In case you haven't noticed the Vatican is on the move. As the faithful would expect, the Book of Revelation is beginning to make sense in these last days before the Lord's return. It is not the mysterious locked prophecy it once was; It is becoming very clear in respect to the Antichrist and false prophet, and their identity; thanks to researchers like Roger Oakland, Chris Pinto, and the folks at Herescope. Before long Revelation will be an open book to those whose will is to do the Lord's will; it is a promise; even now, we are getting it.

As we see Rome and the nations making great strides in the fulfillment of prophecy, so likewise we can expect our God to make even greater strides in strengthening His elect for the forth coming calamities. There is no question that God will call out His elect and purify them by the infilling of His Spirit in a mighty way, and ready them for his return.

It is an exciting time as our eyes scan the eastern sky, in anticipation of His coming. The words of Scripture coming more and more alive and the trimming of the lamps breathing with a new reality and earnestness of meaning. Separation, purging the old leaven, holiness, faith and truth are words filled with a new dynamic, driving the sheep into new pastures of rest and reassurance.

Below is an article of great interest to those interested in discerning the signs of the times. It would appear that the Vatican is coming out of the closet as to their role in the forming of a one world government and religion. Could it be that they are oblivious to the words of prophecy; are they so blind that they cannot see their own reflection in that great book of Revelation, or is it that they don't care and only concerned with power and prestige. 

Well, for us who see, the following article has been written.

Keep looking up, for your redemption draws near,

Steve Blackwell

Herescope

Poor Harold Camping, the whole world has witnessed his fall, and now he must bolster his pride and continue his self-deception or confess and repent. But, let me say this in his defense; he is more honest in his promulgations than the whole camp of liberal Emergents. Harold studied the Bible, in the power of his own mind and reasoning, and boldly stated his conclusions to the world. The liberals, on the other hand, do their studying and then scurry off into shadows, innuendos, insinuation, half-truths, and misrepresentations.

These New Age liberal Emergents come to no absolute conclusions. By making no judgments, they can say everything, without saying anything. They have perfected the Luciferian art of “doublespeak” by virtually prefacing all they say with the preamble “Hath God really said,” or as Rob Bell would say “. . . and someone knows this for sure?”  Harold did no such thing; he boldly proclaimed his error, in the face of truth; he dared to come against the light in the open, and fell. The liberals lay in ambush with snares and pits, and hide in the fog of deceit. Harold was not really honest by any stretch of the imagination; even still, he was more honest than the Emergents.  When Satan initiated the use of Liberal tactics, in the Garden of Eden, he was awarded the title, “Father of all lies,” so what does that make the Emergents?

Harold rejected God’s truth and is condemned. The liberal Emergents reject God’s word and are applauded, proving that it is hard to hit a moving target or put fog in a box. At least Harold tried to be honest in his own deceived way. The best way to deceive is to copy Satan, by muddling, diluting, mixing, melding, stretching, bending, thinning, reducing, cutting, adulterating, or prostituting the truth, and never show your hand. Harold showed his hand, and is now clearly a liar and false prophet. You will rarely get a peek at the hand of an Emergent. Emergents love to engage in mind manipulation and ego massage, and appeal to the desires of the flesh, where the subtle effects of leaven can work unnoticed.

Who should we be concerned about mostly? Harold was a shooting star, his predictions were confined to a small group of followers, and collateral damage was minimal. On the other hand there are the liberal Emergents, whose infectious disease gnaw on and disintegrate the very foundation of truth. Harold Camping’s teaching is unsound, and needs to be exposed, and was mostly accomplished by his own actions; but the Emerging scourge is a wretched curse by which many a soul will be damned.

We love to focus on today’s headlines, and laugh at such foolishness as billboards predicting the return of our Lord, when all the while leprosy is creeping up our legs unnoticed. Satan will keep our eyes on the immediate comic display of a few as the real enemy surrounds the city. Harold Camping is more like a sedative to distract our attention till it is too late, until the last curtain falls on the final act, and the world is carried away in its stupor. 

