The State of Christianity

The State of Christianity

When I write about Christianity or read what someone else has written, I find myself thinking about how impossible it is to fully inform someone about the state of affairs in Christianity.  An example is like describing college to someone that has never been to first grade.  It would take a large amount of information that most people would not sit still for.  However, if I reduced it down to a few paragraphs, the presentation would be too weak to alarm anyone.  For example, we are in the last days, the great deception, delusion, and apostasy has finally arrived, and multitudes have been lured into its great vortex.  The consequence of ignoring this period and the rapidly changing status of Christianity is to become a casualty.  It is an eternal consequence.  You could lose your soul.

There, does that alarm anyone?  I think not many.  I have to add facts, and that is where it gets ponderous and mindboggling.  I must begin with the fact that a number of the major denominations are succumbing to New Age influence.  The door was cracked open by the Word of Faith Movement and the undisciplined and unaccountable Charismatic Movement.  After years of a steady stream of heresy and fostering a cavalier attitude toward God and His kingdom, the Seeker Friendly Movement arrived.  That morphed into the Emerging Church, which is now called the Emergent Church.  The Emergent Church is nearly synonymous with the New Age Movement.  Heresy and paganism with its rituals is flowing unhindered through the Emergent Church into main stream Christianity.  Clothed with Christian symbolism, terms and phrases, it has crept into nearly every denomination.  Additionally, there is a huge effort to bring Christianity into ecumenism with all religions.  The stated goal of Emergent leaders is to unite all religions under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.  The vehicle of this unity is the Spiritual Formation Movement and its main component Contemplative Prayer.  Spiritual Formation involves gurus, called spiritual directors that are trained in eastern mysticism.   It would take a very large book to present all the details, the players involved in the plot to destroy Christianity, and the spiritual climate that allowed it to occur.

How bad is the situation?  It is beyond critical mass.  If I laid all the facts out it would appear as bizarre as if I declared that a space ship had landed in the town square and aliens are handing out autographs.  The list of individuals involved reads like a “Who’s Who” in Christianity and the New Age Movement.  Many leaders of mega churches and denominational leaders appear to make no distinction between the two onetime nemeses’.  It is easier to list the major figures that are not involved in the apostasy than to list the ones who are.  In the opinion of many discerning individuals, if something doesn’t halt this spread of diabolical heresy Christianity is finished.  However, the same individuals do not believe that it can be turned around; that it is too far gone to salvage.  Some churches and denominations have gone beyond the heresy and paganism to embrace hedonism.  Some leaders have blasphemed God and the Holy Spirit with their audacious statements concerning His righteousness and Gospel.

Why don’t we know about it?  The answer is because the apostasy is occurring from the top down.  Some of the leaders who opposed it have been marginalized, ostracized, and even excommunicated from their denominations.  This has put fear into the hearts of the rest.  They fear losing their positions and pastorates, or having to find secular jobs to survive economically, and losing their minister’s benefits.  Thus, they step into pulpits each Sunday and act as if nothing is going on.  The more dutiful pastors will teach from literature sent to them by the denomination for the purpose of indoctrinating the laity to accept the apostasy.  By the time the laity discovers what has occurred, it will be too late to do anything about it but leave their churches.   The truth is that there are millions of people meeting every Sunday across this nation that are unaware of what is about to occur and are totally unprepared for it.

Can we do anything at all to stop it?  I don’t believe it can be stopped.  All that is left at this point is to pray and prepare ourselves for the arrival of the rapidly approaching storm.  It has been described by some as an avalanche devouring everything in its past.  I view it as a massive off-the-scale tornado large enough to sweep over the entire world.  Most professing Christians are not prepared because they have put too much trust in a pastor to protect them from everything evil.  They are too caught up in the affairs of this life to gather knowledge for themselves.  They are spiritual anemic, prayerless, unknowledgeable, and unprepared.  Their ears are dull of hearing and they have no spiritual sight.  Their appetite for truth is at a dangerously low level.  Other ones that have gotten wind of the diabolical storm are in denial, resorting to the old cop out of giving the heretical leaders the “benefit of the doubt” and “touch not mine anointed”.  They will continue to do that until their movement or denomination melts into the coming one-world religion.  It adds up to the fact that most professing Christians are completely off guard.  They see no purpose of having more than the modicum of spirituality they need to get through each day.  However, most of them barely struggle through any day that gives them the smallest increase of inconvenience.  How are they going to survive when hit with a diabolical storm that has the propensity to crush the faith of the very elect? 

What can we do to survive?  Survival depends on focusing on the eternal realm.  Paul described it as setting your mind on things above, and not on things below (Colossians 3:2).  One may not have the ability to recognize the works of darkness in the temporal realm if he or she is not living in harmony with God.  You must know God’s word for yourself, not just what someone tells you that it means.  It is essential to get informed.  Not only do you need to know about heresies that are invading Christianity, you need to know the ones who are propagating them.  Remember what Christ declares in Matthew 24:24, that the deception would be very clever.  Consider that the apostle Paul declared, 

^“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 NKJV). 

If we are warned about an incredible period of deception, an atmosphere so thick with deception of every possible type, including extremely powerful and deceptive false miracles, should we not be knowledgeable, alert, discerning, and able to defend ourselves?  Each professing Christian ought to ask him or herself if what his or her status is at the present. 

