"Diaprax and the Church: Manipulating the Church into Globalism"
Reviewed by Dr. Bill Crump
For anyone who's ever wondered what exactly constitutes the "Hegelian dialectic," how it operates with the concept of "praxis" to create "diaprax," and how diaprax has been utilized to brainwash people and restructure the modern Church, then this is the video to study.
Dr. Robert Klenck, a Christian and fairly young orthopedic surgeon from southern California, presents a most exhaustive review of atheistic and humanistic influences that drive the so-called Church Growth Movement (CGM) in this two-part seminar. Part I is entitled "How the Church Is Incorporating the Diaprax and Why"; Part II is entitled "Manipulating the Church into Globalism." The video runs approximately 2 hours 13 minutes. Dr. Klenck has researched these topics for several years, after this philosophy infiltrated his own church. He abundantly counters this man-made philosophy with the Word of God using the KJV, and he boldly reveals the single, driving force that is truly behind the whole CGM: Satan himself, who is using the movement to destroy the New Testament Church.
CGM has many aliases, including "Seeker-Sensitive Church,"
"User-Friendly Church," "Purpose-Driven Church," "Cell or Meta Church,"
"Mission-Driven Church," "Disciple-Making Church," and "The 21st-Century Church."
CGM defined: CGM is the utilization of modern, secular marketing techniques by the Church in order to draw and hold large numbers of people by meeting their "felt needs." The Church then "converts" and "disciples" these people through the use of modern, organizational management ("total quality management-style") techniques, so that they can effect "change" in the community and the world.
CGM accomplishes this through diaprax, which involves practicing ("praxis") the Hegelian dialectic ("dia") process repeatedly, in order to achieve gradual, incremental, and continual CHANGE (aka innovation).
The Hegelian dialectic, then, is developmental and evolutionary, with the end point being complete perfection; i.e., man can become God apart from God. The Hegelian dialectic principle is "synthesis" + "antithesis" = "consensus." The Church uses diaprax by purposefully bringing believers (synthesis) together with unbelievers (antithesis) to discuss moral and social issues through seeker services, "Bible study," and small groups. Such meetings always utilize a "facilitator" (aka change agent, group leader) to achieve a predetermined outcome among the group (consensus). With each meeting, the believer is gradually moved away from his/her original position of moral absolutism in order to get along with the group as a whole (consensus - "go along to get along"). The facilitators/change agents utilize peer pressure (fear of not belonging to the group) to achieve their goals. The modern Church believes that only through such techniques can we all attain world peace. In reality, diaprax is brainwashing.
The "church" setting and message presented are all designed to be as inoffensive to unbelievers as possible: religious objects like crosses are absent or inconspicuous; the building resembles a theatre without pews; dress is informal and casual; contemporary music, drama, dance, and entertainment reign with high-tech innovations like wide video screens; predominant use of NIV or other New Age Bible translations - avoid KJV; messages are motivational, positive, "feel-good," appeal to "felt needs" and self-esteem, present half-truths, and avoid or gloss over hard-core topics like sin, homosexuality, feminism, hell, etc. The CGM severely compromises God's Word ever so gradually to the point that "believers" eventually sacrifice their Bible-based theology without realizing it.
A highly detailed discussion focuses upon those whom Satan has principally used to orchestrate the CGM, their unbiblical philosophies touted through their various publications, and how they manage to twist Scripture to fit their own agenda: Dr. Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church), Rev. Bill Hybels (pastor of Willow Creek Church), Dr. Robert Schuller (pastor of the Crystal Cathedral), and others like Anthony Robbins, Tom Patterson, Peter Drucker, and Bob Buford. These and others like them defy Ephesians 4:11-13, which states that the purpose of the Church is for perfecting the saints, edifying the body of Christ, and coming together in the unity of faith. The Church is not designed to cater to unbelievers.
The purpose of the CGM is to create a one-world religion and world peace through tolerating and accepting all faiths and creeds (Christian as well as non-Christian) as of equal merit. This is accomplished by nullifying the judgment of Christ and preaching only God's love. This further leads to a paradigm shift, whereby the Patriarch (Father God) shifts to Matriarch (Mother Earth), hierarchal leadership shifts to decentralized leadership (everybody is a "leader," except in crisis situations, when leadership becomes totalitarian), and accountability to God shifts to accountability to our fellow man and the Earth itself.
The video below does an excellent job of exposing the deception of the dialectic process.
December 26, 2008
December 24, 2008
Who is Maitreya?
Maitreya the Betrayer
There's always a Christ wanna be in every age. History shows that No one had claimed to be Christ before Jesus’ time. There were warrior messiahs who tried to liberate the Jewish people before Jesus that were executed by the Romans, But none claimed to be the Christ. Christ is an exclusive Jewish term found in the Holy Scriptures, not in other religions. But many have adopted its terminology ignoring its exclusive meaning of being the Messiah "only one of a kind." God's "only begotten Son" is the only Christ, who is Jesus.
Gamaliel recalls in Acts 5:34-40 of Theudas who gathered 400 people who proclaimed him as the Messiah, he was killed and his followers scattered. At the time of the census, during Jesus birth, Judas of Galilee had much the same result. In 130 AD. It was Bar Cochba who led a revolt in Rome at the time of Hadrian and was killed. Rabbi Akiba was proclaimed as Messiah and his revolt was filled with blood and failed. Then there was Moses of Crete who was to part the waters like the red sea, he jumped in and drowned along with the rest of his followers who could not swim. In 720 AD Their was Abu Isa from Baghdad who became famous for being the only messianic coward on record. The list grows more sordid as history progresses. In 1750 Jacob Frank announced his Messiahship and had Leib Krysa a self proclaimed prophet acting as a John the Baptist proclaim Frank as Christ in Poland. Jacob Frank replaced Jesus in the Trinity as the Son of God and was quickly put in chains by the Roman Catholic poles only to be set free by the Greek Orthodox Russians. He later lived his life in extravagance and he and his followers vanished from the scene.
10 years later Baal Shem Tov, meaning master of the name entered his claim to fame. He is attributed to be the founder of early Chasidim. He was the first to actually have miracles accredited to him. Several years ago the Hasidim claimed Rabbi Snearson as Messiah who had no miracles. But their hopes were dashed when they found he was as mortal as they, when death took him at 90 years old.
All of these false Messiahs had one common operation to the people, they duped them and ruined their lives physically and spiritually.
Our time has produced numerous contenders jockeying to position of a master spiritual leader as the Christ. As the song goes ‘everybody wants to rule the world" From Guru Maharaji, Rajneesh, Sai Baba have been only a few of the enlightened contenders for Christ’s office. The one that is making the most impact is Benjamen creme’s new age Christ Maitreya, who has had a coming out party for over 26 years. Yet he’s voted by new Agers and spiritual globalists alike, as most likely to succeed.
According to Benjamen Creme a major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer.
What if he does show up? Well I guess we can take this one step at a time, after all he has pulled this coming out number before. He can be the anti Christ if he really wants to be, after all we live in America!
Who is the Maitreya? We are told by Creme, Maitreya’s the one expected by followers of all religions alike.
He has been expected for generations by all of the major religions Christians know Him as the Christ, and expect His imminent return. Jews await Him as the Messiah; Hindus look for the coming of Krishna; Buddhists expect Him as Maitreya Buddha; and Muslims anticipate the Imam Mahdi or Messiah. " He’s everything to everyone.
At least with the Jews and the Christians we are talking about the Messiah who is in the bible, not so with these other religions who expect a new spiritual teacher. Creme says were wrong to expect Jesus, Maitreya is the master of all masters. He says this because Jesus according to Creme carried the Christ principle and that there are many that can be Christ.
Teilhard de Chardin dubbed the father of the New age Movement has the echo of this occult synthesization continue. "After what will soon be two thousand years, Christ must be born again, he must be reincarnated in a world that has become too different from that in which he lived. (Teilhard De Chardin Christianity and Evolution p. 95) "I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution. " (ibid. p. 96) In other words this is one who became God, not God who became man.
"A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form In which a religion of the future can be conceived. "(Teilhard De Chardin Christianity and Evolution p. 130)
So instead of the world coming to God through Christ, he wants to change the way, and the person to accommodate all. The spirit of tolerance at the expense of truth. Making the way broad so everyone can enter, when Jesus stated "the way is narrow and their are few that go therein."
THE TARA CENTER
The Tara Centers are mainly centers for the dissemination of information about Maitreya, the new age "Christ," it’s headquarters for the establishment of transmission groups and a base of operation for Benjamin Creme. Its paper "the emergence"is distributed to over 70 countries available in numerous languages of which files can be found on the world wide web. This is no underground movement .
The Tara center states similar goals of Maitreya "He does not come as a religious leader, or to found a new religion, but as a teacher and guide for people of every religion and those of no religion. " A guide for those with no religion seems perplexing in the least, especially since he supposedly teaches about God.
They are attempting "to increase the energy which comes from Maitreya and other Masters,"("Help the Heiarchy with Transmission Work’ p.6) the Tara Centers have established what they call "transmission groups" these are meetings which involves group meditation and invoking the manifestation the focused as an aid in passing on the energies of the "Hierarchy" the Hierarchy are spiritually perfected beings who rule the world. They are literally preparing the spiritual climate for the reappearance of "the Christ.-(ibid p.5) The idea of transmission groups receiving energy and mental images from these "perfected men" and projecting that energy is obviously occultic in nature. There is definitely spiritual power involved.
They state his program is because… " At this time of great political, economic and social crisis Maitreya will inspire humanity to see itself as one family, and create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice, and global cooperation."
Tara center wants to alleviate the problem of world hunger by promoting the concept of sharing, involving themselves closely with Share International. Share International works in cooperation with The Hunger Project, based in San Francisco, and founded in 1977 by Werner Erhard, founder of EST. (Contrary to what many may think, The Hunger Project is not a charitable organization which feeds the poor. It is an organization which works to influence people's thinking toward redistribution of wealth. (Media Spotlight 1982 "is the anti Christ now here"). The good intentions and works of Creme and Maitreya’s followers give credibility to the world of their false teachings of this Christ replacements plan for spiritual communism.
Benjamen Creme has been called by the masters of wisdom to represent them and prepare the way for the unveiling. So he and others, liken him to John the Baptist for the new Christ. I recently watched a video I have on the last public interview he did on TV on late night America about 10 years ago, you can really tell that he believes what he is saying and doing. Yet sincerity does not equate one with the truth and neither does good works nor the numerous people that follow ones teachings.
Peter Lemesurier, in his book The Armageddon Script states, "The new Messiah should himself believe in his identity and mission sufficiently to inspire others with that same belief-just as Jesus and John the Baptist before him ... the leader must have the courage to step forward and play out his role to the full if the greater prophetic plan is to go forward." This is exactly the role Creme has taken up in this end times script to be played.
