Worshipping The Serpent “Within” In Our Age of Apostasy

In the classic work, “Earth’s Earliest Ages” English theologian G.H. Pember (1837-1910) examines the role of satanic forces in the first destruction of earth under God’s judgment and compares them to the explosion of spiritism (open intercourse with evil spirits), ancient Egyptian Hermetic magic, Theosophy, Buddhism, reincarnation, karma, the Mysteries, astrology and mesmeric healings sweeping across Christendom.  

It was during the Renaissance that many influential Christians at the highest levels of Church and society had returned to the occult Wisdom Teachings that originated in ancient Egypt with Hermes Trismegistus.  In his own time, Pember observes that ancient occult traditions are no longer veiled in mystery but boldly presented by the powerful occult brotherhood as the fruit of modern science, especially evolutionary philosophy, which  the brotherhood assert was included in the instructions given,

 “…to the initiates of the Hermetic, Orphic, Eleusinian, and Cabbalistic mysteries, and were familiar to Chaldean Magi, Egyptian Priests, Hindu Occultists, Essenes, Therapeutae Gnostics, and Theurgic Neo-Platonists.” (Pember, pp.243-244) 

 In the impeccably researched “Scientific Analysis of the Writings of Alice A. Bailey and their Applications,” Robert A. Hermann Ph.D. affirms Pembers claim with respect to the occult origins of the evolutionary science so widespread in our time.   Herrmann traces modern evolutionary thinking–which has infiltrated the whole body of the Church–back to 1750 and the Spanish-French occultist the Martine’s de Pasqually (1715?-1779) whose biological conception predates Darwin’s theory and held that an adept spiritually evolves into higher and higher forms on various evolutionary levels.  (raherrmann.com)

Pember knows that occult teachings are grounded in knowledge received from evil spirits, thus he particularly connects evolutionary philosophy to spiritism.   This teaching said Pember, made the world ready for the deeper teachings of the Brotherhood (fallen angels):

 “…..the Brotherhood decided that the time had come to communicate with it, and openly influence its religion and philosophy. They have, however, become so etherealized by their practices that they are unable to endure contact with coarse human nature; it was, therefore, necessary to employ intermediaries.  The first person known to have been chosen for this purpose was a Madame Blavatsky.”  (pp. 243-246)

 In affirmation, Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, the politically influential co-authors of “Spiritual Politics: Changing the World from the Inside Out,” admit that their book is based on the Ageless Wisdom teachings preserved by occultists since the Egyptian pantheon (27^th-30^th centuries B.C) and handed down over the ages to modern occultists in the time of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and on into our own time:

 “For centuries, the Ageless Wisdom in the West was shielded from an unprepared public…. The unveiled truths were handed down only orally by individual teachers to tested disciples or by certain religious groups and secret societies, such as the Cabbalists, Druids, Essenes, Sufis, Knights Templar, Rosicrucian’s, Freemasons, and others who carefully guarded the teachings down through the centuries. A study of these secret societies would reveal powerful influences on the history of nations….”  (Spiritual Politics, McLaughlin, Davidson from “Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel,”Warren Smith, crossroad.to)

 Beginning with the work of the Brotherhood and/or Masters acting through Blavatsky, Ageless Wisdom has succeeded in over-spreading W. Europe and America and made deep inroads into the whole body of the Church over the last one hundred years. Blavatsky’s important book, ‘The Secret Doctrine’ (1888) paved the way by synthesizing,

 “…..Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mysticism with the Eastern teachings of Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism, showing their common roots and comparing their sacred texts….”

 The next development came through the teachings of Alice Bailey, an apostate Evangelical:

“…. In 1919 Bailey was contacted by a Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul, who asked her to write a series of books with him telepathically that would continue Blavatsky’s work. Over a period of thirty years, Bailey received eighteen books from him on the nature of the cosmos and the human being, outlining principles for individual spiritual growth and humanity’s next evolutionary steps. In 1923 Bailey founded Lucis Trust [originally called Lucifer Publishing, ed.] to bring the teachings in her books to the public. A year later she began the Arcane School. The books were written to apply to several levels of consciousness at once and thus can be read by both beginners and advanced students. Her works have been especially helpful to the two of us in our own spiritual growth and have provided much of the inspiration for Spiritual Politics.”

Central to ancient Egyptian and modern Hermetic orders such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, Theosophy and New Age is ophiolatry (worship of serpents/Lucifer) and the theme of a pantheon of nine Sun Gods or with modern orders, an occult Hierarchy of nine evolved Brothers or Masters: god-men who have finished their cycles of reincarnation and material evolution but have chosen to remain here on the earth (Gaia) to serve people in their own conscious evolution as well as guide Gaia’s spiritual evolution:

“(The solar deity Kneph was pictured as a serpent in a fiery circle and Osiris) was essentially identical with Kneph…The worship of Isis, the moon-goddess, was equally entwined with ophiolatry.  Her emblem was the horned viper…The Egyptians often represented Isis and Osiris together, as two serpents.”  (The Cult of the All-Seeing Eye, Robert Keith Spenser, p. 35)

Depending on who they are speaking to, the nine Masters variously call themselves the Brotherhood, Space Brothers, Ascended Masters, the ancient Ennead of Egypt (the nine Sun Gods), Nine Principles of God, the Deep Space Nine, the Group, Sirians and Council of Nine.  Today there is a vast and growing network of channelers purporting to receive messages from the Nine and still others calling themselves Light Workers who claim to have presented briefings from the Group five times at the United Nations.  

Another important theme connecting all ancient and modern Hermetic Orders and Mystery religions is the Sirius star system.  From the time of the Egyptians, Sumerians and Babylonians occult teachings have invariably attributed to Sirius a special status in connection with Isis (Sirius A), Osiris (Sirius B), astrology, Hermeticism, the Mysteries, secret initiations, conceptions of transmigration, reincarnation, astral plane travels and other forms of occult evolutionary philosophy.

Hermetic Mystery schools and orders teach that Sirius is the divine “sun behind the sun” that is both the true source of the sun’s energy which keeps the physical world alive, as well as the divine substance that keeps the spiritual world alive.  Whereas the sun illuminates the physical world, which is considered to be an illusion, Sirius is the “real light,” the Great Dragon, Cosmic Serpent, Chaos, Abraxas, Star Maker, Ground of Being, or Essence of material phenomena, meaning that the material universe exists only as a grand illusion or mental construction as it does for example in the mind of Brahman:

 “Brahman is real, the world is unreal.” (swamij.com/mahavakyas) 

 The two most important figures associated with Hermetic Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky and Alice Bailey, considered Sirius to be the source of mystical serpent power: the seething energies of Lucifer that exert a spiritual influence over the entire Sephiroth or cosmic tree of life and therefore directly link with every great religion of antiquity because these energies extend into the psyche of mankind.

Bailey taught that Sirius is the “Great White Lodge” and believed it to be the spiritual home of the “Spiritual Hierarchy.” For this reason she considered Sirius as the star of initiation:

 “This is the great star of initiation because our Hierarchy (an expression of the second aspect of divinity) is under the supervision or spiritual magnetic control of the Hierarchy of Sirius. These are the major controlling influences whereby the cosmic Christ works upon the Christ principle in the solar system, in the planet, in man and in the lower forms of life expression. It is esoterically called the “brilliant star of sensitivity.”   (The Mysterious Connection Between Sirius and Human History, vigilantcitizen.com, Dec. 12, 2012)

Baily also taught that Luciferian energy emanating from Sirius is the energy of thought: a mind force that reaches the solar system from a distant cosmic center via Sirius. Sirius acts as the transmitter,

 “…or the focalising centre, whence emanate those influences which produce self-consciousness in man.”  (ibid)

 The Hermetic Way of the Dragon

The Hermetic way of psychic power and self-salvation is the antithesis of the Way of Jesus Christ God Incarnate (Romans3:24; 6:23; 10:9-10; Eph. 1:7; 2:8-9) and began with a mysterious man known as Hermes Trismegistus.  

The ancients identified Hermes with Mercury and Anubis (brother to Osiris).   His emblem, the caduceus, was a talismanic serpent representing the power of Mercury as a Sun-god. Speculations abound on exactly when and where Hermes lived.  Some modern New Age occultists believe he was a contemporary of Noah in the pre-flood world which they call Atlantis.  Others believe he lived in ancient Egypt during the time of Moses.  

