It is 2018. 10 years after I wrote a letter to Lighthouse Trails about Biola Univesity promoting occult spirituality and my serious concern that the campus is not actually a Christian campus. I will tell you I was afraid to write to Light House Trails because I KNEW I would be serious persecuted if I was found out. Many people demanded whoever wrote Light House Trails should step forward and leave Biola.
Here is the Light House Trails Research article about my letter I TOLD them to publish: Biola University Student Reports on Contemplative Chapel Services – Warns Parents to Avoid Biola
In light of the fact Dr. Barry Corey, the president of Biola has gone on a Catholic Sabbatical I am only affirmed 10 years later. I graduated from Biola with a degree in Intercultural Studies and minor is TESOL and Bible. I am glad I have a college educated, but moreso, the Lord educated me in spiritual warfare. No, not the spiritual warfare of the mystical crazy concepts of the Charismatics and Pentecostals and what was promoted heavily on campus as valid. But intellectual and deep spiritual warfare.
How am I doing 10 years later? I have had my ups and downs. A lot of post traumati stress and more from my spiritual experiences on campus and after campus. I will leave you will an article to check out on how Biola is embracing the heretical. When I graduated I shook Dr. Barry Corey’s hand. It sickens me to know that Biola which was once a historic, biblical, evangelical university that promoted the TRUE Gospel of the Bible, the Word of God has been so corrupted with Satanic deception. Not only their New Age, Occult spirituality, but the rampant sexual immorality and drunkenness of about 90% of the students there (my own opinion and observations). There are demons there and many kids will have problems if they are true Christians who want the truth of God to be promoted. I a not ashamed and there is NOTHING Biola or anyone associated with them can do to me now. Nothing. Freedom of speech, America, and my right. It feels great to openly admit how terrible Biola is for real Christians to go to. I still wear my Biola hoody and t-shirts to show my pride in my own education and to show that I made it out without selling out to heresy.
I am in no way perfect and I am a sinner in need of God’s grace through Jesus Christ, the ONLY way to salvation. I am someone who is only saved through repentance and my faith not by works and not by spiritual formation or contemplating myself. There seemed to be no desire to correct sin on campus or be told we need to live holy. I remember the “Sex and the Soul” conference that seemed to create sexual tension on campus and promote lust in the hearts of people through a deceptive message about “biblical sex” which was not biblical at all. Anyway, enough of this. Check out Light House Trails report on the embrace of Catholic Mysticism.
So Many Critics Against New Calvinism Keep Bashing Men Of God Who Are Not Even New Calvinist
I never knew something called New Calvinism was a thin until 4 or so years after I graduated from Biola University when I read a Biola Magazine article about 500 years of John Calvin. I am a Calvinist theologically, so I consider myself Reformed. I do not understand the need for a “new” Calvinism. What is it exactly? When i tried to get this question answered all I found was ambiguity.
I have been warned by my parents and others about the Gospel Coalition and Tim Keller and i looked him up and understand why there is such a great alarm about this man and his false teaching. I am also alarmed that so many decent pastors and teachers who have always been so solid are so quick to jump onto this Gospel Coalition train. Two men who I cannot fathom why on earth they would team up with Tim Keller are Al Mohler, and Allister Begg.
Even so, knowing this issue is going on when I try to research the New Calvinist teachings and also news about it I find various blogs bashing certain Christian teachers and leaders unfairly and falsely. A lot of people label John MacAthur has a New Calvinist. There is no evidence to suggest he is and he has not joined the Gospel Coalition. There were some blogs that bashed New Calvinism for very stupid reasons, such as, people saying you can listen to punk rock or rap music and still be reformed, and some people going off against dispensationalists as if they are all heretics. It makes no sense. I find that when issues arise in the church various people who claim everyone is a heretic are the true heretics and self satisfied theologians who think they are the only people who interpret the Bible right and everyone else is wrong. That is why they bash both actual heretics as well as sound preachers. I find it so annoying. It is as if people realized New Calvinism is a thing so these types of haters use it to bash certain true men of God who 1. believe in a secondary issue that is not heresy 2. are not even New Calvinists or involved with the Gospel Coalition.
I do believe New Calvinism is a serious threat to sound doctrine in the reformed camp and it is a way the devil is trying to corrupt the true, reformed faith and it definitely needs to be addressed and warned about. But Christians should be wary when researching it they do not end up on one of these lunatics blogs such as “newcalvinist.com” and “5ptsalt.com” because the authors of these blogs are lunatics and bashing everyone. They do bash true problems correctly using Scripture on some issues, but then they will go off and start bashing people for stupid reasons by misinterpreting quotes and also have an extreme bias for certain theology. Like 5ptsalt is extremely anti-dispensationalist to the point he calls them heretics.
So all Christians who are concerned with New Calvinism, you have a real and true concern and I am with you. but make sure you get your facts and news from sources who are not coming fourth from lunacy. There are a lot of wack jobs who hate on everyone, even sound theologians.
Just Because You Named It “Jesus” Does Not Make It True
In this past decade I often heard over and over, especially what I was taught at the Christian university I graduated from, that what is important is people acknowledge Jesus Christ. As long as they claim they believe in Christ then things are okay. Go to a foreign culture and start a church then convince them to believe in Jesus then let them run the show. They will have their own theology which is different from your “western mindset of theology.” The whole idea that every culture has its own theology and all are equally valid. This is just the current postmodern evangelicalism that is the norm now days. “It does not matter what they believe, just as long as they have Jesus!!!!!” is what they aggressively proclaim among those old “theologians” and “doctrine followers.’
Proponents of this belief use Acts 4:12 as a refutation to those would would suggest true Christians must believe in the right biblical interpretation and doctrines to be saved. The verse says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.” Their logic is that it is the “name of Christ” that matters. As long as it is not Allah, Buddha or some other false god and they call it Christ then it is valid Christianity. They also use Philippians 2:11, “and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” But is it possible that people who listen to a missionary or an evangelist then are let loose to do their own thing might possibly inaccurately name something Jesus that really is not? Does simply professing Jesus Christ as Lord, and stating those words, prove someone is a true believer?
Jesus Himself answered those questions in Matthew 24:24, “False messiahsand false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” It seems that our Lord Himself already made sure people knew there is the possibility of mislabeling someone as Himself. There were some even before Him who claimed they were the Messiah. Why the postmodern evangelical does not embrace this simply shows they do not care what Jesus Himself says, but what they feel is right and good. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:4 admonishes,
“For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus,whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!”
Is the Jesus of Mormonism true? The Jesus of Jehovah’s Witnesses true? The Isa (Jesus) of Islam true? There are a plethora of false Christ’s in various heretical religions. Wikipedia has a huge list of them. If someone can label an actual person as Christ who actually is not, and if Mormonism can create one out of thin air, is it not possible that other people who claim the Bible have created a false Jesus as well?
Isn’t it logical to assume that when Satan created a false religion and it gets known and then the overall evangelical consensus agrees that such religions are outside of the biblical faith and are heretical, such as Mormons, Modalists, etc., that Satan would just create a new one and be more deceptive than before and make a new Jesus Christ religion that is false? 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan is a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. 2 Corinthians 11:3 says Satan is cunning. and verse 14 says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Satan is so deceptive and extremely intelligent and has been for the entire worlds history since his own rebellion began early in creation history. This means he has had thousands upon thousands of years of knowledge and practice in lies to come up with new ways, new systems, and new counterfeits that mimic the truth in such a way it almost looks identical yet it leads one to hell. Common sense says so.
For example what if a man named Carlos did a great thing to help some people, but then another guy named Carlos who is not the same guy but just has the same name takes credit? Is that just? Is that giving the proper man his honor? Someone would say, “but I do know Carlos did that great thing for us…” but he is giving credit to a totally different person named Carlos! It is much like that new Taco Bell commercial that came out where various men named Ronald McDonald, actual people existing who have that actual name, are seen enjoying the new Taco Bell breakfast. We are given the impression that the McDonald’s created character and mascot which is a clown named Ronald McDonald enjoys Taco Bell breakfast. Taco Bell can claim, “Ronald McDonald even likes our breakfast more than McDonald’s.” And then a child who loves his happy meal’s would hear it and think, “Wow the clown from McDonald’s loves taco Bell breakfast more than his own McDonald’s breakfast!” But this is not true. It just so happens there are people in the United States that happen to have the same name but are not actually the clown Ronald McDonald and have absolutely no relation to the McDonald’s Corp. Likewise, this silly analogy, shows that it is possible and extremely likely many people names Jesus or non-existent character creations (just like McDonald’s clown Ronald McDonald) are given the exact same name. It is not the true Jesus Christ and worshiping this false Jesus Christ does not save anyone from hell but keeps them in sin and in rebellion against the truth.
More Christians need to understand that truth is absolutely important, absolutely true, and has no place or time to waste in anything false. Christianity must be clean and pure of false teaching. Too many churches put up with false teachers and new ideas and new theologies that are not true and cause confusion and disruptions. So many Christian universities teach these things and then tell the college students and seminary students to be satisfied in something less than true. This is the point we are at in Christian history. May more true believers combat false Jesus’s and not be satisfied with mere terms like “jesus” or “christ” but make sure that converts and churches believe in THE JESUS and THE CHRIST of the BIBLE! The Holy Spirit enlightens us to accurately interpret the Bible, but sinful men have controlled the popular preaching and teaching of the Bible and lead people astray and are too lazy to actually change a person’s mind to follow accurate truth. Evangelicalism is a lazy, non-confrontational culture that allows for anything as long as it is “christian” and certainly makes enough money off of it. Just because someone says they worship Jesus does not mean they do. The rational Christian understands this.