But Creme is no John the baptizer as he has nothing to do with Judaism and does not believe in sin "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4).
Who is Benjamin Creme? He is a 75-year old Scot, a former artist. Since his childhood had an interest in "the esoteric", this is the Ageless Wisdom which has been transmitted by spiritual masters to occult initiates throughout time.
Creme is no sophomore to the occult and the masters of wisdom In 1945. As Creme explains, the "...Maitreya's decision to return to the world with the Hierarchy of Masters" was announced. It was not for several years, however, that Creme would personally be made aware of this announcement.
In 1975, he was given the mission of announcing publicly the coming of Maitreya, at the time Creme did not yet know precisely when that would occur and still does not, although he knows its coming close.
Creme says that Maitreya had spent the last 2,000 years in a “body of light” at a retreat in the Himalayas, but has now resurrected in a physical form that he "self-created" and that he lives and works in London. Many of Maitreya's messages are based around the idea of sharing and global cooperation. (((George Noory broadcast Guest interview: Benjamin Creme January 28th, 2003)
On July 7th 1977, Maitreya Himself informed us that His body of manifestation-the Mayavirupawas totally complete, that He had "donned" it, and that His Body of Light (His Ascended Body) was now at rest in His mountain Centre in the Himalayas. On July 8th, we were told, the Descent had begun (The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.20).
The incarnation of Maitreya was complete. ‘Leaving his "center in the Himalayas," he "arrived by airplane" in his new home, London ." (Network News, March 1987, p. 2). I guess he didn’t have an available UFO to travel in. Jesus' followers claim he came just as he left, by the air, despite the Bible saying he will come the same way, not by airplane.
Creme says Maitreya emerged from His center in the Himalayas, when least expected, "like a thief in the night". He took up residence in the Indian-Pakistani community of London. He has been living and working there, seemingly as an ordinary man, His true status known to relatively few. He has been emerging gradually into full public view so as not to infringe humanity's free will.
Now a few things to go over: Creme says this master is not a subscriber to any religion, yet his master is from the Himilaya’s well known for its occult roots and Hinduism. He also moved supposedly where he would be least noticed, into an Indian community which again shows a connection of his ethnicity to this belief system of Hinduism. The language and the practices taught by this Tibetan master of the occult are clearly Hinduistic which is the only religion in the world that promulgates a pantheistic system, a belief of God in all things and we are gods. For all their altruism and idealism there’s not much honesty in putting their cards on the table.
When the Christ returns, He will not at first reveal His Presence, nor will the Masters who precede Him; but gradually, steps will be taken which will reveal to men that there lives among them now a man of outstanding, extraordinary, potency, capacity for love and service, and with a breadth of view, far beyond the ordinary. Men and women, all over the world, will find themselves drawn into the awareness of the point in the modern world wherein this man will live; and from that centre of force will flow the True Spirit of the Christ, which will gradually reveal to men that He is with us. (The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.20)
What about this so called slow emergence? Well the Bible has a lot to say about the anti Christ in 2 Thess.2. Where the restrainer (the Holy Spirit) is holding back evil as well as the revealing of the false Messiah. Guess who this is according to the Bible?
This teaching of the God within betrays its origins when Maitreya says that "without detachment," which is the "experience of the Self within" and "...without karma there is no salvation," (Share International, December 1988; Network News, Nov./Dec. 1988, p.1). This is essential Hinduism. So how can this have anything to do with the Christ of the Scriptures?
"As awareness grows, it guides the Self which can then use the mind, spirit and body with intelligence. Balancing energy and environment is the key to salvation," (Network News January 1990, p.1).
They are at odds with the real Christ, neither karma, detachment, energy balancing are not the ways to salvation. The person of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross is. The apostle Peter explained what true salvation is - it is the person and work of Jesus (Acts 4:10-12). Maybe that’s old fashion In our new era of enlightenment but its still the truth. Truth will never change, just as the God who gave it. In the new age truth is relative so it can be whatever one wants.
Who Are "The Masters of Wisdom," that Benjamen Creme and the new age adherents serve?
Creme in his book The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.71 writes they are "men who, through thousands of years of evolutionary progress and numerous reincarnations, have advanced to a high degree of stewardship over the cosmos. Says Creme: There is Hierarchy throughout the system, in fact throughout Cosmos. Our Hierarchy was brought into this planet by the Lord of the World, about 17 million years ago, to oversee the development of early man, individualized about one million years earlier.
All the teachings from the bible are purposely ignored and the meanings are put in occult terms. Alice Bailey one of Creme's mentors gives her interpretation of "followers of the Christ- " refer to all those who love their fellowmen, irrespective of creed or religion. (Externalisation, p. 468) While this may be true in a general sense, it does not mean we toss out the teachings of Christ, the one true God who alone became man. If this meant acceptability to all then Jesus would not have rigorously contended with the Pharisees nor teach that he alone was the way.
According to esoteric teaching, Maitreya manifested Himself 2,000 years ago in Palestine by overshadowing His disciple Jesus — now the Master Jesus. This time Maitreya has come Himself.
The information about Maitreya's emergence has been presented to the public since 1974 by Benjamin Creme, who is the chief editor of the magazine Share International.
The Tara Center, on April 25, 1982, ran a full-page ad in twenty major newspapers around the world, which included New York City, Washington, D.C. London, and Paris. The full page ad boldly proclaimed that the New Age Messiah, identified as the Lord Maitreya, was now alive and ready to assume his rightful place on the throne of world power. The ad bluntly admitted that this goal was at the very essence of The Plan: What is The Plan? It includes the installation of a new world government and new world religion under Maitreya.
Nearly five years later, on January 12, 1987, the Tara Center published a similar full-page ad in USA Today; promoting the lie that "THE CHRIST IS IN THE WORLD." The ad described the Lord Maitreya as "A great World Teacher for people of every religion and no religion."
Did Maitreya Appear, well once again, almost… 11 years later Cremes Maitreya’s time has finally come to make himself public, again . Maitreya has been waiting for a major event which, we may expect to see in the near future and which he announced as early as 1988: an international stock market crash beginning in Japan. Well there have been crashes already and it doesn’t take a economic genius to figure out this will probably occur especially since 10 years have already passed.
According to Creme A major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer. The interview will take place at a time of Maitreya's choosing, as yet unannounced. This is the very reason I’m doing writing this as a forewarning of the coming deception, if this comes about as Creme states. Am I saying the Maitreya is the anti Christ, No, although he is already an antichrist among many. Can he be the one? Could be.
Creme writes "There is no doubt that there will be opposition... but the need for change will become so overwhelmingly obvious, that they will find themselves increasingly powerless to stop the momentum." ('Reappearance of the Christ,' 1980)
The overall attitude of New Age movement adherents is summed up in a popular slogan: "My karma just ran over your dogma."
... I shall send My Disciples to You, and they will show you the way, but you must act and follow our plan. "(Messages from Maitreya the Christ p.30 Tara center) There is an ominous note to all his teachings. "Already the leaders gather and seek to implement this Principle... My Teaching is, as ever, simple indeed. Men must share or die." (No. 135) "Once again, I repeat: without sharing and justice, my brothers and sisters, man will know no peace... Take, then, the only open course and trust in sharing to relieve the agony of the world... Know, then, the joys of brotherhood. The Principle of Sharing will lead you thereto. Commit yourselves to this cause and know the joy of service." (No. 133) This is Spiritual communism…Sharing then becomes our self salvation.
"When you see Us you will know that the New Time, the New Age, has begun, the time of sharing and justice, of love and brotherhood, the time of the Law of God." (No. 136)
Who is the us? The masters of wisdom! We are not dealing with a single individual but an entourage of beings who are going to come on the scene all claiming to be Christ’s or have his consciousness. The law they intend to implement certainly is not the scriptures. In Georgia are stones written in the eight languages are their new set of directives. Here is a portion of what may be deemed as the 10 commandments of the new age.
1.Maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetuated balance with nature.
2.Unite humanity with a living new language.
3.Prize truth, beauty, love seeking harmony with the infinite
4. Be not a cancer on the earth, leave room for nature, leave room for nature.
In other words preserve and unite with nature, Gaia mother earth will be worshiped, not father God.
Interestingly Maitreya claims to bring peace and is the prince of peace "I aim to evoke from you the love in your heart. I am the Prince of Peace... I am in your hearts as love... By pure love man will achieve... By my help all shall be achieved." (Message No. 100)
He is the love In everyone's heart! Jesus said the heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it out of it springs forth sin. Matt 15:19 "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication's, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Marks gospel adds a few more activities in mans heart 7:22-23,covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye,… pride, foolishness. "All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
This is willfully rejected as truth by the new age which says WE ARE GOOD AND HAVE BEEN SOLD A LIE THAT WE ARE NOT.
Jesus stated with what they call the Christ spirit on him Jer. 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
The heart is deceitful enough to have someone exhibit false spirituality Jer. 23:26 "How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
By Maitreya's own admission he is a [the] son of perdition, who is the man of Sin Jesus warned of. It is he who is in peoples heart which exhibit the fallen nature of man.
I know we have heard all these scriptures before but consider the timing.
Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Take heed that no man deceive you." The deception is here.
Matthew 24:5 "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." They are claiming to be Christ and deceiving others."
Mt.24:24 "for false Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible the elect." The reason is to remove the church from its faith which will be done by the miraculous.
THE DAY OF DECLARATION
We are told, At the earliest possible moment, Maitreya will demonstrate His true identity. On the Day of Declaration, the international television networks will be linked together, and Maitreya will be invited to speak to the world.
We will see His face on television, but each of us will hear His words telepathically in our own language as Maitreya simultaneously impresses the minds of all humanity. Even those who are not watching Him on television will have this experience. On this Day, humanity's shared experience of His profound love will cause hundreds of thousands of spontaneous healings to take place throughout the world.
"He has been invited by one of the major networks in this country, one of the big 4 and he will appear they have an arrangement that when he gives the time he can appear within a few days. And he has simply been waiting for an even the predicted in 1988 with a whole series of predictions one by one which have come true and this one is of a world stock market crash which he said would begin in Japan. "
"He is waiting for that same collapse in the east takes place in the west and when it obvious that its going to do so he will take the invitation to speak on this nature. (so he is involved in finances and commerce) Then first in this country then in Japan to come forward to help to mitigate the effects of this crises." (Art Bell July 10, 1998).
A major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer. The interview will take place a time of Maitreya's choosing, as yet unannounced. Its time to be prepared, for anything can occur as we are now deep in the time of deception. He’s at the door, look up our redemption is coming, the tribulation comes for those who reject the Christian message of Christ, but the hope of the true Jesus is there for the Christian.