The false prophet Harold Camping (see my article Harold Camping proclaims the Lord’s return will be in May 21, 2011) has put up billboards across the nation advertising his belief that the Lord will return for His Church on 5-21-2011, one such billboard is in Indianapolis. Harold’s heresy has been matched by the American Atheists who have put up their own billboards mocking, not Harold Camping, but all of Christianity. My question is, what will Harold be doing on May 22?

Establishing the Fact

Why is it that every "Christian" thinks he or she is going to go to Heaven? The Bible is very plain concerning the fact that that isn’t going to happen. Everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will not make it. But, it doesn’t matter, wherever you go, or who ever you talk to, they’re all going.

Now, we have a little problem; either the Bible is incorrect or a whole lot of people have been deceived into thinking they have their ticket purchased and their trip all squared away, and they’re just waiting on the bus. Of course the idea that the Bible is not the final word and not totally correct is becoming more popular, and the issue of “having it all squared away” is becoming less controversial; there is a general consensus that that particular point is settled and we’re O.K., but the other idea, deception, ends up being the more realistic problem.

Deception, trickery, ruse, sham, fraud, con, cheat, what interesting words. Is it conceivable that so many Christians are deceived? Who is doing the deceiving? The preachers? The devil? The government? God? Maybe it is ourselves; Paul says, “…let no one deceive you…” as if we can only be deceived if we “let” ourselves be deceived. I can understand deception in the area of un-believers, but we’re talking about “Christians.” Ask anyone who has raised their hand during a worship service and they can assure you that they have followed procedures and that their bus token, regardless of how “straight” or hard the gate is to get through is valid. Who is it then that the Lord was referring to when he said in Matt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven…” Paul, interestingly enough, encouraged Timothy to “lay hold of eternal life,” creating the notion that it might slip away, or tear itself loose from its mooring, that even he might be deceived. Deception, a very interesting concept indeed, and one that needs to be comprehended, after all, it could be soundly stated that we are living in the age of deception, at the end, when all the chips are on the table and the great contest of wills and wit comes down to “the Lie,” the bluff that will win the ranch away from so many deceived Christians. But it isn’t just salvation that is at stake here, it is the whole body of Truth. This is a dangerous time, a time when we must be able to think clearly,  to cut through the haze and fog, and discern Truth.

The Bible instructs us to comprehend the “signs of the times.” Even professional poker players, gamblers in this world, make their living knowing how to read signs or “tells” that enlighten them on how to stay in the game. The overriding principle of winning the game of poker is to “put all the odds in your favor,” so studying the cards, being able to read the other players, having discipline, and being consistent, are keys to winning. No professional poker player thinks poker is a game of chance; if he puts “all” the odds in his favor he knows he can win. There is something to be learned from their technique. We can put the odds in our favor by knowing how to read the signs of the times (discernment Jn. 16:13), by studying Jesus (Heb 12:2-3), looking for the “tells” which expose false teaching (Matt. 7:20), living a disciplined life in the Lord (walking in the Spirit Gal. 5:16), and by being consistent (faithful Jas. 1:6). We can not allow our salvation to become a game of “chance;” we must not be deceived.

Re-discovering the Path

Things have been going the way they are at present for an extremely long time. If we are deceived, when did the deception sneak in? We should be able to look into the past and discover the point at which the path was departed. At the point of exit is where we must return. We need to begin with a firm foundation, of belief and doctrine (1Tim. 4:16), from which we can establish a boundary marker or a base, and then we can determine if those markers have been moved or tampered with. Once we see where the boundaries belong we can alter our heading to resume the correct path. Getting back to where we belong will mean an exercise of extreme faith and discipline, saving ourselves (Phil 2:12,13), and becoming a beacon of light for those who follow. The laws of inertia have a cementing effect on men, especially men who have become weak and at rest, and much effort will be involved to get them moving again, effort directed by the Holy Spirit.