False Teachers Are Like A Hawk Hiding In A Tree Among Loud Birds
The other day I was walking through the woods on a path and noticed a lot of loud birds. It is winter right now and there are hardly any leaves on the trees here in Alabama, and most of the time you do not see many birds in groups or doing much as when the trees are green. But this day I heard a small gathering of birds chirping like crazy and it reminded me of the zoo when you walk through the aviary and see all of the exotic birds that fly close to you and stand on branches near you. Many of them chirp and make all kinds of noise.
So, as I watched the birds it was nice to see them and I wondered why they were being so loud and all so close in one area together. It was more than one type of bird as well mixed together. I walked a little further along the path and was looking up at the trees. Then suddenly my eyes met a large and very dark figure sitting still on a tree branch waiting. It was a hawk who’s color matched the color of the tree it was sitting on and it sat still in the shadowy section of the woods looking fierce and ready to kill. As it saw me it waited a moment and then took off and flew away to another area far away as it feared me. The smaller birds who were loudly chirping calmed down.
Like the hawk, false teachers and false prophets are similar. Hawks are birds just as false teachers are church members. Yet hawks are not the same as the other birds since they are predatory and eat other birds as well as squirrels and mice, and even small cats around here. Similarly, false teachers are not the same as other church members who truly love God because they hunt for weak people in the church to lie to and ensnare.
For hawk’s the most alarming thing to the other birds is that they eat the non-predatory birds if they can catch them. The hawk waits in the forest much like false teachers wait in church classrooms or in the pews to spread their poison and trap people to kill with evil doctrines and ideas contrary to God’s Word. The hawk likewise waits to trap a bird a lone in the woods making the bird think it is safe by hiding in the shadows masked by its camouflage and suddenly it swoops down with its claws and carries the bird away to devour. False teachers and false prophets are looking for Christians to trap, or people weak in their faith to be enslaved to sins and false teaching that leads to hell. They are controlled by Satan’s army and just as the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to devour victims the false teachers and prophets imitate his example.
Similarly, like how the birds all gathered and chirped loud (which was a serious and very alarmed warning sounding through the trees to all animals present or near by) to make known the predator, Christians should behave the same way. If we see a false prophet or teacher near we need to alarm everyone and make it loud and known that they are evil and should be shunned and forced out to fly away far from the real Christian church members. If we do not alert the flock of their doctrinal poison then they will stick around to swoop down on people and carry them away in their claws of false teaching and carry them away from the flock. It is the Christian’s duty to call out and expose, name names, and pay attention to suspicious behavior and teachings in order to keep people safe from evil teachers and false prophets that hide in the forest to kill all it sees as easy pray. Likewise, we should teach other Christians to be safe as well as wise and confident in the true Gospel and true doctrines of Scripture so they can also warn others.
Many of the churches today do not care or are unconcerned with exposing heresy and evil people within church. This is why American Christianity is in such a bad state and why many false missionaries have spread doctrinal poison around the globe such as the prosperity gospel and false healers who just want money; as well as immoral scandalous “preachers” who manipulate and control.
I suggest that anyone who has read this blog post to go read 2 Peter 2. Chirp loudly and warn the rest of the Christians in the forest of God’s Church.
Sleeping Giant Is Proof The Christian Hardcore Scene Is Corrupt with The New Spirituality And Not Biblical Faith
Sleeping Giant is a band that got its start and major popularity from being signed on Facedown Records which is a Christian heavy music label (currently they are signed to Ain’t No Grave Records). The lead singer’s name is Tommy Green and he preaches a lot and tells people about spiritual experiences that he claims he’s had, and he yells a lot in his music. He promotes the New Spirituality with all of the charismatic excesses and supernatural visions, miracles, signs, wonders etc…His new book called Religio-cide should tell you something about his agenda…
Introduction
In 2011 he was invited to speak at Biola University at one of their chapels. I graduated from Biola University in 2009 and I already saw the way Biola chapels were headed with the Contemplative Spirituality/Spiritual Formation New Age teachings and Lectio Divina and the embracing of supernatural experiences over Bible study. You can read how I felt after I graduated in 2009 here.
Here is a video of Tommy Green preaching at Biola:
As a Christian I do not support and cannot support his ministry or his band. I believe Tommy Green is not qualified for ministry and is teaching outrageous things that are dangerous and destructive to healthy Christian spirituality and faith. He says really convincing sounding things for the ear that is untrained in Scripture. But do not let soothing words and emotionally sincere words convince you. He is deceived either by his own mind, or the demonic. I am a fan of heavy music and was involved in the hardcore punk scene growing up (you can read a blog post about some of my experiences here) and I understand the desire for spiritually uplifting, and Christ-centered, gospel driven, hardcore music ministry. But I do not support it at the expense of proper biblical interpretations, solid theology, and sound doctrine. How else can a person be saved if they have a faulty understanding of the Good News and a weak foundation for faith? Godly faith must be Truth centered in all its objectivity because souls are at stake and it is the difference between life and death— eternal salvation and eternal damnation. Matters of God are very serious and Christians must be responsible and hold everything up to the standard of the Word of God (Scriptural revelation).
I would also like to briefly state that some people do have legitimate pain caused by typical church people who rejected them or are not allowing them to be used by God so many people are struggling with church life. They feel like misfits and are outcasts by popular culture. But this does not discount traditional church or careful theological studies. This does not mean that all traditional churches are full of jerks or bad people. We do have a serious, and I mean serious problem with church life in this country and it is very hard to find a church that feeds its flock. Even so….
The Bible is the only objective and valid form of truth for our spiritual lives
As Christians, even “punk,” “hardcore kids,” or “scene kids” (or whatever is the cool term is today) or just a general fan of heavy music who is a Christian; or anyone who feels like an outcast; or has been hurt by church people; or hurt by other Christians; those who do not feel accepted by normal society; it does not matter how bad your life was or how bad you have been hurt. There is no excuse to believe every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14) that any persons claims. I feel much like you, and I have been hurt too; but still, we MUST….WE MUST ONLY base our theology and ideas of spiritual matters on what is objectively true: THE BIBLE: the objective Word of God. There is no excuse not to! And no real answers for life’s struggles outside of the Bible (God’s objective revelation). Anything else cannot be trusted as fact and there is no way to prove it. This is not putting God in a box, or throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But if that box is the Bible, then yes, God is in a box!
God is revealed through His word. John 1:1-2 specifically states that God is the Word. John 1:14 further states that Jesus Christ is the Word incarnated in the flesh. If God is the Word why would He work outside of what He is? The Bible is God’s revealed Word just as when God spoke Creation into existence. If we have God’s completed revelation to man in the Bible we do not need anything else, nor would have, nor does God send any other Scriptures. Revealed Scripture itself is sufficient and teaches us everything we need to know, and it equips us with every tool and weapon we need in this life to live for God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Now that the Bible is complete and all wisdom and mysteries of godliness, and all knowledge has been revealed to the world (Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 3:3-4, Colossians 1:26-27), God and His truth are not currently revealed by someone claiming access to a visionary realm. Logically, if someone is claiming supernatural stories or revelations or ideas about God then they are equating themselves with the Apostles and authors of revealed Scripture. When people start claiming God spoke to them, or some vision they had revealed information about the Divine they are claiming more revelation from God and thus equating it with anything else God revealed in the Bible. If the Bible is what we base our faith on, and all revelation is complete then you cannot trust what other people claim outside of it. There is no way to prove any supernatural, mental experiences someone might have had. Such people are “false-apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:13), or false messengers or false teachers.
Do not let anyone disqualify you who claims access to a visionary realm
Tommy Green claims to have gone to heaven and back while he sat in a Starbucks in Redlands, California. This is ridiculous and is similar to what many false prophets who preach outright heresy claim (Bob Jones, Todd Bentley, Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts, and many TBN preachers and also various charismatic hipsters). It is wise to flee from people who use tactics as such evil men. Anyone adding ideas to the Bible is in serious error. Such people constantly disqualify rational thinking Christians who do not give into emotionalism, or allow amazing “testimonies” of supernatural experiences. They get upset. As Tommy Green said in the video about people saying such experiences are wrong and New Age. He said to not let anyone tell you that such experiences are not correct or tell you that they are New Age. In reality they actually are New Age and Occult experiences. Such visions, dreams, miracles, supernatural being contact and even Christ contact have occurred all over New Age circles and are explained in New Age teachings. He claims it was the Holy Spirit, and New Age cannot do what the Holy Spirit can do. But his “holy spirit” cannot possibly be the true Holy Spirit because what he explains is nothing different than other New Age mystics’ trips to heaven, and is even similar to alien abduction stories (especially with objects implanted or transplanted into people). Men like Tommy Green are always trying to guilt trip biblical Christians into accepting their spirituality and experiences as valid. They constantly try and disqualify Christians who base their beliefs strictly on the Bible. Colossians 2:18-19 states,
“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his unspiritual mind. He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.”
