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Brothers and Sisters:
 
  I hope you are all doing well and are walking close to the Lord. I started this on the 12 and just finish today may it be a blessing to you. Pastor Harry                                                                

                                                                                 Days of Deception                                                      1/12/2011                                                                                                                                                  

We are living in a time of deception.  This is the time our Lord spoke about, that in the last days there would come a great deception that would, if possible, fool even the elect.  The devil comes as an angel of light working all manner of lying signs and wonders, his specialty is counterfeiting the works of God and he is a master at it. We see in Matthew 12:22-32 that the Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Spirit by attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to Beelzebub.  Today we see the other side of the coin; we are seeing the works of the devil being attributed to the Holy Spirit.  I fear this false revival more than no revival at all.  This false revival with its false gospel can only bring forth false converts, false experiences, false joy and peace and more false teachings. This movement seems so real that many Christian church leaders are endorsing it.  And many Christians are afraid to say anything to oppose it for fear of persecution.  This is not new; it has been going on from the beginning.  In First Kings chapter one we are told how David’s son Adonijah wanted to be king so he got together a group of people, among these people were sons of the king (leaders), Abiathar the priest (the High Priest, Religion) and Joab the captain of the army.  He had leaders from all aspects of life there.  And look where he had called them, to the stone of Zoheleth (the stone of the Serpent).  Abiathar the priest told the people that David was the old way and the Lord had a new exciting way for them to go, that it was time to move on to the new way with Adonijah. 

Today we are seeing the same thing beginning to take place.  Many Christian leaders are starting to say the same thing, it’s time to get rid of the old ways, such as, the only way to God is through the cross of Jesus Christ and move on, they say, there are many ways to God just choose the path that is right for you. Beware the Emergent/Emerging Church this is a very deceptive movement, you have to really be like the Berea’s in Acts 17:11 study the word daily to find out if you are being told the truth.

There is even a movement today that is trying to Re-Image God.  This is a movement that is backed by the World Council of Churches, some believe that this emerging pagan world view started in the 60’s and early 70’s, actually the professing church shifted toward paganism in 1993 at the feminist Re-Imagining Conference in Minnesota.  At this conference as each of the 34 speakers where about to speak 2000 women chanted “ Bless Sophia, dream the vision, share the wisdom dwelling deep within.”  Throughout the conference they sang, “ O great spirit, earth and wind and sea, you are inside and all around me.” In 1998 the program read, “I FOUND GOD IN MYSELF, AND I LOVED HER. I LOVED HER FIERCELY.”  At another conference they were encouraged to affirm their “godhood” by placing a red dot on their forehead to signify the divine presence thus effectively alienating all who would not comply.” The highlight of the conference was a pseudo Eucharist of bread and milk mixed with honey offered to the goddess Sophia.

You may think that is as far as they would go but they managed to top that in 2003.  The Fall Re-imagined so that First Woman, Eve, is celebrated for her act of resistance. All were encouraged to sing, “Taste and See how good is the fruit that falls from the tree. Taste and see how good is the fruit of the garden.” The Re­-Imagining Conference concluded with an invitation for all to take a bite of the apple in solidarity with Eve. They called it the “Lady’s Supper” where the women “bit the sacramental apple, mimicking Eve’s taking the forbidden fruit and calling it an act of enlightenment rather than the fall of man.


You may be wondering what all this has to do with you, well let me end by sharing with you some of the ones sponsoring these conferences, this is just a few: The Presbyterian Church USA, The United Presbyterian Church contributed a grant of $66,000 and sent a group of representatives led by high-ranking officials 405 Presbyterian participated, United Methodist Church, The United Methodist Women's Division sent 56 representatives and paid their expenses. Altogether almost 400 United Methodists participated in the conference. More than 300 representatives from the Lutheran Church attended, There were 234 Roman Catholic and 144 United Church of Christ participants, Baptist Church, Episcopalian Church, Mennonite Churches, the United Church of Canada, Church of the Brethren, and Church Women United.  Again we are living in a time of Great Deception we must be ever vigilant if we are to endure to the end.
 
Yours in Christ,  Pastor Harry     
                                                         
                    Sources

 ( http://www.brfwitness.org/?p=628, http://www.brfwitness.org/?p=628, http://www.equip.org/articles/re-imagining-relishing-eve-s-rebellion, Israel My Glory July/August 2010, http://www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/background/history/assemblies.html

                                    Some of the 349 members of the WCC

Member churches          World Council of Churches, worldwide fellowship of 349 churches
African Instituted churches, Anglican churches, The Assyrian Church
Baptist churches, The Catholic Church The Catholic Church has never been a member of the World Council of Churches, but is actively participating in the ecumenical movement in different ways. Disciples of Christ / Churches of Christ, Evangelical churches, Friends (Quakers), Holiness churches, Lutheran churches, Mennonite churches, Methodist churches, Moravian churches, Old-Catholic churches, Orthodox churches (Eastern)
Orthodox churches (Oriental), Pentecostal churches, PDF
Reformed churches, The Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventist Church
United and Uniting churches, Free and independent churches
Global bodies and mission communions,


I thought I was done but I feel that I need to say more so here goes.  In Acts chapter 20 Paul gives his farewell speech to the brothers in Ephesus in verses 17-32 he puts forth a warning.  This warning is one that the church today for the most part has not taken to heart. Paul says in verses 29, “For I know this, that after my departing shall savage wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”  Notice that in this verse Paul says wolves “shall” arise not might or perhaps.  Paul knew that wolves were coming and that they would devour the flock leading them astray with false teaching and doctrine. He even warns that some would arise from among the church itself speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples unto themselves.  In verse 26 Paul says,
“ Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.”  This was a direct quote from Ezek. 34 where the scripture says if you do not warn the wicked man of his wickedness and he dies in his sin, I will hold you accountable for it.  Paul was saying to them,  “you have been warned.” So today we are supposed to warn the wicked of the wickedness they perform and also of the judgment of God upon them. If we don't we become accessories after the fact of their sins. Paul was very concerned about this even to the point that for three years he sounded the alarm night and day even with tears of sorrow.  Today there are so many false leaders in Christianity, they pervert the scriptures so as to draw away disciples unto themselves.  They have no fear of God, they twist His word to fit what they are doing and call it good.