Not to fearful- be hopeful
2 Thess.2:3 "let noone deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition," THE MAN OF SIN.
The time of the true Christ’s coming draws ever closer be watchful, get ready, you know not when your master, (the true Jesus CHRIST) may come. But HE is coming again.
(Click on Topic Title for more info)
There's always a Christ wanna be in every age. History shows that No one had claimed to be Christ before Jesus’ time. There were warrior messiahs who tried to liberate the Jewish people before Jesus that were executed by the Romans, But none claimed to be the Christ. Christ is an exclusive Jewish term found in the Holy Scriptures, not in other religions. But many have adopted its terminology ignoring its exclusive meaning of being the Messiah "only one of a kind." God's "only begotten Son" is the only Christ, who is Jesus.
Gamaliel recalls in Acts 5:34-40 of Theudas who gathered 400 people who proclaimed him as the Messiah, he was killed and his followers scattered. At the time of the census, during Jesus birth, Judas of Galilee had much the same result. In 130 AD. It was Bar Cochba who led a revolt in Rome at the time of Hadrian and was killed. Rabbi Akiba was proclaimed as Messiah and his revolt was filled with blood and failed. Then there was Moses of Crete who was to part the waters like the red sea, he jumped in and drowned along with the rest of his followers who could not swim. In 720 AD Their was Abu Isa from Baghdad who became famous for being the only messianic coward on record. The list grows more sordid as history progresses. In 1750 Jacob Frank announced his Messiahship and had Leib Krysa a self proclaimed prophet acting as a John the Baptist proclaim Frank as Christ in Poland. Jacob Frank replaced Jesus in the Trinity as the Son of God and was quickly put in chains by the Roman Catholic poles only to be set free by the Greek Orthodox Russians. He later lived his life in extravagance and he and his followers vanished from the scene.
10 years later Baal Shem Tov, meaning master of the name entered his claim to fame. He is attributed to be the founder of early Chasidim. He was the first to actually have miracles accredited to him. Several years ago the Hasidim claimed Rabbi Snearson as Messiah who had no miracles. But their hopes were dashed when they found he was as mortal as they, when death took him at 90 years old.
All of these false Messiahs had one common operation to the people, they duped them and ruined their lives physically and spiritually.
Our time has produced numerous contenders jockeying to position of a master spiritual leader as the Christ. As the song goes ‘everybody wants to rule the world" From Guru Maharaji, Rajneesh, Sai Baba have been only a few of the enlightened contenders for Christ’s office. The one that is making the most impact is Benjamen creme’s new age Christ Maitreya, who has had a coming out party for over 26 years. Yet he’s voted by new Agers and spiritual globalists alike, as most likely to succeed.
According to Benjamen Creme a major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer.
What if he does show up? Well I guess we can take this one step at a time, after all he has pulled this coming out number before. He can be the anti Christ if he really wants to be, after all we live in America!
Who is the Maitreya? We are told by Creme, Maitreya’s the one expected by followers of all religions alike.
He has been expected for generations by all of the major religions Christians know Him as the Christ, and expect His imminent return. Jews await Him as the Messiah; Hindus look for the coming of Krishna; Buddhists expect Him as Maitreya Buddha; and Muslims anticipate the Imam Mahdi or Messiah. " He’s everything to everyone.
At least with the Jews and the Christians we are talking about the Messiah who is in the bible, not so with these other religions who expect a new spiritual teacher. Creme says were wrong to expect Jesus, Maitreya is the master of all masters. He says this because Jesus according to Creme carried the Christ principle and that there are many that can be Christ.
Teilhard de Chardin dubbed the father of the New age Movement has the echo of this occult synthesization continue. "After what will soon be two thousand years, Christ must be born again, he must be reincarnated in a world that has become too different from that in which he lived. (Teilhard De Chardin Christianity and Evolution p. 95) "I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution. " (ibid. p. 96) In other words this is one who became God, not God who became man.
"A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form In which a religion of the future can be conceived. "(Teilhard De Chardin Christianity and Evolution p. 130)
So instead of the world coming to God through Christ, he wants to change the way, and the person to accommodate all. The spirit of tolerance at the expense of truth. Making the way broad so everyone can enter, when Jesus stated "the way is narrow and their are few that go therein."
THE TARA CENTER
The Tara Centers are mainly centers for the dissemination of information about Maitreya, the new age "Christ," it’s headquarters for the establishment of transmission groups and a base of operation for Benjamin Creme. Its paper "the emergence"is distributed to over 70 countries available in numerous languages of which files can be found on the world wide web. This is no underground movement .
The Tara center states similar goals of Maitreya "He does not come as a religious leader, or to found a new religion, but as a teacher and guide for people of every religion and those of no religion. " A guide for those with no religion seems perplexing in the least, especially since he supposedly teaches about God.
They are attempting "to increase the energy which comes from Maitreya and other Masters,"("Help the Heiarchy with Transmission Work’ p.6) the Tara Centers have established what they call "transmission groups" these are meetings which involves group meditation and invoking the manifestation the focused as an aid in passing on the energies of the "Hierarchy" the Hierarchy are spiritually perfected beings who rule the world. They are literally preparing the spiritual climate for the reappearance of "the Christ.-(ibid p.5) The idea of transmission groups receiving energy and mental images from these "perfected men" and projecting that energy is obviously occultic in nature. There is definitely spiritual power involved.
They state his program is because… " At this time of great political, economic and social crisis Maitreya will inspire humanity to see itself as one family, and create a civilization based on sharing, economic and social justice, and global cooperation."
Tara center wants to alleviate the problem of world hunger by promoting the concept of sharing, involving themselves closely with Share International. Share International works in cooperation with The Hunger Project, based in San Francisco, and founded in 1977 by Werner Erhard, founder of EST. (Contrary to what many may think, The Hunger Project is not a charitable organization which feeds the poor. It is an organization which works to influence people's thinking toward redistribution of wealth. (Media Spotlight 1982 "is the anti Christ now here"). The good intentions and works of Creme and Maitreya’s followers give credibility to the world of their false teachings of this Christ replacements plan for spiritual communism.
Benjamen Creme has been called by the masters of wisdom to represent them and prepare the way for the unveiling. So he and others, liken him to John the Baptist for the new Christ. I recently watched a video I have on the last public interview he did on TV on late night America about 10 years ago, you can really tell that he believes what he is saying and doing. Yet sincerity does not equate one with the truth and neither does good works nor the numerous people that follow ones teachings.
Peter Lemesurier, in his book The Armageddon Script states, "The new Messiah should himself believe in his identity and mission sufficiently to inspire others with that same belief-just as Jesus and John the Baptist before him ... the leader must have the courage to step forward and play out his role to the full if the greater prophetic plan is to go forward." This is exactly the role Creme has taken up in this end times script to be played.
But Creme is no John the baptizer as he has nothing to do with Judaism and does not believe in sin "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4).
Who is Benjamin Creme? He is a 75-year old Scot, a former artist. Since his childhood had an interest in "the esoteric", this is the Ageless Wisdom which has been transmitted by spiritual masters to occult initiates throughout time.
Creme is no sophomore to the occult and the masters of wisdom In 1945. As Creme explains, the "...Maitreya's decision to return to the world with the Hierarchy of Masters" was announced. It was not for several years, however, that Creme would personally be made aware of this announcement.
In 1975, he was given the mission of announcing publicly the coming of Maitreya, at the time Creme did not yet know precisely when that would occur and still does not, although he knows its coming close.
Creme says that Maitreya had spent the last 2,000 years in a “body of light” at a retreat in the Himalayas, but has now resurrected in a physical form that he "self-created" and that he lives and works in London. Many of Maitreya's messages are based around the idea of sharing and global cooperation. (((George Noory broadcast Guest interview: Benjamin Creme January 28th, 2003)
On July 7th 1977, Maitreya Himself informed us that His body of manifestation-the Mayavirupawas totally complete, that He had "donned" it, and that His Body of Light (His Ascended Body) was now at rest in His mountain Centre in the Himalayas. On July 8th, we were told, the Descent had begun (The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.20).
The incarnation of Maitreya was complete. ‘Leaving his "center in the Himalayas," he "arrived by airplane" in his new home, London ." (Network News, March 1987, p. 2). I guess he didn’t have an available UFO to travel in. Jesus' followers claim he came just as he left, by the air, despite the Bible saying he will come the same way, not by airplane.
Creme says Maitreya emerged from His center in the Himalayas, when least expected, "like a thief in the night". He took up residence in the Indian-Pakistani community of London. He has been living and working there, seemingly as an ordinary man, His true status known to relatively few. He has been emerging gradually into full public view so as not to infringe humanity's free will.
Now a few things to go over: Creme says this master is not a subscriber to any religion, yet his master is from the Himilaya’s well known for its occult roots and Hinduism. He also moved supposedly where he would be least noticed, into an Indian community which again shows a connection of his ethnicity to this belief system of Hinduism. The language and the practices taught by this Tibetan master of the occult are clearly Hinduistic which is the only religion in the world that promulgates a pantheistic system, a belief of God in all things and we are gods. For all their altruism and idealism there’s not much honesty in putting their cards on the table.
When the Christ returns, He will not at first reveal His Presence, nor will the Masters who precede Him; but gradually, steps will be taken which will reveal to men that there lives among them now a man of outstanding, extraordinary, potency, capacity for love and service, and with a breadth of view, far beyond the ordinary. Men and women, all over the world, will find themselves drawn into the awareness of the point in the modern world wherein this man will live; and from that centre of force will flow the True Spirit of the Christ, which will gradually reveal to men that He is with us. (The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.20)
What about this so called slow emergence? Well the Bible has a lot to say about the anti Christ in 2 Thess.2. Where the restrainer (the Holy Spirit) is holding back evil as well as the revealing of the false Messiah. Guess who this is according to the Bible?
This teaching of the God within betrays its origins when Maitreya says that "without detachment," which is the "experience of the Self within" and "...without karma there is no salvation," (Share International, December 1988; Network News, Nov./Dec. 1988, p.1). This is essential Hinduism. So how can this have anything to do with the Christ of the Scriptures?
"As awareness grows, it guides the Self which can then use the mind, spirit and body with intelligence. Balancing energy and environment is the key to salvation," (Network News January 1990, p.1).
They are at odds with the real Christ, neither karma, detachment, energy balancing are not the ways to salvation. The person of Jesus Christ and His death on the Cross is. The apostle Peter explained what true salvation is - it is the person and work of Jesus (Acts 4:10-12). Maybe that’s old fashion In our new era of enlightenment but its still the truth. Truth will never change, just as the God who gave it. In the new age truth is relative so it can be whatever one wants.