There is also absolutely no way Tommy Green saw Jesus Christ. Who he saw had to be something in his own mind, a delusion, or an actual demonic being pretending to be Jesus. Scripture is clear that no one has seen Christ in 1 Timothy 6:16 where it says Jesus is “…the only One who has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom none of mankind has seen or can see…” Now according to Tommy Green’s testimony he claims he was in heaven and the light was “like sunset the entire time.” That to me shows a low level of light since a sunset is darker than say the afternoon. That is not unapproachable light. The being he saw was in a darker (obviously counterfeit) light. The verse says that none of mankind has seen Christ (obviously after His ascension into Heaven and glorious transformation). It also says no one can see Christ. So Tommy Green is claiming he saw Christ which goes against Scripture. If Tommy was in the presence of Christ he would be dead because of the unapproachable light and God’s glory that not even Moses could see. Such charismatic experiences constantly go against Scripture, and Tommy does not seem to know His Bible enough to reject such visions. Paul wrote 1 Timothy and Paul is also said to have gone to the third heaven and saw things he is not allowed to speak about, yet this verse in Timothy also shows that even Paul did not see Christ since “none of mankind has seen or can see” Him. Charismatics like Tommy explain sensational stories far beyond anything the Apostles themselves were allowed to experience. It is obviously a lie and Tommy never went to heaven and instead was speaking with a demon.
Another issue is that Tommy Green is a divorced man. I do not know the reason for his divorce except for what he said in a YouTube video by an anti-porn group called XXX Church (another problematic, unscriptural “ministry,” * the lead pastor even says homosexuality is not a big deal and homosexuals will go to heaven and do not have to change, and equates it with being “fat,” read this). He claims that his marriage “fell apart.” Either way the bible in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 clearly state that no one should be preaching or teaching the Church unless they are the husband of one wife. Tommy Green is now re-married to a second wife. This disqualifies him for such a teaching/preaching ministry. Divorce is only acceptable if the reason is marriage-unfaithfulness or adultery (read Matthew 19:9, Matthew 5:32, Malachi 2:16, 1 Corinthians 7:1, Luke 16:18, Mark 10:11). If adultery is not the case, or his wife did not reject him because of Christ— if she was an unbeliever and cheated and left him—and if his first wife was a professing Christian as well as Tommy at the time— then Tommy’s 2nd marriage causes him to currently be living in sin. This is another red flag.
Unqualified for ministry according to the Scriptures
Another problem is that he disqualifies himself. He states that he is “immature,” “a moron,” is not that smart etc., in the Biola chapel he was speaking at in the video. As the Colossians passage above states, He does not hold onto the head where the tendons and ligaments grow. He is not grown. So it is obvious he is spiritually, theologically and moronically immature. He stated it himself. Why should any rational person listen to someone who disqualifies himself? Did Paul, Peter, or anyone else who wrote much of the New Testament ever claim they were immature or a moron? Colossians 1:28 states the importance of spiritual maturity,
“We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
Also Colossians 4:12 shows that one of Paul’s converts and workers contended and prayed for the Colossian church to be able to “stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.”
In the video Tommy Green keeps saying “I don’t know,” “I don’t really know anything…” and “I could be wrong,” and “you guys know more than me…” Even Tommy Green himself is claiming he is not fully assured in everything God wills, but then goes and tells the Biola chapel that God wills them to have supernatural experiences and they must accept them and ask for them to happen. Is he sure about that? He testifies against himself that his own ideas are not trustworthy and keeps using extreme false humility and asking for grace so that people cannot question him and call him to repentance. It is just a tactic all the hip-false teachers use to appeal to young impressionable minds.
Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. Ephesians 4:14
Biola University has low standards for chapels
1 Timothy 3:2 also states that a person who is going to preach or teach must be “an able teacher.” Obviously, just viewing the video proves he is not an able teacher. His actions are also undignified and irreverent and full of stupid jokes and sidetracking thoughts and weird antics. He wastes a large amount of time on things that have nothing to do with his message (pointless pop culture references, calling his wife hot etc). 2 Timothy 2:16 says, “But avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness.”
*If anyone has an issue with me claiming Tommy Green is not a good teacher, nor does he know much, let it be remembered in the video he claims Biola students know more than him. I, being a Biola graduate who took 30 units of Bible classes must then, know more than him, and he should listen to me because of that.
Why is Biola University giving the stage to self proclaimed morons and people who preach from their own minds and not from the Bible? How does this benefit bible students? Would you want to take a class from a professor on any topic who told you that he was a moron and is immature and does not know as much as you? Furthermore, would you want to take a class from that professor if he began teaching you from a dream or vision he had of new things and revelations about the subject instead of teaching with a textbook with credible sources who already have solid objective facts? I wouldn’t.
Such experiences are nothing different from pagan demonic spirit transfer
One really huge and scary red warning sign is when he talks about hugging Jesus near a really big building and how something spiritual was transferred into his soul, into his being, giving him a feeling like a bomb dropped in his stomach. Such goose bumps and bomb dropping feelings often occur in occult mystical experiences where spirit beings, said to be guides, or spirits of dead people, or angels, aliens etc. transfer powers or objects or even enter into people. Alien abduction stories often talk about objects implanted or put into them by a force. His story is not unlike what pagans experience in their false religions. Even pagan religions speak in babbling tongues, and they have been doing it longer than modern Christianity. I do not believe that Tommy Green’s out of body/vision/trip to heaven experience was from God. It could either have been his own imagination like he said he thought it might be at first, or it is from another spirit that is not Christ. What other spirits are not Christ? The answer is demons. If who Tommy was talking to was a demonic spirit of deception and false teachings, and something was transferred into him, then it is a very likely possibility that Tommy Green of Sleeping Giant is demon possessed. I know that this possibility sounds outrageous to some of you “Christcore” kids out there that your hero could be demon possessed but what other option is there? I remember an album by the band Seventh Star (also on Facedown Records) called Brood of Vipers that has a song called “Be Wary.” I even bought one of their shirts that says, “Be Wary” on it. I am telling you to be wary of what you believe and what people tell you. If it is true that a false spirit was talking to Tommy Green and transferred something into him and put it inside him it is a work of darkness masquerading as light. It is demonic. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.
The Christcore, Spirit Filled Hardcore Scene, needs to repent and a reform
I am calling Tommy and the rest of his band and even Facedown Records which promotes such bands, and anyone involved in the Christian Hardcore scene who believes this New Spirituality to repent and flee from these false doctrines! I am also someone who likes hardcore music and participated in the hardcore punk and metal scene as a teenager and young adult since the 1990’s. I was even the singer and founder of a grindcore/crust punk band called Ninja Death Clan, that played shows in Eugene, Oregon. I may not be a cool band guy anymore (not that my band was ever cool), or some top touring band on a big ultra cool “Christian music label,” but I am not ignorant of this scene and I am not ignorant of the Bible! This gives me at least some amount of credibility.
My main point is that anyone who likes hardcore/metal/punk types of music and is a Christian, and is looking for spiritually uplifting music that does not contradict Christianity you should avoid Sleeping Giant because they promote spiritual deception. They promote a “Kingdom on earth now” theology that contradicts the Bible’s teaching that Christ’s return is at the Second Coming. They believe that they can make a Christian-spiritual world right now by their own effort with other Christians so that Christ’s return will happen before the Bible’s timeline as a spiritual Christ-resurrection consciousness. The New Age teaches the same thing about their cosmic-Christ. They believe they can create the return of Christ right now before the biblical Second Coming. It is a spiritual pre-return based on supernaturalism where they claim God’s throne and Kingdom is on earth right now but humanity just has to “realize” and claim it (much like eastern mysticism). And worship music and praise actions will make it all happen. The end result of these beliefs is for a one world, very tolerant spirituality worldwide. This is going to pave the way for the anti-christ one world religion mentioned in Revelation.
Sleeping Giant promotes Emergent Spirituality and New Apostolic Reformation ideas
Tommy Green is a proponent of Contemplative Prayer when he talks about “waiting prayer” and being still and listening for God to first speak and act on you. This is also known as Centering Prayer that was taught by catholic monks who were influenced by Buddhist and Hindu concepts. They are known as the Desert Fathers. Look them up. The Emergent Church also heavily promotes these “spiritual disciplines.” Tommy Green promotes emergent theology with hyper-charismaticism.
Here is another video of Sleeping Giant. This one representing Come&Live ministry.
Notice how the video says, “We don’t worship a doctrine or concepts” anymore and we cannot base faith on concepts. Well the men of God and reformers of the faith never worshiped doctrines. But doctrines are the basis of what Christians believe and they help people understand the Bible. They are confessions of biblical truth. Throwing away doctrines makes it a theological free-for-all where anything goes. How is this orderly and godly? God is not a God of chaos. God is the same, today, yesterday, and forever (Hebrews 1:13). He is not different for individual people. He is not one way here and one way there. He does not give one a revelation or vision, and another something else totally different. A negative view of theological teachings and doctrines is how false doctrines easily spread. Also notice how he claims we can literally talk to God now just like human relationships on earth and how God tells us we must have experiences in order to establish His throne/Kingdom on earth. This is dominionist theology and it is itself a doctrine, albeit a false doctrine. But nevertheless it is a doctrine. So they are now contradicting themselves by stating we don’t need doctrines. So their attitude is that “the only true doctrine is that we don’t need any doctrines.” This is self-contradictory.
