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Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

Month: July 2013 (Page 1 of 10)

The Ecstasy of Deception

July 23, 2013 / / 1 Comment

There is one undeniable truth concerning the final and great deception and apostasy.  Millions of people first become cold, subsequently deceived, and consequently apostate.  God’s word is clear that there is little hope of salvation for these individuals in their final state.  Paul declares that God will send them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie and be damned.  The reason for the delusion is because they refused to receive love for the truth.  At this very moment, millions of people not only have no love for truth, but they have developed love for falsehood.  I have observed congregations listening to incredible liars and the experience fills them with ecstasy.  They laugh, shout, and become nearly hysterical as the heretic plays them like a mad fiddler.  Further, they become angry at anyone attempting to tell them the truth. 

In order to understand why so many people are succumbing to major heresies, one factor must be considered.  Surrendering to heresy actually induces pleasure.  The definition of pleasure is; a state of sensual gratification or indulgence; the state of feeling or being pleased; enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking;happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria.  This could identify ones mental and emotional state during and after a charismatic meeting by one of the leading heretics.  It can also identify ones mental condition after performing contemplative prayer or any of the other pagan practices that are presently invading Christianity.  Therefore, if a professing Christian intends to base his or her judgment of a doctrine or practice solely on the fact that it brings him or her pleasure, then that individuals philosophy can be summed up as, “if it feels good, do it”.  That is a dangerous philosophy for judging whether or not someone or something is of God.  For such people, all the validation they need to accept a heresy is sensationalism and a sprinkling of misinterpreted scriptures taken out of context. 

What is manifesting in meetings led by heretics is a strong inflaming of the fleshly spirit.  This fact becomes clear when one considers the manifestations of the Kundaleni spirit are observed in many of those meetings.  Some discerning individuals refer to the Kundalini spirit as a false Holy Spirit. Pleasure is poured into the emotional system by the demon spirit until the recipient reaches the state of ecstasy.  Ecstasy is the epitome of pleasure.  It occurs the moment tha pleasure completely saturates and overwhelms the emotional system. 

Webster’s Dictionary defnes ecstasy as, “a state of being beyond reason and self-control; a state of overwhelming emotion; especially rapturous delight.”  

Many individuals that show up at charismatic meetings conducted by modern heretics are expecting ecstasy.  They shake their heads violently, thrash their bodies about on the floor, howl like animals, exhibit drunkenness, stagger about in uncontrollable laughter, and manifest other symptoms of demon possession.  They obviously are not feeling pain.  Further, they are not feeling depressed, sad, worry, fear, or any such angst.  What they are experiencing the greatest degree of pleasure…ecstasy.

Pleasure is not a bad emotion.  In fact, God gives us pleasure in Him and in the things that He allows us to do and possess on this earth.  One of the verses that describe ecstasy in the Lord was written by Peter. 

Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, (1 Peter 1:8 NKJV) 

However, many modern Christians have decided it is proper to get their pleasure and ecstasy from another source.  They are reluctant to drink from the fountain of God because it includes conditions that they are not willing to agree to.  Therefore, they have turned to the broken cisterns of paganism and the world system.  There they can drink pleasure unto ecstasy without the conditions of being fully submitted to the lordship of God Almighty.

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13

Satan found a respective mass of professing Christians when he began his last days trust of deception.   Most of them have a church background, but have probably never experienced pleasure (much less ecstasy) in a church meeting.  So dry and unspiritual are most churches that the joy of the Lord has long been absent.  They have no intention of returning to dry and unspiritual religion.  Additionally, under the tutelage of their ecstasy junkies, they will throw out much of the doctrine that they received while in the joyless churches.  It is not all bad doctrine.  It is simply doctrine that was delivered and  possessed with little or no passion.

Consequentially, they are as addicted to ecstasy as a drug addict is addicted to crack cocaine.  I don’t believe it to be a stretch to compare the addiction to ecstasy as addiction to illicit drugs.  One experiences ecstasy when smoking crack cocaine.  In fact, one of the most popular and addictive street drugs is called Ecstasy.  Just as there are dangerous consequences for addiction to illicit drugs, there are spiritually disastrous consequences from experimenting with ecstasy provided by heretics.  For one thing addiction is instant.  It is immediately followed by a soul binding and blinding deception.  