In “Biographa Antiqua” the English occultist Frances Barret writes that Hermes “communicated the sum of the Abyss, and divine knowledge to all posterity.” The word “Abyss” refers to ancient and modern pantheist and/or panentheist conceptions such as the Watery Abyss, Divine One Substance, Primordial Matter, or with Hermes, the Universal Life personified by the Great Serpent or Dragon from whose body and wings stream illuminating serpent power, or with Bailey, ‘those influences which produce self-consciousness in man.’

 Bailey is expressing the Hermetic principle which speaks of the correlation between the substance of the Great Serpent and the mind of man expressed in the world famous magic formula: “As above, so below.”

The substance (body) and seething powers of the Great Dragon or Serpent are symbolized by the Oroboros, a powerful occult symbol also known as the Sephiroth, great chain of being, cosmic tree of life, and with Darwin the tree of life. The Oroboros ‘above’ corresponds to a number of different evolutionary levels and realms comprising the habitation of all supernatural entities and various heavens and hells such as the Black Lodge.  Thus the substance of the Great Dragon’s body  with its supposed multiple dimensions and life and thought-giving serpent energies not only powers the Divine Substance above but reaches down into the psyche, capturing the imagination, stunting and befouling the conscience, causing evolutionary change, and conferring psychic powers and divinity (you can be as God).

The Luciferian Manly P. Hall (1901-1990) concurs.  According to Manly, Hermetic Freemasonry is an occult science of the soul,

 “…a divine symbolic language perpetuating (by) certain concrete symbols the sacred mysteries of the ancients.”  When a Masonry adept has learned the “mystery of his Craft (then the) seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.”  (New World Order: The Ancient Plan of Secret Societies, William T. Still, p. 30) 

The foundation of Hermes occult way is forbidden knowledge revealed to him during self-induced trance and/or meditation states resulting in altered states of consciousness that opened his mind to contact with the Great Dragon:

 “Meditation is the doorway between worlds….the pathway between dimensions.” (The Layman’s Guide to Enlightenment,Celeste G. Graham, 1980, p. 13) 

 The Dragon revealed to Hermes that his own nature is divine, meaning that God and psychic power is “within.”   The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus relates Hermes mystical encounter with the Great Dragon who called itself Poimandres, the Mind of the Universe that is within Hermes. (themystica.com) 

 Upon transforming itself into a glorious being of Light the Dragon proceeded to enlighten Hermes with the forbidden knowledge that over time found its’ way into Christendom during the Renaissance giving birth to an array of Secret Societies as well as to pantheist theological liberalism and its’ primary doctrine evolution, William James theory of the subconscious, the demon-haunted Carl Jung’s transpersonal and depth psychology, occult New Age, Phillip Pullman’s dark Gnosticism, Mind Science, New Thought, the Alpha Course, Silva Method, Word of Faith, Positive Imaging, Visualization/Dreaming, and the multi-million dollar best-sellers “A Course in Miracles” and “The Secret.”  The common denominator of these societies, theories, books and techniques is “God and psychic power is within:”

 “People go through their whole lives chasing everything in the material world, and they fail to discover the greatest treasure of all, which is within them.  Shut your eyes to the outside world.  Direct your thoughts and words inside of you.  The Master within you is the key to all the treasures in the world.” (Rhonda Byrne, “The Secret Daily Teachings”)

 “Since the unconscious is God all along, we may further define the goal of spiritual growth to be the attainment of godhood by the conscious self.”  (A Different Drum, M. Scott Peck)

 “….all is mind and…everything is governed by law (thus man) can create, or have created for him from his own thinking.  He can create such a strong mental atmosphere of success that its power of attraction will be irresistible.  He can send his thoughts throughout the world and have it bring back to him whatever he wants.” (Creative Mind and Success, Ernest Holmes, New Thought practitioner)

 “Your unconscious mind (has a) power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough.” (“Positive Imaging,” Norman Vincent Peale, 1982, p. 77)

 Word Faith teacher Kenneth Copeland tells people to visualize any image,

 “…that you get down inside you that is so vivid when you close your eyes you see it, it’ll come to pass.  When God came at the Tower of Babel, He said, ‘Anything they can imagine, they can do.” (Inner Image of the Covenant, side 2, Copeland)

 Yonggi Cho similarly teaches that through visualizing and dreaming you will,

 “….incubate that which we want God to do for us….If you have not visualized clearly in your heart exactly what you hope for, it cannot become a reality to you…”  (The Fourth Dimension, Vol. 1, Yonggi Cho, 1979, 9-35, vol. 2, 18-33)

Believing the Lie

 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11)

 In “The Spiritist Fallacy,” a penetrating analysis of the Hermetic Theosophy, Buddhism and Spiritism that emerged out of the Renaissance taking hold of the minds of modernist priests and intellectuals, the highly respected French traditionalist metaphysician Rene Guenon (1886-1951) describes deluded “enlightened” theologians and intellectuals as those who cannot speak of the devil,

 “….without a smile of disdain, or an even more contemptuous shrug of the shoulders.” (p. 252)

Their smug contempt is due to the fact that they believed the spiritist lie that Lucifer is not the devil but rather the “light-bearer.”  After all, if evolution is true, as enlightened sophisticates believe, then there was no fall, hence man is not fallen and Lucifer is not the devil but the first free-thinker, the emancipator of man and the angel of evolution.  Modern sophisticates even go so far as to call him ‘the Great Creative Intelligence.’  Thus they invoke Lucifer and perform his cult, but in fact these people,

 “…though in fact Satanists, are only unconsciously so, for they are mistaken as to the nature of the entity to whom they address their worship….It goes without saying that these ‘enlightened’ priests are all plainly modernists and that the spirit animating them is strangely similar to that affirmed in these lines.” (p. 254)

 With respect to “modern” spiritist doctrine Guenon notes its’ peculiar agreement with the esoteric religion of the Brahmins:

 “Now this….has been taught to lower grade initiates in Himalayan temples for perhaps more than a thousand years!  This similarity is curious at the very least, and one can say without paradox that spiritism is only esoteric Brahmanism in broad daylight.”  (p. 41)

Guenon also argues that every “modern” conception that notably disfigures the living God as evolution does is Satanic, and in this sense, all theories of a limited God and of an immanent (pantheist) God who evolves must be placed in the front rank.

Turning to the theories of William James (1842-1910), the father of American psychology, Guenon describes them as examples of unconscious Satanism for two reasons.   First, James theory of “religious experience” as a manifestation of the“subconscious” by which man communicates with the pantheist Divine “within” is only one step away from “condoning the practices of spiritism” with the further consequences of conferring on evil spirits an eminently religious character and being initiated into experiences of the psychic and spirit realm. Initiation involves one in something far beyond the conscious control of the human will, thus once a person has been initiated their spirit/soul is open to bondage, harassment and madness.

 Second, the notion that the subconscious puts man in contact with the Divine “within” puts God,

 “…in the inferior states of being, in feris in the literal sense of this expression.  This then is a properly ‘infernal’ doctrine, a reversal of universal order, which is precisely what we call ‘Satanism.’  Guenon adds, “The devil is not only terrible, he is often grotesque…” (pp. 258-262)

 Building off of James serpent-animated theories, the demon-haunted psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) taught that the psyche (spirit/soul) consists of two main systems:  a personal unconscious and a deeper more significant layer which he called the collective unconscious with archetypes.  

 Jung’s system incorporates Hermetic magic, biological and spiritual theories of evolution, reincarnation, pantheist conceptions of a Gnostic pleroma (divine substance) and various other occult doctrines and psycho-spiritual technologies from around the world.

Jung delved deeply into the occult, practiced necromancy and had daily contact with familiar spirits which he called archetypes because he believed they were manifestations of powers innate in the collective unconscious (substance of the Great Dragon).  

 Much of Jung’s psychological insight was acquired from his familiar spirits, particularly Philemon and Basilides.  Philemon appeared to Jung in a grotesque humanoid body with wings and the head of a horned bull. At first Jung thought his spirit familiars were manifestations of his own psyche, but toward the end of his life he realized with horror that Philemon, Basilides, and the many other spirit entities that were a common feature of his life were in fact highly intelligent hostile beings independent of human consciousness.   Speaking of Philemon, Jung said:

 “Philemon represented a force which was not myself…..I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought.    For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I….Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight.  He was a mysterious figure to me.   At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality.  I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru.”  (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung, p. 183, cited from PsychoHeresy: C.G. Jung’s Legacy to the Church, PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries)

 Jung uses the name Abraxas to describe the impersonal Gnostic pleroma  (substance of the Great Dragon) out of which mind and then other mental powers emerged.  The word Abraxas is found in esoteric Gnostic texts such as the “Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit” and also in the Greek “Magical Papyri.”