First, we need to establish the fact that it is conceivable that the masses of mankind can be deceived. If this fact cannot be firmly established then we are wasting a lot of time looking for something that may not even exist. We talked about discovering the old surveyor’s marker that determines what the standard should be, the boundary marker that tells us that we can go this far and no farther. Now we are at the spot where we have to ask ourselves, “Will I believe what the marker says or will I be enticed to move the marker and break through the wall into areas I’m not permitted.” The Bible is our standard; it is the ancient boundary stone that we are forbidden to move at our own hurt. Hos 5:10 says "The leaders of Judah have become the lowest sort of thieves” as those who move boundary markers to steal property from their brothers and from the Lord (see Dt. 19:14, 27:17). The truth is we have moved it many, many, times over the past two thousand years and that is why we are wandering and confused, desiring Agape (Divine love), Koinonia (fellowship and sharing), and Ecclesia (the gathering of the saints) but knowing deep inside it is more our imagination than reality. We get the sense of it, the scent of it, like a flower we can’t see, and we know it exist because we can smell it. It is genuine and it is that yearning, for the real thing, not the “replica,” which demands that we press forward; it is the smell of our Lord that we sense and it is He that draws us to Himself. It is Jesus who is the boundary marker, the standard, and it is He that the Bible speaks of, from beginning to end. Jesus can be trusted and He Himself cautioned us to, “Take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many”( Matthew 24:4-5). “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (v. 11.) “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (v. 11). Note the words Jesus used: ". . . Many will come . . . and will deceive many . . . Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many." The Greek word polus, translated "many," means "many, much, great" (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, "Many"). This deception is clearly massive and widespread. Who is the real mastermind behind this worldwide deception?". . . Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Satan's Modus Operandi, DECEPTION  

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!" (2 Corinthians 11:3-4.)

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-7).

Jesus Christ predicted that some would take His name and claim to represent Him—but those same people would be deceivers. They would claim to be Christian but would bring a different message and a counterfeit Christianity. In Paul's day this movement was already well under way. Some were already preaching "another Jesus" and "a different gospel." Most churches in our time focus on a gospel about Christ while ignoring the focus of His teaching. Obscuring His intended message, they preach a gospel that is different from "the Gospel of the kingdom of God"  that Jesus taught (Mark 1:14, 15).

What is the extent of this deception?

"… that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (Rev 12:9)

“…and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Rev 20:3).

“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea…” (Rev 20:7-9).

“Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev 13:14).

Who is involved in this deception?

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:13) .

Within only a few years after Jesus Christ's death, people began to distort and misrepresent His message. When two decades had barely passed, the apostle Paul warned congregations about "false apostles," telling them that he had already suffered at the hands of "false brethren" (2 Corinthians 11:13,26). These deceivers came in Christ's name, but they led many astray with their distorted message. By the time we reach AD 68 Jesus is telling John, in a vision, that if the Church did not do its first works over their candle stick would be removed. The social gospel had been born and was gaining a life of its own, a child of deception, and the offspring of Satan. The social gospel was no threat to Rome because they were of the same family. These corrupted believers could worship their god without the risk of persecution, just like the church in America and Europe.

In the face of  persecution, that followed closely, the genuine “Body of Christ” grew at an astounding rate. Within 300 years nearly the whole known world had been Christianized. All of this took place as Satan and his demons were lighting up the Roman Empire with the bodies of Christians, turned into human torches; while hungry lions gorged themselves on the members of Christ’s body; while Christians hid in caves and catacombs and fled for their lives into the vast reaches of the then known world, carrying with them the news of God’s immense love, His Kingdom come to earth, as exhibited through the living Body of Christ, the Church.

In A.D. 311 the Emperor Constantine declared the Roman Empire a Christian nation and established Christianity as the state religion. Did you catch that? Now, believing became easy, as the cost was reduced and persecution stopped. The doors were swung wide and the pews became packed with unbelievers anxious to partake of this free lunch of "Christian" importance. The numbers grew steadily, for awhile. Today, in this same area of the world, Christianity has been reduced to just a handful of believers and persecution is on the rise again. With Constantine, building the church was something men did. Men sanctioned it, men sponsored it, and men built it, with earthly materials. It was decided by men that building, maintaining, and spreading Christianity was something best accomplished by trained experts. Jesus was no longer the living head of the church body but rather the absentee landlord who has become a symbolical figurehead of the new church organization. The Body of Christ had become an organization instead of the living organism that characterized the early church of the Book of Acts. Only rumors and spotty second hand accounts remained to identify this new church with the power of the Holy Spirit displayed in the form of gifts and miracles and supernatural love. The church, as warned by Jesus Christ, was now in the hands of its captors, with miracles, healings, dreams and visions, and prophesies, all of another sort.