Someone might accuse me of advocating stoic and austere Christianity void of all emotion.  Not true.  As I have previously stated, there is unbridled joy in the Lord.  What I am pointing out the fact that one must have more and better criterion than emotion to judge the spiritual worthiness of a doctrine or practice.  However, we live in a generation that has been raised on sensationalism from their first cartoon to the steady stream of drama, comedy, sports, and reality television programs.  This thirst for sensationalism has spilled into the church.  No wonder that a complete charlatan can present sensational performances on YouTube, and a star is born (ala John Crowder) in modern Christianity.  Other heretics search the Internet for quotes and other information to plagiarize so that they appear to be deeply connected to God.  They mix truth with heresy, add their sensational antics, and it seems that most professing Christians have no clue.  As long as they can get their fix of ecstasy from the false Holy Spirit they are content to surrender their souls to the heretics.  That source of ecstasy has no conditions, no requirement to live godly, and is a broken cistern contaminated with paganism.

Sensationalism alone is a sure path to deception.  I have observed over 35 years of Christianity that most deceived people go from one heretic to another attempting to feed their thirst for sensationalism and addiction to ecstasy.  However, the pleasure of sin is only for a season.  Eventually, the season will to an end.  At that point many of them become disillusioned or bitter, and some will abandon Christianity altogether.  Other ones move on to another popular heretic or become involved in openly pagan religions.  What they all should realize is that the great endtimes deception is different.  Instead of becoming disillusioned or venturing into paganism, the deceived masses will be lured deeper into deception to the point of delusion.  Additionally, they will not have to leave Christianity to find paganism because the final deception is a blend of Christianity and paganism.  In my opinion, Contemplative Spirituality is the key to that blend.  Professing Christians who practice Contemplative Prayer are on the slippery slope to the great delusion.

We are in the final chapter of the long history of the world system.  Every discerning Christian knows very well that the final great deception and apostasy has now arrived.  Heretics are attempting to marginalize every warning with statements that make the watchmen and truth speakers appear to be naive, unspiritual, or judgmental.  They insist that the godly souls who are warning the masses are frivolous and ignorant individuals that are not enlightened or that have not been elevated to the higher dimension.  Individuals hooked on the ecstasy of deception do not need much justification to continue their indulgence.  The heretic will offer an occasional small nugget of truth and the deceived masses will hold it up triumphantly as if it is a compendium of validation for their supplier.  

I must be honest and blunt here.  There is no substitute for God’s word.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit is an essential deterrent to deception.  Being enamored by and obsessed with individuals that claim special status with God will lead to unhealthy dependency.  It’s all about God and not us.  Every true believer ought to have his or her own unmitigated relationship with God.  Drifting away from that truth is a dangerous mistake in this day of many demons and dark schemes.     

 

Are we living in the last days?

July 21, 2013 / / 4 Comments

Are we living in the last days?

C. H. Fisher

(This was written in 2001.  It may be relevant today since Thomas Merton’s Buddhist beliefs and practices, namely Contemplative Spirituality, has invaded Christianity.)

The stunning horror and reality of the September11th terrorist attacks on our nation jarred most Americans to the core of their soul.  As a result, many Christians and non-Christians have been asking if we are living in the last days before the coming of Jesus Christ.  There seems to be two lines of reasoning in answering this and other eschatological concerns.  Some people respond from the premise that America needs to be reassured, not frightened, during this difficult time.  The other response is to declare that our nation is being judged because of rabid wickedness in the secular realm and apostate rebellion in the religious sector.  If the latter is true, then soothing the fears of people who need to repent is not the answer.

We must examine the facts to formulate an appropriate response to the last-days question.  First of all, let’s consider that the Scriptures prophesy a one-world government and religion will emerge in the last days before Christ’s coming (Rev. 13).  The present global unity has been coalescing for years involving various secular and religious organizations.  It has surfaced now because of the attack on America.   Many present and former heads of state along with major religious figures attended Mikhail Gorbachev’s summits on one-world global government.   It is interesting to note that at one conference Gorbachev declared that communism did not fail, it just neglected to include religion. He went on to explain that the world needs a new communism with a new religion.  The participants at the summit were repeatedly informed that the Judeo-Christian worldview must be replaced by a fresh set of inclusive universal values, “the wisdom distilled by all faiths,” in other words, a one-world religion.  Recently, the United Nations formed the United Religions structured on Buddhism and headquartered at the UN building in New York City.  That brings us to the role of Christianity in the aftermath of this tragedy. 

