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"Take
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Cecil Andrews, 29 Edengrove Park, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AZ, Northern Ireland Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net Quick Links - Home - Assorted Articles - Audio/Video - Ministry Newsletters - Words of Wisdom |
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‘ALPHA NEWS’ - ‘ DELIGHTING the DEVIL |
The devil takes great delight in blinding men and women to the truth of
the ‘good news’ of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He blinds minds
according to 2nd Corinthians 4:4. He takes people captive by his
deceptions according to 2nd Timothy 2:26. He perverts the scriptures
as we see in Matthew 4:6. He hinders the true servants of God as we read in 1st
Thessalonians 2:18. He and his dupes can deceive by appearing to be angels of
light as we read in 2nd Corinthians 11:13-14. He is a liar and the
father of lies according to John 8:44.
I have just received the latest issue [November 2009 – February 2010] of ALPHA NEWS and the devil must be absolutely rubbing his hands
with glee as he surveys what has been published in the name of Christianity –
truly this issue deserves an oscar for spiritual deception.
The front page sets the tone straight away for what will follow – here’s
what I’m referring to –
So, headlining the front page of ALPHA NEWS is a photo of Tony
Blair, who is not a Christian but is a Roman Catholic and a victim of the
soul-damning ‘sacramental system of salvation’ propagated by Rome.
Inside the paper are extracts from an interview given by Tony Blair to
Nicky Gumbel in front of 1200 people at Holy Trinity Brompton, London in July
2009. Nicky Gumbel somewhat enhanced an event early in Tony Blair’s life when
he posed this question – ‘I think you talked about having a kind of spiritual awakening when you were ten years old. Did
you have an experience then of some kind?
In his reply Tony Blair said ‘my father was and is a convinced
almost militant atheist… My father suffered a stroke during the night. He was
only forty at the time… the head teacher called me in… He said to me “We’re
going to say a prayer for your father”… And we knelt down and we prayed
together… After that I wouldn’t have described myself as particularly
religiously inclined’.
Not quite the spiritual awakening that
Nicky Gumbel had alluded to in his question!
Something approaching a ‘word of testimony’ was made by Tony Blair when
referring to his time at Oxford when he said ‘I started to read about
religion. I went back and I read the Bible. I started to ask questions. If
you’d asked me I would have said even before this “Yes of course I’m a
Christian” but I wouldn’t have explained what it meant in my life at all. He [An Australian Anglican vicar at Oxford called Peter
Thompson] gave it that meaning.
I got confirmed [sacramentalism] in the college chapel and that really set my life on a different course’.
That ‘course’ eventually led Tony Blair to embrace Roman
Catholicism, the religion of his wife Cherie, shortly after he resigned
as Prime Minister and I wrote about that on
As for reading the bible it would appear that ‘reading it’ is one thing
for Mr Blair but ‘understanding or explaining it’ is quite another thing. Nicky
Gumbel posed this question to Mr Blair – ‘Anthony Seldon says in his
biography of you “Whereas some politicians turn to drink, Tony Blair turns to
prayer and Bible reading”… How do you find time for that?’
In his reply Tony Blair said ‘Sometimes I will read bits of the
Gospel sort of separated out as you would in a church service. Sometimes what I
do is I go and re-read the Gospel all the way through just to get the sense of
it… The passage I always go back to in a time of difficulty is the parable of the sower. The
absolute heart of it is that you are given certain abilities and gifts
and it is an obligation, it’s a duty to use those’.
Taking a totally uncharitable view of Tony Blair’s answer I could say
that he has totally misrepresented the meaning of the parable of the sower. This parable was told by the Lord
to demonstrate the very differing effects upon humanity when the Word of God is
preached to them – it has absolutely nothing to do with an individual’s
responsibility to use their personal abilities and gifts. The
Lord’s own explanation of this parable is clearly set out in Luke 8:11-15.