Who Are "The Masters of Wisdom," that Benjamen Creme and the new age adherents serve?
Creme in his book The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p.71 writes they are "men who, through thousands of years of evolutionary progress and numerous reincarnations, have advanced to a high degree of stewardship over the cosmos. Says Creme: There is Hierarchy throughout the system, in fact throughout Cosmos. Our Hierarchy was brought into this planet by the Lord of the World, about 17 million years ago, to oversee the development of early man, individualized about one million years earlier.
All the teachings from the bible are purposely ignored and the meanings are put in occult terms. Alice Bailey one of Creme's mentors gives her interpretation of "followers of the Christ- " refer to all those who love their fellowmen, irrespective of creed or religion. (Externalisation, p. 468) While this may be true in a general sense, it does not mean we toss out the teachings of Christ, the one true God who alone became man. If this meant acceptability to all then Jesus would not have rigorously contended with the Pharisees nor teach that he alone was the way.
According to esoteric teaching, Maitreya manifested Himself 2,000 years ago in Palestine by overshadowing His disciple Jesus — now the Master Jesus. This time Maitreya has come Himself.
The information about Maitreya's emergence has been presented to the public since 1974 by Benjamin Creme, who is the chief editor of the magazine Share International.
The Tara Center, on April 25, 1982, ran a full-page ad in twenty major newspapers around the world, which included New York City, Washington, D.C. London, and Paris. The full page ad boldly proclaimed that the New Age Messiah, identified as the Lord Maitreya, was now alive and ready to assume his rightful place on the throne of world power. The ad bluntly admitted that this goal was at the very essence of The Plan: What is The Plan? It includes the installation of a new world government and new world religion under Maitreya.
Nearly five years later, on January 12, 1987, the Tara Center published a similar full-page ad in USA Today; promoting the lie that "THE CHRIST IS IN THE WORLD." The ad described the Lord Maitreya as "A great World Teacher for people of every religion and no religion."
Did Maitreya Appear, well once again, almost… 11 years later Cremes Maitreya’s time has finally come to make himself public, again . Maitreya has been waiting for a major event which, we may expect to see in the near future and which he announced as early as 1988: an international stock market crash beginning in Japan. Well there have been crashes already and it doesn’t take a economic genius to figure out this will probably occur especially since 10 years have already passed.
According to Creme A major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer. The interview will take place at a time of Maitreya's choosing, as yet unannounced. This is the very reason I’m doing writing this as a forewarning of the coming deception, if this comes about as Creme states. Am I saying the Maitreya is the anti Christ, No, although he is already an antichrist among many. Can he be the one? Could be.
Creme writes "There is no doubt that there will be opposition... but the need for change will become so overwhelmingly obvious, that they will find themselves increasingly powerless to stop the momentum." ('Reappearance of the Christ,' 1980)
The overall attitude of New Age movement adherents is summed up in a popular slogan: "My karma just ran over your dogma."
... I shall send My Disciples to You, and they will show you the way, but you must act and follow our plan. "(Messages from Maitreya the Christ p.30 Tara center) There is an ominous note to all his teachings. "Already the leaders gather and seek to implement this Principle... My Teaching is, as ever, simple indeed. Men must share or die." (No. 135) "Once again, I repeat: without sharing and justice, my brothers and sisters, man will know no peace... Take, then, the only open course and trust in sharing to relieve the agony of the world... Know, then, the joys of brotherhood. The Principle of Sharing will lead you thereto. Commit yourselves to this cause and know the joy of service." (No. 133) This is Spiritual communism…Sharing then becomes our self salvation.
"When you see Us you will know that the New Time, the New Age, has begun, the time of sharing and justice, of love and brotherhood, the time of the Law of God." (No. 136)
Who is the us? The masters of wisdom! We are not dealing with a single individual but an entourage of beings who are going to come on the scene all claiming to be Christ’s or have his consciousness. The law they intend to implement certainly is not the scriptures. In Georgia are stones written in the eight languages are their new set of directives. Here is a portion of what may be deemed as the 10 commandments of the new age.
1.Maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetuated balance with nature.
2.Unite humanity with a living new language.
3.Prize truth, beauty, love seeking harmony with the infinite
4. Be not a cancer on the earth, leave room for nature, leave room for nature.
In other words preserve and unite with nature, Gaia mother earth will be worshiped, not father God.
Interestingly Maitreya claims to bring peace and is the prince of peace "I aim to evoke from you the love in your heart. I am the Prince of Peace... I am in your hearts as love... By pure love man will achieve... By my help all shall be achieved." (Message No. 100)
He is the love In everyone's heart! Jesus said the heart is deceitfully wicked who can know it out of it springs forth sin. Matt 15:19 "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication's, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Marks gospel adds a few more activities in mans heart 7:22-23,covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye,… pride, foolishness. "All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
This is willfully rejected as truth by the new age which says WE ARE GOOD AND HAVE BEEN SOLD A LIE THAT WE ARE NOT.
Jesus stated with what they call the Christ spirit on him Jer. 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
The heart is deceitful enough to have someone exhibit false spirituality Jer. 23:26 "How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
By Maitreya's own admission he is a [the] son of perdition, who is the man of Sin Jesus warned of. It is he who is in peoples heart which exhibit the fallen nature of man.
I know we have heard all these scriptures before but consider the timing.
Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Take heed that no man deceive you." The deception is here.
Matthew 24:5 "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." They are claiming to be Christ and deceiving others."
Mt.24:24 "for false Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible the elect." The reason is to remove the church from its faith which will be done by the miraculous.
THE DAY OF DECLARATION
We are told, At the earliest possible moment, Maitreya will demonstrate His true identity. On the Day of Declaration, the international television networks will be linked together, and Maitreya will be invited to speak to the world.
We will see His face on television, but each of us will hear His words telepathically in our own language as Maitreya simultaneously impresses the minds of all humanity. Even those who are not watching Him on television will have this experience. On this Day, humanity's shared experience of His profound love will cause hundreds of thousands of spontaneous healings to take place throughout the world.
"He has been invited by one of the major networks in this country, one of the big 4 and he will appear they have an arrangement that when he gives the time he can appear within a few days. And he has simply been waiting for an even the predicted in 1988 with a whole series of predictions one by one which have come true and this one is of a world stock market crash which he said would begin in Japan. "
"He is waiting for that same collapse in the east takes place in the west and when it obvious that its going to do so he will take the invitation to speak on this nature. (so he is involved in finances and commerce) Then first in this country then in Japan to come forward to help to mitigate the effects of this crises." (Art Bell July 10, 1998).
A major American television network has requested an interview with Maitreya, and He has accepted the offer. The interview will take place a time of Maitreya's choosing, as yet unannounced. Its time to be prepared, for anything can occur as we are now deep in the time of deception. He’s at the door, look up our redemption is coming, the tribulation comes for those who reject the Christian message of Christ, but the hope of the true Jesus is there for the Christian.
Not to fearful- be hopeful
2 Thess.2:3 "let noone deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition," THE MAN OF SIN.
The time of the true Christ’s coming draws ever closer be watchful, get ready, you know not when your master, (the true Jesus CHRIST) may come. But HE is coming again.
(Click on Topic Title for more info)
December 21, 2008
Mormon Fiction
Mormon Fiction
McMahon, T.A.
Not long after leaving my screenwriting career in Hollywood, I was hired to assist on a documentary produced by a Christian film company. The subject was Mormonism and the company’s initial screenings were not very successful. They hoped that my film experience and input would help improve the project. I was familiar with the theology of Mormonism through my previous work on a documentary addressing multiple cults; so after reviewing the docudrama a couple of times, my solution was to re-edit the film so that it focused primarily on the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—simply what Mormons believe. That hardly seems like a brilliant idea, or even a particularly interesting one. Perhaps—but then you may not be familiar with the teachings of Joseph Smith and LDS’s so-called Apostles and Prophets.
Historians have marveled at how quickly so many people flocked to Joseph Smith’s new theology. Within a decade he had thousands of followers. A principle reason for this rapid rise in popularity was Mormonism’s startling and distinct contrast with what the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and various other Christian denominations believe. To begin with, Smith taught that most of the beliefs of Christianity had become hopelessly corrupted, including the Bible, and that which had been supernaturally revealed to him would restore God’s truth. The main attraction, however, was theological novelty.
Today the LDS Church has taken a different tactic involving new name preferences (play down “Mormonism,” play up “Church of Jesus Christ”) and other strategies (e.g., create an image of being a part of mainstream Christianity through advertising campaigns). It’s working. After Islam, Mormonism is now the fastest growing religion in the world, although little has changed doctrinally from the Church’s novel beginnings.
Mormonism teaches that God has a physical body and lives on a planet near a star called Kolob. He is but one of an infinite number of Gods, each ruling over his own world located somewhere in the universe. Supposedly, each God has untold numbers of goddess wives who produce millions of spirit children. Amazingly, these spiritual offspring of God and his goddesses must then be birthed through physical beings (non-gods) on earth. This obtains for them the physical bodies necessary to become Gods and goddesses, who create and rule over their own worlds. Polygamy was a major part of Mormonism. It met the need for producing bodies for the spirit babies birthed by multiple mother goddesses. It is still practiced among Mormon sects today. The Latter-day Saints’ focus on the family has more to do with the Church’s biblically unorthodox theology than with domestic well-being.
According to LDS teaching, Jesus was one of those spirit babies (as was his spirit brother Lucifer, who became Satan). The conception of Jesus was unique but not virginal; God, who is physical, had intercourse with Mary. Furthermore, since producing children is critical to a Mormon male’s progression to godhood, Jesus had children through the women (the sisters Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, etc.) who accompanied him. Supposedly, he married them at the wedding feast of Cana.
Mormonism’s salvation accommodates nearly everyone in one “heaven” or another. The death of Jesus on the cross was redemptive only in that it provided physical resurrection (bodies) for all. Obeying the commandments and performing Church duties and rituals are necessary in order to reach the Celestial Kingdom. Those who fall short of such requirements may still enter in as Celestial servants, and, if not, they can abide in the Terrestrial Kingdom. Moral non-Mormons may spend eternity in the Telestial Kingdom. Hell is a purgatory-like place and is eternal only for those few who commit the “unpardonable sin,” such as apostasy. Nearly everyone has a chance to improve his eternal status after death.
Although we’ve heard the saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” Mormonism seriously challenges this idea. The most sacred scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is The Book of Mormon, which reads like rather bizarre but poor fiction trying its best to be taken as revealed truth. If that opinion sounds a bit “intolerant,” bear with me.
