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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
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NEWS
FROM THE FRONT
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NEW YEAR 2003
"Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's" (2nd Chronicles 20v15)
This is an unscheduled additional NEWS FROM THE
FRONT that has been prompted by the sheer volume of information that I want
to distribute to you. The ‘print size’ is perhaps a little smaller than
usual – again it is to enable me to include as much information as possible.
You will notice that at the foot of this page, details of a Council of
Reference are no longer listed. There is nothing sinister in this; it is
simply the result of changed circumstances. Since the formation of the Council
a number of years ago, of the original 6 members, only one is still
currently working in the same situation. As a result of the various changes of
location and service, including of course our own move back in 2000, it has
become increasingly difficult to arrange regular ‘get-togethers’ and so it has
been decided to formally ‘disband’ the Council. Each of the ‘retiring’
members has assured me of their ongoing full support for “Take Heed” and
will continue to offer me a ‘listening ear’ and advice in appropriate
circumstances. Margaret and I wish to record our deep appreciation to all those
who served on the Council. Their friendship, fellowship and
encouragement have meant much to us over the years and we wish them God’s
richest blessing as they continue to serve Him “in spirit and in truth”.
A new year has unfolded and as we face “the wiles of the devil” we will
need both strength and help, so let me conclude this letter with what was our
own Church motto text for 2002 - “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my
heart trusted in Him, and I am helped” [Psalm 28:7].
WAS - C S LEWIS - TRULY
‘OUR GREATEST CHRISTIAN WRITER’?
Since early 2002, local Pastor
and well-known writer, Derick Bingham has been engaged in a determined,
personal crusade to promote the story and writings of C S Lewis. In his THOUGHT FOR
THE WEEKEND published in the Belfast
Telegraph of
‘It is now
the evening of September 19th, 1931 and an Ulsterman called C S
Lewis has just had some guests to dinner…One of the guests J R R Tolkien is a
Professor of Anglo Saxon and shares with Lewis a deep love of the books of
George McDonald, a Scotish Presbyterian minister of the 19th century
who wrote thirty novels in his time. As a sixteen-year-old atheist, Lewis had
come across the writing of Mr McDonald and heard for the first time, he later
admitted, the voice of Holiness. He also famously stated ‘a young
atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully’ and stated that he had not
been searching for God any more than a mouse goes searching for a cat. But
Lewis had been ‘searched’ and had quite recently admitted that God was
God, but he was categorically not a Christian believer…Lewis could not see the
relevance of Christian truths similar to those found in pagan mythologies – for
instance the ideas of sacrifice, propitiation, the shedding of blood, communion
and redemption. Tolkien maintained that the difference between the Christian
story and other stories was that it came from a God who was real and from a God
whose dying could transform those who believed in him…Three days later, while
sitting in the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle on the way to Whipsnade Zoo,
C S Lewis was converted to Christ. ‘When I set out I did
not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And when I reached the zoo, I
did’ he wrote in his book ‘Surprised by Joy’’.
1.
Derick Bingham stated that C S Lewis, was an atheist who
came to the view that ‘God was God’ but
this did not equal being a Christian. [At this point Lewis would be
viewed as a ‘theist’]
2.
On the evening in
question, C S Lewis listened to the views of J R R Tolkien who
was a Roman Catholic. Derick Bingham has stated that Lewis
‘could not see the relevance of Christian truths… for
instance the ideas of sacrifice, propitiation, the shedding of blood, communion
and redemption’. Any explanation on these
‘Christian truths’ that
might have been given to Lewis by Tolkien would
have been the unscriptural, erroneous Roman Catholic understanding of
these ‘truths’.
3.
Derick Bingham concludes that the declaration by Lewis
that ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ is sufficient evidence of the progression of Lewis
from ‘theist’ to ‘Christian convert’.