An historical account taken from Schaff’s History of the Church

\Volume Three – From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great (A.D. 311-590)\NICENE AND POST-NICENE CHRISTIANITY (A.D. 311-590)\1. Introduction and General View. – §

1. Introduction and General View.

“From the Christianity of the Apostles and Martyrs we proceed to the Christianity of the Patriarchs and Emperors.” “The third period of the history of the Church, which forms the subject of this volume, extends from the emperor Constantine to the pope Gregory I.; from the beginning of the fourth century to the close of the sixth. During this period Christianity still moves, as in the first three centuries, upon the geographical scene of the Graeco-Roman empire and the ancient classical culture, the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. But its field and its operation are materially enlarged, and even touch the barbarians on the limit of the empire. Above all, its relation to the temporal power, and its social and political position and import, undergo an entire and permanent change. We have here to do with the church of the Graeco-Roman empire, and with the beginning of Christianity among the Germanic barbarians. Let us glance first at the general character and leading events of this important period.”

“The reign of Constantine the Great marks the transition of the Christian religion from under persecution by the secular government to union with the same; the beginning of the state-church system. The Graeco-Roman heathenism, the most cultivated and powerful form of idolatry, which history knows, surrenders, after three hundred years' struggle, to Christianity, and dies of incurable consumption, with the confession: Galilean, thou hast conquered! The ruler of the civilized world lays his crown at the feet of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. The successor of Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian appears in the imperial purple at the council of Nice as protector of the church, and takes his golden throne at the nod of bishops, who still bear the scars of persecution. The despised sect, which, like its Founder in the days of His humiliation, had not where to lay its head, is raised to sovereign authority in the state, enters into the prerogatives of the pagan priesthood, grows rich and powerful, builds countless churches out of the stones of idol temples to the honor of Christ and his martyrs, employs the wisdom of Greece and Rome to vindicate the foolishness of the cross, exerts a molding power upon civil legislation, rules the national life, and leads off the history of the world. But at the same time the church, embracing the mass of the population of the empire, from the Caesar to the meanest slave, and living amidst all its institutions, received into her bosom vast deposits of foreign material from the world and from heathenism, exposing herself to new dangers and imposing upon herself new and heavy labors.”

“The union of church and state extends its influence, now healthful, now baneful, into every department of our history.”

“The Christian life of the Nicene and post-Nicene age reveals a mass of worldliness within the church; an entire abatement of chiliasm with its longing after the return of Christ and his glorious reign, and in its stead an easy repose in the present order of things; with a sublime enthusiasm, on the other hand, for the renunciation of self and the world, particularly in the hermitage and the cloister, and with some of the noblest heroes of Christian holiness.” “Monasticism, in pursuance of the ascetic tendencies of the previous period, and in opposition to the prevailing secularization of Christianity, sought to save the virgin purity of the church and the glory of martyrdom by retreat from the world into the wilderness; and it carried the ascetic principle to the summit of moral heroism, though not rarely to the borders of fanaticism and brutish stupefaction. It spread with incredible rapidity and irresistible fascination from Egypt over the whole church, east and west, and received the sanction of the greatest church teachers, of an Athanasius, a Basil, a Chrysostom, an Augustine, a Jerome, as the surest and shortest way to heaven.

It soon became a powerful rival of the priesthood, and formed a third order, between the priesthood and the laity. The more extraordinary and eccentric the religion of the anchorets and monks, the more they were venerated among the people. The whole conception of the Christian life from the fourth to the sixteenth century is pervaded with the ascetic and monastic spirit, and pays the highest admiration to the voluntary celibacy, poverty, absolute obedience, and excessive self-punishments of the pillar-saints and the martyrs of the desert; while in the same degree the modest virtues of every-day household and social life are looked upon as an inferior degree of morality.”

Today we have reached the pinnacle of pride and human glory in the man-made church and it is identified with a totally outward appearance but utterly lacking of inward substance. In the preface to his book The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer says the reason for writing the book was “called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse.” “Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the spirit.” “…The churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.”