 In 1916 Jung received further revelations from his demon familiars, this time by way of automatic writing as he recorded a Gnostic treatise called “The Seven Sermons to the Dead.”   Labeled a core text in depth psychology the treatise describes Abraxas as a “God” higher than the living, personal Holy God in Three Persons that combines all opposites into a single androgynous Being. 

As with all Ageless Wisdom teachings, underlying Jung’s demon-derived “transpersonal and depth psychology” is the Hermetic correlation of the substance of Abraxas (collective unconscious and archetypes) with the personal unconscious of man, hence, “As above, so below.”  

 According to the Apostle Paul fallen angels cast down from heaven together with demons are dispersed in a multitude throughout the whole expanse of sky (Eph. 2:2; 6:12).  This means that William James ‘subconscious’ and Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’ with its archetypes are actually the expanse of sky under the heavens which supposedly connects the substance of the Great Dragon to the psyche of man. Thus to “go within” the “subconscious” (James) or “personal unconscious” (Jung) so as to channel the Divine “within,” is to perform the cult of Satan which opens the spirit/soul to contact with powers and principalities and their chief, the devil.    

Though there are increasing numbers of psychologists and psychiatrists who now affirm their belief in evil spirits and their ability to harass, influence and possess human beings, the majority are still heavily influenced by Jung’s demon-derived theories, thus they insist that what they call “paranormal experiences”are perhaps hallucinations caused by the innate powers of human imagination or representations of interplay between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and/or the therapeutic release of unconscious repressions.

 Unlike most modern psychiatrists and psychologists, Nanci Des Gerlaise, a Cree Native American woman raised on a Metis settlement, needs no convincing. Almost from birth her life consisted of occult bondage and terrifying demonic harassment until she found deliverance through Jesus Christ.

 Nanci knows without the least bit of doubt that demons exist and can even take the shape of animals, birds and other more frightening creatures.   She knows that medicine men still engage in symbolic baby sacrifices to Satan in return for more spiritual power.   She knows because her own father offered her to Satan.  Her life then belonged to the devil and became filled night and day with all kinds of evil: 

“This is what happened to me and one reason why I had such a struggle when I became a Christian.   Satan still claimed ownership of me.  The tug of war first started when I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior….He set me free from occult bondages and demonic harassment….Christianity (is) God’s way of salvation.  Colossians 1:12-14 made perfect sense to me…” (Muddy Waters, Gerlaise, pp. 51, 79-80)

 Nanci’s book, “Muddy Waters” is far more than a biography.  It is a clear and compelling warning to all Christians living in sin, apostatizing churches, practitioners of occult psycho-spiritual technologies, advocates for interfaith/interspirituality and spiritual formation (occult techniques dressed in Christian motifs) that forces of darkness really do exist and will make your life a living nightmare of disembodied voices, terrifying encounters with demonic entities, thoughts of suicide and murder, and even possession.

 “Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils.” 1 Tim. 4:1

 From the time of Hermes, ancient and modern occult pagan adepts have been employing a variety of occult psycho-spiritual techniques to “go within” in search of psychic powers and immortality:    

 “…..I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe.  Thereby, too, my deepest ‘pantheist’ aspirations.  It was especially the image of God which Teilhard saw in need of urgent redefinition.   Modern man has not yet found the God he can adore, A God commensurate to the newly discovered dimensions of the universe.” (Towards a New Mysticism, Teilhard de Chardin and Eastern Religions, Ursula King, p. 172)

The corollary to our age of lawless Christians and spreading apostasy is an explosive revival of ancient Hermetic spiritism.  A major reason is that modern psychology allegedly provides us with a “scientific” explanation that ascribes whatever frightening entities encountered while on brain-altering substances or through centering, yogic trance, visualizing and dreaming or other occult techniques to archetypal images from the collective unconscious.

The common thread running through all of this is the diabolical mind of the serpent, the same fallen angel who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden with the words, “Ye shall be as Gods” (Gen. 3:5) but now seduces with the words, “go within.”

Gas Prices as an Indicator of Energy Costs

The consumer does not need more reminders about the pain experienced with every fill up at the pump. The drain on your pocketbook is growing. During economic dislocation and diminished vitality any prospects of a turnaround dim as gas approaches $4.00 a gallon and beyond. Been here before and the idea that this time the economy will be less effected is unreasonable. The cost for all energy is rising but the impact of gas prices has a personal burden on everyday budgets. The Price of Fuel provides a useful synopsis.

“While crude oil is traded in a global market, gasoline is part of a regional market . . . The price of crude oil may account for over half the price of a gallon of gasoline.

Transitions in supply can also affect the short-term availability of gasoline. Going into the peak summer driving season, refineries are adjusting their gasoline formulas . . . and many states are switching to ethanol-blended gasoline.

Many states require specific formulations of gasoline – there are currently 18 separate gasoline formulas for different regions of the country-and it is often difficult to import gasoline supplies from one region to another.

Each gallon of gasoline also is subject to numerous taxes and fees, which vary by state.

After the crude oil is processed through the refinery, the finished gasoline product is transported to a terminal, where it may be sold to a wholesaler for distribution to the wholesaler’s retail network or delivered to the retail location. There the retailer sets the “street price”.

Now these factors are the industry’s explanation that establishes the price. But, we all know that there are few commodities that are more manipulated than crude oil. The Business Insider adds this viewpoint in Here’s The REAL Reason Gasoline Prices Have Been Surging In The US

“You may have heard that the price of a barrel of oil is around $109, but actually that’s the US domestic West Texas Intermediate price of oil. A better international benchmark is probably Brent Crude, and that’s now well over $120/barrel, having surged all year.

The problem with judging the global pace of oil demand growth is that the epicentre of that growth has most definitely moved away from the US to Asia, and China in particular. Yet, due to the lack of prompt alternatives, the more readily available oil data from the US is still used as a global guide to the health of the oil markets.”

Another article in BI suggests the worse, Gas Could Easily Go To $5 And Crush The National Economy.

“The USA has evolved into a two-tier gas market. The supply of crude from Canada and the Bakken fields has created a lower cost of supply for the central portion of the country. This differential is most notable in the market spread between WTI (a futures contract that settles physical delivery in Oklahoma) and LLS (Louisiana Light Sweet Crude) – the pricing of crude for the big Gulf refineries.”

The conclusion from these factors suggests that the domestic retail price of gas varies for the reasons stated. The level of hurt is based upon needs to use individual transportation; however, the added cost for moving consumer goods is experienced by all in the added charged at the register. Published government inflation rates are skewed to tap down actual increases.

Anyone buying into replacing gasoline for personal vehicles as the most efficient cost form of energy denies the practical. Diesel as a fuel for over the road eighteen-wheelers may be the most promising for conversion to natural gas. Honda has a CNG version for automobiles. Gasoline will be around a lot longer than any hybrid or electric car. The reason is unmistakable, the lowest cost fuel that equates to identical vehicle performance, wins the battle in the marketplace.

In spite of this aspect of business, the government and their corporate partners are pushing to force a conversion away from gasoline. No better example of the “Yugo Syndrome” is the Government Motor’s Volt. The failure to sell consumers on a ridiculous car is clear.

Chevy Volt Fleet Sales Rise, Government GM Purchases Increase

“According to GM, 992 of the Volts sold were to retail customers while 537 went to fleet purchasers.

Government purchases of GM vehicles rose 32% from last year. This represents yet another conflict as the Obama Administration has a vested interest in GM’s success as it spends more taxpayer dollars to help support the company as 2012 elections near.”

Even the favorite Obama corporate collaborator, General Electric, uses its muscle to cover-up the botched venture. GE “Forcing” Employees Into Chevy Volts reports,

“A memo leaked to Green Car Reports lays out GE’s plans for their new fleet of Volts, and as expected, it has some people crying foul.

The memo, sent to employees of GE Healthcare Americas team explains that all sedan, crossover, and minivan purchases in 2012 will be replaced by the Chevy Volt. Only field engineers are exempt from having to drive a company Volt.

GE will offer estimates for installation Level 2 Charging Stations, though all-gas use will be allowed when there is no electric option. Any employees who opt out of the Volt program will not be compensated for their expenses.”

One cannot ignore the economic cost of failed and foolish “Green Energy” projects. The idea of forced buying expensive and government subsidized vehicles in the future borders on irrational paranoia. The environmental “true believers” in the global warming hoax would have you pay a price for gasoline that only the rich could afford.