In
relation to J R R Tolkien and his Roman Catholicism let me quote
the following extracts from his biography as found on the Tolkien Society
web site www.tolkiensociety.org
‘Certainly his father,
Arthur Reuel Tolkien, considered himself nothing if not English. Arthur was a
bank clerk and went to South Africa in the 1890’s for better prospects of
promotion. There he was joined by his bride, Mabel Suffield…so John (“Ronald”
to family and early friends) was born in Bloemfontein SA on 3 January 1892…on
15 February 1896 his father died, and he, his mother and his younger brother
Hilary returned to England, or more particularly, the West Midlands…Then they
moved to the somewhat more pleasant Birmingham suburb of Edgbaston. However
in the meantime, something of profound significance has occurred which
estranged Mabel and her children from both sides of the family: in 1900
together with her sister May, she was received into the Roman Catholic Church.
From then on both Ronald and Hilary were brought up in the faith of Pio Nono
and remained devout Catholics throughout their lives. The parish priest who
visited the family regularly was the half-Spanish half-Welsh Father Francis
Morgan…He [Tolkien] soon became one of the founder members of a
loose grouping of Oxford friends with similar interests known as ‘The
Inklings’…Other prominent members included…Dyson…and above all C S Lewis who
became one of Tolkien’s closest friends, and for whose return to Christianity,
Tolkien was at least partly responsible…On 27 November 1971 Edith [Tolkien’s
wife] died and Ronald soon returned to Oxford, to rooms provided by Merton
College. Ronald died on 2 September 1973. He and Edith are buried together
in a single grave in the Catholic section of Wolvercote cemetery in the
northern suburbs of Oxford’.
The
evidence is clear that Tolkien was committed to Roman Catholicism
which, as God’s people know, often to their cost, is no friend of Biblical,
evangelical Christianity and it is extremely disturbing to see Derick
Bingham viewing both Tolkien and his religion as being Christian –
in his booklet Derick Bingham wrote –
‘Now in
the twenty first century the books and films of the books of Lewis and Tolkien
fascinate millions of people around the earth. At the heart of that friendship,
though, lay the importance of the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord of THESE [emphasis
mine] giants of literature is of course as real today as ever’
In
the closing line of his THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND published in the Belfast Telegraph of 5 January
2002, Derick Bingham wrote -
Tolkien
and Lewis still speak. And how!
Derick
Bingham refers to these men as ‘Giants’ – drawing on the lessons we learn from the story of
another giant, named Goliath, I would urge God’s people to “Take Heed”.
As a footnote to Derick Bingham’s THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND published in the Belfast Telegraph of 14 September
2002, there was this statement
‘For those interested, Derick Bingham’s free booklet on
the story of the conversion to faith of C S Lewis, particularly through a
conversation with J R R Tolkien, entitled “Walking with Giants” is available by
writing to…’
I
wrote away for a booklet and shall be commenting upon it shortly but to further
illustrate this crusade to promote the story of C S Lewis let me now
quote from the latter portion of Derick Bingham’s THOUGHT FOR
THE WEEKEND published in the Belfast
Telegraph of 12 October 2002 –
‘I leave
his [The Apostle Paul’s] words with you to consider over
this weekend. I shall, God willing, be high in the Swiss Alps by the time you read
them, expounding an Ulsterman’s view of the Gospel at a special weekend, namely
the views of C S Lewis’.
The
final promotion of Lewis by Derick Bingham that I want to refer
to is the article in the LIFETIMES magazine
of October 2002.
This article by Derick Bingham took the form of a review of a book
called ‘Jack; a life of C S Lewis’ by George Sayer. In his article Derick Bingham wrote –
‘For me
the chapter entitled “The Pilgrim’s Progress” gives most helpful information on
the conversion of C S Lewis on September 22nd 1931 while sitting in
the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle en route to Whipsnade Zoo!…It is
wonderful to at last see people in Northern Ireland beginning to recognize
Lewis for the spiritual giant he was…Lewis, OUR GREATEST CHRISTIAN WRITER [emphasis
mine] is now the best selling Christian author in all of history’.
Again,
as a footnote, the following information was published –
‘DERICK
BINGHAM is a teaching pastor with ChristChurch, Belfast. This month, DV, he
will hold a seminar at Villars in Switzerland on C S Lewis and will give an
address at the 75th anniversary of the N I Civil Service Christian
Union in the Great Hall, Parliament Buildings, Stormont to a specially invited
audience of politicians and civil servants on the subject of the conversion of
C S Lewis’.