Finally, you need to know who the deceivers are.  I cannot list all the people that, in my opinion, are spreading very deceptive and dangerous heresy, but here are a few.  First, I want to state a couple of qualifiers.  If you are already deceived, this list will anger you.  Some of the people on the list are condoning the heresy.  Because of their position of great influence, their assent to heresy has the potential to adversely affect many people.  Other ones have written books that amount to a path to deception.  There are also teachers, preachers, pastors, prophets, and a whole host of mystics and even New Age gurus on the list.  All of them claim to be Christians and all insist that God supports their heresy.

List of Individuals Supporting Heresy:

A.   Arnott, John

B.   Bell, Rob; Barton, Ruth Haley; Bentley, Todd; Brown, Rodney Howard; Babbs, Loz; Blanchard, Ken; Borg, Marcus; Boyd, Gregory; Burke, Spencer; Burns, Jim; Basham, Don;

C.   Copeland, Kenneth and Gloria; Cho, Paul Yonggi; Crouch, Paul and Jan; Cain, Paul; Crowder, John; Clarke, Randy; Cerello, Morris; Cerello, David; Collins, Jill; Crabb, Larry; Compolo, Tony; Colson, Chuck; Coates, Gearld; Camping, Harold; Clement, Kim;

D.   Dye, Colin; Detrick, Jodie;Duplantis, Jesse; Deere, Jack; Drucker, Peter; Dupree, Max;

E.   Erre, Mike; Engle, Lou; Edwards, Gene; Edwards, Tilden;

F.    Foster, Richard; Ford, Leighton; Fox, Matthew;

G.   Griffin, Emile; Gumbel, Nickey; Girt, Ken; Greig, Pete;

H.   Hinn, Benny; Hagan, Kenneth; Hill, Steve; Hybels, Bill; Hirch, Alan; Hickey, Marilyn: Hayford, Jack; Hagee, John; Hinkle, John;I.    

J.    Jakes, T. D.; Jacobs, Cindy; Joyner, Rick; Jones, Tony; Jones, Bob; Jones, Alan; Jones, Lauri Beth; Jordan, Benard; Johnson, Jan; Jordan, Manasseh; Joshua, T. B.; Jeremiah, David;

K.   Kilpatrick, John; Kidd, Sue Monk; King, Patricia; Keating, Thomas; Kreeft, Peter; Keating, James;

L.    Lamb, Joni and Marcus; Long, Eddie; Lucado, Max; Liardon, Roberts; Larson, Bob;

M.  Merton, Thomas; Moore, Beth; McLaren, Brian; Murdock, Mike; Myers, Joyce; Manning, Brennan; McCracken, Brett, McManus, Erwin; Miller, Don; Moreland, J. P.; Murray, Arnold;

N.   Nouwen, Henri;

O.   Osteen, Joel;

P.    Prince, Joseph; Parsley, Rod; Price, Fredrick; Paulk, Earl; Pagitt, Doug; Prince, Derrick; Pearson, Carlton; Peterson, Eugene H.; Pennington, M. Basil; Postema, Don;Q.  

R.   Robbins, Maggie and Duffy; Roberts, Oral (and Richard); Robinson, James; Robertson, Pat; Rohr, Richard; Reinhold, Judge; Reinhold, Amy;

S.   Scotland, John; Schuller, Robert (and son Robert Jr.); Sweet, Leonard; Stone, Perry; Stewart, Don; Shaw, Gwen; Sklar, Maurice; Smith, James Bryan; Sittser, Gerald L.;

T.    Tilton, Robert; Thomas, Gary; Tenney, Tommy; Thompson, Francis;U.   ;

V.   VosKamp, Ann;

W.  Willard, Dallas; Winfry, Opra; Warren, Rick; Wood, George; White, Paula; Wilber, Ken; Webber, Robert; Winner, Lauren; Wilkinson, Bruce;X.  

Y.    Young, William Paul; Young, Jane J.; Yancey, Phillip;

Z.   Zuercher, Suzanne

I’m certain that I have left some significant people off the list, and I may add to it in the future.  But the list is complete enough that one can recognize that depth and scope of the deception.  There are also heads of Denominations, Christian Organizations, and Ministries, that are condoning and even promoting Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Prayer.  J. P. Moreland supports Contemplative Spirituality.  J. I. Packer signed the heretical and unequally yoked “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium.”  Max Lucado supports and actively promotes Contemplative Spirituality.  George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God invited a new age guru to speak at the General Council.  He has been engaged in other activities that are certain to bring many under the influence of deception.  Charles Stanley’s staff has been engaged in promoting Contemplative Prayer.  Billy Graham declares that his views about scriptural salvation have changed over the years.  He is on video as declaring to Robert Schuller that Muslims, Buddhists, and other pagans can get to heaven another way than through scriptural salvation.  Graham has also gone on record to praise the Pope, which I find deplorable.  In fact, Richard Foster is holding his heretical Renovare Conference at The Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, NC in 2013.  Billy and Franklin Graham joined a list of heretics to speak at the 2008 heretical Catalyst Conference. James Robinson has had several New Age/Contemplative individuals on his program.  He gave glowing endorsement for Ann VosKamp and her heretical and very deceptive book, One Thousand Gifts”.   The result will be a plethora of individual coming under Voskamp’s deception.  I should not have to mention The Trinity Broadcasting Network.  In my opinion it is a spring of heresy that continually flows into many unsuspecting households across the world. 

I’ve done my part.  The rest is up to the individual.  He or she can ignore me or pray, search God’s word, and do some research about the heresies and the heretics involved in spreading them. The truth is clear.  One can take it leave it.  But we must remember that Satan is always ready with a very clever substitute.