How do these wolves work?  They speak scripture out of one side of their mouths and deny the very thing they say out of the other.  These are the savage wolves that come in not sparing the flock. Apostates in positions of authority in the Christian Church. Apostates who support the ordination of homosexuals, forbidden and cursed of God. Apostates who deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Apostates who will ordain you if you deny the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection, and the second coming of Christ. Apostates who have come in and are chewing up the Church with their false teachings claiming to be prophets of God but are liars and the truth is not in them.

There is a second part of this that is seldom preached on because when you preach on it people get upset, what else is new?  It’s a hazard because you have to tell them the whole counsel of God and not just what they’d like to hear.  Notice Paul’s emphasis here, “I have not avoided declaring unto you all or the whole counsel of God (vs. 27).” The whole counsel of God is not only preaching the gospel but also to warn against the savage wolves, false teachers, false prophets, cultists, occultists, non Christian religionists, atheistic and skeptical philosophers, psychologists whatever they may be, who have attacked the church from without and some have even penetrated and are chewing up the church from within.

Now there's a second warning from God, this warning is one the Church has paid very little attention to and because we have paid so little attention to it, it has thrived and become lethal. Why? Because what's close to you that you don't see does you far more harm than something you can get in perspective and easily identify. So let’s take a good look at what Paul is saying here in Acts Chapter 20:30, “Also of yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away  disciples after them.”  Paul tells us that we ought to keep an eye on the Church itself for men will arise from among you.  He does not say possibly or could, he says, “will arise.”  The King James version says, “speaking perverse things,” but the word in the Greek is contrary, “they will speak contrary to the word of God”.  They will speak contrary things for the purpose of drawing disciples after themselves.  So the warning of God is against people in the church in positions of leadership and respect who will draw disciples surrounding themselves, whose allegiance is not to Christ, but to that person.  And they will draw the disciples after themselves from within the church so that there is no accountability for what they say.  Now this isn't my message this is Paul’s counsel to the Church at Ephesus.  Warnings from the Holy Spirit.  Look out for the wolves and lookout for the divisive schismatic leaders who will split and fragment and divide the church by attracting disciples to follow them.

Now the Scripture has many statements about false teachings and false prophets.  Matthew chapter 7 gives one of the most frightening passages in all the Bible, it says, and this is the Lord Jesus speaking on the subject, they come dressed as sheep but inwardly or spiritually you are dealing with savage wolves, you will know them by what they produce, “by their fruits.”  Now Jesus said something else that the Church has forgotten today. Jesus said, “in my name” or if you want the actual meaning of the Greek text, “by my authority“, name means authority. When you say, “stop in the name of the Law” to criminal fleeing, you are saying stop by the authority of what? The law. The law says you can't do that. Stop!  Alright, once you get that concept in your mind, Jesus said there will come men who will speak claiming their authority is from Me. Now get that in your head carefully. There will come men who will speak in my name. That is, I am supposedly saying this to you, that is a very important phrase. They’re going to come and say I'm speaking to you in the person of Jesus and in my name they will work miracles, in my name they will cast out devils… they will prophesy and preach. But when I meet them I will say. “leave me I never knew you workers of iniquity.” Why?  Because they used his authority and his name without His permission because the power was in Jesus name, not in them, God honored the name of his Son.  They took that as a means of teaching their own false doctrines and false prophecies and because of that they corrupted the faith of the church. But inwardly, spiritually, they really are savage wolves! And if you don't know fleece from fur, you're dinner!  The only way you can know  fleece from fur is to know how to test them. You don't test them by the word of any Christian apologist (ones who is defender of the faith) no matter how good they are, no matter how much you trust them. You don't test them by other people, you test them by Scripture. Then if the Scripture is your final source, and your allegiance is wholly to the Scripture, you reject them!  But Paul says in the last days, men are going to be drawn away by false teachers and prophets in the church speaking in the name of Jesus and you’re not going to test them, you’re going to go along with them, and they’re going to fragment and divide the Church because you wont' test them.  Take a look at the condition of the Church today many Christians believe that there are many religions that can lead to eternal life.  According to the 2008 Pew Forum 65% of Christians believe this including 37% of white evangelicals, the group that is most likely to believe that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone.

This message was very difficult to write because whenever you write this way you’re bound to be misinterpreted and people are bound to think somehow or another you’ve got some ax to grind.  I do not have an ax to grind but if I sit still in the presence of the doctrine of antichrist and say nothing I’m an accessory to those doctrines and I fall under the condemnation of Acts Chapter 20 and Ezek. Chapter 34 and I don‘t want to be there.  If you read Revelation Chapter 2, you will find that the Holy Spirit commends the Church in Ephesus, above all the seven Churches because they tested these people, just as Paul told them to and they found out they were liars. And the Spirit says, well done, you did what you were supposed to do and he commends the Ephesians for it.  May God make us faithful in the tradition of the Ephesians in testing those who claim to speaking in His name that we at His coming might hear Him say, “well done thou good and faithful servant.” The Lord Jesus Christ paid the price for all sin on the cross now we must be faithful till the end no matter the cost.
May the Lord Jesus always be our first love.

In Christ
Pastor Harry
knowinghim