In the light of the foregoing I hope you agree that
I was not exaggerating when I referred to ‘a determined, personal crusade’ by Derick
Bingham to promote C S Lewis. I mentioned earlier that I would refer
to the booklet on Lewis by Derick Bingham called “Walking
with Giants” and in it Derick Bingham again refers to the time in 1929 when
the then atheist, Lewis, finally came to the view that ‘God was
God’. Derick
Bingham wrote –
‘Lewis now believed in God. He was a theist, that is, he believed in the creation of the universe by one God but he was not yet a Christian’.
However, on the preceding page Derick Bingham
quotes more extensively from what Lewis wrote about this 1929
transformation experience
Lewis wrote ‘That
which I had greatly feared had come upon me…I gave in and admitted that God was
God and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night the most dejected and reluctant
convert in all England…but who can duly adore that love which will open the
high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful and
darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape?’
I have read other reports [e.g. by Dr Bruce L
Edwards] that chart the ‘progression’ of Lewis as being from
atheist to theist to Christian but the terminology used by Lewis in 1929
seems to me to be more than that of a ‘mere theist’. I wonder has Derick
Bingham sought to fully think through and explain what spiritual reality Lewis
was seeking to convey when he referred to himself as a ‘convert’ who ‘knelt and
prayed’,
as a ‘prodigal’ and as one ‘brought in’? Is there evidence that Lewis
himself drew such a clear distinction between his ‘conversion’ in
1929 [to ‘theist’] and his ‘conversion’ in 1931 [to ‘Christian’]? Perhaps there is such
evidence available and if so it would be very helpful if Derick Bingham were
to put it in the public domain. Referring again to the night of the
conversation between Lewis and Tolkien, in his booklet Derick
Bingham also stated this –
‘Tolkien went home and Hugo Dyson, another friend and academic, continued to talk with Lewis…He emphasised that the one who believes in Christ receives peace and forgiveness of sins’.
Three days later Lewis declared that he
believed that ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God’. Perhaps I’m ultra cautious
but I am very hesitant to simply accept that someone who declares that ‘God is God’ and that ‘Jesus
Christ is the Son of God’ can automatically be considered to be a genuine
Christian convert. Mormons can easily declare that ‘God is
God’ and
that ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ It is one thing to ‘believe IN
Christ’ but
quite another matter to ‘believe ON Christ’ – that is, the ‘Christ’ revealed in the Bible.
In my Bible I read of a man with “an unclean spirit” who
said to Christ “I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God” [Mark
1:23-24]. When Christ came to “the country of the Gergesenes, there met
him two possessed with devils…And behold they cried out, what have we to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God” [Matthew 8:28-29]. In James 2:19 I
read “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
believe and tremble”. It is clear from scripture that to believe that ‘God is
God’ and
that ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ is not a sure testimony to
possessing God’s “so great salvation” [Hebrews 2:3]. In my Bible
I read the following “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the
doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he
hath both the Father and the Son” [2 John 9]. A true Christian convert will
not only be right about the ‘person’ of Christ but he will also
be right about the ‘work’ of Christ. This is the divine
revelation given to those who savingly ‘believe ON Christ’ – listen to Christ in Matthew
11:25 “I thank thee O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes”. In
the great chapter where Christ speaks of being “born again” we
subsequently read in John 3:27 where John the Baptist said concerning
spiritual knowledge “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from
heaven”. I often hear the expression ‘A person is not justified [acquitted
by God] by their words’ and that is true but ‘the words of
a person’ will testify that they have been truly ‘justified’.