One might argue and say he is just being sincere with how he feels. Obviously he has those “sincere arched up eye brows” that every charismatic preacher has. *The testimony brows!* But even so, it does not matter. Sincerity does not equal automatic truth. You can be sincere and wrong, or a better way to state it: sincerely wrong! A Muslim can be sincere but be wrong, a Jehovah’s Witness could be sincere but also be wrong. Yes, you can be sincere and destructively wrong. You can be sincerely wrong in a very nice sounding yet deceptive way too. So an argument from sincerity is invalid.
The new, post modern, charismatic rock and roll missionaries
On another note, ministries like Come&Live promote such concepts in foreign places like Columbia. You can send $10 a month to help Tommy Green keep doing his ministry of supernatural experiences! These sensual and popular mystical doctrines are spreading all over the world through the new type of hipster rock and roll missionaries. Not only guys in bands either but ultra cool looking people spreading these messages. The churches are funding such “cool dudes” to spread the mystical message of their “jesus-spirit” while missionaries who want to spread the Words of the Bible with the gospel message and want to do teaching and preaching are ignored as irrelevant. If I only realized earlier in life that to be accepted and funded as a missionary I had to get a few Straight Edge tattoos, icthys symbols, and tattoo sleeves, and maybe gauged ears, and a lip piercing or two and wore really cool clothes, and played in a band and spoke hyper-emotionally about cool supernatural experiences I would have gotten all of the funding I needed and probably had my college loans paid off. I would be a really important dude.
False Jesus, false gospel promoted through emotional manipulation and occult spirituality
1 Corinthians 11:4 says that people easily put up with false teachings with a false-jesus and false-gospel. Also, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Whether or not everyone involved in this new spiritual movement know better does not matter. They all need to repent and change. They need to start viewing faith through the Bible. Just because they say “live the word!” and “this is biblical its ok!” does not matter. Just saying it does not make it true. They need to prove it, because all of the proof says they are not behaving biblically.
Also, Tommy Green even states that Jesus will create rooms in Heaven for people who won’t even follow Him and will not make it to Heaven. This idea is totally Arminian, and rejects the sovereignty of God and makes Jesus look like a desperate loser who planned a party where hardly anyone shows up. It says that God has no control over salvation, and individual Christians have to impress the unbelievers to think God is cool. This is done by emotional manipulation by hyper emotional hardcore metal music with melodic trance-like sounds in between breakdowns and sing along parts to get people in the mood to feel the Holy Spirit. But their spirit is not the true Holy Spirit, but the spirit of the New Age with all of its supernatural experiences and manifestations. It is a judge-me-not religion that claims to hate religion and deescalates the seriousness of sin in people’s lives. Basically if you are cool with Jesus you are okay despite your lifestyle and convictions and you can sin all you want as long as you say “hey no one changes over night!”, and only really really mean bad people go to hell probably. This is post-modern religion.
Here is an example of emotionalism and not objective thought:
This is nothing but “primal scream therapy.” So what now because someone put their hands up at a Sleeping Giant show and pretended to break negative thoughts or experiences in their life apart like chains they are now super spiritually close to God and the Holy Spirit is now in them? How does he even know everyone there is saved? And if he assumes some people are not then how does an unbeliever have the Holy Spirit because they did hand gestures and actions in a really emotional way? The Bible says true salvation from sin and death comes by faith through repentance and belief in God. It is a total heart change and open confession of Christ making Him Lord of your life. It is not done by hand signs, gestures, feelings, going to a hardcore show and moshing etc. This is very poor and very shallow theology that does not produce legitimate fruit. I would know because I have been to one of their shows, I have been to many bands shows who claim Christ, I have been to many charismatic church gatherings, I went to Biola University, and I have been around and seen a lot! I know that nothing like this ever changes a person’s heart. What does change a person is the truth of God’s Word and the response to the call of God by the Holy Spirit to repent and live a clean and new life in worship of God. It is not an emotional experience that changes a person. It is objective truth being understood and rationally accepted by someone’s mind through God, and by God alone. Not by human effort or emotional manipulation. This is done by preaching and someone hearing the Bible’s message (Romans 10:14).
Unchanged hearts and minds with a lack of true conviction and animosity towards the Church
Many people who go to such charismatic gatherings never change and are just as vile, wicked, angry, manipulative, mean spirited, and sexually immoral as they were before they had that experience. I remember a time when I saw the band Rock And Roll Worship Circus a few times in Eugene, Oregon which is another band that promotes the new spiritual deception and all its heresies. People did not really change, they remained the same and were just as sinful as before. It is a false understanding of salvation or “movement” of the Holy Spirit. It is inflated by a person’s own mind or it is demonic, and also can be both and in many instances probably both (whatever the case is for Tommy Green).
The hyper-charismatic, Contemplative Mysticism and New Age Occult practices have totally engulfed the Christian hipster world of underground art, music, entertainment, and churches. It is inflated with pride and claims: “We are the weird church and we are better than those old people in those traditional church buildings! We know better, but also we are super humble and down to earth and never judge anyone ever!”
It is a contradicting attitude about God and church living: “We don’t judge but we know the other churches are jerks and we are better and more loving! We are humble which makes us better than the mean prideful churches that hurt our feelings!” It has led to much heresy and liberal ideas as well as outright confrontation with Christ’s Church and the True Religion where it says “church is dead” and “religion must die.”
The appearance of evil
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” This is a command stating Christians should not partner up and work together with unbelievers. It teaches that Christians cannot marry unbelievers, nor can Christians partner up in business with unbelievers especially God’s ministry! How ironic it would be to become a missionary and team up with an atheist or some very unchristian person. It would not make sense. But what do we see with Sleeping Giant! The band that is a ministry supposedly for our holy God to give the Holy Spirit to all people!— What we see is them partnering up with a pagan. Watch the music video of their song “Eyes Wide Open”:
The guest vocalist in this video with the white machine gun shirt is Frankie Palmeri of the band Emmure. He is also recorded on Sleeping Giant’s album for this song. The song “Eyes Wide Open” written by Tommy Green, has lyrics that are judgmental towards the church, claiming it does not care about people and it shuts its doors on them, and that such people as him (Tommy Green) are true revivalists and revolutionaries for the faith. He even states that “all of heaven is standing with me.” Basically, it seems that he equates himself as the ultimate truth for what church or faith should be. So heaven is standing with him so we cannot question him. Well for me, as a Christian, I stand with Heaven not the other way around. I stand for God, God does not stand for me because I am a sinner. But if Tommy is simply saying Heaven has his back because he is right and we are wrong then ok….still he is just claiming we cannot question him because he is absolutely right and the Church is wrong.
Now if this music is supposed to be about true revival and prayer to a holy God it seems odd that he would team up with Frankie Palmeri, an unbelieving secularite who writes sexually vulgar and misogynistic lyrics, songs about killing ex-girlfriends, blasphemy against Jesus Christ (“Imaculate Misconception”) , promotes bad taste in t-shirt designs (Columbine Massacre images with “Shoot first ask questions later”), believes in Niribu Aliens, claims to have had outer body experiences and spiritual experiences viewing all people as one (New Age much?), claiming he saw his soul in the mirror and he had horns, and who has a general ignorance of the meaning of life or where we go after death (very post-modern new age nonsense). Not to mention Frankie Palmeri idolizes Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit (not only a bad role model but a terrible vocalist that shows Palmeri has a horrible taste in music and is a poser in a mainstream boring rap/metalcore band). Read the Lambgoat interview. Did Sleeping Giant think they would win major hardcore scene points for featuring him as a guest? It would seem the true secular underground hardcore scene would think this is a joke. Did Sleeping Giant think they would win Christian scene points by making them appear relevant to the world? I don’t know but I can tell you they only look stupid and hypocritical. Emmure is a talentless boring band, and Frankie Palmeri is a nutjob and unchristian in every way. So they lose hardcore respect by having him in the video as well as biblical Christian respect by being unequally yolked with someone opposed to the cause of Christ. What ministry invites a pagan to speak for them and promote them? Sleeping Giant has the appearance of evil. There excuse will probably be that they are witnessing Christ to Frankie Palmeri and Emmure and their fans. It didn’t seem to work, he is still the same. Why should he change if he is accepted just as he is without a need to repent of his sins and follow Christ!
Time to take a stand against false spirituality and start being full of Absolute Truth
Beware who you follow in this day and age! It is time for rational Christians who are fans of heavy music to either get out and stop supporting so called Christian bands, or start making bands that are theologically sound and care about true evangelization who are uninterested in trying to please the world. Or just walk away from the scene all together and move on with your life. There are too many sellout Christian bands who used Christians for financial gain and were fake to begin with, and too many false teachers in bands who are deceived by false spirituality. They are spreading their messages through their music to many impressionable kids and young people who are looking for the Truth and not getting it anywhere. What makes it dangerous is the fact many false-Christian bands who live completely secular lives and never mention Jesus are rampant, so when a false-spiritual band is very loud and yells Jesus a lot and Holy Spirit, and comes off as very spiritual for God it is easy to fall prey to the mystical lies. This is just a trick of Satan as he understands the desire for outright Christian bands who promote faith.