After past tragedies, Christianity has stepped to the forefront to deal with America’s grief and answer the hard questions.  Noticeably, except for the memorial service featuring Rev. Billy Graham as the key religious speaker, this time Christianity has been pushed into the background. Instead, we watched a parade of Hollywood stars, secular recording artists, and united religions at the major events.  On Friday after the tragedy, for the first time ever, Rev. Billy Graham preached the gospel to the whole world at once.  There is a biblical prophecy that the gospel must be preached to the entire world before the coming of Christ.  Whether Rev. Graham fulfilled this prophecy or not I will leave to the theologians and experts to debate.  But what caught my attention was the event called “A Prayer for America” held in Yankee Stadium on Sunday, September 23rd.  We may have very well been viewing one-world religion in a power climb to prominence and dominance in American society. The list of participants could have been taken from the membership of the Parliament of World Religions. Many religions that are antithetical to Christianity were represented including Islam and Hindu.  Some of the speakers declared rather forcefully that there is one god.  However, the Christian God is not the god worshipped by many of the individuals at that event, including the various neo-pagan and earth-centered religions.  I must love the followers of these belief systems and absolutely will not treat them harsh or hateful, but I have a Christian duty to inform them that their god is not my God.  He draws all people to Himself through Jesus Christ and none other.

In light of these things, another popular question must be answered.  That is, did God withdraw His hand of protection from America on September 11th as a last day’s wake-up call?  I can only respond that if God was protecting the WTC and Pentagon, then the terrorists overwhelmed His protecting hand.  I certainly cannot accept that conclusion.  The only question remains is why God may have allowed (not caused) this devastation to occur.  Let’s consider the spiritual state of our nation here.  America has wandered into a cavernous depression of wickedness and rejection of God.  Homosexuality and abortion have become respectable and even controlling influences in our country.  The flood of immorality, violence and sheer demonic themes in the music and film industries are overwhelming our senses.  Greed, crass materialism, and the pursuit of every form of illicit pleasure, along with wanton blasphemy oozing from the human spirit, have saturated our society. Godly virtues have been skewered on a lance of political correctness and roasted over the fires of militant hatred of Christ. Can we count on protection from the law when we break the law?  Why should we expect God to protect our nation when it is so callused and hard that we allow and even fund such atrocities as a crucifix dipped in urine presented as a form of art?

But some may protest that we are a Christian nation and God must protect us.  My response is many Christians profess what they do not possess and that our churches have become cold and formal. Pastors who preach against this invasion of wickedness are rejected and branded as hate-mongers in a complete defacement of the term “hate.”  However, the heroes of our society can say any vulgar word and commit every immoral deed with no loss of acclaim or respect.  Every Sunday, many professing Christians gorge on a plethora of sports and worship their unregenerate stars while worshipping God is crammed into what’s left of the time.  In fact, worship has been redefined as sitting on a pew and true prayer has become a lost art.  Hypocrisy and apostasy are at epidemic proportions as multitudes of professing Christians flirt with the world system and sin.  Christianity has also become inundated with liberalism and New Age religion disguised as new revelation and fresh vision. Just consider what is replacing Christianity and we can easily see the degree of its weakness.  President Bush stated that Islam was the fastest growing religion in America.  That’s not quite correct.  It is the fastest growing religion in the world, but Witchcraft, also called Wicca, is the fastest growing religion in America.

Thus we can see that for the most part we Americans, both religious and secular, have become desensitized to the rising flood waters of evil.  Like the proverbial frog in the pot, we cannot sense the malignant wickedness and spiritual decay because it has been advancing in such small increments.  Now we seem blind to the imminent devastation that befalls every nation who rejects God (Jer.18). But whether or not we are in the last days should not make any difference to our state of preparedness.  America faces an ominous future with or without terrorism and the declared war on terrorism will matter.  My best advice to anyone is to accept Jesus Christ as the only true Lord and Savior and to serve the only true God Almighty as presented by the Holy Bible. It is also time for Christians to repent and return to being the influence of Christ to a lost, dying and decaying society and the world in general. Our security must not be based on the might of our military and the power of our technology.  I intend to take my refuge in the peace of God, not in the crumbling fortress of humanity and certainly not in aberrant religions or their false gods.        

