Church – Divine Council

Believers

Nepalian Christianity: Church Evictions, Providence, & Online Exorcisms

By Theo Theo June 14, 2019

Jai Mashi from Nepal!

In my last two updates, we discussed a US lady being possibly deported from Nepal. That news has gone global and been reported in a recent edition of Decision Magazine. So, readers of this blog may be getting more up to date information from this “scholar on the ground” than mainstream sources. Bear in mind, however, that gleaning the truth from Asia’s version of “fake news” is no easy task. As I wrote in my last update, the lady has not yet been deported. Christians have rallied, and with prayer and support from around the world, the authorities chose not to pursue the case.

The same police official in charge of investigations in Eastern Nepal and the closing of a Christian school was the in charge of this case in Western Nepal. He had been transferred and is using his post to attack Christians. You can find all of this in my previous posts. God is good!

Spring Teaching Term Complete

I have completed my present teaching term and my students are now pursuing the secular requirements for their degrees. Upon completion of those exams, they will graduate in August. My students are concerned about how they will share what they’ve learned with their local village churches. Please keep this in mind in your prayers for them.

During the break, I’ll be continuing my Ph.D. Studies, which need lots of attention. I’ve also been taking courses to train myself up in many new tools to meet the growing need to get content out both here and abroad. These are truly is exciting times!

God’s Providence: An Ever-present Reality!

God’s providence continues to make itself known as an ever-present reality. For example, I’ll have a conversation with someone only to find out that another has been secretly working on a project to address the same need! Also, the Lord keeps putting people in my path at just the right time to assist in learning the things I need to move forward.

Fledgling Nepalian Christianity

Christianity is still a fledgling faith in Nepal. Christian academics must be vigilant to properly serve the church in the wake of many cults from Korea and the US. Many believers here have a limited understanding of Christianity and are challenged by new ways of thinking, especially within Christian scholarship. It is essential to help guide them towards the best ways of thinking and those ways are not always well-received. Those of a simplistic mindset resist the vastness of the content in which they’re engaged.

The pastors in the villages are often merely those who can read Nepali and translate it into the local language. They have little to no formal training and my teaching on Christianity is inevitably more profound than what they were previously led to believe. This makes it especially urgent to make content available to fight heresy within and outside of the church. Also, the youth of my students is a cultural barrier to the acceptance by their elders. Previously held doctrines are held in high regard despite obvious inferiority to modern scholarship. Elders tend to think my doctrinal clarifications require them to deny some aspect of Christ. It’s hard for them to let go of wrongful or imprecise thinking to embrace the greater riches within our faith.

Churches Being Evicted or Destroyed

Land is extremely expensive in Nepal, most churches cannot afford it and it’s especially difficult for Christians to find a place to rent for worship. In the wake of the Easter 2019 attacks in Sri Lanka, a nearby church was evicted when pressured to do so by locals and police (who were afraid that what took place in Sri Lanka could happen in their neighborhood.) The church is now meeting in separate small groups spread among rental houses also subject to eviction should landlords find out they’re being used for worship. Many pagans here find Christian worship offensive and will use any means available oppress minority religions.

Another land-owning church is under consideration to be forcibly razed. With the new constitution, and subsequent laws and amendments concerning preserving Nepalese culture, any property that was formerly, at any time, temple grounds can be “redeemed” (especially if any competing religious institution has been erected.) Therefore, a local church, one of the oldest in Nepal, had purchased land nearby a temple but that land had also initially belonged to a temple and had exchanged many hands subsequently. The church bought the property from private owners decades ago. Now people are deeming it worthy of “redemption.” The church in question will be forced to leave, receive no compensation and lose their entire investment.

This anti-Christian attack, ironic considering the mandate of the preservation law, is a blow to Christian morale. How does one preserve history by destroying one of the hallmarks of Nepalian Christianity? The message is clear: State forces in Nepal are as willing to destroy the historical roots of Christianity as their counterparts in the Middle East.

Nepal is doing the very thing they say they are opposed to: destroying Christian landmarks while claiming to have a policy of preservation. It is how the current party in power in India began when the same issue over a Hindu temple was raised concerning a Muslim mosque.

State News

In the past week, we’ve had a series of bomb blasts in the capital; a sad reminder of the decade long civil war that plagued Nepal after its recent overthrow of the monarch. Maoists continue to be a problem: their leader is honored by the current administration for “maintaining peace” despite the thousands they’ve killed in the process.

Indian elections have concluded and, despite media predictions, the Hindu party in power has prevailed. Nepal wants to follow the same trend. The majority are Hindu; however, the communists won the majority and have formed the new government.

An Online Exorcism?