Christian hardcore kids who base their theology or spiritual ideas on what other bands say are no better than the secular hardcore kid who bases all of his political and social beliefs, and his life philosophies on what secular bands preach. It is time to stop being a zombie in a moshpit and start basing your beliefs on God’s Word. Stop being an emotionally weak person who is manipulated and think for yourself and stand back and check to see if what you are doing or what your friends are doing is in line with Scripture. Prove it or shut up! There is no room for effeminate “scene kids,” man up and study the bible like the Bereans!
Conclusion
It is also absolutely a shame that Biola University who started on the foundation of God’s Word and Biblical beliefs has gone so far left and off the narrow path to embrace such self proclaimed morons to speak to their students as if they are a spiritual “giant” and super deep, or have something profound to say when they basically have ADHD and sound like a lame version of Jim Carey or trying to be Wayne’s World. Giving people like this credibility and a pedestal to stand on and appear important is going to continue to lead more young minds into confusion and false teachings. This is undignified behavior for a man of God who is supposedly preaching such a serious topic. What is really pathetic is that Tommy Green claims Heaven looks like Venice and people are flying around. Even Paul could not elaborate or explain what He saw in Heaven and would not dare tell us in the Bible when HE ALONE was taken up to the Third-Heaven (read 2 Corinthians 12). He heard inexpressible words which man is not allowed to speak. It was such a rare thing in the Bible only Paul went to heaven and back, and it most definitely is a rare and non-occurring thing today. This is why the Bible is so special. Only false teachers seem to be making such claims and if everyone could just go to heaven it makes the Bible ordinary and nothing special. Paul would no longer be an important Apostle for us to study if everyone can do what he did. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says that “No eye has seen, nor ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.” Yet, Tommy “Jesus is HOT and we are dating” Green, an immature believer who in no way is even close to Paul’s status and character was allowed to go to heaven while chillin’ at Starbucks and was given permission to tell everyone what he saw? Yeah riiiight. Also, God prepares things for those who love Him. So any room Jesus created is for those who are saved and love God. There will not be ANY empty rooms in heaven and all will be occupied with true believers. Make sure you are one of them by having true repentance and faith and do not believe the new Spiritual Deception of our post-modern and occult embracing evil age.
The Christian music scene needs to repent of its false spirituality and heretical proclamations about God. It is time to stop supporting music that does not base beliefs on the Bible, but inflated minds, time to stop supporting false Christian bands who live completely secular lives, and time to stop supporting ANYONE who uses the Christian faith to make money and gain popularity whether it be record labels or speakers, ministries or anyone else. Christians should not support Sleeping Giant or Facedown Records because they are promoting the New Spirituality and all of its false teachings. If Tommy Green or anyone in Sleeping Giant has read this I urge you to repent and re-study the Bible and seek an objectionable faith based on what Scripture says. I also urge Facedown Records to repent. Also, if any rational Christians are reading this who are not deceived by the New Age mysticism rampant in our churches today please pray for men like Tommy Green to find the true faith of Christ and that His eyes will actually be open to God’s Truth found in the Bible. I really hope Tommy Green will be able to reject the demon presence in his life that is giving him these false teachings and spirit of deception, and I hope he becomes mature in Christ.
I am sick of this “christcore” scene! I am not here to win scene points or impress band guys or “Mr. Hardcore scene Joe.” I am here to present God’s truth and I do not care who I have offended because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16). Because it is the power that brings everyone to salvation away from eternal damnation in hell; and the days are evil and full of deception. I stand for biblical truth. I am not afraid to be shunned by the Christian Hardcore scene.
*Now if you have read this entire article good for you. I want to update you with news that other bands who promote a false spirituality in much the same manner as Sleeping Giant are For Today (especially singer Mattie Montgomery who promotes heresy and is against “Sola Scriptura” whether he understands that term or not; because he claims in his blog that no one can know what is right from wrong by reading a book but instead by some “hearing” of the spirit. Read: Homosexuality and the Rebellious Church. Another band is Clear Convictions, the Puerto Rican, Christian Hardcore band that just released a new album and was formerly on Strike First Records (Facedown Records sub label). I personally chatted on Facebook with the singer, Daniel A. Maldonado, who proceeded to call me a pharisee and worker of the devil after telling him to read this article. I still have the messages to prove it. So be warned and stop supporting bands that preach a sappy, shallow, and false spirituality while claiming Christ. Giving your money to these bands is giving money to false teachers who lead people astray.
It is a fact that Christianity is all over the globe and Christians are in every country. It is also true that Western Christians no longer make up the center of Christendom. There are Asian, African, Latin-American, and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters in Christ. Unfortunately, the state of Christianity in the West is full of liberalism and weak faith that has allowed the tolerance of rampant heresy. This same problem has carried over to churches around the world, most often through the new missiologists from the West who think the Bible is not sufficient to help the world. They believe the Bible alone is not sufficient for teaching about matters of faith; and they care more about gaining numbers who are simply “okay” with Jesus, rather than building up a strong quality of individual believers. This idea has helped promote the lack of theologically sound training that has carried over to many seminaries. Most of these liberals come up with unsound ideas they try to present as innovative evangelism techniques. They use these techniques to address issues within new people groups that the Church encounters around the world. This is based on a pragmatic desire to build an ecuminical “church.”
It is important that biblically sound, systematic theology and apologetics are made known to various Christian ethnicites to provide answers to the questions that people from these cultural worldviews have. It is also necessary to be able to debunk the false claims of their false religion’s “sacred” texts. We cannot simply answer questions from our cultural point of view either and assume all Christians will think the same way or behave the same way on every issue. Non-Christian people that a missionary is evangelizing will also be thinking within their own cultural context. Culture is not a bad thing in itself, and every culture has things other cultures might not understand. It will take some cultural learning by missionaries, but every culture has its sinful issues that need to be dealt with. This does not mean that Christians should change the gospel message and manipulate it to fit a culture. Christianity should transcend individual cultures, and Christians worldwide need to unite together around the one true Faith. World Christians need to support each other over the main issues we believe about Jesus Christ, but at the same time avoid liberal ecumenicism and dangerous teachings. So many attacks on the Bible come and go. For example, in this new age, Gnosticism is coming back and influencing societies to question, and re-think what is authoritative. We can thank the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements for this attitude since they believe revelations can come outside of Scripture to individual believers and are able to make prophetic claims.
Gnostic beliefs have invaded many of our churches. Not just Gnosictism, but in certain cultures the occult mystery religions are mixing with Christian religious practices and perverting the gospel of God’s grace. This is called syncretism because it unites paganism with Christian ideas. This creates a false Christianity that is just as dead as any form of solitary pagan religion. One way this heresy has invaded the Western churches is through what is called Contemplative Spirituality or Spiritual Formation. These 2 religious practices are nothing more than New Age mysticism spray painted over with Christian sounding words. It takes the sensual aspects of false religion from the East and presents it as true Christianity.
Most of these problems are arising because of liberal missiologists who are spreading a false idea about Jesus Christ around the world with weak doctrines based on pragmatism, instead of relying on the hard biblical truths found in Scripture. Many missiologists are using what they call “contextualization” to allow for a postmodern idea of Christianity to form that will mix differently depending on individual cultures. Contexualists will claim the gospel in the Bible is not enough for a people group to read and understand, instead missionaries need to change it and find symbols and beliefs within a people group’s culture to adopt in place of the simple historical biblical writings. They do not think that just educating people on the history, archeology, cultural settings, and texts is going to help them understand Jesus. When contextualizing the gospel, the gospel will look completely different for each individual culture. They want Christianity to be multiple things, looking different within each culture. They want multi-colored sheep, but in reality are only creating multi-colored sheepskin for wolves to drape themselves with so they can parade as God’s chosen and please the masses of pragmatists and lead people astray.
The current consensus of missiologists says that there is no “same kind” of Christianity, or any one theology. There is now Asian theology, Latino theology, African theology, Pacific Islander theology etc. It can even be more concentrated for individual countries such as Chinese theology, Filipino theology, Iraqi theology, Ukranian theology and whatever country’s theology. Furthermore, it can go into sub-culture/communities: Punk Rock theology, Hip Hop theology, drum circle theology and anything else that is ridiculous theology. There is also a big disdain for Western culture and white people, which is used to attack biblical theology: what these liberals call Western theology. So they have created a new name for sound doctrine and labeled it “Western.” What is good for the West might not be good for the East is what they say.
Missiologists seem to be the types of people that consist mostly of professors and authors who sit inside their university office all day at some large Evangelical university, and are always thinking up new ridiculous ideas in order to be innovative and “relevant.” They write all kinds of books and ideas about “Christianity and culture” with a disdain for Christianity’s roots from the West. Not that Christianity originated in the West, it did not, it originated in the East in Israel. Yet, it was European Christians who heavily promoted the Faith throughout history after Christians became dispersed due to persecution. With Christianity allowed, and heavily promoted, in the vast Roman Empire, of course all of the evil corruptions from wolves in sheeps clothing came with it. Even the New Testament speaks of this. This is how the heretical church of Rome began in the first place! Through all of this, God had preserved a remnant of men that eventually “reformed” the Church during the Protestant Reformation over 500 years ago. This was after all kinds of persecutions. Later, more and more men of God have been able to establish biblical doctrines that the Bible teaches universally for all people, and God has used these men to preserve the Bible’s true teachings. From the West many missionaries went out and witnessed God’s loving grace all over the world and died for it! This is the sole reason why Christians in Asia, Latin-American, and the Pacific Islands exist today (no it is not because the Catholics conquered much of the world and set up churches in these regions; after the Reformation many evangelical Christians had to confront Catholicism and still face it today when promoting biblical faith to peoples worldwide). Most early missionaries were White and through them the worldwide church grew. With this history, God’s church all over the world has been able to produce non-White missionaries from non-Western countries who have also died for the faith and established many churches in new cultures; some cultures that White Christians were never able to reach. So today, most of the Christians worldwide are not from European ancestry. This shows the diverse pleasure of God in bringing people to salvation from every culture.