      



 

True Christianity

July 21, 2013 / / 2 Comments

True Christianity

June 15, 2011 at 10:58pm

     I was talking to a man about Christianity when he pointed to a large church building and asked, “What do they do in there?  I see them go in and come out, but I don’t see them do anything else.”  I was stunned.  After all, he was an astute individual, a lettered man.  So I assumed he would know about church meetings.  However, I have arrived at the realization that many non-Christians, and even professing Christians, do not know what Christianity truly is.  Nowadays, when you ask someone if he or she is a Christian they usually respond by telling you the title of the church building they meet in.  “Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.” (G.K. Chesterton)  I’m convinced that were they to be informed, many professing Christians would consider true Christianity offensive and reject it.  Someone once said that modern Christians are so subnormal that if they ever became normal they would be considered abnormal.  At the risk of sounding “preachy” I want to explain what True Christianity is.

To begin with, I point out the fact that the term “Christian” is now so loosely defined and applied that it has been expanded to include just about everyone who desires to appropriate it.  The only criterion for claiming the term appears to be the act of claiming the term.  As a result, it has lost its distinction.  People who have no intention of accepting the Lordship of Christ or in any way conforming their lives to God’s will glibly apply “Christian” to their religious status. It is a common belief that no one has the right to challenge such a declaration no matter how lacking in evidence the professor may be.  Imagine if that were to occur with all terms and titles.  Suppose people were to go about declaring themselves medical doctors, lawyers, or police officers, with no other qualifications but their claims.  If Christianity is subjected to such an unreasonable rule then it is defenseless against everything that could potentially destroy it.  In fact, that is what has happened to Christianity.  There are few distinctive qualities left in the religion.  The secular world despises it and Satan does not fear it.  Sadly, many people who profess Christianity have got God wrapped up, boxed in, and shrunken down to an insignificant asterisk in their lives.  When it comes to choosing between paying the price to identify with Christ, or being an incognito Christian in public, they choose the latter.  They may have enough faith to enter a church building, but not nearly enough to enter God’s presence.

However, let’s counter the false notion that unlike vocations there should be no standard for determining true Christianity.  In fact there is a clear and definitive standard in the Bible.  No matter how people abuse the term, Christian still essentially means “follower of Jesus Christ”.  True Christianity is very simply the practice of following the example of Christ Jesus.  It has mutated into a religion that makes simple things complicated.  The result is millions of high maintenance, low impact professors that cling to the title while ignoring its implications.  A true Christian must do more than pay lip service to Christ. The Spirit of Christ must possess an individual with the resulting evidence.  The evidence is called “fruit”, which is the product of a person’s true nature.  Christ said that the difference between fraudulent and genuine Christians is that the former produces bad “fruit” and the latter good “fruit”.  The “fruit” of a genuine Christian should be the same “fruit” that flows from the nature of Christ.  It is expressed in the workplace, the marketplace, the neighborhood, and in every other avenue of life one moves in.  Christianity is the light of pure love and truth shining from souls endued with power from God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and who are fearless but compassionate disseminators of the nature of Christ.

The fact is true Christianity has been obscured by the vast number of different versions, the greater part not agreeing with God’s word.  One could declare that many of these versions are based on the word of God and not be completely wrong.  However, they are based on God’s word like different colors can have the same base color.  As other colors are added, the color mutates from its original hue and becomes something entirely different.  One cannot call yellow white just because there is white in the base.  Likewise, one cannot call those versions true Christianity when colors of secularism, sexual perversion, pop psychology, cults, and even the occult, have been mixed in.  Additionally, multitudes practice Churchianity, which is the ritual of attending meetings with ends in themselves.  They hide themselves in the masses that make their weekly (or less) pilgrimage to a church building.  There they listen to either dry lectures or attempt to siphon spirituality vicariously from whoever is in the pulpit.

The truth is, God does not want or need our stuff or our rituals with all the religious trappings.  He does not want or need our frivolous attempts to purchase His love. He does not take joy in our dry church attendance, our half-hearted genuflection, or bland hymn singing. Unless we are crying out for His fire to fall in our souls, God does not accept our fleshly temples filled with the smoke of faith’s dying embers. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, did not visit this earth and die just so that we could have church meetings.  He gave specific instructions about what His followers should do.  They should bring souls into His kingdom, and help them to become productive followers of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a game that where everyone makes up his or her own rules.  It is a life and death struggle between good and evil.  If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we should emulate Him.  Christ declared that His followers are the light of the world.  That light should not attempt to shine only on Sunday morning, but at all times.

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