The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of two migrations of ancient people to the Americas: the family of Jared around 2000 B.C. and, 1,500 years later, the family of Lehi. The first migration supposedly took place when the Tower of Babel was being constructed. A central character, curiously referred to only as the “brother of Jared,” is instructed by God to build eight watertight, rudderless “barges” to carry people and animals (including bees and fish) to the promised land. The brother of Jared realized that breathing and seeing might become a problem aboard the all-wooden, “tight like unto a dish” crafts and asked God for some design modifications. God told him to bore a hole that could be plugged in the top and bottom of the barges for air, and to place a shining stone in the end of each vessel for light. Chapter 2 of Ether states that the barges were tossed about and “buried in the depths of the sea” many times. This rather implausible sea journey (even for a supernaturally guided one) took nearly a year and delivered the people to the uninhabited Americas. There the Jaredites grew from 30 or so to multiple thousands and then perished because of their wickedness.
In the second migration to the promised land, Israelites left Jerusalem around 600 B.C. on a single vessel guided by a supernaturally provided “brass ball.” Soon after their arrival, Lehi’s sons, Laman and Lemuel, rebelled against God; they and their followers were cursed by God, which resulted in “a skin of blackness to come upon them.” They were called Lamanites, and Mormonism claims that these dark-skinned Hebrews are the original ancestors of the Native Americans of the Western Hemisphere. The followers of Nephi remained “white, exceedingly fair and delightsome” and throughout their history these groups were at enmity with each other.
Shortly after his resurrection, the Book of Mormon claims that Jesus came to America, where he taught the Nephites the gospel (of works salvation), ordained disciples and gave instructions concerning the sacraments of communion and baptism.
Around the fifth century A.D., the Lamanites finally destroyed all the Nephites so that only the dark-skinned people remained in the Americas. Following the final battle, the last surviving Nephite, Moroni, finished recording on plates the events of his people and hid them beneath a rock on the Hill Cumorah (located in upstate New York). Approximately 1,400 years later Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, Jr., giving him the location of the “gold plates” and instructing him to translate them into English.
The process of translation involved Smith’s putting a “seer stone” into a hat and covering the opening with his face. The stone would then glow, Reformed Egyptian symbols would appear, and the English rendering would manifest below them. Smith dictated the translation and the image remained until it was transcribed correctly. Written in the introduction to The Book of Mormon are these words of Joseph Smith: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
Is this “the most correct” book on earth? The veracity of that statement is critical to the faith of 11 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The 10th President of the Mormon Church, Joseph Fielding Smith, made plain what is at stake: “Mormonism…must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground….” Yet when the “ground” of his having been “a prophet of God” is examined reasonably, it begins to look more and more like swampland.
The errors found within the Book of Mormon have filled volumes. Even the LDS Church has made thousands of corrections since the book’s first edition in 1830. Some problems, however, can’t be resolved without expunging major parts of the book. For example, first and second Nephi were supposedly recorded in the fifth century B.C.; yet, astonishingly, these books quote passages from the New Testament, which was written in the first century A.D.! The book recorded by Alma dates between 92 and 53 B.C., yet uses the word “Christians.” Acts (covering the timespan A.D. 33-62) tells us that name was first used in Antioch to refer to the followers of Christ. Moreover, Nephi, supposedly a Hebrew prophet writing from America, used Greek terms such as “Christ” rather than “Messiah.” It’s also more than odd that these transplanted Hebrews knew far more about Jesus prior to his coming (and alleged later visitation to America) than their brethren in Israel did, while at the same time, details in the Book of Mormon regarding the Mosaic and Levitical laws are almost nonexistent. One glaring example: the necessity of keeping the Passover is neither endorsed nor even mentioned. All of this adds up to an obvious New Testament bias on the part of the writer of this Mormon sacred scripture.
There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence that Joseph Smith had more than supernatural assistance in compiling the Book of Mormon. Speculative writings concerning the origins of the Indians were popularized in his day through such works as Ethan Smith’s The View of the Hebrews and the writings of Rev. Solomon Spaulding. These and other relevant works were certainly available to the Mormon prophet. However, his plagiarism of the Bible is the most convincing indication that Joseph Smith fraudulently produced the Latter-day Saints’ holy writ. Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Joseph Smith’s Plagiarism of the Bible provides exact quotes and parallels found in both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. They write, “…in the Book of Mormon we have Lehi, the father of Nephi, quoting from the New Testament book of Revelation almost seven centuries before it was written!” Thousands of other examples follow. Furthermore, some KJV quotes include italicized words not found in the Hebrew, Greek or Latin manuscripts from which they were translated, but were inserted by the A.D. 1611 translators simply to clarify the text. Did the inspiration process include translating Reformed Egyptian, written by Hebrew-speaking scribes, into the centuries-later King James English (including some Greek and Latin terms) complete with italicized words, or did Joseph Smith simply contrive the Book of Mormon together with ample help from a KJV Bible and other sources?
The Bible has been scrutinized, analyzed and criticized for thousands of years, yet nothing has been exposed which undermines the Book that declares itself to be God’s Word. Moreover, mountains of evidence from diverse fields of study support its claims of supernatural origin.
Nothing of the kind can be said for the Book of Mormon. Archaeologists have found nothing to support the land, cities, monuments, or peoples the book presents. History, anthropology and linguistics are likewise silent. But one field, molecular biology, has had much to say lately, and it’s not good news for defenders of the Mormon faith.
The introduction to the Book of Mormon underscores an important claim made by this alleged sacred text: “After thousands of years, all [i.e., the white Hebrew descendants of Lehi] were destroyed except the [dark-skinned] Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” When Joseph Smith was young, one of the popular mysteries of his day was the origin of the Native Americans. It made for interesting speculation but seemed far beyond the possibility of proof. Not so today. The science of DNA supplies such proof—which will stand up in a court of law. It is now possible to trace a person’s DNA back through centuries to accurately determine one’s ancestry.
There is a stunning new video now available on this subject titled DNA vs. The Book of Mormon, which is both groundbreaking and powerful in its simplicity. Among the featured scientists is Dr. David Glenn Smith, a molecular anthropologist and researcher from the University of California at Davis who has studied Native Americans for 30 years, and whose lab is this country’s leading test center for Indian genetics. Here is his view, as well as the consensus of scientists in his field: “If you look at genes in Native Americans…they came from their ancestral populations....You can look for those genes in Jewish populations but you don’t find them...they don’t coincide at all. The homeland of Native Americans is East Asia.”
The video includes anthropologist and Mormon scholar, Thomas Murphy, who summarizes the dilemma for the LDS Church: “…we don’t have a single source from ancient America outside the Book of Mormon validating a single place, a single person, a single event....We don’t have any of that, so the problem that DNA poses for the Book of Mormon, in a sense, exemplifies the difficulties that we already have.…There’s never been any evidence that would show us that there had been an Israelite migration to the New World. Not in genetics or for that matter in any other source, historical, archaeological, or linguistic.”
If there was no Israelite migration, then there were no Nephite or Lamanite people; therefore, Joseph Smith was a fraud and the Book of Mormon—“Another Testament of Jesus Christ”—is patently false. Worse yet, it is soul-damning fiction. That’s the grievous plight of millions of Latter-day Saints faithful to Joseph Smith’s teaching.
If the opportunity arises for you to interact with Mormons, please don’t avoid them. Christ died for them. Although most Mormons cling to their false faith in the Book of Mormon based upon feelings (a “burning in the bosom” experience), their irrationality is being confronted more and more by irrefutable evidence from science. Increasing numbers are facing the fact that they were duped by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, et al. Show them the love of the biblical Jesus by being informed about their beliefs and, most importantly, share with them the truth which set you free (Jn 8:31,32). Pray for a mass exodus from the bondage of Mormonism.
McMahon, T.A.
Not long after leaving my screenwriting career in Hollywood, I was hired to assist on a documentary produced by a Christian film company. The subject was Mormonism and the company’s initial screenings were not very successful. They hoped that my film experience and input would help improve the project. I was familiar with the theology of Mormonism through my previous work on a documentary addressing multiple cults; so after reviewing the docudrama a couple of times, my solution was to re-edit the film so that it focused primarily on the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—simply what Mormons believe. That hardly seems like a brilliant idea, or even a particularly interesting one. Perhaps—but then you may not be familiar with the teachings of Joseph Smith and LDS’s so-called Apostles and Prophets.
Historians have marveled at how quickly so many people flocked to Joseph Smith’s new theology. Within a decade he had thousands of followers. A principle reason for this rapid rise in popularity was Mormonism’s startling and distinct contrast with what the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and various other Christian denominations believe. To begin with, Smith taught that most of the beliefs of Christianity had become hopelessly corrupted, including the Bible, and that which had been supernaturally revealed to him would restore God’s truth. The main attraction, however, was theological novelty.
Today the LDS Church has taken a different tactic involving new name preferences (play down “Mormonism,” play up “Church of Jesus Christ”) and other strategies (e.g., create an image of being a part of mainstream Christianity through advertising campaigns). It’s working. After Islam, Mormonism is now the fastest growing religion in the world, although little has changed doctrinally from the Church’s novel beginnings.
Mormonism teaches that God has a physical body and lives on a planet near a star called Kolob. He is but one of an infinite number of Gods, each ruling over his own world located somewhere in the universe. Supposedly, each God has untold numbers of goddess wives who produce millions of spirit children. Amazingly, these spiritual offspring of God and his goddesses must then be birthed through physical beings (non-gods) on earth. This obtains for them the physical bodies necessary to become Gods and goddesses, who create and rule over their own worlds. Polygamy was a major part of Mormonism. It met the need for producing bodies for the spirit babies birthed by multiple mother goddesses. It is still practiced among Mormon sects today. The Latter-day Saints’ focus on the family has more to do with the Church’s biblically unorthodox theology than with domestic well-being.
According to LDS teaching, Jesus was one of those spirit babies (as was his spirit brother Lucifer, who became Satan). The conception of Jesus was unique but not virginal; God, who is physical, had intercourse with Mary. Furthermore, since producing children is critical to a Mormon male’s progression to godhood, Jesus had children through the women (the sisters Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, etc.) who accompanied him. Supposedly, he married them at the wedding feast of Cana.
Mormonism’s salvation accommodates nearly everyone in one “heaven” or another. The death of Jesus on the cross was redemptive only in that it provided physical resurrection (bodies) for all. Obeying the commandments and performing Church duties and rituals are necessary in order to reach the Celestial Kingdom. Those who fall short of such requirements may still enter in as Celestial servants, and, if not, they can abide in the Terrestrial Kingdom. Moral non-Mormons may spend eternity in the Telestial Kingdom. Hell is a purgatory-like place and is eternal only for those few who commit the “unpardonable sin,” such as apostasy. Nearly everyone has a chance to improve his eternal status after death.