When we look for the church today it can be found in these outward characteristics of architecture, religious symbolism, or the increase of knowledge and intelligence. Mans seeking “his own” glory is at the root of the problem. Their earth bound desire to unlock Holy Scripture reflects a similar incident, involving the Pharisees, related in Matt. 22:29 “You error, not knowing scripture, or the power of God.” If we are not seeing God’s results from God’s Word then we are in ERROR and deceived. Even the disciples, after three years of teaching had to be rebuked for their unbelief. It wasn’t because they didn’t understand what they were told; it was because they did not believe what Christ said. “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Lk. 24:25-27). All the theological schools and universities and man made churches are filled to the hilt with deceived “Christians” trying to determine what God means in His word. Almost ninety times in the New Testament alone, an appeal is made to readers to just believe what “is written,” as if everything was simple enough to understand if you wanted to. Pride, self-will, self-deception, and rebellion against what “is written” are the causes of the Bible being hard to understand.

The Body of Christ today has become the invisible church, only to be found by very few. Today, as never before, it has become very apparent that all the building of our modern Tower of Babel has failed. The sheep of His flock have scattered and are lost and hungry and listening for a voice from heaven. Jesus promised that His sheep would hear His voice and would follow Him. The Good Shepard’s voice is being heard now, even though faintly, calling His sheep out of the dark.

“My sheep know my voice….”

What is the Acost@ involved to follow Jesus? And, what are the terms for peace dictated by the Great Conqueror? It will cost you everything; every cent; every ounce of energy, and every minute of every day; your life is no longer yours. The terms of peace are to lay down your arms and surrender. He will take everything. Your whole existence is the spoils of victory, and you are reduced to a servant, to serve Him forever. In return, He will allow you to live; He will give you life, eternal life as an adopted son, to share in His eternal glory and abundance, and never own anything, ever again, forever. But, He will not accept a compromise or mediocrity in your commitment.

God loves us but it does not mean that we can live a mediocre life; we have to discipline the body and mind, and press toward the mark of the high calling. The Israelites were baptized in the red sea and they had shared in spiritual food and drink, the food of angles, but this doesn=t guarantee the promised land; they all perished in the wilderness, remember. "…these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did." To desire evil does not mean to commit murder, robbery, or anything of that kind necessarily. The Israelites' desire was to go back to the world ‑ to Egypt, to settle for something less than the best; to be mediocre. Their heart was still back in the world with the world=s mindset, resulting in Aimmorality… and twenty‑three thousand fell in a single day."  They loved the world, and the world said it was O.K. to hedge their bets by holding back from God, and the world was in those who moaned and groaned that God was too harsh and demanded too much. The world in their midst were those 23,000 who had contracted the fatal disease of mediocrity, who failed to count the cost to build God=s Kingdom. Those 23,000 wanted a kingdom built on a structure similar to the kingdoms of the world, where mediocrity was accepted and encouraged, and they all died, in one day.

We Christians don=t want to be Good Samaritans these days; we want to be Mediocre Samaritans, where we only put a bandaid on a situation, then we=re off on our mediocre way, reasoning away God’s intentions for our lives. A mediocre Christian deserves a mediocre kingdom, and that kingdom will be pure Hell.

Mat 7:22,23 AMany will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Roger Oakland is back after a near death accident that stopped his commentaries from shining the light of truth in the eyes of the Deceiver. His words are hard to read by those entrenched in the apostate church, but many have responded as the Holy Spirit awakens His sleeping elect, and calls them out and away, from the plague that is about to come on the manmade apostate religious institution. Roger's voice is not the voice of the rich and well endowed Laodicean church, but more like a voice in the wilderness. He and others, like IndyWatchman, are doing the only thing they can do, and that is to warn as many as will listen, before it is too late.

Please give Roger an ear, along with an open Bible, and see if you too don't hear the voice of the Lord calling His children out.

Steve Blackwell

God’s Word Shines Light Upon End Times Apostasy

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

Commentary by Roger Oakland
www.understandthetimes.org

A message is burning in my heart. While I have not been active in ministry this past year because of what has been a “forced sabbatical,” I am thankful to report that God has raised me up from the brink of death. I thank God for His healing touch. Once more I am able to think properly, make observations, write, and speak out. Thank you Lord for your great grace!