Opposition to building the Keystone pipeline will only reduce addition oil supplies. This is lauded by the Peak Oil charlatans because they seek higher gas prices to compel the consumer to convert to their anti fossil fuel existence. Reduce energy costs by abolishing the Obama green energy tax. Lower gasoline prices foster dynamic economic growth. As long as the policy wonks are determined to bankrupt the public with high gas costs, you will experience a fallen standard of living.

CDC Calls Morgellons’ Nanoworms a Delusion, Protects DARPA

Imagine having the mental prowess to be able to create living filaments heretofore unknown, that can reproduce themselves, some of which come with identifying letters embossed on them, and then to make them extrude from beneath your skin, all against your conscious will.

Sound like science fiction? It’s not, says the US Centers for Disease Control.

Despite having spent four years and $600,000, and using the world’s largest forensic database, the premier health agency reports it is unable to identify the source of the fibers emanating from those suffering with Morgellons. [1]

The CDC suggests that four out of a hundred thousand people, the rate of infection in Northern California, are imagining these filaments into existence.

Comprising an array of physical and mental symptoms [2], Morgellons is distinguished by novel fibers that protrude from the skin, causing lesions and sores that do not heal, or that heal very slowly. Though clustered in California, Florida and Texas, it is found in every state and around the planet.

“We conducted an investigation of this unexplained dermopathy to characterize the clinical and epidemiologic features and explore potential etiologies,” the paper explains. The only potential etiology suggested was that the patients were delusional:

“No common underlying medical condition or infectious source was identified, similar to more commonly recognized conditions such as delusional infestation.”

The CDC provided more information in its press releases [3] hyping the study than it did in the 300-word study published last week. Its Unexplained Dermopathy webpage goes beyond what was reported in the actual study, saying there is “no evidence of an environmental link,” and promised to do no further studies. [4]

“People who suffer from Morgellons disease are NOT delusional no matter what the CDC or the mainstream press would have you believe,” says Jan Smith of MorgellonsExposed.com. She’s suffered with Morgellons for over 13 years.

The image above is on her home page. “Ponder why a person with Morgellons disease would have tissue coming out of their body with embossed letters on it. This photo is real and the sample has not been altered in any way. It is available for research and DNA testing.” [5]

The CDC study reported, “Most materials collected from participants’ skin were composed of cellulose, likely of cotton origin.”

One of the specimens extruded from Smith’s body was found to be composed of cellulose and GNA, the synthetic form of DNA. [6] Glycol nucleic acid does not occur naturally; it is used to create synthetic life forms. [7]

But why would the CDC not know exactly the origin of the cellulose, instead saying it’s likely from cotton? And what about the rest that was not cellulose? The study provided no details.

The CDC sent the cellulose and unnatural fibers to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, reports the Associated Press. [8] AFIP has been collecting fiber samples and other forensic material for 150 years. [9] Its 2011 budget was $65 million. [10] Surely, if these novel fibers are natural or lab-created, the AFIP would know. Apparently not.

AFIP is the same group that collected all the forensic evidence of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and at the Pennsylvania crash site, under code name Operation Noble Eagle. [11] Forensic evidence and a generous dose of imagination led National Geographic to produce a documentary asserting that the plane that supposedly hit the Pentagon disintegrated on impact. Talk about delusion.

Please support my work by reading the full piece at Activist Post. Thanks!

Injustice/Unrest

The Letter of the Law…

With laws spewing forth from 435 congressmen and a hundred senators in Washington, 40 state senators in Tallahassee, and a cadre of local legislators, Florida is being inundated with laws. It is hard to exit our houses without breaking a law.  We are suffering from stage-four legal carcinoma.  With volumes of laws already on the books and new ones being added daily obedience is impossible.

For the little yellow light before the school grounds we quickly slow from forty miles per hour to twenty miles per hour.  It blinks for a period of half hour or more twice every school day and since it is electrically controlled sometimes when there is no school.  Almost no one walks to school anymore and there is seldom, if ever, a student visible anywhere on the sidewalk or roadway outside the fence that surrounds the school.  The slow-down is to protect students but there are no students to protect.

Early on Sunday morning on a six lane highway the only visible vehicle stops at a left turn signal and being completely alone on the highway turns left against the signal.  A policeman parked off the highway in a gas station across the street stops the vehicle and the driver pays a $300 dollar fine.

A twinge of foolishness passes over a driver stopped at a sign when there is not another vehicle in sight.

Granted, it is difficult to control traffic.  But traffic laws are boondoggles that have deteriorated into a contest between police and citizens and are often used by local governments to enhance revenue. Cameras that record the license numbers of cars that violate traffic signals are the latest pocket picking device.  Issuing expensive tickets for actions that are safe and logical casts a pall on the law and adds to the disdain that plagues police officers.

For most Americans their only experience with law enforcement is a confrontation with a traffic cop. Being forced to stop the car, ordered to produce identification, and queried as if suspected of a crime by a policeman who is heavily armed and threatening, and who demands compliance when thousands of other drivers are committing the same offense with impunity rubs many victims the wrong way.  The demand for acquiescence sometimes produces a belligerence that results in innocent but stubborn citizens being dragged from their vehicles, thrown to the pavement, handcuffed and transported to a local jail.  Judges support belligerent cops.

The incremental deterioration of the policies of our police forces has resulted in a self-protective, self indulgent attitude in organizations that used to serve the public but now have often become an enemy to those they are supposed to serve.  It is illegal for a citizen to lie to a policeman but legal for a policeman to lie to a citizen.  It is legal for policemen to beat up a suspect but illegal for the suspect to resist.  Without seeing a weapon, solely on suspicion of lethal resistance policemen can murder an innocent suspect with impunity.  The innocent murdered suspect is quickly forgotten but when a policeman is murdered the grieving process is grandiose.

Over forty years ago President Nixon proclaimed drugs “enemy number one” and began the disastrous War on Drugs.  Like the War on Terror it is perennial, like the experience with Prohibition it is futile, and like the misuse of traffic laws it has become a source of illegitimate revenue.  Millions of dollars have been confiscated and used to enrich local police departments.  In some states a few ounces of marijuana found by a sniffing dog can result in the loss of one’s car, one’s cash, and one’s freedom. The arbitrary appropriation of large amounts of cash and property receives little publicity but policemen strive to find these marks sometimes using instructions that are readily available on the internet. Read about this travesty here and here.

Murder, burglary, and robbery used to be the three major crimes.  Today, selectively determined “sexual offenses” are the most feared and most punished.  Murderers no longer receive the headline coverage awarded to child molesters.  Murder is routine while child molestation is sensational.  Sex offenders are branded with a symbolic S.O. that like Hester’s Scarlet Letter identifies their existence. However, unlike Hawthorn’s Hester who gained acceptance, their sentence involves a lifetime of being feared, shunned, and persecuted often for political advantage.

We have created an artificial set of laws that apply to children but the definition of children has become as blurred as the definition of a baby.  Eighteen is broadly accepted as the age of adulthood but being chronologically adult bears no relationship to personal maturity; some individuals are mature at thirteen and others are immature a thirty.  Humanist abortion advocates claim that “fetuses” are not human beings.  This definition becomes seriously questionable at the time of birth when a full orbed baby is sometimes mutilated to obtain stem cells that were touted as potential cures for human diseases but are also being used for commercial purposes such as food flavoring.

Killing a developing baby is as murderous as killing an adult and much more cowardly.   Laws against murder, adultery, and fornication need to be enforced, regardless of age.  What is bad for children is also bad for adults.  Sin is not and should not be age related.

R. J. Rushdoony writes, “Inability to learn: this is our national problem.  We are destroying everything that made us great.  We are undermining the farmer and pushing him toward ruin.  We are pursuing immoral courses as though they were Godly ones.  And, like a gambler, the more foolish we become, the more we persuade ourselves that our course of action will make us a winner.”  Humanists are unable to learn.  They may be smart as whips but they are unable to apprehend and follow truth. Rushdoony maintains, “The Word of God must be proclaimed, and it must be studied.  Then men can learn by experience.”

It is a frightening thing to fall into the clutches of our legal system.  When the law, the courts, and the judges fail to produce justice the system becomes torturous.  Unjust laws upheld by dishonest lawyers in courts conducted by wisdom impaired judges produce unpredictable and outrageous decisions.