Culture itself is not wrong, and to deny people of their own cultures by trying to conform different ethnic groups into the missionary’s home culture is wrong. But allowing sin within the ethnic group’s culture and not correcting it is an atrocity! As well as neglecting to correct bad theology! Another problem is to deny the historic roots of Christian faith and act as if it is not important for people to study such men as Martin Luther or John Calvin.
Why do these missiologists believe we should not focus on the founding fathers of the Reformation and what happened in Western Christianity when relating to other world cultures, when in fact Christianity would not have came to them if it was not for what happened in the history of Christianity in the West? To shun Western Christianity as “not for them” is only going to withhold the knowledge of God that has been revealed and studied intensely under these “White Christians.” Why do these missiologists believe that the only theology that is important is the theology that exists wherever the majority of Christians are in a region or even the entire world? A majority could still be wrong! The real agenda is to replace biblical Christianity with a postmodern outlook that does not have truth within itself. There is a real motive behind this error that is energized by Satan. It is very plausible that the false church that Satan has been trying to set up since the dawn of mankind existing on earth is being built up by such wolves in sheep’s clothing who parade as missiologists that want the Reformation of Christianity to be countered and directed back to Rome.
So many missiologists like Timothy C. Tennet make claims against liberalism, yet are actually promoting that very thing by camouflaging it with the term Christian Ecumenism. Whether or not most of these missiologists and church builders are promoting this knowingly, or they are deceived into it I do not know, but this “Christian Ecumenism” is only paving the way for more liberal ideas in the near future since they claim that there is no one way of doing theology. Saying there is no one way of doing theology is wrong.
I think it is great that so many people all over the world are becoming Christians and many new eyes are reading the Bible for the first time. Even if books like The Gospel of Judas are top sellers, it still does not outsell the Bible. It gives me encouragement to know this. While at the same time, I feel wary of the different types of theologies present in the world today. I think Christian belief should be narrow, exclusive, and identified boldly within the Bible, and also it should be careful of the heresies spreading around the world more than ever today. All theological ideas must match up with Scripture. Anything that contradicts it or is interpreted the wrong way is a false belief and we should not accept it. It is true that Gnostic beliefs seem to be popular today and our society is a society that wants to hear something new and is tired of hearing the “Old, old story.” This is why the Emergent Church was created which promotes most of these liberal authors, missiologists, and academics. This is very sad and Christians should keep standing up for the truth and the authority of the Bible (Sola Scriptura!). There is only one gospel that is true, and with it comes only one theology that is true. Christians should boldly oppose any road back to Rome as well as reject any kind of man-centered theology of sensual occult/mystic practices. Cultures must conform to the Bible, not the other way around.
Christians should not lose hope and must understand that all of the events in history are in God’s control. God is aware of these problems that the liberal missionaries have been causing. It will all be accounted for and God’s elect will not be lost. There are still many world Christians in enclaves around the world who are involved with different churches that are true to Scripture, and hold firmly to the faith found by all the saints in history, including the glorious historic path it traveled from in the West.
On page 272 of Timothy C. Tennet’s book, Theology in the Context of World Christianity, he claims, “After all, the theology that matters the most is wherever the most Christians are located.” This bothers me because it is an appeal to a majority. Just because a lot of people who claim to be Christians are in one area promoting a type of belief about God does not mean their theology is correct. A bunch of heretics could have taken over, and simply because there are more of them than true believers does not mean Christians should then start promoting their false doctrines, and help these heretics grow churches. This is a horrible outcome of sinful liberalism. Where this idea rang true is in the West where the Roman Catholic Church took over and started promoting heresy early on, while claiming it was true, and we all know what the bloody history of the RCC was. Because a majority at that time claimed Christ should we ignore the false doctrine that Catholicism teaches? No!
The Church still has to be careful to protect the integrity of Scriptures and understand that a majority does not matter. What the intention of the message the authors of the Bible were communicating is all that matters. A large group of people who claim Christ could be preaching heresies. With this theological outlook those heresies would be the theology that matters. This is irrational. Appealing to a majority is a logical fallacy. Christianity has never seen a majority in a society and always has been unpopular and offensive to those who are perishing. We do not aim to please man, but to be true to God.
Even with these issues, Christians should seriously think about the worldviews of other cultures and listen to them. Hopefully in the future many Christians will be able to write theological books about different religions and worldviews and come up with Biblical answers for those cultures. Different cultures will have different issues to deal with. I think it is a great idea for the people of those cultures to be the ones to write those types of books (that is if they are doctrinally sound believers). It will give more credibility to the answers for these cultural issues. Christians as a whole need to use intense spiritual discernment about any theological idea that comes around and be willing to reject any heresies or false doctrines that come from those beliefs. Contextualization has never been, and should never be, considered a theological word and is only a way to enforce postmodernism worldwide onto Christianity. This is meant to destroy what true missionaries of God built up in the past, many of them dying, for Christ’s kingdom. This is the way the Enemy, the Devil, is working in this postmodern age. We must declare war on these new tactics!
In light of the recent T.D. Jakes controversy and Modalism I decided to write this article to better explain the problem with this heresy. Too many times Christians have no clue how to explain why Modalism is a damnable heresy because they do not understand its conclusions. Modalism is nothing new and pops in and out of the spotlight all of the time. In fact, while I lived in Eugene, Oregon my dad and other men from our Southern Baptist church battled with Modalists who were members of our church, but secretly involved in the United Pentecostal Church. The men were actually teaching sunday school for the youth group males, as well as trying to befriend many of the men of the church and influence them. They were trying to take over our church from the inside. This is the church I was baptized in when I was 15.
One day I was taken on a trip with the main leader of these 3 Oneness Pentecostals who told my parents it would be good for me. His son came with us and we ended up going really far away, near the coast and meeting up with a large group of people to help build a church. We were installing drywall and helping pull wires through the ceiling. It so happened that the church was a United Pentecostal Church that I was helping do work for. He deceptively brought me on the trip to help his heretical church brothers fix up one of their church buildings. His deception was very strong as he accomplished the manipulation and brainwashing of 2 of our church men. The 2 men teamed up with him in order to attract more of the men so they would bring their families into their den of wolves. Heresy within an orthodox church has the tendency to become a zombie-like infestation that deadens the minds of men and puts them under the control of demonic influence.
Another even worse issue was that the main leader of the 2 other heretics was having secret communion meetings behind the church outside on certain nights. He invited my parents to come once, and it was people who did not belong to our church, strangers they never saw before. They were having some kind of worship meeting and communion. They had set up a small tent covering in the back parking lot. At the time, my parents were new to the church so did not realize what was going on at that moment. Eventually, these wolves in sheep’s clothing were exposed and kicked out of the church, but not after many intense debates, arguments, and spiritual attacks.
In various early church councils Modalistic beliefs were condemned as heresy. For example, Tertullian around 213 A.D. condemned it, and also in 262 A.D. this teaching was also later proclaimed as heresy by Dionysius, the Bishop of Rome. There were many other church councils that condemned it as heresy as well. So Modalism has never once been accepted as an orthodox belief in the Church. Even so, too many people want to explain something as a heresy simply because a council said so, and not with a biblical understanding of why it is heresy. Heresy makes salvation impossible so it is good to understand why it is so with Modalism, and why it is worthwhile to put fourth the spiritual energy to fight it and reject it outside of the Church just like my father and other men from our average sized church in Oregon did over a decade ago…
Introduction
Modalism (also know as Sabellianism [named after Sabellius, the heretic priest from the 3rd century that promoted this heresy], Modalistic Monarchianism, Modal Monarchianism, Oneness, and Patrapassionism [which means the Father suffers in Latin]) is the belief that God is only one person and changes/shifts into different modes. This is a heresy that leads a person to Hell because any incorrect belief about the nature of God cancels out salvation by default. This default happens in different ways but always occurs. Modalism leads people to Hell just like any other heresy about God’s nature. Modalists deny the Trinity, and in most cases with extreme aggression. Unfortunately, many Christians have a hard time logically expressing why this belief is a damnable heresy. This heresy is an extremely strategically, deceptive heresy which tries to mask itself and blend in with Orthodoxy. It fools many evangelicals. Unlike other anti-Trinitarian beliefs that deny the deity of Christ, this heresy embraces the deity of their “Christ” hence why it is so deceptive (note: there is another less popular form of Modalism that denies Christ’s deity called Adoptionism, but is not the focus of this article). Modalists claim to love Jesus Christ and claim He is God, yet in reality Modalism denies Jesus Christ and is an antichrist religion. It is a very destructive belief and total blasphemy. Without a deep understanding of soteriology and the nature of God, Christians can be confused on how to explain why Modalism is heresy. This article will attempt to do so.
Who are Modalists?
Modalism has been a problem since the early Church and still continues to be a problem today. The main proponent of Modalism in modern times is the cult called the United Pentecostal Church (UPC). The televangelist, charlatan “Bishop” T.D. Jakes is affiliated with this group. Another cult that is almost as big as the UPC are the United Apostolic Churches (UAC). These groups are known as Oneness Pentecostals, and still, there are lesser known sects and individuals who promote a modalistic God. MacArthur (2007) states, “As these groups and their popular spokespersons have found increasing acceptance in the evangelical mainstream, modalism is suddenly being accepted as if it were a valid evangelical option” (p. 117). In some circumstances, people make the mistake of expressing God in a modalistic way to express the three Persons of God, such as using H2O as an example of three things being one which causes people to misunderstand the Trinity (i.e. water, ice, and vapor are different things but all three are still H2O, yet H2O is never all three at the same time). Some people mistakenly believe in a modalistic God out of ignorance of how to describe the Three Persons mentioned in the Bible. People try too hard to explain God and end up using human wisdom to describe God and are not satisfied with leaving the Triune nature of God as a mystery. True believers, who make such mistakes out of ignorance, eventually (and most of the time quickly), come to the realization that God truly exists in Three distinct persons who are not the same, yet comprise of ONE Eternal Being. This is why Christianity uses the term Trinity which means TRI-UNITY as in three-as-one. True Christians become satisfied with this mystery and accept it as just that, a mystery. No one can fully understand how God is, but Christians can know what God is because the Bible teaches it.
The type of people who come to understand that the biblical truth of God is the Trinity are people who care to know correct doctrines and want to love the true God and will seek out proper knowledge of the Bible. Sadly, most Modalists have absolutely no desire for seeking actual truth and want to force their opinions into the Bible because they have personal agendas. A truly innocently ignorant follower of a modalistic god will always repent within due time, without much division, strife, or aggression against Trinitarians. The others are simply heretics whom are inspired by Satan and will always fight a losing battle against the Trinity until they die and go to Hell. Unfortunately, the latter makes up the major portion of Modalists and always has. You can see the demonic minds of these reprobates expressed all over the internet, especially YouTube.
Modalism promotes a god that changes
Modalism contradicts what Christianity has historically accepted about the nature of God. True Christianity expresses God existing in three Persons that equal one Being. This belief is given the theological title of “Holy Trinity” to express this concept. Whereas, in Modalism God is expressed as existing in only one person that shifts into different modes and moves in different ways in different times throughout history. God “shape shifts” so to speak, from the Father at one time, changing into the Son another time, and also changing into the Holy Spirit at times. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never exist at the same time in Modalism. The UPC and Apostolics call their god “Jesus” and they baptize their congregants strictly, only in that name. “Jesus Christ” is the proper name of God to them which covers the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Their “Jesus” god is all three: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but the modes are never shifted into at the same time. Their god is a changing god. This contradicts what the Bible teaches in Hebrews 13:8 which states firmly: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” What is annoying is that many of these Oneness followers illogically use this same verse to somehow promote the Trinity being false. It is a fact that their religion is not at all based on logic when exegeting the Bible. What Oneness/Modalism promotes essentially, is, that Almighty God being only one person, died on the cross. Logically, this would mean that the Father came down and died on the cross but just shape shifted into the Son. So there is no actual different person of God dying on the cross. It is the same person dying on the cross, the same person giving itself as a sacrifice, and the same person accepting itself back into heaven. Modalism claims another “Father” that schizophrenically changes his personality by shifting into different modes. How can anyone trust a God who changes so sporadically? How can we even be sure there are only three modes of God? There might be more. This is a critical mistake! Not to mention it makes absolutely no sense!
Oneness followers love to use isolated proof texts from the Bible or misrepresent a verse’s surrounding context, and also ignore related passages in the Bible. One of their favorite verses they will quote is Isaiah 9:6 which says,
“For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Oneness heretics will claim that this proves that Jesus Christ is the Father and only shifted His mode into the Son. The Son did not exist until the Father turned into Him. This verse does call the child Eternal Father, but that is only stating a fact about His Godhood, that Jesus Christ is fully God and God is our Eternal Father. Not that Jesus Christ is actually God the Father. Related passages in the Bible about Jesus Christ and God the Father explain it so.
The concept of the Holy Trinity is all over the Bible. The actual beliefs of the Trinity are misrepresented by Modalists who claim it promotes three gods and not one. This is not true. The Trinity teaches that all 3 Persons are different from each other and not the same, yet they are all One and the same God. The Father is 100% fully God, the Son is 100% fully God, and the Holy Spirit is 100% fully God. But the Father is not the Son, is not the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father, is not the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not the Father, is not the Son. Yet all three Persons are one God, the same God. This teaching is all over the Bible and it is a mystery that we cannot understand, but we must accept. God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit is our Eternal, Everlasting Father.
Modalism cancels out salvation by default
The most basic reason why Modalism cancels out salvation is that if the Trinity is true, it means that God is Three-As-One and anything other than a triune God does not exist. Worshiping a God that does not exist is idolatry. Modalism is a false religion and God commands that there should never be any other gods worshiped besides Him (Exodus 20:3). There is no forgiveness of sins if a person puts their trust into a false god. Just because the name of a false God uses the same titles and names as the true, triune God of Scripture does not mean it is the same God. Matthew 24:24 claims there will be false Christ’s coming, and 1 Corinthians 11:4 says that people can preach a different Jesus and a different spirit and Christians should not put up with it. Simply labeling something as Jesus does not change the fact it is a lie from Satan.
Another more complex reason that will help Christians explain on a deeper level why Modalism leads people to Hell is that logically, if the Trinity exists, Modalism cannot provide salvation because it does not give Christ credit for His atoning work on the cross. Romans 8:2 explains that there is no condemnation for Christians “because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” If the Trinity is true it means that only the Person of Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. John 3:16 says that God sent His “only begotten Son” to die for those who believe. If someone rejects that there is a Person of the Son and instead claims there is only one person that changes, and the Son did not exist until He was manifest in the Incarnation of Christ, then there is no atoning sacrifice that actually happened since they reject the real Person of Jesus, the Son of God who actually exists and has existed eternally. Grudem (2000) affirms,
“[M]odalism ultimately loses the heart of the doctrine of the atonement– that is, the idea that God sent his Son as a substitutionary sacrifice, and that the Son bore the wrath of God in our place, and that the Father, representing the interests of the Trinity, saw the suffering of Christ and was satisfied” (p. 242).
Christians cannot accept Modalists as brothers in the Lord, and they should never be unequally yoked with Modalistic darkness. The modalistic god denies the Eternal Person of the Son, thus meaning they deny the true God and profane His atonement.
Without the Person of Jesus the Atonement is denied
What Modalism is actually saying is that the separate person of Jesus Christ, the Son, is not real and never died on the cross because He does not exist. A separate Person does not exist. Only the Father (or Almighty God) exists and changes his face to turn into and look like the Son. This is a bold denial of God as a whole (since Jesus Christ is fully 100% God) and a denial of the work of the existing Second Person of God: the Son.
A human example would be that a Father agreed with his son that he would go out and pay an extremely expensive price for criminals to be free from their death sentences, and that his son would own them and they would be given to him; and he would show them compassion. After hearing about freedom from their judicial punishments of death because of the son’s payment, those criminals— instead of going with the son who bought them— believe the father is actually the one who bought them because he morphed into the mode of the son. Furthermore, the criminals claim that the son who actually bought them with his father’s urging does not even exist. They believe only the father exists and shifts into a different looking mode to become his own son, but is still the exact same person as there is not a son person and a father person, but only a father person who shifts modes. He just changed into the son. So the son who actually bought them with an extremely expensive price is denied as well as his hard work earning the payment for them to be free. This is a major insult to the son. But in reality the only way they could be free is if they understand that the son is actually a real person who exists and is not the father, and they follow him. Because since these criminals deny the son who bought them, and instead believe his father shape shifted into a son to become him, that real son that exists separately from his father will deny them in the presence of his father.
Modalism denies Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that if you deny Jesus Christ (being the Son of God, a separate Person from the Father, and separate from the Person of the Holy Spirit), He will deny you in the presence of God the Father. Jesus Christ Himself said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and that of the Father and the holy angels” (Luke 9:26). Jesus in Luke 12:9 also said, “…but whoever denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” So it is obvious that Modalism denies Christ despite the fact they try to claim they promote Jesus and follow Him. The Oneness “Jesus” is a “false Jesus” that does not exist and profanes, and blasphemies the true living, eternal, Son of God. It misplaces credit for propitiation onto the Father, when propitiation was strictly something the Son did. Romans 3:23 says that the redemption is in Christ Jesus, and in verse 24 it says, “God presented Him as the propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over sins previously committed.” It does not say that the Father was the propitiation. 1 John 2:2 explicitly states that Jesus Christ alone was the propitiation: “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.” Since the Trinity is true, Modalism is denying God by claiming the Person of the Son does not exist. 1 John 2:23 expresses it simply, “No one who denies the Son can have the Father…” All repentant sinners become Christians who receive salvation. Christians are saved because they call on the name of the Lord and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If someone repents to a false God that does not exist, one that denies the existence of the Person of the Son, they will not have salvation. Romans 10:9 says, “…if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” If a person claims this verse for a Modalistic Jesus, one that denies the Person of the Son, there is no power for salvation.
Modalism denies the Father’s ability to be a righteous judge
Not only is Modalism an offense to the Person of the Son, but it offends the Person of the Father by ignoring His sacrificial giving of His one and only Son, the Son which He loves so much in relation within the Godhead; and it claims instead that He is the one who died and gave the propitiation for sins. Ignoring the extreme sacrifice the Father allowed to happen to His precious Son is an extreme insult to the love of the Father for sinners that He would allow His own Son (who was willing) to be punished in their place; and not only that, but that the Father is the one who gave out all of the crushing punishment to His own Son. Isaiah 54:6 says, “The LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.” Also, 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Modalism denies God this glory and insults the Father. The Father remained pure and untouched by sin and is the righteous judge that gave out His wrath onto Christ. If Modalism is true it means that God existing in one person, being the Father would have became sinful and then killed himself. There would be no righteous judge untouched by sin able to pour out the wrath. It would be the Father becoming sin on His own and then punishing Himself. This idea cancels out a pure and holy Person who is able to remain innocent who can judge sin. In reality, since the Trinity is what is true, there is a righteous and clean judge untouched by sin that was able to pour out His wrath onto Jesus Christ (who was made sin willingly by the Father) and complete the ability for salvation to be completed. To deny the Father’s giving of His real eternally existing Son is blasphemy, and it cancels out the ability for salvation. Such a person as the “god father” of Modalism does not exist and it profanes the true Father’s work. Therefore, Modalism completely denies the true Father.
1 John 2:22 firmly states, “He is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”
Modalism denies the Holy Spirit
Not only does Modalism deny Christ, and the Father, it also denies the Holy Spirit and claims He is also the same as the Father. That would mean the Person of the Holy Spirit (who is 100% fully God as well) according to the Trinity does not exist, thus denying God completely. Nonetheless, Modalism is idolatry and an offense to the true God and will be punished on judgment day.
The Incarnation’s salvific power is cancelled out
Modalism cancels out the ability for an actual human/God existence in Jesus (a conclusion that the Adoptionist form of Modalism understands). Jesus Christ is 100% man and 100% God at the same time. This is the dual nature of Christ concept that true Christians believe. Jesus Christ, who is God, came in the flesh (John 1:1, John 1:14) and was a blood sacrifice for our sins. Romans 7:4 says, “Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah.” If God is only one person then it would mean that Jesus Christ is the same person as the Father. If Modalism was true it would be that Christ’s will as a human would not at all be different from the will of the Father because they are the same person. But the Bible says in Mark 14:36, John 6:38, and Luke 22:42 that Jesus was not doing His own will, but the will of His Father. If Modalism was true these verses would be contradicting this “one person only god” by expressing that Christ’s will as a human and His God will were not unified. This would mean that Jesus Christ as a human was not God, and that God must have possessed a human person that is not God.
Consequently, only God is infinitely valuable and perfect to be able to die for the sins of mankind in order to save them. One human could only atone for one life, but God could atone for everyone because of His infinite value. Also, humans are not perfect and never can be because all of them are born in sin. Romans 3:10 states, “There is no one righteous, not even one,” and Jesus Christ Himself expressed, “No one is good but One— God” (Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19). Even if God created a human body or a human person that was perfect, that He could fill up, it would still not be infinitely valuable. The fact is the Bible teaches that God paid for His people in His own blood (Acts 20:28). Therefore, God died for the sins of His elect which forces Modalism’s logical conclusion to be that Jesus’s humanity was not unified with God which means it could not possibly have provided salvation. There is no salvific power in the “Modalist’s incarnate Jesus.”
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has effectively addressed the reasons why Modalism is a serious heresy, and is not to be taken lightly. Especially, it is not to be accepted as a valid, non-essential doctrine within the bounds of orthodoxy. Modalism completely denies the true God and creates a false god that does not exist. Modalism’s logical conclusion is self defeat. It denies all three Persons of God and commits theological suicide. It denies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as well as the humanity of Christ that atoned for sin. Modalism is an illogical heresy and needs to be aggressively refuted in evangelical circles. Too many people are confused and unable to understand the mechanics of this heresy because it is so deceptive. It is nothing but a device of Satan and demonically energized within theological circles to lead people astray so that they will burn in Hell for eternity. Modalism is truly a damnable heresy.
References
Grudem, W. (2000). Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
MacArthur, J. (2007). The Truth War. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
*The following is a JOKE and a reaction to dealing with Hyper-Calvinists on youtube, expecially those who are delusional and believe they are not Hypers and are not heretics. These people completely misunderstand the “Doctrines of Grace” and are promoters of self. They are extremely self-righteous heretics equally as bad as the ultimate Free Will Arminians they so intensely hate. The logic of their false misrepresentations of true Calvinism are astounding and make for great comedy. They are guilty of using the foolishness of human wisdom to express and preach their false soteriological worldview. They are too proud to repent. The following is an example of how I think a Hyper-Calvinist must pray. I base it off of the “Arminian’s Prayer” that C.H. Spurgeon wrote. Enjoy! This is a Hyper-Calvinist’s prayer:
“Oh Lord how JUST you are to DESTROY WICKED SINFUL creatures such as unborn babies who NEVER knew your grace, and never knew life itself outside the womb.
Those disgusting reprobates, those wretchedly filthy creatures are sooo exceedingly SINFUL! It is JUST that God punishes those wicked babies and throws them into hell to burn for eternity!!
And it is GLORIFYING TO GOD and brings WORSHIP!! Oh GOD HOW JUST YOU ARE! HOW RIGHTEOUS You are to PUNISH EVIL BABIES for their SINS!!!!!
I love you God for bringing your ETERNAL justice on such evil creatures as unborn babies! How HOLY you are for that and how UNJUST I am; yet you SAVED ME, ENSLAVING ME to your grace. And my mind is YOUR mind thinking and doing everything! I can only do good because YOU do it through me, yet sinful babies sin and it is their fault. It is in no way your fault at all! EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE THE AUTHOR OF THEIR WICKEDNESS! Including all human atrocities, rapes, pornographic fantasies, child molestations, beastiality, Satan worship, blasphemy and more…it all comes from You, yet you are not at fault…Oh how shameful all of those heretics are who believe you are not the author of wickedness. I thank you so much I have the intellectual mind You put in me to understand such deep things unlike all those foolish heretics who claim to be 5 point Calvinists, but are just blasphemers. I shall continue to street preach, make videos for youtube showing me insulting such reprobates and blocking and ignoring anyone who messages me who disagrees with this pure doctrine that I hold which you are forcing me to believe, ENSLAVING ME TO IT!
You are innocent of sin! My religion of Calvinism is far better than the WICKED HERETICS who claim to be Calvinists (because Calvinism actually means CHRISTIANITY, and if you are not a Calvinist you are going to hell). They are all just ARMINIANS IN DISGUISE! I am thankful that I am more of a Calvinist than John Calvin himself!
I am so thankful Lord, that you force everyone to do everything and nobody thinks for themselves or makes their own choices. I am so THANKFUL Lord that I am a puppet completely controlled by God and programmed without a will or desire that comes from myself! That somehow even though it sounds completely illogical, that I am in NO WAY responsible for doing good, yet anyone who does evil (who is completely controlled by You in every way 100% without ANY desire or will that they express; since You are the author of all sin) IT IS 100% THEIR FAULT!!! And in no way are You responsible for their sin. Yet, in the same way as wicked people are controlled by You to do evil, I am controlled by you to do righteousness— and yet I am ENSLAVED by your grace and it is not by my merit— yet it is the wicked’s merit on their own that they are ENSLAVED by sin from YOU, YOU ALONE LORD! The logic astounds me!
Thank you Lord for killing all sinners and sparing me, and not making me like all those SINNERS! And since I am enslaved by your grace, I am in NO WAY being self-righteous in this prayer and I am NOT AT ALL praying the prayer of the priest in your parable…
I am so thankful God, that common grace does not exist and that you did not call or make the gospel presented to those sickening REPROBATES and that YOU HATED THEM SINCE BEFORE CREATION! And in no way expressed blessing on any of them, not even physical, earthly grace…because all it does is stores up more wrath for themselves…I thank you God! I thank you so intensely, yet it is You thanking Yourself through me, that there is absolutely NO SUCH THING AS THE FREE OFFER OF THE GOSPEL!!! The belief that You offered the gospel to all humans is a SATANIC doctrine and blasphemy! Yet, you are the author of this Satanic doctrine and blasphemy. I praise you for Your sovereignity. Also, this praise is also You and not me! You are controlling my fingers to type this prayer!
Thank you for keeping me holy above everyone else and loving me, even though I am unworthy, yet this exact prayer I am praying is You praying and doing everything and it is not my own action.
IN YOUR MOST HOLY, JUST, WRATHFUL, KILLING, DAMNING TO ALL SINNERS, yet enslaving me and forcing me to be righteous against my will that DOES NOT exist, and in your mercy towards my righteous behavior, in your most sovereign, controlling, illogically non-fatalistic name AMEN!!!!!!!
Ehud's 18 Inch Dagger 