PART I – A VERY BROAD ROAD
Let there be no doubt! The Antichrist is coming! And from what we can see his rise may be just over the horizon. 2Timothy 2:1-4 describes the immediate conditions for that occurrence of that event. “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one 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, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Through its’ actions and its’ lukewarm approach, today’s church is enabling the rise of the man that will set up a worldwide kingdom in direct opposition to God.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
What can be crazier than questioning and setting aside the very Word of God?. But just a few short years ago, that’s just what two Baptist professors have set out to do. David Gushee of Mercer University and Glen Stassen of Fuller Theological Seminary took umbrage with what they call the Christian Zionist movement. That’s the ‘Movement’ that the Bible is telling the absolute truth when it comes to the geographical and spiritual promises given to the revived Israel that the Bible prophesied would exist in the Last Days. [Imagine the shock when they discovered that the Bible is telling the truth about something they disagree with!] So in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Gushee and Stassen declared the biblical position to be entirely wrong. Their position: The “divine promise of land to the Jewish people as recorded in Scripture,” should not apply to modern Israel. And God’s promises on this front are only conditional anyway, say they. Instead they hold that “the prevailing version of American Christian Zionism …underwrites theft of Palestinian land and oppression of Palestinian people, helps create the conditions for an explosion of violence, and pushes U.S. policy in a destructive direction that violates our nation’s commitment to universal human rights. In all of these, American Christian Zionism as it currently stands is sinful and produces sin.”[i]
Now the good professors are wrong. [As we saw in last week’s newsletter, the very notion of a ‘Palestinian People’ is a fiction ginned up as a political club in the 1960s.] The promises of Scripture are true in this matter. And the return of Israel to the Land signals the End of the Age. There are many prophetic passages that apply, but perhaps one of the foremost and signal prophecies given is Isaiah 11:11-12. It reads: “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people…he will assemble the scattered peoples of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” The first time God called His people back was after the Babylonian captivity, so that Israel could receive her Messiah at his first coming. This second re-gathering signals the near end of history; – so that Israel will be in the Land to receive the Messiah who is to return in Glory and power. The Jewish return began with the Zionist movement of the late 19th century. It was hurried along by Hitler’s attempt to destroy the race during WWII and it continues to this day. The Jews survived as a nation for over 1,800 years without a homeland, – just as God promised. In Leviticus 26:33 God had warned Israel that He would “scatter you among the nations.” Through Isaiah He promised them that He would again call them to the Land. “I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’” (Isaiah 43:5-6) That promise is echoed over and over again by the prophets. And through Ezekiel he confirmed the permanence of the call. “They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever.”
Yet the confused professors represent only the tip of the iceberg. Patriot News reports: “Social activists involved with Faith Shared, a program of Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First were trying to promote tolerance and respect of Islam and counter opposition to the Muslim faith. So starting with the National Cathedral in Washington DC, at least fifty other churches in 32 states joined in the effort to host readings from the Quran.”[ii] Yes, they are using our National Cathedral to undermine our faith.
California’s Claremont Lincoln University has gone one farther. They are now running a multi-faith theological seminary. Muslims, Christians and Jews all study together. Then toss in Buddhists and Hindus as part of the mix. A Muslim professor explained. “The diversity of humankind is not a curse from God. It is a sign of God’s creation, and the beauty of humanity is in our very differences.” A Jewish educator added this: “Some of us are looking in a Jewish direction. Some of us are looking in a Muslim direction. Some are looking in a Christian direction. And yet we are all looking in a God direction.[iii]”
Of course this is nonsense! The Bible clearly teaches the exclusivity of Christ as the only door to the Father. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6) We cannot choose our truth. As Jesus told the woman at the well: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24) And there is not a wide path that takes in every religion. Christ said in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Sorry guys, you don’t get to make up the rules!