It is the inability of the unrepentant to learn that causes society to revert to mordant anarchy.  History clearly documents the evil nature of human beings; it is a litany of strife and war.  Unable and unwilling to learn from history in spite of superior mental acuity the unrepentant stubbornly maintain that human beings are “good”.  This erroneous impression of goodness produces a legal system that is more concerned with human opinion and the law it produces than with the overarching justice of the Creator.

When the letter of the law is enforced, court officials will allow an incorrect decision to stand in spite of proof of innocence.

In his 1978 iconic speech at Harvard Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “I have spent all my life under a Communist regime and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either. A society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is scarcely taking advantage of the high level of human possibilities.”

Justice cannot survive in a system that depends on the enforcement of the letter of human law. Without the objective legal system provided by the Creator the legal foundation of society is hopelessly flawed and when a flawed subjective legal system is enforced by assiduous police, injustice is rampant.

Instead of the static law provided by God, in this day of messianic government we have attempted to produce what God intended through the product of human intellect.  The result is a legal system without an anchor plagued by the anarchy of brilliant human minds but bereft of justice.

As social injustice produces more and more unrest law enforcement has become more vicious. Policemen who in former days were peace keepers have now become law enforcers and are being equipped like invading armies.  See this video.

Italy is noted for reckless drivers.  On the Autostrada the left lane is reserved for high speeds and cars often careen along a hundred miles an hour.  Slow drivers do not drive in the left lane.  On rural roads, traffic moves quickly with cars and scooters darting in and out of tight spaces.  When there is no traffic Italians ignore stop signs.  In the cities scooters are everywhere they ride between cars, through, and in the outer lanes against traffic; they are carefully avoided.  Speeding tickets and citations for violations are infrequent as long as there are no accidents.   When there is an accident it is thoroughly investigated and fines are assessed on the violator.

There is more justice in Italian enforcement then there is in America.

Competing lawyers produce winners and losers; they do not produce justice.  The judge maintains order and oversees legal compliance.   The law is upheld but justice is forgotten, no one gets it, including the accused; if he is guilty and his lawyer wins he will go free and if he is innocent and his lawyer loses he will go to jail.

The messianic government of the United States of America imprisons more people per capita than any other nation in the world; though many of our citizens consider nations like China and Russia tyrannical neither nation has as large a percentage of their population incarcerated as we have in America.

A note to my readers:  Fifteen year ago our home was new.  Now we are in the process of fixing the things that have worn.  We put in new flooring which involved unbelievable chaos – hundreds of books removed from and returned to the shelves, furniture moved from and returned to every room; carpet and tiles installers in and out of the house for several days.  Lots of upset but now it is complete.  We sold our motor home and I have supplemented my beloved Vespa scooter with a larger Honda (I can no longer handle a motorcycle but do well with the scooters.)  Patty is planning to retire from her job at the end of this school year so we will be trying to sell a car and a scooter in a terrible market.  I am hoping to return some of the housework to her and spend more time writing.

In Defense of Soccer

That’s Football to You!

They say that love is a disease. If so, then so is sports fandom. The latter is perhaps best expressed through a Russian idiom. When you cheer for a certain team, you say, “ia boleiu za tu komandu” — “I am sick for that team.”  This phrase is exclusive to competitive scenarios rather than fandom per se. It certainly describes the temporary state you enter when witnessing a competition: your abnormal heart rhythm and your hopeful anticipation.

I only bother with sports at the national level. I feel emotional about Russia’s performance in many athletic fields, because I see it as a small-scale expression of national triumph or failure.  I am just a spectator, so why does that matter? Minor national triumphs motivate me to contribute to my culture in my own way. Back when people were inspired by winners rather than victims, this used to be called “nationalism.” When it comes to sports, futbol, err, soccer is the magnificent exception in my life.  It is the only sport to which I pay attention (sort of) at the club level, because it is a beautiful game of endurance and strategy.

To me, soccer is Family: I fondly recall watching matches as a child with my father and grandfather. My father, tired from working all day, dressed in striped Adidas track pants, energetically reacted to toy soldier-sized men in funny shorts perpetually running back and forth on a small black-and-white television screen. Spartak! CSKA! Team USSR!

Soccer is also Community: before the age of videogames, we spontaneously organized ourselves into neighborhood soccer matches. Exercise. Another scraped knee! Friends. My mother wanted me to come home for supper, but, come on, the game wasn’t over!

Soccer is not that much different from other organized sports, but it is distinct enough. Unlike hockey, for instance, it requires no expensive equipment or temperature-controlled infrastructure, which explains some of its global popularity. So, it’s anyone’s game, at least theoretically. Documentaries emphasize how poor Brazilian children climb trees with their bare feet, training for local matches, and then go on to become sought-after international athletes.

It is precisely this popularity that allows soccer to be an expression of nationalism. The latter begins at the club level. Some fans limit themselves to displaying team insignia, while a minority — the “hools” enjoy treating their rivals to a brass-knuckled dental plan and setting arenas on fire. Good or bad, soccer club rivalry goes back to traditional — tribal — forms of competition between villages and, later, regional centers and city-states.

Localism –municipal “nationalism” — plays an important role in soccer fandom. My hometown, Moscow, has several clubs. What to choose?  A few years ago, I went with CSKA — its hundred-year history with military connections seemed particularly appealing. In 2005, CSKA-Moscow won the UEFA cup. This year, it advanced further within the Champions League than ever before. I felt elated, even without a victory — a sense of national pride is always sweeter when there is a local aspect to it. And even though some of PFC CSKA’s players are not from Russia, including Keisuke Honda — the newest and my favorite Japanese acquisition — their presence is good sign. The growing number of our soccer clubs and the establishment of the KHL, for that matter, point to Russia’s increased purchasing power.

I do not want to downplay the generally poignant assessments of this sport published in recent critiques at Alternative Right. Indeed, the modern welfare state successfully garners and (mis)directs useless patriotism at major international sporting events. Its context is always and necessarily consumption-based. A clothing chain, Roots, for instance, asked us to “show [it] our roots” during the Vancouver Winter Olympics by purchasing various merchandise featuring national heraldries. And yet it somehow wanted us to combine that display with cheering for Team Canada at the same time. Worse, once the event is over, all the energy is expended — patriotism dissipates, and the general populace goes back to its abysmal political apathy, using the remaining half of its income that it didn’t give to the state to fund weekend panis and 17-dollar IMAX-3D circenses.

However, athletic success can be a source of healthy national pride, as it once was. For me, when Team Russia doesn’t make it to the World Cup, I cheer for the next best thing: my Slavic brothers, as I call them (Serbia and Slovakia, this time around). Then, if and when the Slavs get knocked out, I proceed to the European level and cheer for Germany. (Besides, what would Germany do without its own Slavs — the Polish strikers?)

Thus, my soccer fandom expands from local to regional, from national to supranational, with ethnic ties in mind. I am a Muscovite, a Russian, a Slav, a European. My choices are not exceptional. Over the years, I’ve casually spoken with many fans, particularly those of Eastern European descent, who follow the same logic.

There is even something positive to be found in FIFA’s escalation of its “antiracism” campaigns — a problem it sees infecting the entire European league. A black player from England comes onto the stadium, and the Spanish crowd begins making monkey chants; Paolo di Canio acknowledges his Italian fans with a one-armed, Roman salute. The Federation exercises a punishment structure ranging from fines to outright bans of fans, players, and entire clubs from games, but the incidents seem to be on the rise.

Extreme reactions by extreme people? Perhaps. Young European men see their countries undergo third-world ethnic replacement exacted by their governments, while being forbidden to experience and display a semblance of healthy nationalism in their daily lives. So they channel their anger in a crude, vicious manner, fuelled by mob mentality. What else, pray tell, does FIFA expect?

The Federation’s inability to cope with hostile soccer incidents is obviously indicative of the political establishment’s failure to handle migration into Europe and the consequent lack of assimilation. Moreover, a bellicose expression of nationalism demonstrates that decades of egalitarian social engineering have been unable to crush traditional forms of local, regional, and national affiliation in Europe.

This nationalism is aggressive because it is defensive. It is also misdirected: it attacks the symptoms — the migrants, not the cause — the welfare-state ideology, and its perpetrators — the irresponsible ruling elite. Whether Europeans are able to overcome petty expressions of this nationalism, targeting the migrants as well as one another — a German against a Pole, and address this truly pan-European issue, remains to be seen.

Workers to Obama: No Recovery in Sight

After the recent unemployment numbers were announced, smug politicians promising economic recovery stuttered a bit. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Mainstream economists were predicting a smooth upswing in employment, but in September 263,000 more jobs were lost, 62,000 more than August.