The words of a ‘justified person’ will show that they are ‘abiding
in the doctrine of Christ’ and that they truly ‘have both the Father and
the Son” [2 John 9]. To test if someone is truly a genuine Christine
convert who is ‘abiding in the doctrine of Christ’ it is scripturally
legitimate to examine what all those professing to be Christian say and write
publicly for we read in 1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but
try [test] the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets
are gone out into the world”. In the Berean spirit, commended by
Paul in Acts 17:11 I want now to consider some of the publicly expressed
views of C S Lewis to see if he truly merits Derick Bingham’s appellation
that he is ‘our greatest Christian writer’. Prior to even considering
compiling any report, most of the concerns that I held concerning the writings
of C S Lewis were based upon reports compiled by other concerned
Christian apologists [some of which I will refer to later]. However, recently I
have taken time to look at what Lewis wrote in his book ‘Mere Christianity’ and I have been so shocked by
what I have read that I was simply compelled to write this report, particularly
in the light of all the high-profile promotion being given to Lewis by Derick
Bingham. [to be continued DV]
MEMORIES OF MALTA
At the end of October, Margaret
and I spent a relaxing week on the island of Malta. In the wake of rather
hectic ‘Ministry’ activity over recent months this was a welcome respite
and the Lord blessed us with lovely weather. We were able to ‘take in’ and
appreciate the varied and often rugged landscape of our surroundings but the
‘spiritual’ landscape certainly did not escape our attention either and I would
like to share some thoughts and impressions with you.
According to Acts 27-28 Paul
made an unscheduled stop [courtesy of a shipwreck] on the island of Malta – ‘Melita’
-see Acts 28:1. During his time there he had an encounter with “ a
viper…[a] venomous beast” [v3-4] but I am glad to report that we had
no such ‘hand-wringing’ experiences. I think if Paul were to visit Malta today,
courtesy of Air Malta, he would experience the same kind of ‘sinking-feeling’
that he experienced during his time in Athens where we read in Acts 17:16
“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when
he saw the whole city given to idolatry”. In Air Malta’s ‘in-flight’
magazine for November 2002 Paul could read the following on page 39 and I
believe it would particularly ‘stir his spirit’.
On that page under the heading ‘PLACES OF INTEREST’ we read the following ‘St Paul’s Shipwreck Church [open daily] is considered to be the most
important church in Valletta after St John’s Co-Cathedral. This church
celebrates the feast of St Paul’s shipwreck on February 10. The wooden statue
of Paul which is carried in procession is the work of 17th-century
sculptor Melchiorre Gafa. One can also see a silver monstrance with a bone
relic of St Paul, as well as the silver column brought from Rome in 1960’.
Here we have a ‘statue’ and supposedly ‘a bone
relic’ of the same St Paul who, when the
people of Lystra wanted to raise him and Barnabas to a level of worship and
adoration, “rent [his] clothes and ran in among the
people crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of
like passions unto you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these
vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth
and the sea and all things that are
therein” [Acts 14:14-15].
The reality is that Paul
would be appalled by any such ‘feasts’ in his memory! Today the island
of Malta, religiously speaking, is virtually wholly given over to the idolatry
of Roman Catholicism. This is clearly evident, not only in the Cathedrals and
many Chapels [both large and small] located all over the island, but at the
numerous shrines along the roadside and by the doorpost figures on multitudes
of house fronts. On the one organised trip that we signed up for, a visit to
the neighbouring island of Gozo, we were regularly directed to Roman Catholic
chapels and informed of the many ‘festas’ that each individual village
would organise during the year. Just a few examples taken from the printed
schedule are as follows –
|
Locality |
Festa |
Date |
|
Gharb |
Visitation
of Our Lady |
1st
Sunday in July |
|
Qala |
St
Joseph |
1st
Sunday in August |
|
Xlendi |
Our Lady
of Mount Carmel |
1st
Sunday in September |
|
Victoria |
Immaculate
Conception |
8
December |
In the course of
conversation with another couple who were staying in our hotel they told us
which part of Northern Ireland they came from. That, together with their names
and cultural interests led us to believe that they were Roman Catholics. As we
all chatted away about what we had seen on the islands they remarked to us
about the obvious and glaring ‘riches’ that adorned every Catholic Church and
they were struck by the contrast between the wealth of the Church and the
relative poverty of the people. The truth is that not only does Rome impoverish
its people ‘spiritually’ speaking but also in the ‘material’ sense and this is
evident all over the world, and perhaps nowhere more so than here in Ireland.