Taking a charitable view I believe that perhaps Tony Blair meant to
refer to what is known as the parable of the talents as found in Matthew
25:14-30. In his Study Bible footnotes to this parable John MacArthur wrote
‘The parable of the talents illustrates the tragedy of wasted opportunity…
Faithfulness is what he [Christ] demands of them [believers].’
Now anyone can have a slip of the tongue but was it right, as it would
appear, that Nickey Gumbel didn’t at the time gently correct Mr Blair’s mistake
and why, in printing this version of the interview in ALPHA NEWS, was
some corrective comment or footnote not made to alert any unwary reader to this
misrepresentation of God’s truth.
Later in response to a question about his working with people of ‘other
faiths’ Mr Blair stated – ‘we can work together and there
are points at which we can at least understand some of our
common heritage through the Abrahamic faiths’ – here we see Mr Blair parroting
the Vatican line of Interfaith thinking and I dealt with this in my previous
article on
Finally in this section I want to refer to where Nicky Gumbel said to Mr
Blair – ‘Dealing with these issues like global poverty and preventable
disease… I know that Bono has been one of the
people that you’ve been linked with’.
In his response Tony Blair said ‘He came to see me in Downing
Street some time ago through the global poverty movement… there is that
humility there with Bono, who is of Christian faith’.
In a portion of an article found towards the very end of this link http://www.takeheed.net/News_From_The_Front/MARCH2007.htm
I wrote this – ‘In an interview
Bono commented on the Roman Catholic
Church and a meeting he had with the late Pope and he said – ‘Let's not get too hard on the Holy Roman
Church here. The Church has its problems, but the older I get, the more comfort I find there…The Pontiff was about to
make an important statement… During the preamble, he seemed to be staring
at me. I wondered. Was it the fact that I was wearing my blue fly-shades?
So I took them off in case I was causing some offence. When I was introduced
to him, he was still staring at them. He kept looking at them in my hand,
so I offered them to him as a gift in return for the rosary
he had just given me. Not only did he put them on, he smiled
the wickedest grin you could ever imagine. He was a comedian’. The papal Antichrist
is many things but not ‘a comedian’.
Any supposed ‘Christian’ newspaper like ALPHA NEWS that
portrays Tony Blair and his Roman Catholic religion as being ‘Christian’ is
quite simply ‘Delighting the Devil’.
Next we move to the headline picture spread across pages 10-11 of ALPHA
NEWS
In the text of the report of this event we read the following – ‘Around
24 Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops attended an ALPHA conference jointly
hosted by The Catholic Latin American organisation
ITEPAL in Bogota, Columbia in October. The conference was led by Nicky
Gumbel and speakers included Bishop Sandy Millar [previously Nicky Gumbel’s ‘boss’ at Holy Trinity
Brompton] …
Three [RC] Archbishops attended the conference… Archbishop Luis
Augusto Castro said “The ALPHA course helps us not only to meet, love and
follow Jesus but also to help others, especially those
who are lost [particularly
ironic coming from the lips of someone ‘lost’ in
the religion of Roman Catholicism] or that have never heard about Him”…
‘Father Gleicon Da Silva from Brazil said “ALPHA has transformed my community” - presumably it has entrenched that community even deeper
into the errors of Rome’s ‘sacramental system of salvation’ as these comments
from Manuel Saraff of the Dominican Republic – ‘When I started
co-ordinating ALPHA I started studying and seeing. The Eucharist started recovering its sense. The adoration to
the holy sacrament started getting meaning’ and these comments
from Shirley Diaz of Colombia clearly illustrate – ‘We were Catholics
by name… but we had not been married by the church. We are parents of two
children and they had not been baptised. I had not been confirmed… The course
made us feel really close to Jesus… Five months ago
we were married, we baptised our children and I was confirmed’.
Any supposed ‘Christian’ newspaper like ALPHA NEWS that
portrays Rome’s ‘sacramental system of salvation’ as being ‘Christian’ and
leads people even deeper into its deceiving clutches is quite simply ‘Delighting
the Devil’.
Moving on we find this headline on page 29 of ALPHA NEWS –
The write-up for this conference stated ‘The First Orthodox ALPHA conference was held in Sofia, Bulgaria
at the end of September. Fourteen priests and lay people attended the two-day
conference that was held in the Pokrov Bogorodichen parish church in the centre
of Sofia… Father Josef Archimandrite was one of the speakers at he conference.
In the 1990’s I was privileged to co-operate with a solid evangelical
missionary society that had worked for decades in countries where Orthodox ‘Christianity’
had held sway in the realm of religion. I can assure you that by its strident
and often militant opposition to those missionary efforts Orthodoxy showed
itself to be no friend of genuine biblical Christianity.
In his analysis of Eastern Orthodoxy on http://www.wayoflife.org/database/denominationstoday.html
David Cloud wrote -
‘Orthodoxy refers
to that branch of sacramental Christianity which broke off from the Roman
Catholic Church in 1054 A.D… The main point of contention between the eastern
and the western divisions was the papacy. More important than doctrine was the
issue of power and authority. The Eastern Orthodox rejected the pope, while retaining
Rome’s sacramental system and most of Rome’s unscriptural doctrines… The Roman
Catholic Church and its twin, Eastern Orthodoxy, were formed by a spiritually
adulterous relationship between the political empire and apostate church
leaders… Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy both claim direct descent from
Christ and the Apostles, but that this claim is bogus is evident in their
non-apostolic doctrines and practices. As a result of the split with Rome,
Eastern Orthodoxy is not united under one head. There are many groupings of
Orthodox, all having the same basic doctrine and practice with some minor
variation: Russian Orthodox, Albanian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Ukrainian
Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox,
etc… In addition to rejecting the papacy, with its doctrines of supremacy and
infallibility, Eastern Orthodoxy rejects purgatory and the doctrine of
indulgences. Like Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy has a consecrated priesthood and
seven sacraments which only the priests have authority to perform--baptism,
anointing, communion, penance, holy orders, marriage, and holy unction
(Handbook of Denominations in the United States, 9th ed.). Infants and adults
are baptized by threefold immersion. Sacraments are believed to be channels of
grace, as contrasted to the New Testament ordinances of baptism and the Lords
Supper which are simple memorials rather than actual means of grace. Orthodoxy
practices the mass or the “Holy Eucharist” [eucharist means praise] whereby
Christ supposedly is sacrificed anew and the bread and wine of the “eucharist”
becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. Orthodoxy worships Mary as the
Mother of God. Prayers are offered for the dead, who also are believed to pray
for those on earth. Justification is attained through faith and works…
Orthodoxy preaches a false gospel. According to Orthodox teaching, baptism
(even of infants) is the means whereby an individual is born into Christ and
becomes a Christian… The Orthodox Church also advocates prayers to and for the
dead, and the false, wicked idea that the living can aid in the salvation of
the deceased through good works… From these quotes it is obvious that the
Orthodox Church is entirely apostate. It holds the same basic set of false
beliefs as the Roman Catholic Church from which it broke away in the ninth
century.’
In a paper written by Paulus Farmer, a former adherent of Greek Orthodoxy, but now an evangelical Christian evangelist witnessing in particular to the Greek Orthodox community in London we learn the following –
‘For those who are familiar with Romish
Mariolatry, the following Orthodox addresses to Mary should not come as a
surprise. She is called “All Holy One”, “Mother of God”, “Mediatrix”,
“Immaculate”, “Pure One”, “the True Vine”, “Jacob’s Ladder”, “Burning Bush”,
“Rod of Aaron”, “Bride of God”, “Daughter of the King” amongst other titles… In
the liturgy for the veneration of Mary, she is asked to “redeem and save us”…
Another strange practice is to make a waxen effigy of the part of the body,
which needs healing, and offer it to a saint just like ancient Greeks would to
temple gods and goddesses… In a little chapel in Guildford I witnessed English
people [converts
to Greek Orthodoxy] bowing down in front of icons, kissing them and lighting candles… There
is an atmosphere of awe, which is almost hypnotising as the priest and choir
chant their liturgy… We [Paulus and others] work under the umbrella of the local church providing the Greeks with
the opportunity to listen to the gospel preached in their own language. Our
main obstacle is the fact that Greeks think they are Christians already having
been baptised as babies into the Orthodox Church. Please pray that God will
pour out His Holy Spirit… and that many will turn from their blindness into the
True Light.
Clearly such a closing prayer is not going to be helped by ALPHA recognising those of adherents of the various branches of Orthodoxy, such as the Bulgarian, as being their fellow ‘Christians’.
Any supposed ‘Christian’ newspaper like ALPHA NEWS that
portrays Orthodoxy’s ‘sacramental system of salvation’ as being ‘Christian’ is
quite simply ‘Delighting the Devil’.
Finally I want to make a few brief comments on something I referred to
in the ALPHA section of my book called ‘Try the spirits: Volume 1’. In my book I quoted some comments from a
report by Tim Chapman an Anglican who used to lead ALPHA courses and also cited
my own observations –
Tim
Chapman wrote: ‘The lack of focus on Jesus is seen very clearly in the testimonies
people give – testimonies which Alpha quotes with approval in its literature.’…
When I spoke publicly on Alpha in 2000, I made exactly
this same point and I cited several examples. I mentioned the TV presenter
Diane Louise Jordan. In the March – July 2000 Alpha News there were three pages devoted to her ‘testimony’. In
those three pages there was not one reference to sin, Christ or Calvary. The major influences in her
‘claimed conversion’ were her emotional reaction to a visit to Lourdes and an
encounter with an apparition of her dead sister in a hotel room in Argentina.
Since
then, in the March – June 2003 Alpha News
in two pages of ‘testimony’ by former female spiritualist Sam Ryan, yet again
there was no reference to either sin
or Calvary. In the July – October
2003 Alpha News in two pages of
‘testimony’ Leila Bagnall makes no reference to Calvary.
Sadly
this distrubing trend can yet again be seen the current issue of ALPHA NEWS where
little or any reference to or understanding of ‘conviction of sin’, ‘the cross
of Calvary’, or ‘conversion to Christ’ appears in several stories/testimonies
that are included. They contain no clear biblical gospel presentation or
explanation and instead we end up with expressions such as –
‘The
Alpha Course and the programme changed the way I
looked at life and the relationships with people around me. For me God is
everything now. My friends and family are tired of me talking about Alpha if not a little concerned too’
[Surely any faithful biblical course would
make the Lord Jesus Christ the focus of attention and not the course itself].
‘At
the end of his talk, the clergyman
[Nicky Gumbel] read
out a prayer which we could repeat quietly if we wanted to become a Christian.
I thought, yes, I’m on for this, and said the
prayer… gradually that prayer which I had said at the Alpha supper gained more
meaning. I prayed it at every opportunity’
[Why repeat this ‘prayer’ if it means someone
becomes a Christian the first time they pray it?]
‘We
became friends with Nicky and Pippa who were leading our group… We used
to talk and talk into the night… So then we both
jumped in and church became a big part in both our lives. We started
leading Alpha groups… If we think about what is at the core, at the very
heart of the Christian faith, it is love for God and love for each other and those
are the things we’ve put at the heart of Alpha’
[The ‘we’ is the person who regularly repeated
‘the sinners prayer’ as already mentioned and her husband whose ‘conversion’
is nowhere spelt out in the article. The ‘core’ of Christianity is not what
we must do but rather what Christ has done – I deal with this false, devilish
man-centred emphasis in an article I wrote some years ago about the Queen’s
Christmas message in 1999 – it can be viewed on http://www.takeheed.net/Assorted_Articles/Contemporary/qm.htm
Any supposed ‘Christian’ newspaper like ALPHA NEWS that
focuses prime attention upon a Bible course and upon what man must do rather
than on Christ and what He has done is quite simply ‘Delighting the Devil’.
This is not the first time that ALPHA NEWS has
contained a plethora of items that are quite simply ‘Delighting the Devil’ and
sadly I am fully persuaded that it will not be the last time either.
Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 11th
December 2009