Obama reacted predictably to the surprise. He first pointed out that “employment is the last thing to recover from a recession,” and concluded that “…we are going to need to grind out this recovery, step by step.” Brilliant.

Not one word on measures to help out the staggering number of unemployed workers, 1.4 million of which will have their benefits dropped by the end of the year. Behind them are millions more workers who’ve been unemployed for over six months — 5.4 million and counting.

All Obama is offering is “hope” that the economy will get better, an illusion shared by most of the mainstream media. Sometimes, however, the truth sneaks into Big Media. This from the New York Times:

“…the underlying weakness of the economy will probably reassert itself, say experts. After years of borrowing against homes and cashing in stock to spend in excess of their incomes, many Americans are tapped out. Austerity and saving have replaced spending and investment in many households, constraining the economy.” (October 2, 2009)

When an economy is dependent on 70 percent consumer spending and the nation’s consumers are effectively bankrupt, recovery comes from…the government. Indeed, the economic “green shoots” that the Democrats still obsess over were real, and based on government programs such as the highly touted Cash for Clunkers, and tax credits for first time homeowners, while the financial recovery was simply banks using bailout money to gamble on Wall Street.

It is estimated that these government subsidies resulted in 700,000 car sales and potentially 400,000 home sales, having a positive ripple effect on other parts of the economy that contribute to the making and distributing of cars and houses.

Cash for Clunkers has since ended and car sales are plummeting: Ford is down 5 percent, Toyota 13 percent, Honda down 20 percent, Chrysler down 42 percent, and GM down 45 percent (Bloomberg, October 2, 2009).

The homeowner subsidy ends soon, and with it the second economic pillar will have been removed, leaving Wall Street gambling to uphold the barely-functioning economy.

Many workers are starting to realize they’ve been lied to about the recession ending; patience is wearing thin. If Obama thinks he can keep the country’s workers quiet forever by telling us to “tighten belts” and remain “patient,” he has another think coming.

The reality of the situation is forcing itself upon the minds of millions of people, who will stay patient only as long as their budgets allow. The seemingly quiet American working-class has profound resentment and bitterness brewing right below the surface, to be released at any given moment.

When the majority of workers become suddenly engaged in politics, they’ll likely begin demanding that unemployment benefits be extended, and that the government provide living wage jobs with a worker-directed stimulus package.

There is much work to be done on America’s crumbling infrastructure, and many workers are available to do the job. Unfortunately, Democrats seem more intent on maintaining foreign wars and bailing out banks, policies that have created an enormous American debt. It is this debt, say Democrats and Republicans, that prevents the government from spending any money on worker-oriented programs.

Therefore, unions and community organizations must also demand that a plan be worked out to address the debt issue; wars and bank bailouts must stop, and taxes for the super-wealthy must be raised to pre-Reagan levels. American society has plenty of resources to address the needs of the working-class, but not while corporations have complete control over the direction of the country.

To switch directions we need a mass working-class movement, but such a thing will not fall out of the sky. A mass movement will emerge when unions and community groups organize together and begin collectively demanding specific changes in government policy. Likely, such a pro-worker coalition will be ignored by the corporate-owned Democrats, and find it necessary to break with the two-party system forever.

Be Careful What You Buy In Christian Bookstores

It’s understandable that free-market conservatives are deeply troubled that Barack Obama has taken the reins of power.  Already we see America moving even closer to socialism than before.  But to me what’s even more troubling than what’s going on in Washington D.C. is the clear and present danger in Christendom.  Let me spell out the problem as I see it: A-p-o-s-t-a-s-y.

Dictionary.com defines apostasy as “A total desertion of or departure from one’s religion, principles, party, cause, etc.”

For hundreds of years orthodox Christianity has held that the Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, by supernatural power, and that every word in it is true.  (2 Tim 3:16)  Thus, Scripture has the power, or right, to command how people of faith live their lives.  Then theological liberalism rears its ugly head and attempts to undermine established truths.  The theological liberal pretends to be a Christian (“progressive Christian” is preferable) as he or she blatantly and unapologetically undermines the Divine authority of the scriptures in matters of faith and life.  As a result of the onslaught of liberal influences, the Church is in dire straits!

False teachers and charlatans persist solely because Christian’s have become biblically illiterate.  Many believers think studying the Bible is so dull and boring that they can’t be bothered anymore.  So they’re ripe for the picking.  And this is not the exception but the rule!

If it’s true that the Bible is God’s Word, shouldn’t what He says matter to those who believe in Him?  Evidently not because many people who say they “love the Lord” have no clue what’s in the Bible – and clearly they don’t care to find out!

A number of professed Christians ignore what was written by the apostles and others who sat under Christ’s teaching and put their trust in human opinions and unreliable sources.  More on this in a moment.

If God did not reveal Himself through the prophets and those who penned the Old and New Testaments, and the Bible is simply a collection of fascinating morality tales, myths and fables, what source are people to draw from in their quest to know the one true God?

Let’s say the Gospels were made up, as the unbeliever claims, how, then, will the person who has given his or her life to Christ know anything at all about Him? Moreover, if the Bible is merely a book of fables, when Jesus was tested by the devil, why did He quote from Deuteronomy 6:6, 6:13, 8:3 and 10:20?  Because the Word of God is the source of power against the enemies of God!  Even the Son of God wielded the “sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” against the evil one!  “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God'” (Mat. 4:4).  The words that proceed out of the mouth of God are in the Bible! God’s word is the bread of life!  It is nourishment for the soul!  You can’t fight evil forces without arming yourself for battle! The way you do that is explained here http://www.emailbrigade.com/84.html

Make no mistake. Rulers of darkness are the driving force behind theological liberalism.  Paul warned, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).  These counterfeit Christians are relentless in their plan to deconstruct historical, orthodox Christianity.  They want to mold Christianity into a one size fits all religion that appeals to everyone.  To be successful they must refashion the Jesus of the Bible into a tolerant, all-inclusive Savior who condemns no one.  Sound familiar?

Progressive Christians abhor the Bible’s “oppressive morality.” Not even God has the right to tell them how to live their lives, especially when it comes to free expression, or what the Bible deems deviant behavior.  They’re mantra is “God wants me to be happy, halleluiah!”

Books that put a positive spin on the cults, the occult, New Age spirituality, Eastern mysticism, homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals transgenders, and what not are available through online Christian outlets as well as in walk-in stores.  Here’s a point to ponder: So-called Christian publishing houses are the largest suppliers of outright heresy.  Oddly, Christian publishers and outlets are responsible (or should I say irresponsible) for much of the apostasy because they give false teachers a platform for what simply equates to heresy!

Listen to what Peter Jones says in his article, “Evangelism Highjacked by Closet Theological Liberals”:

“I write, so to speak, from the belly of this beast, attending the National Pastors’ Conference, sponsored by Zondervan and Intervarsity Press, which is taking place in San Diego, February 9-14, 2009. It is amazing to see how these once faithful publishers of evangelical orthodoxy are now consistently and deliberately launching a massive but subtle attack against the “Fundamentals” for which Evangelicalism stood courageously against liberalism in the past.”

A word of warning about Christian bookstores.  Bibles are sold in every color, shape and size, in translations that are supposedly “accurate” “up-to- date” and “easy to read.” If you don’t know what you’re buying, be careful! Many Bible translations are highly unorthodox, hence they’re unfit for Christian consumption!  Albert Mohler, President of Baptist Theological Seminary, cautions that the translation a person chooses is “what they will have in their minds and what they will hide in their hearts.”  Unorthodox material can lead ignorant souls into cults and apostate Christianity — and this is tragic!

Visit just about any Christian bookstore (CB) and you’ll see display cases and shelves stocked with spiritual merchandise, including jewelry, figurines, framed pictures, greeting cards, calendars, posters, music – you name it they stock it.  But what’s disconcerting about these stores is that they also stock books that not only attack the fundamentals of the faith, some of the books contain out and out heresy!  Christian publishers and storeowners have a responsibility to examine the material they sell!

Let me provide a few examples of many that could be cited.  So-called Christian publishing houses publish books that purport Word of Faith theology (prosperity gospel) that are distributed to Christian retailers.  You ask, “What’s wrong with the prosperity gospel?”  Well for one thing, prosperity preachers hold to the decidedly unorthodox view of Scripture that faith is a force. Faith teachers say that faith is controlled through words and by uttering the right words, or the right formula, you can have what you want. Adherents call it making a “positive confession.” Confess you’re healthy and you can overcome disease. Confess you’re a millionaire and it will happen. Just name it and claim it!  That, my friends, is heresy.