Over the past few months, conversations with brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world have convinced me that a watershed standard is beginning to occur. What do I mean by this? Many believers are being led by the Holy Spirit and are waking up from their indifference and are now being called into action. They recognize that we are in the last days. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the freedom to proclaim that Gospel are under attack. All biblical standards are being eroded. These servants of the Lord see that this is a time to stand up for our Lord and Savior whatever the cost. The time has come to proclaim the truth of His Word. An expose of apostasy has begun! The prophet Isaiah spoke it well when he stated: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).

click here to read the rest of the commentary

Being part of a "cool" church is, well, cool. For thirty something years I have watched the organized church grow in coolness till, like a gigantic pimple, it has grown to an ugly infected mass of putrid worldliness. Quite honestly, the organized church is beginning to stink with its attempt to cover-up any trace of the God of the Bible with its cheap perfume of lust and vanity, and its very obvious now. For anyone looking for cheap thrills, the carnival of carnality, known as the institutional church, has a show to please anyone who might venture into the red light district looking for a quicky. Our love for marketing brings us an unending flow of the latest innovations in how to sell "God" to a Pagan world. We can hardly wait to see this years line-up of programs to prevent us from becoming bored with just plain holiness. But, is this Christianity? No, this is not Christianity, it is the very thing Jesus warned us about, that would delude the world and church in the last days, and prove to be a mass blinding of all who refuse to obey the real God's written word and to separate itself from this rebellious, idolatrous, Babylonian harlot. I have not made these things up, they are in the Bible, if we choose to read and believe them.

This mess of the organized church is apparent to the world. It seems only the "wannabe cool" Christians are blinded. The organized church has become a mockery to those watching from the outside, but no one inside the walls of the house seems to notice or even care.

Well, anyway, the WSJ has noticed, and written the following article concerning the exodus of young people away from the circus act of organized religion. My own conclusion of the matter is that the small scale prostitution of the organized church is no competition for the talent of the big city. Why shop at the five-and-dime when you can have THE WHOLE WORLD. 

Steve Blackwell  

By BRETT MCCRACKEN

(Please see Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

'How can we stop the oil gusher?" may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.

Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn't megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church. (Read the rest of article here)

Tony Jones doesn’t like labels. He says he would rather think of his Christianity as “emergence” and not “Emergent.”

There is only one Christianity and it ain’t emergence or Emergent, neither is it Pentecostal, Baptist, Lutheran, or any other sect. Following Christ is to be a Christian, and for the most part they all have it wrong, but their “labels” at least lets us know what to expect from them. With out labels it is very hard to nail anything down, everything becomes silly putty in their hands. They can believe one thing one day and the opposite the next day, or nothing at all, or both, it is the freedom of an anarchist, both lawless and rebellious.
Tony doesn’t like labels because he says,

“they seem to us (emergence types) convenient ways of boxing someone in. . . .”

when he would much rather be a moving target. This statement is just smoke or camouflage. Liars, cheats, and scoundrels hate labels because they identify who and what they are. Sit at a poker table in Vegas and try and identify the pros. Those professionals hate labels too. They want to look like tourist; they look harmless and innocent, but they are wolves, there to separate you from your bankroll. Hang a label on these pros and the table will empty; at least the smart ones would leave. The first rule of poker is that you never play against someone better than you. But, most people think that the game is just a matter of luck anyway, much like religion. They never pay attention to the “tells” that identify or label a person as a shark or a false teacher, who are both classified as wolves.

Do you see how “labels” can be counter productive to vandals who want to separate you from your valuables? Labels identify people and things, and keep us safe in the world. Thieves, cheats, marketers, card sharks, and false teachers and preachers know this. Subterfuge, misrepresentation, deception, pretense, and dramatics are all the tools of those who fear exposure and labels. At the poker table the pro will likely advertise his stupidity and ineptitude by playing fast and loose, and present themselves as something they’re not. He’ll look like a sap to the vacationer who thinks he’ll be an easy touch. Then the truth comes, when it is too late, and the pro has that monster hand he was waiting for, and the real “sucker” is revealed. This is called “advertising” in the world of poker, and is used with great effect. Marketers advertise also and generally try and trick you into believing something about their product that isn’t true: cars, clothes, cologne, alcohol, you name it, they are nearly all deceptions, lies, and illusions. They allow you to think that there is value where none exist. Your identifying of these lies would permit you to stick a “label” on them and classify their tactics as dangerous and deceptive.

