A popular professing Christian minister used an expletive to describe apathy concerning child hunger.  Then he said that most people were more upset that he used the expletive than they were about child hunger.  I disagree.  I’m upset with child hunger and his use of the expletive.  The reason I’m upset is because I don’t believe he really cares about hungry children.  Instead, he is simply using a trick, the shock factor, to belittle people and thereby elevate himself.  I do believe that he has convinced himself that he cares, but that is the definition of delusion.  However, there is a pattern of liberals pretending to care more about hungry children, people in poverty, people without health insurance, the slaughter of innocent trees, and the welfare of most living things including the snail darter and whales.  When the liberal is a professing Christian, and especially a minister, he or she pretends to care about homosexuals, homeless people, and of course the terrible harm that evangelicals wreak on atheists and other non-believers.  To alleviate some of the suffering, they attempt to ban nativity scenes, prayer in public school events, and rid the landscape of the Ten Commandments and any other reference to God or Christ.  They want to ban guns, but not the abortionist’s scalpel and other tools of torture.

To bolster their image as protectors and ombudsmen for the less fortunate, they attack evangelicals and Christian conservatives in general as being heartless hypocrites that only promote an angry, judgmental God with all the rules and regulations.  But do they really care?  Is the liberal claim that only they have true and abundant compassion a valid one?  I don’t think so.  Even if they founded a thousand organizations to help the less fortunate, and spent billions of dollars doing them service, I still wouldn’t believe it.  The reason is because they fail on every issue that is further down the logical road.  Let me explain.

If I care about trees and snail darters, then I would obviously care about human babies.God declares that He cares for the birds and feeds them, but we are of more worth than the birds.  Therefore we ought to know that He cares much more for us (Luke 12:24).  If a one claims to be a Christian and loves birds, the love for humanity ought to be greater.  However, the same ones who love the trees and snail darters have no compunction about killing an unborn child.  They want to ban nativity scenes, but have no problem with a so-called work of art consisting of a cross dipped in urine.  They claim to care for the poor, but manipulate their positions to make themselves rich.  Further,  they insure through their support of liberalism that society is plunged into poverty and suffering, while little children go hungry as a result.  They sound warnings about climate change, but drive gas guzzlers, live in mammoth houses, and cruise about in expensive yachts. In short, they claim to believe in God, but do everything in their power to depict Him as Satan.

What is really occurring is that they have manufactured a “savior”.  The composite of all their liberal concerns and pseudo-compassion constitutes a “savior”.  This “savior” delivers them from the burden of their lostness, washes over the stench of their guilt, but does not require righteousness. Their “savior” dulls the reality of their sin, but does not require a rejection of it.  The “savior” that inspires their pretentious compassion does not call them to turn away from evil, but to embrace it and call it good.  This is the reason why the liberal professing Christians minister can spew vulgarity and in the same breath condemn true Christians for not caring as much about hungry children as he does.  His “savior” is the spirit of saving trees, snail darters, and whales.  It is the spirit of the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  So when he condemns a helpless unborn child to death, he hides under his “savior”, which is the spirit of pseudo-compassion for everything other than the most helpless of all human beings.

Babies are important born or unborn.  One reason is because they symbolize everything that is good in life.  Babies symbolize new birth, freshness of hope, and the raw power of innocence.  They bring out the best in us.  Nothing can make us talk like a baby like a baby.  We will behave as foolish as a little child to amuse a baby.  We feel protective, and somewhat better, because we are near them; that we are close to their newness and purity.  We hope for them the lofty goals that we never accomplished.  They make us laugh, cry, and panic in the same minute.  If we cannot love and protect a baby, then our love for snail darters and trees is a farce.  Further, one may curse and foam over the many children dying of hunger, roughly 1 every 10 seconds.  However, a baby is murdered in the womb every 2 seconds.  More babies die of abortion in American than all other deaths combined, roughly 22 times as many.  

So when a liberal professing Christians tries to make me feel bad because I do not like his vulgarity, and attempts to convince me that he cares more for children than I do, I’ve got a response for him.  “No, you do not care for hungry children.  You are simply bowing to your ‘savior’ that requires you to keep some children alive with food while killing other ones for pleasure.  You, sir, are a hypocrite.”