One of the most popular prosperity preachers is Joel Osteen.  If you’re a fan of Joel’s, please don’t stop reading — just hear me out.  I realize that it’s hard to believe that Rev. Osteen would steer you wrong.  But don’t be fooled by his humble demeanor, his neatly coiffed hair and dazzling smile.  Listen to what he says about faith in his best-selling book, “Your Best Life Now”:

“You have to begin speaking words of faith over your life.  Your words have enormous creative power.  The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it.  This is a spiritual principle, and it works whether what you’re saying is good or bad, positive or negative.” [1]

This so-called spiritual principle is “the law of attraction.” New Age guru, Rhonda Byrnes, author of “The Secret” believes “you create your life through your thoughts.” Joel believes the same thing!  Those who choose to read his books, attend or watch his church service on TV are sitting under a false teacher!

Joel Osteen is not alone.  The Rev. T. D. Jakes is a spiritual advisor to President Obama.  He has been labeled a “black Billy Graham.”  Yet Rev. Jakes teaches something Billy never taught:

“Jesus was a rich man. He had to have been, in order to have supported his disciples and their families during his ministry.” [2]

Funny, but the Bible tells us that Jesus “had nowhere to lay His head.”

John Avanzini also believes Jesus was rich:

“…Jesus lived in great prosperity…” [3]

Trend-setting Jesus wore designer clothes:

“Why do you need to know that” asks Avanzini. “Because until you know that Jesus was prosperous, you won’t be either. You may have His kindness, you may have His gentleness, you may have all His other attributes, but you’ll never have His prosperity.”

Televangelist Benny Hinn is “sick and tired of hearing about streets of gold.” He says he doesn’t need gold in heaven: (My comments are in brackets)

“I gotta have it now. [Rev. Greedy is worth millions.] I mean, when I get to glory, all my bills will be paid, brother. I won’t have bills in glory. I gotta have it here. [So send him your hard earned money!] You say, ‘Well, Benny Hinn, isn’t it wonderful to have streets of gold in heaven?’ Well, of course, but if I hear the thing one more time of how it will be and how it was, I’m gonna kick somebody.” [Hopefully Benny did not follow through on his threat.]  [4]

In her book “The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make” Joyce Meyer writes this heresy:

“During that time He [Jesus] entered hell, where you and I deserved to go (legally) because of our sin. He paid the price there. …no plan was too extreme. … Jesus said on the cross and in hell.” she continues…. God rose up from His throne and said to demon powers tormenting the sinless Son of God, ‘Let Him go.’ Then the resurrection power of Almighty God went through hell and filled Jesus. …He was resurrected from the dead – the first born-again man. [5]

Admittedly some of Joyce’s teaching is biblical, however her teaching on the Atonement, which is a central doctrine of the faith, is heretical.  Why would Jesus Christ, who is God, need to be born again in hell?  The Bible clearly teaches that it is mere mortals who must be born again!  The cross is where Jesus’ atoning work for mankind was completed!  In John 19:30 Jesus said: “It is finished…and gave up the ghost.” That His work was finished is also evidenced in Paul’s words in Col. 1:20: ^“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

What Joyce Meyer teaches is clearly Word of Faith theology.

This is just a taste of prosperity teaching.  You can listen to these men and women ’til the cows come home and you will not hear one of them utter that followers of Jesus Christ are to deny themselves and take up their cross. Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mat. 16:24). But that’s just Jesus.

Here is a partial list of other word-faith apostates:

Kenneth Hagin, Charles Capps, Oral Roberts, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Paul and Jan Crouch, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Todd Bentley, Paula White, Fred Price, Jerry Savelle, Robert Tilton, Marilyn Hickey, Morris Cerullo, Miles Munroe, Jesse Duplantis, Steve Munsey, Ken Clement and Ed Young. (For more on word-faith teachers follow the link at the end of this column)

Frankly, I’m surprised Oprah Winfrey’s book club recommendations aren’t displayed in CB windows. Whatever Oprah recommends becomes an overnight best-seller and rakes in mega bucks. In fact, hordes of “Christians” run right out and buy Oprah’s book club picks.  A few years ago she pushed Neal Donald Walsh’s blasphemous “Conversations With God” on her show and the book sold millions and made Walsh a household name!  Last year Oprah promoted the New Age Bible, “A Course in Miracles,” a “self-study spiritual thought system that teaches the way to Universal Love through Forgiveness.” (For more on ACIM follow the link at the end of this column)

My point is that if Christian booksellers think nothing of prominently displaying alleged miracle worker Benny Hinn’s books, then it would be perfectly appropriate to offer “A Course in Miracles.”

I would be remiss if I failed to mention William P. Young’s mega-selling book “The Shack.”  Like ACIM, some church groups use it as a “Bible” study.  But is “The Shack” based on sound biblical principles?  I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but the answer is a resounding No!

In “The Shack” Young presents a new understanding of the Christian faith under the guise of fiction.  Here’s how Pastor Gary Gilley of Southern View Chapel sums up Young’s book in his online book review:

“The Shack, while occasionally getting things right is, in the end, a dangerous piece of fiction. It undermines Scripture and the church, presents at best a mutilated gospel, misrepresents the biblical teachings concerning the Godhead and offers a New Age understanding of God and the universe. This is not a great novel to explain tragedy and pain. It is a misleading work which will confuse many and lead others astray.” [6]

Gilley’s not alone in his analysis of “The Shack.”  There are a whole host of pastors and scholars who have written articles to express their concerns about it.  Some Christian radio hosts have devoted entire broadcasts to the book.  And the consensus is that it must not be looked at as “a novel to be enjoyed.”  In his May 26, 2008 radio broadcast Albert Mohler warned his listeners that the book is “deeply subversive,” “scripturally incorrect” and contains “undiluted heresy.” (Listen here http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2008-05-26 )

Now, if the anti-Shack folks are right in their assessment of the book’s contents, wouldn’t it be prudent for CBs that choose to sell the controversial book to at least post a disclaimer?

A disclaimer should also be posted next to books by Emerging/Emergent Church (ECM) proponents as these men and women have been roundly criticized for their unorthodox views. The Christian Post reported:

“The Emerging Church movement is seeking to revitalise the faith but may end up severing Christ’s church from the Word of God, says one Reformed Presbyterian pastor and theologian.

“‘If churches embracing the principle of Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone) fail to understand and address the concerns voiced in the Emerging Church conversation, we may lose an entire generation of professing believers,’ says the Rev Rutledge Etheridge, an adjunct professor of systematic theology at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) in Pittsburgh and pastor of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church.

“According to Etheridge, the Emerging Church movement – known for flexible methodology and efforts to be culturally relevant – seeks to glean the good from Christianity’s past while painting a fresh picture of the faith today. Those familiar with the movement say its members seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a “postmodern” society, while its leaders are often critical of traditional evangelical churches and often place high value on good works or social activism.” [7]

To put it plainly, ECM is not the Christianity of the New Testament. The leaders in the “conversation” denigrate the Word of God.  Moreover, they do not preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There is but one gospel and Paul clearly lays it out in 1 Cor. 15:

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:1,2).

Many ECM leaders are wolves with razor sharp canines masquerading as harmless lambs.  Beware! “For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 14).

Lighthouse Trails Research has a plethora of information on ECM. I found the following quotes on LTR’s website:

“I stopped reading from the approved evangelical reading list and began to distance myself from the evangelical agenda. I discovered new authors and new voices at the bookstore-Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen and St. Teresa of Avila. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. Contemplative spirituality seemed to open up a whole new way for me to understand and experience God. I was deeply moved by works like The Cloud of Unknowing, The Dark Night of the Soul and the Early Writings of the Desert Fathers.” -Spencer Burke, The Ooze

“Some of the values of the emerging church are an emphasis on emotions, global outlook, a rise in the use of arts, and a rise in mysticism and spirituality.”-Josh Reich

ECM does not hold to the authority of Scripture, hence they are careless in their handling of it.  They’re all about political liberalism with a social gospel, pluralism, and universalism.  As I pointed out in my article, “Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer”:

“The movement…is emerging away from orthodox Christianity, spreading its spiritual cancer throughout the globe. ECM change agents have made inroads into evangelicalism, big time. What they preach is a counterfeit social gospel. They say they bring a “message of peace.” Their hope is to make Christianity more palatable to the world. Sounds altruistic, doesn’t it? But don’t believe it! In order to accomplish their lofty goal, the shifters must first repackage the Church.” [8]

Here’s a partial list of prominent voices in ECM:

N.T. Wright, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Ryan Bolger, Wilbert Shenk, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball, Scot McKnight, Elizabeth O’Connor, Nancey Murphy, Leonard Sweet, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Donald Miller and Phyllis Tickle.