In support of this here are extracts from 2 letters published in the Belfast
Telegraph of 9 November 2002 -
‘Can
the Church justify the expenditure of many thousands of pounds the Irish
Bishops spent this year when they all went off to Bruges in Belgium for their
annual conference? Can the Church Justify an expenditure of more than £4000
each on robes for clerics made Cardinals in Rome last year?…We the faithful
will pay as we pay for everything else.’ DISENCHANTED CATHOLIC, Dunmurry,
‘Our Church is run as a dictatorship and the
Bishops and priests do make all the decisions without consulting the people
who, after all, supply the money…I have lived in Glengormley for 15 years and
never once was I asked to vote for a finance committee…As for rich priests or
poor priests it would be easier to unlock the secrets of the Pharoahs than to
learn what your average priest earns. Catholic mother should open her eyes and
look around the parish of Glengormley. Do they really need three parochial
houses?’ CATHOLIC FATHER, Glengormley,
Malta, an
island bedecked with ‘Roman Riches’, but knowing little of the
soul-liberating message preached by that visitor to its shores almost 2000
years ago who declared in Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any
man should boast” [a message more precious than “silver or gold” 1 Peter
1:18] As we travelled around we took every opportunity to leave, in
appropriate locations, tracts and booklets telling forth the “glad tidings” that
Paul both announced and explained in Acts 13: 32 & 38-39. Please
pray that the Lord might be pleased to use these for His glory and for some
soul’s eternal good. In particular could we ask you to pray for Catherine
[tour guide] and Charles [tour company representative] who received
booklets?
On the Friday of our week in
Malta, Margaret and I navigated our way via the local bus service to the
capital, Valletta and spent some 3-4 hours in a very busy, bustling city. Our
first port of call after passing through the famed city gate was the Tourist
Office where we armed ourselves with probably the most popular of their
leaflets – ‘A Walking Tour of Valletta’. Later, after splitting
up to ‘do our own thing’ I was making my way back to our rendezvous point when
I spotted a couple of young men in white shirts with dark ties and dark
trousers. Pinned to their shirts were the black name badges of ‘Elders of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints’ – probably
better known to you and I as ‘MORMONS’. Prayerfully I approached and inquired if I could ask
them a question to which they responded ‘yes’. This was my question.
‘Can you tell me what your church teaches about
how Jesus
Christ received his earthly body’?
One of them replied as follows ‘He received it through the Virgin Mary – that’s in
the Bible’. I then said ‘But can you tell
me how Mary came to be pregnant in the first place’? The young
Mormon replied ‘We believe the same as
what all the Christian denominations would believe about that’. I said to
him ‘That’s
not true’ and he asked me to explain
so I told him how his church teaches that their heavenly Father, who is called
Elohim, came to earth almost 2000 years ago and had a literal sexual
relationship with a Virgin called Mary [after which she was no longer a Virgin] and as a
result of that union, Jesus Christ was born in the flesh and I added ‘that’s not in the
Bible’.
He said to me that he had never
heard that and asked me where it was taught. I informed him that many Mormon
leaders and spokespersons had taught this since the foundation of their church.
I mentioned Mormon apostle, Bruce McConkie as one example but encouraged him to check the
subject out for himself. He asked me my name, which I gave, and then I asked
him for his – to which he replied ‘Elder
so and so’ – so I asked him for his first name – it is Derek – please join with us in praying for Derek’s deliverance from Mormonism and his
soul’s salvation.
This topic of Christ’s body is
something I believe that Mormonism likes to ‘hush-up’ and it may be that they
keep the truth hidden from ‘missionaries’ like Derek. It’s
something you might like to ask any Mormons that you come in contact with about
and to ‘arm’ you and help you here are some quotes by leading Mormons on the
origins of the ‘earthly
body of Jesus Christ’.
SOURCE |
QUOTE |
|
Bruce R
McConkie [one of the Mormon “Twelve Apostles” until 1985]
in ‘Mormon Doctrine’ (1966 Edition: p 546-547) |
‘These name-titles all
signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the
words is to be understood literally. Only means only; Begotten means
begotten; and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the
same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers’. |
|
Bruce R
McConkie [one of the Mormon “Twelve Apostles” until 1985]
in ‘Mormon Doctrine’ (1966 Edition: p 742) |
‘And Christ was born into
the world as the literal Son of this Holy being; he was born in the same
personal, real and literals sense that any son is born to a mortals father.
