “I am, I am,” many times over…. Transendental Meditation or TM… is not a religion nor is it necessarily anti-Christian. (“Peace of Mind Through Possibility Thinking,” pp. 131-32)

“The classical interpretation of this teaching of Christ on ‘bearing our cross’ desperately needs reformation….”

“The cross Christ calls us to bear will be offered as a dream . . . an inspiring idea that would incarnate itself in a form of ministry that helps the self-esteem-impoverished persons to discover their self-worth through salvation and subsequent social service in our Savior’s name . . . “

“So the proclamation of possibility thinking is the positive proclamation of the cross! . . .”

“Christ was the world’s greatest possibility thinker. Do we dare follow him?” (“Self-Esteem,” pp. 22, 117-19)

Are these the “birds of a feather that flock together” the Moreleta Park DRC likes to be associated with? Are these the men with whom they are prepared to go on a spiritual journey? The question remains:

Is the Moreleta Park DRC a Christian Church? Hardly, when you take into account the people they invite to speak at their church.

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(1) Elena Oumano, Marianne Williamson: Her Life, Her Message, Her Miracles (New York: St. Martin’s Press: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1992), p. 91–92.

(2) Hour of Power, April 24, 2005. Bruce Wilkinson speaking at the Crystal Cathedral. Transcribed by author. No longer available online on Hour of Power website. (Note: Some of the actual comments made by Wilkinson in the telecast were changed or omitted from the edited Hour of Power online transcript.)