Presently, there is an uneasy calm on the surface of the religious society.  Satan may be digging a tunnel underneath and up to the soft underbelly of Christendom.  After these many years traversing the narrow way, I’ve come to the understanding that when things get quiet, a crisis is about to break loose from its constraints.  Another indicator is that the Holy Spirit has been strongly urging me to get out of the comfort zone.  Oh how we love to settle there.  We enter new territory that our trial brings us to and battle to stay there.  But after we have struggled for awhile, we conquer and settle in.  We would not move on if God did not let us know that we are too big for that little patch of ground.  While we rest and enjoy the bounty of the Lord, Satan is out there working his devilish schemes.  We are not called to rest. We are called to enjoin the battle.   One day we will enter the Sabbath Rest of God.

The Spirit of the Lord has been moving me toward change.  He puts His finger on things in me that I didn’t previously know He was displeased with.  Has anyone else ever known the purging reality of conviction, its fiery chastisement, burning the heart, mind, body and soul, calling for full surrender?  We always feel worthless until we dissolve into His perfect will.  I have also experience that during such times it seems that all the demons Satan can afford to assign to me will find a point of attack and launch their fiery darts.  I encounter contentious people, strange incidents, and even brushes with death.  There is a sense of aloneness, of being isolated in a region of hard people.  And gargoyles in the shadows.  One would think that God had forsaken him if it were not for the promise of His word never to leave or forsake us.

Some professing Christians may not know what I’m talking about.  They do not understand that faith sometimes needs prodded with the sharp goads of spiritual conflict.  Faith needs to wake up.  It slumbers because we are not using it.  We snuggle under the comfortable blanket of sameness and wish away evil.  A window is broken in the middle of the night and we go from sound sleep to full-scale alertness.  The Holy Spirit shakes us.

“Wake up, O sleeper!  There is trouble afoot!”

It’s going to come whether or not we are prepared for it.  I don’t want to awaken to discover that I haven’t the strength to gain a victory.  As uncomfortable as it is to be forced out of the cozy place where I have tried to remain inconspicuous, I know from experience that it is excruciatingly more uncomfortable to enter a spiritual battle without preparation.

The moving on trial intensifies our praying, sharpens our focus and spiritual hearing, and causes us to test the battle worn weapons of our warfare.  During this time I cannot concern myself with the cares of this life.  The body must be brought under subjection.  All that is displeasing to God must be cast off.  I call that “letting the gold shine.”  The enemy fears no flesh covered nuggets, but he gets uneasy when a fire-bathed individual stands in the way shinning like gold with a fiery sword in his hand.  You cannot get to that state of authority without going through the fire.  Anyone that tells you that it can be done with mere positive confession is a liar.  Those lip servants only fight paper devils and revel in mock victories.  They are the reason for the lack of true faith in the majority of professing Christians today.  The real battles are fought by true warriors.  There is no victory without a battle and no strength without a struggle.  Complaining and groaning is the same as surrender.  It is denunciation of God’s word, and the same as saying “no” to any forward progress.

Therefore, I’m getting ready.  I sit here typing these words not simply to inform anyone of that fact, but to encourage them to do the same.  Further, I want people in the same trial to know that they are not the only ones enduring.  It is time to cast off the weights.  If sin is present, it is time to repent and ask forgiveness.  Peace comes with a treaty and there is no treaty with Satan.  We will be in a war until Christ returns.  Therefore, when He says “move”, it’s time to get our feet under us and step out.

Many of the cults are now using Christian-speak to disguise their doctrine.  Walter Martin warned about this practice long ago in his excellent book, The Kingdom of the Cults.  However, the cults have refined it so that now when they proselytize Christians, they sound as Christians.  The Watchtower Tract Society, aka, Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been doing it for decades.  The Mormons have become so proficient at it that they are now being considered a Christian organization by some leading Christians.  The Hebrew Roots Movement has also become adapt in modifying their language so that they appear as Christians.

One has to wonder; if what they have is so much better than Christianity, then why are they copying Christian rhetoric?  It is as if they need the stamp of Christian approval in order to become validated.  The truth is that in each case the Word of God clearly exposes their doctrine as heresy.  These groups cannot win the lost, so they prey on unsuspecting professing Christians.  In fact, they focus nearly all of their efforts on proselytizing Christians.  The simple truth is if they are going to become effective in snaring professing Christians, they have to appear as Christians.  Added to the problem is the fact that most professing Christians are completely unable to defend their belief systems.  Most of their belief systems consist of such basic truths that they ought to be able to defend them very easily.  But if they tell the cult proselytizer, “I believe in Jesus Christ”, the reply will be, “so do I”.  If they declare, “I’ve saved, I’ve been born again”, the reply will be, “So am I.”  If they say, “But I attend the Baptist (or Assembly of God) church”, the proselytizer can now reply, “We have a very good working relationship with the Baptist, Assemblies of God, and other mainstream Christian organizations.”