Although we’ve heard the saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” Mormonism seriously challenges this idea. The most sacred scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is The Book of Mormon, which reads like rather bizarre but poor fiction trying its best to be taken as revealed truth. If that opinion sounds a bit “intolerant,” bear with me.
The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of two migrations of ancient people to the Americas: the family of Jared around 2000 B.C. and, 1,500 years later, the family of Lehi. The first migration supposedly took place when the Tower of Babel was being constructed. A central character, curiously referred to only as the “brother of Jared,” is instructed by God to build eight watertight, rudderless “barges” to carry people and animals (including bees and fish) to the promised land. The brother of Jared realized that breathing and seeing might become a problem aboard the all-wooden, “tight like unto a dish” crafts and asked God for some design modifications. God told him to bore a hole that could be plugged in the top and bottom of the barges for air, and to place a shining stone in the end of each vessel for light. Chapter 2 of Ether states that the barges were tossed about and “buried in the depths of the sea” many times. This rather implausible sea journey (even for a supernaturally guided one) took nearly a year and delivered the people to the uninhabited Americas. There the Jaredites grew from 30 or so to multiple thousands and then perished because of their wickedness.
In the second migration to the promised land, Israelites left Jerusalem around 600 B.C. on a single vessel guided by a supernaturally provided “brass ball.” Soon after their arrival, Lehi’s sons, Laman and Lemuel, rebelled against God; they and their followers were cursed by God, which resulted in “a skin of blackness to come upon them.” They were called Lamanites, and Mormonism claims that these dark-skinned Hebrews are the original ancestors of the Native Americans of the Western Hemisphere. The followers of Nephi remained “white, exceedingly fair and delightsome” and throughout their history these groups were at enmity with each other.
Shortly after his resurrection, the Book of Mormon claims that Jesus came to America, where he taught the Nephites the gospel (of works salvation), ordained disciples and gave instructions concerning the sacraments of communion and baptism.
Around the fifth century A.D., the Lamanites finally destroyed all the Nephites so that only the dark-skinned people remained in the Americas. Following the final battle, the last surviving Nephite, Moroni, finished recording on plates the events of his people and hid them beneath a rock on the Hill Cumorah (located in upstate New York). Approximately 1,400 years later Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, Jr., giving him the location of the “gold plates” and instructing him to translate them into English.
The process of translation involved Smith’s putting a “seer stone” into a hat and covering the opening with his face. The stone would then glow, Reformed Egyptian symbols would appear, and the English rendering would manifest below them. Smith dictated the translation and the image remained until it was transcribed correctly. Written in the introduction to The Book of Mormon are these words of Joseph Smith: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
Is this “the most correct” book on earth? The veracity of that statement is critical to the faith of 11 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The 10th President of the Mormon Church, Joseph Fielding Smith, made plain what is at stake: “Mormonism…must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground….” Yet when the “ground” of his having been “a prophet of God” is examined reasonably, it begins to look more and more like swampland.
The errors found within the Book of Mormon have filled volumes. Even the LDS Church has made thousands of corrections since the book’s first edition in 1830. Some problems, however, can’t be resolved without expunging major parts of the book. For example, first and second Nephi were supposedly recorded in the fifth century B.C.; yet, astonishingly, these books quote passages from the New Testament, which was written in the first century A.D.! The book recorded by Alma dates between 92 and 53 B.C., yet uses the word “Christians.” Acts (covering the timespan A.D. 33-62) tells us that name was first used in Antioch to refer to the followers of Christ. Moreover, Nephi, supposedly a Hebrew prophet writing from America, used Greek terms such as “Christ” rather than “Messiah.” It’s also more than odd that these transplanted Hebrews knew far more about Jesus prior to his coming (and alleged later visitation to America) than their brethren in Israel did, while at the same time, details in the Book of Mormon regarding the Mosaic and Levitical laws are almost nonexistent. One glaring example: the necessity of keeping the Passover is neither endorsed nor even mentioned. All of this adds up to an obvious New Testament bias on the part of the writer of this Mormon sacred scripture.
There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence that Joseph Smith had more than supernatural assistance in compiling the Book of Mormon. Speculative writings concerning the origins of the Indians were popularized in his day through such works as Ethan Smith’s The View of the Hebrews and the writings of Rev. Solomon Spaulding. These and other relevant works were certainly available to the Mormon prophet. However, his plagiarism of the Bible is the most convincing indication that Joseph Smith fraudulently produced the Latter-day Saints’ holy writ. Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Joseph Smith’s Plagiarism of the Bible provides exact quotes and parallels found in both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. They write, “…in the Book of Mormon we have Lehi, the father of Nephi, quoting from the New Testament book of Revelation almost seven centuries before it was written!” Thousands of other examples follow. Furthermore, some KJV quotes include italicized words not found in the Hebrew, Greek or Latin manuscripts from which they were translated, but were inserted by the A.D. 1611 translators simply to clarify the text. Did the inspiration process include translating Reformed Egyptian, written by Hebrew-speaking scribes, into the centuries-later King James English (including some Greek and Latin terms) complete with italicized words, or did Joseph Smith simply contrive the Book of Mormon together with ample help from a KJV Bible and other sources?
The Bible has been scrutinized, analyzed and criticized for thousands of years, yet nothing has been exposed which undermines the Book that declares itself to be God’s Word. Moreover, mountains of evidence from diverse fields of study support its claims of supernatural origin.
Nothing of the kind can be said for the Book of Mormon. Archaeologists have found nothing to support the land, cities, monuments, or peoples the book presents. History, anthropology and linguistics are likewise silent. But one field, molecular biology, has had much to say lately, and it’s not good news for defenders of the Mormon faith.
The introduction to the Book of Mormon underscores an important claim made by this alleged sacred text: “After thousands of years, all [i.e., the white Hebrew descendants of Lehi] were destroyed except the [dark-skinned] Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” When Joseph Smith was young, one of the popular mysteries of his day was the origin of the Native Americans. It made for interesting speculation but seemed far beyond the possibility of proof. Not so today. The science of DNA supplies such proof—which will stand up in a court of law. It is now possible to trace a person’s DNA back through centuries to accurately determine one’s ancestry.
There is a stunning new video now available on this subject titled DNA vs. The Book of Mormon, which is both groundbreaking and powerful in its simplicity. Among the featured scientists is Dr. David Glenn Smith, a molecular anthropologist and researcher from the University of California at Davis who has studied Native Americans for 30 years, and whose lab is this country’s leading test center for Indian genetics. Here is his view, as well as the consensus of scientists in his field: “If you look at genes in Native Americans…they came from their ancestral populations....You can look for those genes in Jewish populations but you don’t find them...they don’t coincide at all. The homeland of Native Americans is East Asia.”
The video includes anthropologist and Mormon scholar, Thomas Murphy, who summarizes the dilemma for the LDS Church: “…we don’t have a single source from ancient America outside the Book of Mormon validating a single place, a single person, a single event....We don’t have any of that, so the problem that DNA poses for the Book of Mormon, in a sense, exemplifies the difficulties that we already have.…There’s never been any evidence that would show us that there had been an Israelite migration to the New World. Not in genetics or for that matter in any other source, historical, archaeological, or linguistic.”
If there was no Israelite migration, then there were no Nephite or Lamanite people; therefore, Joseph Smith was a fraud and the Book of Mormon—“Another Testament of Jesus Christ”—is patently false. Worse yet, it is soul-damning fiction. That’s the grievous plight of millions of Latter-day Saints faithful to Joseph Smith’s teaching.
If the opportunity arises for you to interact with Mormons, please don’t avoid them. Christ died for them. Although most Mormons cling to their false faith in the Book of Mormon based upon feelings (a “burning in the bosom” experience), their irrationality is being confronted more and more by irrefutable evidence from science. Increasing numbers are facing the fact that they were duped by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, et al. Show them the love of the biblical Jesus by being informed about their beliefs and, most importantly, share with them the truth which set you free (Jn 8:31,32). Pray for a mass exodus from the bondage of Mormonism.
December 17, 2008
Twilight Series - Confusing Evil with Good
Bringing Twilight out into the Son
Blockbuster books and hit movie confuse evil with good
By Eric Barger
By now most of you have heard about the bestselling Twilight saga series written by Stephenie Meyer. Thus far there are over 17 million books in print from the series. However, if you've been hanging around in a cave somewhere just waiting for a reason to flutter, let me sum up the storyline. Vampires are cool. Some may be bad, but in general Vampires are cool and Edward Cullen is the newest heart throb.
High school junior, Bella Swan, moves from Arizona to Forks on the Washington coast (the setting for the majority of the movie) and falls in love with Edward Cullen, who as it turns out, is a member of a family of vampires who have learned to survive from the blood of animals rather than that of humans.
Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
Meyer, a thirty-something Mormon mother of three from Arizona is the author of the four book series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), a novel called The Host and the soon-to-be-released book, Midnight Sun which, unlike the Twilight series, chronicles the saga from Edward's viewpoint rather than Bella's.
Last Friday (Nov. 21, 2008) the first movie ("Twilight") debuted in 3419 theaters nationwide. It came in #1 for the weekend, grossing $70 million and crushing the nearest competitor by a three to one margin. The theater that my wife Melanie and I saw it in was a complex of fourteen screens with three of them playing "Twilight."
Make no mistake this is a buzz among millions of teens right now. One fan website sub heading proudly proclaims it is "For the obsessed Twilight saga fan."
There is a whole market industry based on the books. Twilight has induced a multi-million dollar cottage industry spawning everything from t-shirts and clothing to tattoos and pod casts. As we have noted with other such phenomena, books are being written about the books! Four days after the movie's release I went to a local Walmart to find the store sold out of Twilight series books. Same with the Target across the street. It isn't that they didn't plan; it's just that there is no way to keep up with the current demand.