There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived
and born in the normal natural course of events…Christ is the Son of Man,
meaning that his Father (the Eternal God) is a Holy Man’. |
|
Joseph
Fielding Smith [10th President of
the Mormon Church] in ‘Doctrines of Salvation’ (Vol:1 p19) |
‘They tell us the Book of
Mormon states that Jesus was begotten of the Holy Ghost. I challenge that
statement. The Book of Mormon teaches no such thing! Neither does the bible.’ |
|
Joseph
Fielding Smith [10th President of
the Mormon Church] in ‘Doctrines of Salvation’ (Vol:1 p18) |
‘Christ was begotten of
God. He was not born without the aid of Man and that Man was God’. |
|
Heber C
Kimball [one of the original Mormon “Twelve Apostles”] in
‘Journal of Discourses’ (Vol:8 p211) |
‘I was naturally
begotten; so was my father and also my Saviour Jesus Christ. According to the
Scriptures, he is the first begotten of his father in the flesh and there is
nothing unnatural about it’. |
Quote from ‘Family Home Evening Manual’ (1972 Edition: p125) |
‘Well, now for the
benefit of the older ones, how are children begotten? I answer – just as
Jesus Christ was begotten of his father’. |
|
Brigham
Young [Successor to Joseph Smith, the founder of
Mormonism] in ‘Journal of Discourses 1860’ (Vol:8 p 115) |
‘The birth of our Saviour
was as natural as are the births of our children: it was the result of natural
action. He partook of flesh and blood – was begotten of his father as we were
of our fathers’. |
|
Brigham
Young [Successor to Joseph Smith, the founder of
Mormonism] in ‘Journal of Discourses 1857’ (Vol:4 p 218) |
‘When the time came that
His first born, the Saviour, should come into the world and take a tabernacle
(body) the Father came Himself and favoured that spirit with a tabernacle
instead of letting any other man do it’. |
|
Brigham
Young [Successor to Joseph Smith, the founder of
Mormonism] in ‘Journal of Discourses’ (Vol:1 p 151) |
‘Now remember from this
time forth and for ever that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy
Ghost’. |
It is also worth remembering that Brigham Young taught that this ‘Father God-Man’ was none other than Adam. Here is what Brigham Young taught
|
Brigham
Young in ‘Journal of Discourses 1852’ (Vol: 1 p50) |
‘Now hear it inhabitants
of the earth, Jew and gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father ADAM came
into the garden of Eden he came into it with a celestial body and brought
Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organise this world.
He is MICHAEL the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! About whom holy men have
written and spoken – He is our FATHER and our God and the only God with whom
we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christian or
non-professing must hear it and will know it sooner or later’ |
|
Brigham
Young in ‘Journal of Discourses 1852’ (Vol: 1 p50) |
‘When the Virgin Mary
conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own
likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the father? He
is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle it was
begotten by his Father in heaven’. |
|
Brigham
Young in ‘Desert News’ (October 10, 1866) |
‘The man Joseph, the
husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but
Mary, the wife of Joseph, had another husband’. |
In June 1998, the ‘LDS Church News’ referred to comments made by their President, Gordon B Hinckley during a
visit to Europe. They stated ‘In bearing
testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church
who say Latter-day saints “do not believe in the traditional Christ. No I don’t.
The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak.
For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of
the Fullness of Times”’ and
President Hinckley added by way of clarification ‘He [the Christ of whom I speak] together with His
Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left
the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned
ministers of the gospel of the ages’.
Let me end this section with the
Apostle Paul’s timely warning to the Galatians as found in God’s true Word, in Galatians
1: 8 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed”.