What that poker player is saying by his not saying anything and putting on a show, by his dress and by his actions, is that “you need not worry about me, I am harmless, just relax and have some fun, and please don’t label me.” I believe Tony Jones is saying much the same thing by presenting labels as a bad thing. He says that labels box people in, and I say they protect people. He cannot live by his own philosophy. Does Tony label people? Isn’t Pentecostal a label? Do labels inform us and protect us? Would Tony take a bottle from his medicine cabinet without consulting the “label?” Would anyone? Did Jesus label people and things? Jesus said “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 Was Jesus putting these teachers in a box? Did He label them? You bet He did, and for our good, for our protection. He identified the threat and stuck a label on it, and expects us to heed the danger.

People who have nothing to hide do not fear labels. Labels are markers and road signs and warnings, to direct the wayfaring man or woman to safety.

Beware of the smoke and slight of hand of the religious magicians, for they will cheat you out of much more than money, they will steal your very soul, and will leave you only this world in which to take refuge.

Tony Jones, in his March 6th addition to his blog, Society for Pentecostal Studies Paper: Definitions, says he is not a liberal, which is interesting, considering the fact that he is not only liberal, but he is very liberal. Tony is so liberal that he thinks he may be conservative, or that he is neither liberal or conservative (kinda like the guy who is so far behind that he thinks he is in first place). Like most liberals it is important that they try and convince others, or appear to others, as non-liberal, or conservative, then escape into the fog of liberal-speak where their tracks are hard to follow.

Tony says at the beginning of that article, “Getting one’s arms around the emergent church is no mean feat. . . .” I think this could be interpreted as

“there’s no way to understand what we’re doing, so don’t try.”

A liberal is more magician than theologian, and their slight of hand can make truth disappear in a flash and reappear as something else all together different. Only another of their dark trade, or the Berean sort, really knows that a heist has taken place; others stand in awe that what they have always wanted their Christianity to be anyway, has magically appeared out of thin air.

There was a “disenfranchisement of GenX evangelicals in the 1990s”

as Tony rightly states, but actually the disenfranchisement started earlier than that, it was really a phenomena of the Boomers. In the sixties there was great disrespect and questioning of anything that presented itself with an air of truth, or established order, and thus occurred the legendary  “generation gap”. The Gen X’ers like their mothers and fathers before them, were able to detect the lies and falsehood of their predecessors, but were unable to discover the truth that had been trampled under foot, and consequently they reached out to the magicians to work their magic, and make all the bad stuff go away. It didn’t work then and it is not working now.  The false teaching of sex, drugs, and revolution that the Boomers turned to for answers is no different than the false teachers (liberals) that the disenfranchised Gen X’ers are turning to today. Granted, the established Christian order that exist today and in the ‘90′s is full of hypocrisies and pretense, but at least there is a foundation of truth that underlies the rubble and junk hiding the heart of what Jesus means in His Word.

Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, and all their liberal buddies, are akin to those who raise the price of medicine when a shortage hits, or try to pass off  placebos for the real thing as a psychological pacifier. There is a crisis in the “Truth” department today, but the price that most are willing to pay for the fake is far higher than they will be able to endure. A “half truth” whether it comes from the left or the right is still a lie. There is a desperate shortage of truth today, and it is likened to a famine in the book of Amos 8:11

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.”

We are in the midst of that famine and real food is in short supply. Where there is a shortage, of any kind, there will be those who will take advantage of, and rob, the weak and the ignorant.

Like the sixties, the young were the weak and the ignorant. They wanted change so badly that drugs and sex were the natural answer, and even if it didn’t work, at least it felt good. Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, and a whole score of new liberals have devised an answer from the old corn husk of liberal theology, that look appealing during a famine, but could not nourish a pig when the truth thrived in its heyday. But, today the old hucksters are back at it, and they have a hungry following. The appeal to the young, to have truth their way, is too much for the starving to resist, and we will yet see the results of such a choice made in desperation.

More on this subject next week. . . .