Nikki Kinke of Deadline Hollywood Daily reported:
"Exit polling showed audiences were 75%/25% female to male, and 55%/25% under or over the age of 25. Fangirls -- or should I say fang-girls -- were buying 5 Twilight tickets per second as of early Friday morning, making it online ticket-seller Fandango's fastest-selling film since The Dark Knight last July. Then the tween and teen females in store bought or homemade Twilight clothes (and even Twilight tattoos) flocked to the first Big Screen version of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling series of Romeo & Juliet-style vampire romance books. Yet the movie adaptation by Melissa Rosenberg was made by start-up studio Summit for only $37M. This will be the start of a big new franchise since a sequel is already in the works -- "New Moon," based on Meyer's second book in the series. The first box office records have already been broken by Twilight's girl power. This is the biggest opening for a female director. Catherine Hardwicke is easily beating Mimi Leder's $41.1M for 1998's Deep Impact. (But with an asterisk since these figures aren't adjusted for inflation, ticket prices, etc.) Twilight will have the 2nd best opening day for a November release behind Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, and the 11th best Friday opening of all time, beating the first Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, and the 15th best opening day ever. It also scored the 4th best November opening weekend of all time, and the 4th best opening weekend of 2008. It's a defining moment for Summit's start-up studio that had really struggled on its first few releases. On Saturday morning, Summit officially announced the greenlight for the New Moon sequel (I'm told to contain costs the studio is considering making sequels #2 and #3 back to back like other successful franchises have done), and Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) and Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) formally thanked fans for their support of what is now a movie franchise. Click here for Article
Speaking of Harry Potter, make no mistake: Twilight is the next Harry Potter. In fact, many are saying, "who's Harry Potter?" Many of the same Potter fans are now loyal to Meyer's saga and it's a logical move for a culture craving supernaturalism. From a school of witchcraft to a clan of vampires, readers and movie goers are again proving how broad the thirst is for mystical power whose source is decidedly not God.
Evil vs. Good or Evil vs. more Evil?
The storyline of Twilight is generally two faceted. It is first "boy vampire meets a mortal girl" and secondarily "'good' vampires fight 'bad' vampires." Then there are the werewolves introduced in the second book, New Moon.
Many of the characters in the novel possess supernatural abilities such as:
- Mind reading
- Levitation
- Lycanthropy (shape shifting)
- Pre-cognitive knowledge of future events - mediumship
- Super strength, hearing and speed
- They also don't eat, sleep or need to breath
A quick reading of Deuteronomy 18:9-12 clearly outline God's final word on many of these vampire attributes. I covered these four verses for over 100 pages in my book Entertaining Spirits Unaware: The End-Time Occult Invasion.
Interestingly, Meyer begins Twilight with the words of Genesis 2:17.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Even though Meyer says on her website that the cover of the book (the apple) symbolizes "forbidden fruit" and that the Genesis scripture reference is related to Bella's eventual understanding of the knowledge of good and evil, the inference of this passage is much more. It is about the fall of mankind and about eternal life (something vampires claim to have). Even Mormon theology would be hard pressed to come up with less than this observation.
The Cullen family is led by Edward's "father" (through vampirism) the "best" vampire, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. The elder Cullen was raised centuries ago by a father who, as an Anglican pastor, hunted witches, destroyed werewolves - and vampires. (Speaking of this in the manuscript Meyer throws a direct barb towards supposedly intolerant, orthodox Christian ministers.) Some believe that due to this background, Dr. Cullen's character seeks to rise above the nature of a vampire becoming a doctor in order to do good and save people. However, what is actually evident here are two disturbing points. First, Meyer has incorporated in Dr. Cullen's makeup the Mormon edict that a person must accomplish their own good acts in order to be redeemed. I commonly refer to this as "works salvation" which is a mainstay taught in every Mormon seminary, church and home. In Mormonism the onus for salvation is all about what a person does for the Mormon Church - instead of what Jesus completely finished for us. (Concerning this, it is interesting that more than one Mormon blog entry has complained that Meyer integrates far too much Mormon doctrine into her books.) Second and most disturbing is the notion that the Cullen's seem to view their state as generally hopeless. This shouts loudly against the omnipotent power of Jehovah God to accomplish deliverance. In a subtle and unspoken manner, the books assert that God is unable to rescue one from an incurable eternal ill such as vampirism is presented to be. Whether vampirism is but a mythical malady or not, this thinking may translate to the reader that Jesus' sacrifice was not sufficient or that it is only by one's own righteousness that freedom (or eternal life) can be attained. The truth is that God is indeed able to deliver anyone and everyone and such deliverance is only available through the power of the Cross! One can argue that vampires either do or do not exist. (I know personally of one very credible person whose testimony recounts actually participating in vampirism to gain supernatural satanic power. However, the point here is that no matter how deep the pit of evil and sin one may be trapped in, Jesus' power is greater. Praise the Lord!
The fact is that the entire Twilight series is glamorizing and promoting vampirism. It is fueling the craving for eternal human life and for dominating super human abilities and strength. In the book and movie Bella powerfully begs her vampire love interest to make her one of his like (by biting her neck of course). Edward restrains himself but only for the sake of drawing out the suspense, for she indeed does join him in vampire status in later books (and in a future movie). Though Meyer is to be commended that Bella's unwanted pregnancy later in the series does not end in abortion one has to wonder if the union of two vampires could produce a God-created human in the first place?
Twilight has been defended as a positive book because it contains no sex, seems to preach abstinence and includes only mild swearing. Whose version of morality is that I ask? This is simply a lesser-than-two-evils approach and while I readily admit that this romantic styled chick flick is far less ominous than a large number of the books and movies out there today, how can a biblically minded Christian endorse it as acceptable for a 12 year-old?
To revisit a theme I wrote and spoke of many times during the height of the Harry Potter fad, the heroes of today are much like the villains I grew up watching on TV. Gone are the likes of Roy Rogers, Ward Cleaver and Red Skelton. The people who we're asked to root for at the movies today act more like the thugs portrayed in 1950's Hollywood entertainment. The marker of truth and what is good and right has surely moved and it hasn't been pretty.
I will admit that in comparison, the content of "Twilight" seems lightweight in the overall scheme of today's motion picture industry. The trailers previewing other forthcoming features that were shown before the screening of the "Twilight" film were frankly shocking and full of occultism and gut wrenching violence. However, have we stooped so low as to say "'Twilight,' with its vampire heroes and PG-13 rating is somehow more acceptable than the more gruesome R rated jobs?" Is "not as bad as" somehow a prerequisite making something OK for our kids? Since when did the "lesser-of-two-evils" become a biblical principle? One needs to be aware that there are Satanists who in real life practice drinking the blood of humans. To many occultists, vampirism is not just a fairy tale but something coveted. No matter how dreamy Hollywood may present Edward Cullen to be or how obsessed some junior higher may become with him, Twilight is nothing short of Satan's cloak of evil; appearing good. Remember, the most deceptive evil is not the most obvious. It is the most subtle. It also induces more people who may be repulsed by overt darkness to begin the journey from right to wrong.
Two Scriptures immediately come to mind here.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! - Isaiah 5:20-21
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. - II Corinthians 11:14
Four Life Principles
A friend of mine, Lia Carlile, who teaches at a solid Christian school in Washington State addressed this very issue last Friday. She knew, as I did, that even in this good and godly environment that the crazed idolatry brought on by the Twilight series and movie was thriving. My two oldest granddaughters heard Lia speak warning them and their classmates and for good reason. Several of my 12 year-old granddaughters friends had been trying to convince her to both read these 500+ page books and to then go to the movie with them. Thankfully, both my kiddos have voluntarily rejected Meyer's books and shunned the movie with parental intervention.
I want to share with you a few of the points Lia brought up to the students last week. They are reminiscent of things I have said over the last two decades concerning what and who we give our time, mind, money and emotions to. More so, the following points speak as a check list to see if we have fallen into making something besides Jehovah our "god" or if we are on the road toward full blown idol worship.
Lia's points here
Question 1 - Me and God
How is this thing building my relationship with the Lord?
How does my interest in this area compare with my time invested in my relationship with the Lord?
Question 2 - Me and the People Around Me
Is this creating conflict in my family or with others?
Does it offend other believers or is it confusing them in their faith?
What am I saying to my non-Christian friends or what example am I setting for others?
Question 3 - The Bible
What does the Bible have to say about this? Who does it glorify-God or Satan? Jesus or the things of the World?
Question 4 - Me and Twilight (or whatever applies)
How is this affecting what I think about; my attitude, heart, and mind?
Does it help me to do what is right according to God? Or, does it promote things of the World?
Does it distract me from the Lord and my relationships with others? Serving, praying, reading Bible, ministry, etc.
Does it cause me to say, think, or do things that are contrary to Jesus and his life?
Lia outlined many Scriptures in her notes. One passage that I have pointed out often is Colossians 2:8 which warns us to guard against being taken captive by the deceptiveness of the world. This is up to us to do or not do. What will your decision be?
Why Blood?
Leviticus 17 tells us that life is in the blood. This Old Testament teaching from The Law finds unfathomable depths of meaning when one thinks of what Christ's blood represents for all who will believe.
Satan is very interested in the mockery of God's Word, His name and His Cross. Lucifer, as with vampires, is blood thirsty. He would love nothing more than to deceive young, impressionable people - whom God loves and Jesus died for - into somehow believing that eternal life can be attained some other way than through Jesus and His once-for-all sacrifice on Calvary.
Until the final battle has been fought and the Lord has come with His everlasting and perfect peace, Satan will attempt to prevail through manipulating those who he may. Stephenie Meyer is just one in a long line of those who, without any understanding of it, the Evil One has paid big money to for their services. Twilight is more than mere entertainment. To some it has become every bit as important and as captivating as a religion.
The most famous line from the book and movie is Edward Cullen's statement to Bella "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb." This is Meyer's crafty, yet sick play upon biblical words. The truth is that when Satan is vanquished and evil is defeated, then and only then will the lion and the lamb live in harmony - not as a hundred year old vampire and his wanna-be girlfriend. While Meyer's character Bella so flippantly decides that nothing is more important than spending eternity with Edward - regardless of the consequences, shouldn't we be focused on our future eternity with God and on introducing as many to Him before it is too late?
Blockbuster books and hit movie confuse evil with good
By Eric Barger
By now most of you have heard about the bestselling Twilight saga series written by Stephenie Meyer. Thus far there are over 17 million books in print from the series. However, if you've been hanging around in a cave somewhere just waiting for a reason to flutter, let me sum up the storyline. Vampires are cool. Some may be bad, but in general Vampires are cool and Edward Cullen is the newest heart throb.
High school junior, Bella Swan, moves from Arizona to Forks on the Washington coast (the setting for the majority of the movie) and falls in love with Edward Cullen, who as it turns out, is a member of a family of vampires who have learned to survive from the blood of animals rather than that of humans.
Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
Meyer, a thirty-something Mormon mother of three from Arizona is the author of the four book series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), a novel called The Host and the soon-to-be-released book, Midnight Sun which, unlike the Twilight series, chronicles the saga from Edward's viewpoint rather than Bella's.
Last Friday (Nov. 21, 2008) the first movie ("Twilight") debuted in 3419 theaters nationwide. It came in #1 for the weekend, grossing $70 million and crushing the nearest competitor by a three to one margin. The theater that my wife Melanie and I saw it in was a complex of fourteen screens with three of them playing "Twilight."
Make no mistake this is a buzz among millions of teens right now. One fan website sub heading proudly proclaims it is "For the obsessed Twilight saga fan."