Whilst in Malta I was able to chat
by phone on several occasions with Pastor
Paul Mizzi of Trinity Evangelical Church in Luqa. Unfortunately our schedules did not allow for our
paths to cross in person but I would commend this work to you for your
remembrance [prayerful and
practical if possible]. This is a
small fellowship, made up predominantly of converted, former Roman Catholics
[the background of Pastor Paul] and they are seeking under God to
witness for the truth of the Gospel in opposition to the overwhelming and
oppressive darkness of Rome. Certainly if you are ever visiting Malta they
would be glad to meet up with you and have you fellowship with them. The postal
address of the church is PO Box 9, Luqa and a contact telephone
number is 2180 4417. Just in closing let me relate how an incident
proved the truth of Proverbs 15:23 “a word spoken in season, how good is
it!” As I mentioned earlier, Margaret and I went on one tour – the visit to
Gozo. One stop was to the ‘Heritage
Centre’ where we learned much about the history of the islands. Back on the
bus I couldn’t help but overhear the man sitting behind us telling his wife
[who had not visited the centre] about how during the presentation, mention had
been made of how the Apostle Paul had referred to the inhabitants as ‘barbarians’
because they did not understand Greek or Latin. In response the man’s wife
said ‘but he also said “they showed us no little kindness”’ and
at that my ears pricked up as I recognised her quote from Acts 28:2. At
our next scheduled stop I made a point of entering into conversation with this
couple and very quickly we discovered that they were indeed fellow-believers
who had actually gone to hear Frank Eberhardt [former trainee
Roman Catholic priest] during his speaking tour here in Ireland organised by “Take
Heed” back in 1997. For the remainder of the tour and next day also we
enjoyed times of fellowship with John and Shirley, again proving “How good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together [even for a few days
on holiday] in unity!” [Psalm 133:1].
During my time in Malta I read a
book that I had been asked to review. It was called ‘A TIME OF DEPARTING’ by
Ray Yungen and it dealt with the subject of ‘CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER’.
This is an expression that conjures up a picture of deep spirituality and an
intimate walk with God – the reality is that nothing could be further from the
truth. So-called ‘CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER’ [defined as ‘Going
beyond thought by use of repeated prayer words’ on page 138] is nothing
more than a resurgence of occultic techniques found in paganism and Roman
Catholic mysticism only this time it is being promoted by authors who are
perceived to be in the evangelical Christian ‘camp’. It certainly was an
‘eye-opener’ and explained how heretical statements to the effect that ‘God
is in all people’ [from the definition of ‘Panentheism’ on page 140]
have been circulated by people like Tony Campolo who is closely
associated with the Renovare movement founded by Richard
Foster – author of ‘Celebration of Discipline’ - a book,
which in the light of what I read about it in Ray Yungen’s book, is clearly one
to be avoided by God’s people.
Many other so-called
‘evangelicals’ such as Philip Yancey and Brennan
Manning are mentioned in ‘A Time Of Departing’ as is the late ‘Father’
Henri Nouwen whose books are found in ‘Christian’
bookstores and whose books are supplied by STL – the
book publishing company that states in its ‘Stock Policy’ – ‘STL is a
distribution organisation for Christian products operating on biblical
principles and IN FULL AGREEMENT WITH THE OPERATION MOBILISATION
statement of faith’. Other ‘Christian’ authors listed in
the STL catalogue include the late ‘Cardinal’ Basil Hume,
the late ‘Mother’ Teresa, USA ‘convert’ to Roman
Catholicism Scott Hahn, the heretic Benny Hinn, Richard
Holloway who according to The Guardian [G2 supplement of 18 August 1999
published during his tenure as Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh]
reportedly ‘didn’t
have any hang-ups about young people experimenting with casual sex or soft
drugs’,
stated in relation to the Bible that ‘obviously it is not meant
to be taken literally’ and gave his view on Jesus as follows – ‘He was a sacred person. He
had an encounter with the transcendent meaning we call God…My own preaching of
the resurrection is evolving. I preach it as symbol, not necessarily as a brute
physical fact. I’m agnostic on that’. Other ‘Christian’ authors
listed include Ken Gott and Claudio Freidzon who
played significant roles in the ‘Toronto Blessing’ debacle and
finally Richard Foster whose dangerous and unscriptural teaching
is identified in ‘A Time Of Departing’. Are the published views
of all these so-called ‘Christian’ authors ‘IN FULL
AGREEMENT WITH THE OPERATION MOBILISATION statement of faith’ as
STL claim? If so, should
evangelical Christians really continue to support OPERATION MOBILISATION?
