In This Spreading Sea of Apostasy, the Bible is the Only Safe Place to Be.

The film I talked about in the previous post is part of a series titled Counterfeit Christianity and I've decided to watch the whole series starting with #1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSdFmV4zgOQ

I expect to have a much clearer idea of the scope of the end times Apostate World Religion by the time I've finished this series.

I'd been avoiding for some time learning about the various apostasies and heresies I knew were flooding the Church, it just seemed too much to try to absorb and too much of a distraction from my own projects and Christian life. I knew there was so much deviation from the truth, which I gleaned from the teachers I trust, it is most likely why we have not had a real revival in decades and why God will likely not not give us a revival, but I didn't want to delve into the beliefs of the Emerging Church movement or the Contemplative Prayer movement or Rick Warren and other megachurch teachers.  I'd spent some time on the Word of Faith people and the Charismatics, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and so on, but it takes a lot of work to really understand a heresy.  

For instance, until this film I had only the vaguest idea of why Rick Warren is considered to be a false teacher, but the film makes it quite clear.  Now I'm very grateful for this particular series because it's doing the job I haven't been up to doing, it promises to teach me all that without the painstaking research necessary.    I'm very grateful to Caryl Matrisciana and the many others in the film who expose the false teachers.

It's already changed my own focus.  Although I love the poetry in Tozer's Christian Book of Mystical Verse, I realize it's derivative and I need to immerse myself in the Bible instead.  I didn't expect the Bible to have the consistent focus I thought I needed to revive my Christian life, but then I realized that's a deception.  It's the Word of God.  If it's the Word of God then there's no part of it that wouldn't have the focus I need, all of it reveals God to us, every bit of it.  Nevertheless I've decided to start with the Psalms rather than the historical books,  and spend time with each of them rather than just read them through.  The Word of God is LIVING  (Hebrews 4:12) , and that means all of it.  I want it to sink down into me and impart its life to me.

A Film about Pagan Mysticism in the Church

 Here's another video on tghe dangers of mysticism and it's very good.  Hosted by occult-watcher Caryl Matrisciana.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrP_VQ0SO8 

I'm going to have to stop calling Tozer's book of verse "mystical verse" because it's too bad he made so much of that word and it's become a huge headache.  \\

I guess I have to say again, though, that I understand why he felt it's necessary, because some of the people who wrote this poetry wree branded with that label while what they actually wrote is completely biblical.  Even the poetry of the Catholics among them is completely biblical.  Perhaps he chose the ones that are and others aren't so defensible, I don't know, but if the poem is biblical that's all that matters for its effect on the reader.    

And of course what Tozer was objecting to was the tendency in churches to accept a rathre low level of Christian experience as normative, when scripture itself calls us to a closer relationship with Jesus than that standard.    It's also observed by many these days, and it's true in my own experience, that Christian life hardly differs at all from the lives of unbelievers.  Outwardly anyway, and I'm one of whom that's unfortunately true.  I had the jarring experince recently of watching one of John MacArthur's videos and hearing his congregation erupt into hooting and whistling in praise of his dealings over the legal battle of their meeting during COVID restrictions.  It was jarring because it sounded like any crowd at a football game.  Why shouldn't it?   All I can say is I didn't expect it from a large group of Christians.  I can't even say why not, I can't even defend my impression.  It was just jarring.  It just didn't sound right.   And there's nothing unusual about it in my experience.  Silly joking around, acting like a fooball crowd, all par for the course these days.  

Anyway, I see a book like Tozer's as aiming for a more serious Christian life than would ever provoke such a fleshly outburst, and I think from what he wrote in his Pursuit of God, some of which I quoted quite a few posts back, he was saying pretty much that:  the Christian life is meant to be more than what it usually is in today's churches.  For him the term "mystical" was included in that "more."  But then he wrote the book before the great avalanche of Eastern religions and occultism that hit America in the sixties, so maybe that exonderates him.

But the film by Matrisciana is all about that avalanche.   That is her calling, to expose all that, and the pagan mysticism from early Catholicism is another part of that unfortunate influx into the churches so it became one of her subjects..

I love Tozer's book though.  It lifts me out of my flesh into a greater love of the Biblical God than I've felt n some time.    And it's all biblical, no artificial methods for emptying the mind or creating any special mental condition or that sort of thing, just thoughts about God that are clearly in line with scripture that in themselves take you out of your flesh to some extent and lift you into God's presence.    An appreciation of the beauty of Christ rapidly causes the beauties of the world to fade.  That's the only "method" I find there.

More on the suppression of HCQ, plus a "walkaway" video about leftist lies

This is all-out politically motivated censorship.  Yes we are already living in the USSRA.  It's not exactly the government that is doing this, it's people in the media, those who run social media.  It's a huge disinformation campaign.   The link below is to an article about Dr. Simone Gold.  She's been banned for spreading "misinformation."  I guess most Americans just don't believe this is possible so they'll find the fault to be with her somehow.  We've got to stop being cowardly, they'll muzzle anyone who opposes them but there must be avenues we can find somewhere.  

 https://www.thesfnews.com/dr-simone-loses-her-job-after-promoting-hydroxychloroquine-rewrite/61666

While I'm at it, I also found this really interesting video by a young woman who has changed her mind about the Democratic Party.  She was a teacher and is now an ER nurse.  Who knows how long they'll let her video stay up on You Tube.  She says she's been "shadow banned" already.  As a teacher she'd dedicated herself to helping black students and over time saw how the liberal policies she'd accepted actually having the opposite effect to what she thought they were all striving for, to help these students succeed in life.   Her experience as an ER nurse also contributed to her change of heart.  She's wonderfully articulate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flp7gKg5G4E