Certainly some Christian bookstore employees are sincere Christians. To them I say: Defending the faith is a duty!  Jude urges Christians to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). Apostasy is rampant in the contemporary church.  Selling heretical books that lead people away from Christ only contributes to the problem.

Jude also warns against false teachers and leaders who undermine the faith:

“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4).

What I’ve covered here is only the tip of the iceberg.  There’s so much more to be said about all the garbage sold by so-called Christian publishing companies and bookstores.  My desire is not to condemn them; only to bring to light some disturbing trends and to expose a few apostates.

Footnotes:

[1] Hank Speaks Out – Archives: The Secret/Word of Faith Movement/

Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century

http://www.equip.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=muI1LaMNJrE&b=4197151&content_id={F6AFDB40-073E-403D-B688-A652991E9A5A}¬oc=1

[2]John Avanzini, “Was Jesus Poor?”–Believer’s Voice of Victory, Jan. 1996, p. 8

[3] Kaylois Henry, “Bishop Jakes Is Ready. Are You?”–The Dallas Observer magazine, June 20-26, 1996, p. 22

[4] Benny Hinn, Praise the Lord broadcast, Nov. 8th 1990-Audiotape

[5] The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make-By Joyce Meyer, 1991 edition, p. 35-36

[6] The Shack Book Review–By Gary Gilley http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/22-contemporary-issues/536-the-shack-a-book-review

[7] Emerging Church movement threatens church foundation, says pastor–By Eric Young, Christian Post

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/emerging.church.movement.threatens.church.foundation.says.pastor/22380.htm

[8] “Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer”-By Marsha West

http://newswithviews.com/West/marsha66.htm

Further study:

Pagan books sold through online Christian outlets-Source: Bud Press, Christian Research Service

http://emailbrigade.com/14.html

Word of Faith movement

http://emailbrigade.com/306.html

A Course In Miracles

http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/new-age/NA0699W3.htm

The Shack: Interview with William P. Young. In the interview Paul Young denies the substitutionary atonement.
http://rock-life.com/files/shakcomp.mp3

Emerging/Emergent Church Movement

http://emailbrigade.com/303.html

Contemplative Prayer

http://emailbrigade.com/305.html

Allocating the Hours

By plan and by happenstance…

My wife works and since I am far past the age of retirement and have mostly extinguished my business activities, I wash some dishes, do the laundry and ironing, some shopping, and some outdoor work. The remainder of my waking hours are spent reading (both books and internet sites) and writing. In past weeks I have been sidelined.

First, with justifiable fear and trepidation, I installed Windows Live Mail and Windows Live One Care on our computers (we have three). As is usually the case, these two new programs had several glitches that required hours of frustrating attempts to get tech support and when tech support was found understanding the individual that was attempting to provide it. Microsoft offers telephone support for Live One Care but since Live Mail is free but necessary if one wants to continue to use hotmail, the only support is by email.

Centralization and market domination have removed the need to satisfy the consumer and massive corporations like Microsoft provide services at their discretion with only moderate regard for the convenience and satisfaction of the customer. This is an interesting phenomenon since it was not long ago that Japan’s ability to produce zero defect manufactured items set off a decentralizing rage that swept the nation. Now billion dollar mergers are creating mammoth international corporations that protect their decision makers from the unwashed masses by presenting the public with a quasi-monopolistic product packaged to their specifications with a take it or leave it attitude.

Following all those hours of listening closely to English that is remarkably good considering the source but extremely difficult for aging ears, my Windows Live Mail seems to be working. However, I am still unable to properly install my contacts into Live Mail and Microsoft’s email support is hopeless.

Since the computer is the vehicle of my principle activity, malfunctions become full time jobs.

The other time consumer might come under the heading of, “there is no fool like an old fool”.

One of my uncles was a well known professor at a large university. He lived into his late 80s and was active when most men of his age were sedentary. His intention was to “wear out rather than rust out”. I am trying to appropriate his mantra.

In the tedium of my rapidly progressing age I decided it would be a good idea to plan a motorcycle trip around the country doing some interviews in medium sized cities that have large unemployed or underemployed citizens as a result of globalization.

I began shopping for a motorcycle and listing potential visits.

I knew some cities that had been devastated by the loss of major industries but was unable to find a good source that would cover the geography.

When I told the motorcycle dealers I was planning a cross country trip they showed me big bikes, the Harley Davidson Electra Glide, the Honda Goldwing, and the Yamaha Royal Star. Being contrary, I ended up with a Victory Kingpin Tour. It is a good looking, very powerful machine.

When we moved to Florida over twenty years ago I brought a 650 Honda motorcycle with me and rode it around for a couple of years before selling it. During our trips to Italy I fell in love with the Vespa scooters and purchased a 150cc Vespa for around town use. I maintained the motorcycle addendum to my driver’s license and needed it to run the scooter. When I purchased the Victory motorcycle from a dealership located close to a hundred miles away, I thought I would have no problem riding it home.

After riding a scooter for six years the gears on the big bike were difficult and its weight was intimidating. The other problem was turning. The radius on the Victory was considerably larger than either the scooter or a smaller motorcycle; radius is important since many new riders have been killed by mistakenly turning their bikes directly into the path of cars or crashing into obstacles that surround the highway.

After riding the bike jerkily around the dealership several times, dropping it once, and feeling inadequate, I was reluctant to attempt to ride it home. I needed to negotiate two right turns, four stop lights, and a left turn onto the Florida Turnpike; once I got the bike on the turnpike riding would be easy. My son had come with me but he does not have a motorcycle license so getting the motorcycle home was my problem.

Riding from light to light was easier than trying to keep the proper gear on the dealer parking lot. I made it to the turnpike and things went smoothly with the exception of one frightening incident where the bike seemed to feel as if it was on an icy surface. It quickly came back under control and I gave it no more thought until I read in the manual that the Tour model has a limited highway speed.

We have a gated downhill driveway which drops at a right angle off the road and as I turned the bike to go down the hill I was headed for the left gate pylon. I hit the front brake and down went the motorcycle. I was not hurt and the worst damage to the bike was burned shoe leather on the pipes; that came off with oven cleaner and the bike was in ship shape.

I have signed up at the local community college for a highly praised motorcycle course and will not attempt to ride the Victory until after I get more familiar with riding. Several times I have backed the Victory out of the garage, started the engine, shifted the gears, and rode it down the driveway partially letting out the clutch. This has helped me get a feel for the controls and a better knowledge of how the bike operates. I am still intimidated.

The Vespa scooter has taken me around town for six years. During that time it has never been down. That was about to change. A few weeks ago, as I was thinking how much easier the scooter was to control than the new motorcycle and how comfortable I felt riding it, I hit a six inch wide patch of sand in the gutter as I made the 90 degree turn up the slight rise in the driveway into Best Buy (returning a computer part they recommended but I didn’t need); out went the front wheel, down went the scooter and bang went my right eye socket, right shoulder, and knee on the pavement. Since I was able to stand and move, I washed the blood off in the men’s room, finished my business, and rode the scooter home. At the hospital they took a CAT Scan of my head and found nothing. My wife said she knew that already…. Boy, did I look ugly! As my right eye swelled closed my right cheek doubled in size and a dark blue hematoma crept down my right cheek and down my neck. My right shoulder was bruised and I could not raise my arm, my right foot was black and blue from being caught under the scooter and I had skin missing from my knee and wrists. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Almost two weeks have now gone by and I look and feel much better. I am healing and the scooter is being repaired.

It is now a month since the scooter mishap and I have completed the motorcycle course. The toenail on my right big toe is loose and will soon come off leaving a raw toenail cavity that will take up to a year to heal. I still have a raw sore on my right knee that has not healed and there is a small bump under my right eye that is receding day by day. The motorcycle course was informative and helpful but the bikes they used were 125CC Kawasakis that are quite different from 1600cc Victorys. I did well with the course and the instructor said I should be able to handle the Victory but will need lots of work. I will continue to work at learning to ride the big bike safely.

Al Cronkrite is a regular columnist for Novakeo.com
Al Cronkrite is a writer living in Florida, reach him at: