I have never met Hitler either but I know his heart. Have I just assumed that he was evil? No, I have heard the evidence, I have watched the movies, I have read his own writings, and I have seen firsthand the results of his evil heart. Am I being judgmental or making faulty assumptions? Every cult can make the same claims you are making, and if we use your reasoning how would we ever be able to rightly discern their falsehood without becoming involved with them and risking the snare of the Devil? Why do I need to come to Ecclesia when I have access to their material, I can read their promos and translations, and talk to others who have been there; their worldliness is apparent to even the newly born again Christian with discernment.

At your Taft Street Coffee Shop they make the claim that this is where the,

sacred and the secular intersect.

Is there ever a time, according to the Bible, when the “sacred and secular intersect”? This statement is a red flag to any discerning Christian, because it is in opposition to the plain words of Holy Scripture concerning the co-mingling of yeast and dough, called leaven; and Jesus’ warning that if we love the world then the love of the Father is not in us.

I don’t think you are as afraid as you say you are of the end time apostasy, otherwise you would believe Scripture and repent. By offering your erotic salsa dancing to the “girls” you display that you are worldly; salsa dancing and the Gospel have nothing in common. What is the difference between salsa dancing and yoga, or practicing the rituals of antichrist Rome? Would you draw the line at one or the other of these things and conveniently proclaim the holiness of salsa dancing?

You say,

Please do not judge (discern against) something before you get to know it.

Don’t you see? I do know it, because I know what the Bible says. I don’t have to have an affair with a prostitute before I can judge prostitution, I simply read my Bible and obey what it says, and what Ecclesia is involved in is prostitution.

When the Israelites left Egypt God led them, and provided them with what they needed. He fed them with Manna from Heaven. That Manna was all that they needed to satisfy their hunger, but after a while they became bored with the perfect food of God and Angles, and desired some of the old stuff they used to eat that caused gas and indigestion; the worldly food was preferred over the food from Heaven. That is a lesson for us today. God has given us the perfect food of His Word, but we have become bored with reading the same thing over and over, and desire something with a little more spice, so we add to God’s perfect Word salsa dancing, and new palatable translations, to name just a couple. Can’t you see that you have effectively gone back to Egypt? To simply be a “Christian” and believe what is written is not popular today; it needs a little seasoning, or a lot, as the case may be; but please, no plain old Manna.

Partner dancing reinforces healthy human relationships.

You obviously are not aware that we are in the midst of the worst revolution that men and women have ever faced; it is called the sexual revolution. It is a revolt against anything chaste, and has been the cause of the murder of more than 40,000,000 innocent victims; that is more than the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, a whole generation of children brutally murdered. Don’t tell me that a man and a woman dancing in close proximity to each other builds healthy human relationships; it builds adultery, fornication, babies born without two parents, and government sanctioned murder.

Wake-up Alex, before it is too late.

Just to make it clear I want to say that what I have said has been said in love and concern, and not to just spoil your good time, I hope you can see that.

In Christ,

Steve Blackwell

indywatchman, you CLEARLY are speaking out of ASSUMPTIONS about Ecclesia.  I'm telling you that I am JUST as afraid and worried about new age dogma as you, if not moreso.  I have never shied away from arguing against new ageism.  And from personal experience, I am telling you that your fears and assumptions about Ecclesia (and the Bible they wrote) are completely unfounded.  Everything you think you know about this church, you are wrong.  Everything you hope would be in their teaching, is there.

Please do not judge (discern against) something before you get to know it.

You sound like the girls who come to my salsa class and just assume just because I'm a salsa instructor I must be a player who only wants to get every girl in class into bed.  I'm a faithful follower of Christ and my dance instruction is used as an instrument for God.  Partner dancing reinforces healthy human relationships, and I highlight those facts in class.  Any girl that uses her preconceived notions about my position to "discern" that I am damned to hell is wrong.  And so are you when you "discern" that Ecclesia is worldly.

I'm telling you that it is not.   

Over at my blog, that I share with Judy, we have been having quite a discussion about Chris and his involvement in CCO/Jubilee conference in Feb. ’10. Would love for you to come for a visit and share your thoughts…

Yes, the authors claim that this is a translation, but that is a real stretch of the definition of the word “translation.” As far as getting your very own personal copy, there are bookstores that specialize in Christian books, they call them “Christian Book Stores,” and if your heart is set on having a copy, then neither Heaven nor Hell will stop you.

You said,

“Christians are bashing each other over what their favorite Bible is.”

Yes this is true, many find sport in contending like this, but others are obediently sounding an alarm that what the Bible has clearly predicted would happen, is in actuality, happening, because Jesus said in the end days “many will come in my name. . .deceiving many.”

As far as your comment,

“Let’s treat Christians like adults and trust them to test all things and hold fast to that which is good.”

You need to think about what your saying. Do you apply that to everything in your life? Or, do you use that principle with your children, who are not adults, and have no discernment of good and evil, or right and wrong? Would you advise your daughter to try prostitution before she judge it? Would you tell your son not to use corrupt business practices before he has walked a mile in there shoes? Wouldn’t you know better than to enter a whore house? Is your advise to try everything, to test everything— because this is what you are suggesting— valid? No you wouldn’t do or suggest these things to the members of your family, but we tend to think that because we are Christians we can commit all sorts of spiritual fornication without consequences, and simply chalk it up as “testing all things.” That is ridiculous! My advise to my fellow Christians is to stay as far away from this corrupt thing as possible. It is no different than the advise I would give my family on other things worldly. Just because you are a human adult, are you not tempted by the world, even the christian world? Or, are we adult Christians because we have learned to overcome the world in the things of the flesh, “the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life”? Are you a Christian because you have tried all the things mentioned above, or because you have learned to discern good and evil, and tested all things by trust and faith in the truth of God’s Holy word? I can assure you that if you continue to eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” you will not be able to discern what is truly good, because the advise you are giving is from that tree.

Christianity has become so thoroughly corrupted with the “leaven” of this world that today’s new breed of “Christ followers” are following “another Jesus”, who is very permissive and advocates the very thing you suggest. After all, “hasn’t God said” to try (test) all things as Scripture teaches, or is that the serpent speaking in your ear, to taste just enough to get the essence of what this apple (The Voice) is all about, after all aren’t you an “ADULT”?

“Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees…. How is it that ye do not understand that I spake not to you concerning bread…? Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Mt 16:6,11-12

Steve Blackwell

Christians are bashing each other over what their favorite Bible is.

Let the reader take note: The King James Bible was rejected by the Protestant Conservatives (the Puritans) for being too Catholic in its language and teaching. The Church of England which gave us the KJV is a catholic church !!!

I am glad to see that you are addressing the problems of this new emerging seduction of God’s word. I pray that your use of the radio airways will get the response to this “attack” firmly implanted in the minds of our brothers and sisters who still have their wits about them. With the spreading famine, spoken of by Amos the Prophet, getting ever worse, many will, unfortunately, see this “refuse” as a palatable attempt to quench a growing hunger.

May the Lord bless your steadfastness in sounding the alarm,

Steve Blackwell

The Voice is such a bad ‘translation’ that it makes the Message paraphrase sound like a word for word translation.

I spent time working through important passages of scripture in The Voice on my radio program. Please check it and and sound the alarm bell. The Voice is not giving people the real voice of God but a ‘different’ voice.

http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2008/11/the-new-emergent-translation-of-the-bible.html

What you call judgment I call discernment.

For the most part those sitting in the modern churches of today have no ability to discern anything evil in their midst, they only understand what is good according to their distorted world view. Christians today force their understanding of the Bible through a very fine filter fashioned over a period of many hundreds of years. Consequently when they read about the apostasy spoken of in that same volume they simply cannot conceive the thought that it could be true of themselves or their particular building they call a “church.” This is true even though that Book makes it perfectly clear that the Devil is the chief trickster and that the human race is a deceived race. We make it awfully easy for the Devil to do his work. We simply refuse to allow ourselves to enter a conflict that could devastate our cherished way of life, even when the Bible clearly speaks to the situation we see in the “church” today.

Furthermore, the “love” you address is more than a gushy flow of emotionalism that lets everything pass and tolerates the open embrace of the world. Love can also be an exhibition of honest rebuke for the mockery the circus church is making of the real Ecclesia, the Body of Christ, which has nothing to do with organized religion. As far as the leadership, they may have a sincere desire to build something for the Lord, but unfortunately the Lord said He himself would build His Church. Real love is to proclaim the truth, and the front line of that battle today is the proclamation that men and the world are declaring that they are the “Church” when it just isn’t true. The church of today looks more like IBM or General Motors than a living body. No functioning family operates the way modern churches do, but over and over we are told in Scriptures to look for the fruits of a real family in our Church, and regardless of what you say it isn’t there, no way. The building you attend is just putting on a different or more appealing program that stirs the emotions and keeps the customers coming back, and to most that is about as close as they can get to family life, regardless that it is dysfunctional.

I know that there are some people inside the circus churches that the Lord will call out. I also know that God uses hirelings to accomplish His work. Wouldn’t you agree that a baseball cap with a Scripture verse on it is better than one with a Cubs logo? God’s Word will endure forever, and God will even use “The Voice” and even un-faithful and rebellious believers to do His work, then destroy them. So, yes, if one person is saved in the process of reading The Voice it is a blessing by God to that person, but that doesn’t mean that what they are doing is right. The pragmatic approach to evangelism is evil; the ends do not justify the means, even when God in His Sovereign will uses it to accomplish His will; we are still held responsible even when God brings good out of evil.

What you call good I call corrupt, one of us is wrong. You “feel” that God has led you to your present building, that you call a church, how do you know it was God? Maybe it was the Devil, after all the Devil has deceived the whole world, right?

Please read the following articles.

http://indywatchman.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/the-voice-a-reader-comment-and-reply/

http://indywatchman.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/what-is-a-christian-humanist/

Steve Blackwell