There is a whole market industry based on the books. Twilight has induced a multi-million dollar cottage industry spawning everything from t-shirts and clothing to tattoos and pod casts. As we have noted with other such phenomena, books are being written about the books! Four days after the movie's release I went to a local Walmart to find the store sold out of Twilight series books. Same with the Target across the street. It isn't that they didn't plan; it's just that there is no way to keep up with the current demand.
Nikki Kinke of Deadline Hollywood Daily reported:
"Exit polling showed audiences were 75%/25% female to male, and 55%/25% under or over the age of 25. Fangirls -- or should I say fang-girls -- were buying 5 Twilight tickets per second as of early Friday morning, making it online ticket-seller Fandango's fastest-selling film since The Dark Knight last July. Then the tween and teen females in store bought or homemade Twilight clothes (and even Twilight tattoos) flocked to the first Big Screen version of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling series of Romeo & Juliet-style vampire romance books. Yet the movie adaptation by Melissa Rosenberg was made by start-up studio Summit for only $37M. This will be the start of a big new franchise since a sequel is already in the works -- "New Moon," based on Meyer's second book in the series. The first box office records have already been broken by Twilight's girl power. This is the biggest opening for a female director. Catherine Hardwicke is easily beating Mimi Leder's $41.1M for 1998's Deep Impact. (But with an asterisk since these figures aren't adjusted for inflation, ticket prices, etc.) Twilight will have the 2nd best opening day for a November release behind Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, and the 11th best Friday opening of all time, beating the first Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, and the 15th best opening day ever. It also scored the 4th best November opening weekend of all time, and the 4th best opening weekend of 2008. It's a defining moment for Summit's start-up studio that had really struggled on its first few releases. On Saturday morning, Summit officially announced the greenlight for the New Moon sequel (I'm told to contain costs the studio is considering making sequels #2 and #3 back to back like other successful franchises have done), and Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) and Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) formally thanked fans for their support of what is now a movie franchise. Click here for Article
Speaking of Harry Potter, make no mistake: Twilight is the next Harry Potter. In fact, many are saying, "who's Harry Potter?" Many of the same Potter fans are now loyal to Meyer's saga and it's a logical move for a culture craving supernaturalism. From a school of witchcraft to a clan of vampires, readers and movie goers are again proving how broad the thirst is for mystical power whose source is decidedly not God.
Evil vs. Good or Evil vs. more Evil?
The storyline of Twilight is generally two faceted. It is first "boy vampire meets a mortal girl" and secondarily "'good' vampires fight 'bad' vampires." Then there are the werewolves introduced in the second book, New Moon.
Many of the characters in the novel possess supernatural abilities such as:
- Mind reading
- Levitation
- Lycanthropy (shape shifting)
- Pre-cognitive knowledge of future events - mediumship
- Super strength, hearing and speed
- They also don't eat, sleep or need to breath
A quick reading of Deuteronomy 18:9-12 clearly outline God's final word on many of these vampire attributes. I covered these four verses for over 100 pages in my book Entertaining Spirits Unaware: The End-Time Occult Invasion.
Interestingly, Meyer begins Twilight with the words of Genesis 2:17.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Even though Meyer says on her website that the cover of the book (the apple) symbolizes "forbidden fruit" and that the Genesis scripture reference is related to Bella's eventual understanding of the knowledge of good and evil, the inference of this passage is much more. It is about the fall of mankind and about eternal life (something vampires claim to have). Even Mormon theology would be hard pressed to come up with less than this observation.
The Cullen family is led by Edward's "father" (through vampirism) the "best" vampire, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. The elder Cullen was raised centuries ago by a father who, as an Anglican pastor, hunted witches, destroyed werewolves - and vampires. (Speaking of this in the manuscript Meyer throws a direct barb towards supposedly intolerant, orthodox Christian ministers.) Some believe that due to this background, Dr. Cullen's character seeks to rise above the nature of a vampire becoming a doctor in order to do good and save people. However, what is actually evident here are two disturbing points. First, Meyer has incorporated in Dr. Cullen's makeup the Mormon edict that a person must accomplish their own good acts in order to be redeemed. I commonly refer to this as "works salvation" which is a mainstay taught in every Mormon seminary, church and home. In Mormonism the onus for salvation is all about what a person does for the Mormon Church - instead of what Jesus completely finished for us. (Concerning this, it is interesting that more than one Mormon blog entry has complained that Meyer integrates far too much Mormon doctrine into her books.) Second and most disturbing is the notion that the Cullen's seem to view their state as generally hopeless. This shouts loudly against the omnipotent power of Jehovah God to accomplish deliverance. In a subtle and unspoken manner, the books assert that God is unable to rescue one from an incurable eternal ill such as vampirism is presented to be. Whether vampirism is but a mythical malady or not, this thinking may translate to the reader that Jesus' sacrifice was not sufficient or that it is only by one's own righteousness that freedom (or eternal life) can be attained. The truth is that God is indeed able to deliver anyone and everyone and such deliverance is only available through the power of the Cross! One can argue that vampires either do or do not exist. (I know personally of one very credible person whose testimony recounts actually participating in vampirism to gain supernatural satanic power. However, the point here is that no matter how deep the pit of evil and sin one may be trapped in, Jesus' power is greater. Praise the Lord!
The fact is that the entire Twilight series is glamorizing and promoting vampirism. It is fueling the craving for eternal human life and for dominating super human abilities and strength. In the book and movie Bella powerfully begs her vampire love interest to make her one of his like (by biting her neck of course). Edward restrains himself but only for the sake of drawing out the suspense, for she indeed does join him in vampire status in later books (and in a future movie). Though Meyer is to be commended that Bella's unwanted pregnancy later in the series does not end in abortion one has to wonder if the union of two vampires could produce a God-created human in the first place?
Twilight has been defended as a positive book because it contains no sex, seems to preach abstinence and includes only mild swearing. Whose version of morality is that I ask? This is simply a lesser-than-two-evils approach and while I readily admit that this romantic styled chick flick is far less ominous than a large number of the books and movies out there today, how can a biblically minded Christian endorse it as acceptable for a 12 year-old?
To revisit a theme I wrote and spoke of many times during the height of the Harry Potter fad, the heroes of today are much like the villains I grew up watching on TV. Gone are the likes of Roy Rogers, Ward Cleaver and Red Skelton. The people who we're asked to root for at the movies today act more like the thugs portrayed in 1950's Hollywood entertainment. The marker of truth and what is good and right has surely moved and it hasn't been pretty.
I will admit that in comparison, the content of "Twilight" seems lightweight in the overall scheme of today's motion picture industry. The trailers previewing other forthcoming features that were shown before the screening of the "Twilight" film were frankly shocking and full of occultism and gut wrenching violence. However, have we stooped so low as to say "'Twilight,' with its vampire heroes and PG-13 rating is somehow more acceptable than the more gruesome R rated jobs?" Is "not as bad as" somehow a prerequisite making something OK for our kids? Since when did the "lesser-of-two-evils" become a biblical principle? One needs to be aware that there are Satanists who in real life practice drinking the blood of humans. To many occultists, vampirism is not just a fairy tale but something coveted. No matter how dreamy Hollywood may present Edward Cullen to be or how obsessed some junior higher may become with him, Twilight is nothing short of Satan's cloak of evil; appearing good. Remember, the most deceptive evil is not the most obvious. It is the most subtle. It also induces more people who may be repulsed by overt darkness to begin the journey from right to wrong.
Two Scriptures immediately come to mind here.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! - Isaiah 5:20-21
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. - II Corinthians 11:14
Four Life Principles
A friend of mine, Lia Carlile, who teaches at a solid Christian school in Washington State addressed this very issue last Friday. She knew, as I did, that even in this good and godly environment that the crazed idolatry brought on by the Twilight series and movie was thriving. My two oldest granddaughters heard Lia speak warning them and their classmates and for good reason. Several of my 12 year-old granddaughters friends had been trying to convince her to both read these 500+ page books and to then go to the movie with them. Thankfully, both my kiddos have voluntarily rejected Meyer's books and shunned the movie with parental intervention.
I want to share with you a few of the points Lia brought up to the students last week. They are reminiscent of things I have said over the last two decades concerning what and who we give our time, mind, money and emotions to. More so, the following points speak as a check list to see if we have fallen into making something besides Jehovah our "god" or if we are on the road toward full blown idol worship.
Lia's points here
Question 1 - Me and God
How is this thing building my relationship with the Lord?
How does my interest in this area compare with my time invested in my relationship with the Lord?
Question 2 - Me and the People Around Me
Is this creating conflict in my family or with others?
Does it offend other believers or is it confusing them in their faith?
What am I saying to my non-Christian friends or what example am I setting for others?
Question 3 - The Bible
What does the Bible have to say about this? Who does it glorify-God or Satan? Jesus or the things of the World?
Question 4 - Me and Twilight (or whatever applies)
How is this affecting what I think about; my attitude, heart, and mind?
Does it help me to do what is right according to God? Or, does it promote things of the World?
Does it distract me from the Lord and my relationships with others? Serving, praying, reading Bible, ministry, etc.
Does it cause me to say, think, or do things that are contrary to Jesus and his life?
Lia outlined many Scriptures in her notes. One passage that I have pointed out often is Colossians 2:8 which warns us to guard against being taken captive by the deceptiveness of the world. This is up to us to do or not do. What will your decision be?
Why Blood?
Leviticus 17 tells us that life is in the blood. This Old Testament teaching from The Law finds unfathomable depths of meaning when one thinks of what Christ's blood represents for all who will believe.
Satan is very interested in the mockery of God's Word, His name and His Cross. Lucifer, as with vampires, is blood thirsty. He would love nothing more than to deceive young, impressionable people - whom God loves and Jesus died for - into somehow believing that eternal life can be attained some other way than through Jesus and His once-for-all sacrifice on Calvary.
Until the final battle has been fought and the Lord has come with His everlasting and perfect peace, Satan will attempt to prevail through manipulating those who he may. Stephenie Meyer is just one in a long line of those who, without any understanding of it, the Evil One has paid big money to for their services. Twilight is more than mere entertainment. To some it has become every bit as important and as captivating as a religion.
The most famous line from the book and movie is Edward Cullen's statement to Bella "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb." This is Meyer's crafty, yet sick play upon biblical words. The truth is that when Satan is vanquished and evil is defeated, then and only then will the lion and the lamb live in harmony - not as a hundred year old vampire and his wanna-be girlfriend. While Meyer's character Bella so flippantly decides that nothing is more important than spending eternity with Edward - regardless of the consequences, shouldn't we be focused on our future eternity with God and on introducing as many to Him before it is too late?
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