Since reading ‘A Time Of
Departing’ I have noticed comments about the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan
Williams that would seem to indicate openness to ‘Contemplative
Prayer’. The ultra-ecumenical ‘Taize
Movement’ would also appear to embrace enthusiastically this type of
mystical meditation. Returning briefly to Rowan Williams I
watched him on television attempt to draw a distinction between men who forsake
heterosexual relationships in favour of homosexual relationships [he appeared
to consider that ‘sinful’] and men who only enter into homosexual relationships
[it appeared that he didn’t think the Bible condemned such relationships as
‘sinful’]. Is Rowan Williams trying to identify the “leaving
the natural use of the woman” [Romans 1:28] by men as being ‘sinful’ rather
than their “burn(ing) in their lust one toward another, men with men,
working that which is unseemly” – behaviour that God clearly declares in Leviticus
18:22 and 20:13 to be an “abomination” in His sight. If that
is so then clearly in Rowan Williams we have a ‘wolf in
sheep’s clothing’ as warned of in Matthew 7:15.
is available from our ministry
Price £8.00 [includes
p&p]
My
endorsement for ‘A Time Of Departing’
read as follows
‘The term ‘Contemplative
Prayer’ has in recent years become much more ‘common-place’ amongst the
vocabulary used in Christian circles. It is a term that conjures up a picture
of a technique designed to take the practitioner into deeper and closer communion
with ‘God’. Is it really a ‘vehicle’ to a ‘closer walk with God’? In his book
‘A Time Of Departing’, Ray Yungen documents clearly that far from being such a
‘vehicle’, ‘Contemplative Prayer’ is more akin to a ‘Trojan Horse’ designed to
infiltrate occultic and deceptive thinking and spirits into professing
Christendom under the guise of ‘Christian’ practices and techniques. You may be
very surprised to read of who the prime ‘pawns’ are in this spiritually
dangerous deception’.
I was really surprised,
following my warning about the up-coming visit to Belfast of Joyce Meyer
planned for May, by the number of people who requested the report detailing her
theological ‘short-comings’. Most of those who contacted me were familiar with
Joyce Meyer as a result of her programmes on UCB [United
Christian Broadcasters]. Not only does Joyce Meyer have ‘air-time’
with UCB but also a number of her books are listed in the ‘UCB
direct Winter Catalogue’. Other authors listed are C S
Lewis and ‘Bishop’ T D Jakes. Mr Jakes is
yet another teacher of heresy and again I have a report, available upon
request, giving details of his unscriptural teachings. I personally obtained
some materials from Joyce Meyer Ministries that confirm that she
is firmly in the ‘Word of Faith/Name it and Claim It’ ‘camp’. I
listened to her tape ‘Blessed or Cursed by the Tongue’? It was no
‘message from the Lord’ but merely a promulgation of the ‘Word
of Faith’ Movement teaching that ‘we can have what we speak’.
Likewise in her book ‘The Most Important Decision You’ll Ever Make’
Joyce Meyer wrote ‘Jesus went to hell for you. He died for
you. He paid for your sins. God was faithful to Jesus. God did what he told
Jesus He would do. He raised Him from the dead. But until that happened, He was
alone for three days satisfying the courts of justice…On the third day He rose
from the dead’. This teaching that Jesus atoned for sin for 3 days in
hell is both blasphemous and heretical and has often been articulated by one of
the perceived leaders of the ‘Word of Faith’ Movement, namely Kenneth
Copeland who also taught the ‘Tongue’ heresy already
mentioned in his little book ‘The Power of The Tongue’. These
false teachings are well documented and refuted in Hank Hanegraaff’s book
‘Christianity in Crisis’. Yet again United Christian Broadcasters
have shown themselves to be ‘New-Evangelicals’ who INTEGRATE with
error rather than SEPARATE; who TOLERATE error rather than REJECT; who
CO-OPERATE with error rather than CONFRONT. Their broadcasts and their
publications, including ‘The Word For Today’ daily
devotional should be rejected as they lack discernment, often contain and
promote error, and give platforms to known “enemies of the cross”.
This is a new book written by Jim
Tetlow who produced the video of the same name, which examined ‘Marian
Apparitions’. There were contributions in the video by amongst others Roger
Oakland and myself. Jim’s book provides a wealth of information with documented
quotes and biblical analysis and I recommend it to those interested in this
very topical subject. The book can be obtained from us – Price £8.00 -
includes p&p.