Someone may protest that the Baptist, Assemblies of God, and other mainstream Christian organizations haven’t given approval to The Watchtower Tract Society.  That may be true, but it may not be long before that occurs.  It is a fact that the Mormons and Hebrew Roots Movement have made great strides toward becoming accepted by mainstream Christianity.  The very reason for that acceptance is the modification of their language so that their false doctrines appear to be Christian beliefs.  It is a clear indictment of the lack of knowledge among professing Christians.

For the past several decades pastors and teachers have focused on messages that are psychologically stimulating at the expense of producing at least two generations of spiritually ignorant and incompetent professing Christians. It is easy to recognize this truth by simply reading Christian input on social media.  Many of the quotes by blatant heretics are shared by completely unsuspecting professing Christians.  If it sounds good, they share it without considering the source.  Some of the quotes, if they are even scripturally sound, are what must be considered pabulum, mere baby food.  However, the ones sharing those quotes appear to believe that they have read something of great depth and wisdom.

Because of the Internet, cult proselytizers can access Christian blogs, web sites, forums, and other social media, and learn how to talk and write Christian-speak. They have no compunction about cloaking their heresy in Christian-speak to lure a hapless victim.  My encounters with cult proselytizers have been unpleasant, to put it mildly.  They do not react well to having their disguise removed.  They used to insist that they are as much a child of God as I am.  Now they insist that they are true Christians.  They have so refined their words that even when I challenge their doctrine, they will defend every facet of it with Christian-speak.  Christian-speak has replaced much of the old language in their literature.  They have become Christian in every outward appearance while their core remains completely diabolical.  When I explain to them what they really believe in their former language, they become angry.

If one considers that there has also been a massive invasion of the New Age Movement into mainstream Christianity, and considers the many flagrant heresies and heretics, hirelings, and other imposters that inundate Christian media with their spiel, it is easy to recognize that this is not a good period for the nominal Christian.  The nominal Christians simply wishes to attend church meetings, hear great praise and worship music, and a short motivational speech by a pastor, rush to the restaurant and then home to catch whatever sports program on TV.  He or she is not interested in a deep relationship with God, a viable prayer life, and knowledge of God’s word.  They are no more prepared for the great endtime deception than they are prepared to win a soul to Christ.  They are completely vulnerable to deception.

Other ones that are vulnerable are the ones who are constantly searching for some hidden meaning in the Bible or a new revelation.  They haven’t even obeyed what God has already revealed, and are going about to find something new.  Individuals such as these believe that the reason Christianity is not working for them is because something of God is missing.  Somehow they do not recognize or accept the fact that they might be to blame.  These individuals are vulnerable to the cult proselytizers that claim they have discovered some secret knowledge in the Scriptures.  They back up their bizarre claims with a plethora of heresies disguised with Christian-speak and linked in such a way as to draw the subject into a web of deception.  The vulnerable ones are susceptible to beguiling words because they have long ago stopped listening to the Holy Spirit.

Every true Christians that is filled with the Holy Spirit will recognize the enemy even if he appears as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).  The alarm bells will ring even if smiling faces, gregarious personalities, and clever Christian-speaking cult proselytizers create the sense of a benign and cordial visit to your front door.  Sometimes the proselytizer is a co-worker, a new friend, or someone associated with a trusted friend.  Nevertheless, their initial goal is to set you at ease, get you to lower your guard, and discover an opening or weakness.  You have to be alert and on guard.  The rules have changed.  You can no longer think, “Well, it walks like a sheep, sounds like a sheep, and looks like a sheep, so it must be a sheep.”  Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  Nothing is hidden from the Holy Spirit.  Instead of a sheep, you may be looking at and listening to a wolf.  When the Holy Spirit sends a warning, it is time to shut the door.  Do not be deceived. Make certain that your light is shining bright and your fire is hot.  If you are not equipped to be a victor, you will become a victim.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NKVJ)