But if all of that is not weird enough, you can head out to San Francisco for a real piece of the surreal. Ebenezer Lutheran Church, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is pushing the radical envelope in ways even strange by California standards. The church has invited a High Priestess of Isis to share and speak at a “Faith and Feminism Conference” they are hosting. At the event, the High Priestess named Loreon Vigne, will lead the attendees in a “guided meditation.” Here’s some of what Vigne told World Net Daily: “I personally see Isis as Mother Nature and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She’s a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture. Guided meditation is where the audience closes their eyes and you take them on a little journey. I’ve taken people to their past lives in Egypt, as [that culture] had all the secrets. They’re the ones that knew. Their main concept is to know thyself, know thy heart, know thy soul and know thy purpose.” Now admittedly, Ebenezer Lutheran is bit more than a little outside the mainstream of even liberal leaning churches. For instance the Church’s Pastor is Rev Megan Rohrer, who defends the event by claiming that “the world is much more interested in interfaith connection than exclusivity.” Rev Rohrer, who is “openly transgender,” promotes a feminine vision of God at her church. A banner there openly declares: “The God/dess loves all her children.”[iv]
At this point, perhaps it’s important to take a look at the identity of the goddess Isis. Isis is the Egyptian version of the Babylonian goddess Semiramis. Semiramis was the mother figure in a mother & child cult that spread across the entire globe. While this pagan system began deep in the recesses of pre-Christian times, it eventually even invaded the professing Church. Semiramis – (the very real wife of Nimrod in the Bible) – was worshipped along with her son Horus / Tammuz. In the course of the early centuries of the Church’s existence, it managed to worm its way into the belief system of what later became Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Werner Keller explains in The Bible as History. “Nimrod and his mother (Semiramis) became the chief entities of worship as a Madonna and child. This belief and practice spread to Egypt, where the names of the gods were Isis and Osiris. The son Osiris was born December 25. In Asia it was Cybele and Deonius. In Rome they were called Fortuna and Jupiter. Throughout the world we still find the remnants of mother and child worship to this day. It is no surprise that this same system still exists at the end of the age. It is called ‘Mystery Babylon’ (Rev 17:5). Shockingly, it is disguised as Christianity and is still practiced.”[v] As for Isis herself: She is said to be the patron of women and the goddess of magic.[vi]
Yet a Lutheran Church sees fit to wrap itself in this ancient paganism; this manifestation of the Mystery Religions of dark ages past. It was Alice Bailey herself, that spokesperson for the occultic religion Theosophy and the Luciferian nature of Freemasonry, that told us the Time of the End, when their New Age Christ (Antichrist) would appear, would be a time of the “restoration of the Mysteries”. Dr Dennis Cuddy quotes Bailey in his 1993 Book: President Clinton Will Continue the New World Order. “When the Great One [Antichrist] comes with his disciples and initiates we shall have the restoration of the Mysteries and their exoteric presentation as a consequence of the first initiation.”[vii] Bailey also indicated that the church would be infiltrated and true Christianity co-opted in the process. A confused professing church seems to be stumbling toward that very end. In the name of tolerance and inclusiveness we’ve invented a Religion of Man that is more compassionate than God. But it is a religion of distortion and the acceptance of the perversion of the Divine Order. And there is NO TRUTH IN IT! God calls us to be holy – and holy means to be called out – separated for the purposes of God. As true Christians we can have no truck with non-believers and pagans, to boot. Jesus warned us to take the narrow gate – not the broad road that leads to destruction. In 2Corinthians 6:14-16 the Apostle Paul warns us – and asks us to consider the consequences of our actions. “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.”
[i] Professors denounce ‘Christian Zionism’, Associated Baptist Press, September 30, 2011
[ii] Christian Churches Read Quran from Pulpits across America, Patriot News, October 31, 2011
[iii] Calif. University Introduces First Multi-Faith School of Theology, PBS, October 25, 2011
[iv] Christian Church Invites High Priestess Of Isis To Speak At Conference, World Net Daily, October 29, 2011
[v] Quoted from: Werner Keller, The Bible as History, Random House, 1983, as quoted by: Semiramis: Queen of Heaven,
Mother of God, http://howdifferent.xanga.com/669792055/item/, August 10, 2008
[vi] A Biography of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/egyptian-goddess-isis.html,
viewed November 7, 2011
[vii] Bailey quoted by: Dr Dennis L Cuddy, President Clinton Will Continue New World Order, Citizens for Academic Excellence, 1994
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