Lastly, a recent attempt to rape a 7-year-old girl (while asleep in our church) was thwarted and the girl was unharmed. The father is Hindu and has been known to be demon possessed. He had turned to Christ to be set free but returned to his Hindu roots shortly after that. After this incident with his daughter, he was repossessed. After many prayer meetings, we were able to coordinate several believers, both here and in the US, and engage in a “real time” exorcism. Amy “Beth” of Hesed Place, a former guest on the NakedBible podcast, and the indigenous pastor here who translated Supernatural into Nepali worked together to help the victim in finding meaningful peace and deliverance. We also consulted with Doug Overmyer from Seers See Ministry for guidance as the event lasted over several days. Doug is part of Mike’s Peeranormal Podcast and also was featured on the Bible Over Brews Podcast on episodes 36 & 38.

The father has joined our church to be alongside his family and be discipled in the faith. They’ve moved closer to the church to get away from the place where the rape attempt occurred. I also conferred with Fern & Audrey of Discovering MErcy for some further advice and will coordinate with our own local pastor to see he gets further assistance in his journey. We hope to get Mike’s next book translated, as well, to assist us until I can devote time to producing much-needed content upon completion of my doctoral degree in Biblical Studies. We are also planning a conference here in conjunction with the release of the translation to get the book out to the people. Thanks to everyone who supported us behind the scenes.

Thanks to all who continue to support us in the work we do here. It is exciting to take the light of Jesus into the dark kingdoms of this world as a beacon of hope! As we get the time, we hope to be keeping you abreast of the new avenues of content production with which we presently have in the works. God continues to confirm our present trajectory.

Apologetics

Evangelical Gnosticism

By Guest Post June 7, 2019

by Abigail Rine Favale

I teach in a great books program at an Evangelical university. Almost all students in the program are born-and-bred Christians of the nondenominational variety. A number of them have been both thoroughly churched and educated through Christian schools or homeschooling curricula. Yet an overwhelming majority of these students do not believe in a bodily resurrection. While they trust in an afterlife of eternal bliss with God, most of them assume this will be disembodied bliss, in which the soul is finally free of its “meat suit” (a term they fondly use).

I first caught wind of this striking divergence from Christian orthodoxy in class last year, when we encountered Stoic visions of the afterlife. Cicero, for one, describes the body as a prison from which the immortal soul is mercifully freed upon death, whereas Seneca views the body as “nothing more or less than a fetter on my freedom,” one eventually “dissolved” when the soul is set loose. These conceptions were quite attractive to the students.

Resistance to the idea of a physical resurrection struck them as perfectly logical. “It doesn’t feel right to say there’s a human body in heaven, when the body is tied so closely to sin,” said one student. In all, fewer than ten of my forty students affirmed the orthodox teaching that we will ultimately have a body in our glorified, heavenly form. None of them realizes that these beliefs are unorthodox; this is not willful doctrinal error. This is an absence of knowledge about the foundational tenets of historical, creedal Christianity.

At some point in my Evangelical upbringing, I came across a timeline of world history. The timeline started with Adam and Eve, then moved through significant events recounted in the Old Testament, with a few extra-biblical highlights from elsewhere in the world spliced in here and there. The fulcrum of the timeline was the birth of Christ, followed by details from his life and ministry, then post-Resurrection events from the Book of Acts. All these episodes were demarcated by bright colors, with neat lines stretching upward into the margins, connecting each sliver of color to a corresponding label. After Paul’s ministry, however, this busy rainbow of history dissolved into a dull purple rectangle spanning fourteen centuries, labeled simply “the Dark Ages.”

This is an apt illustration of all too many young Christians’ sense of Christian history. The world after the New Testament is blank and uneventful. Even the Reformation is an obscure blip. They are not self-consciously Protestant, but merely “nondenominational.” Their Christian identity is unmoored from any tradition or notion of Christianity through time.

My students are a microcosm of what I see as a growing trend in contemporary Evangelicalism. Without a guiding connection to orthodoxy, young Evangelicals are developing heterodox sensibilities that are at odds with a Christian understanding of personhood. The body is associated with sin, the soul with holiness. Moreover, this sense of the body, especially under the alias flesh, tends to be hypersexualized.

Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the Evangelical emphasis on purity, a word that has become synonymous with bodily virginity. Despite the biblical usage of purity as holiness in a broader, holistic sense, including but not limited to sexual matters, the word “purity” has become narrowly sexualized. It is not a virtue to be continually cultivated, but a default physical state that can be permanently lost.

In Evangelical vernacular, “sins of the flesh” denote specifically sexual sins, and these are the evils that dominate the theological imaginations of young, unmarried Evangelicals, far more than idolatry, say, or greed. I can remember one particularly vivid illustration from my Evangelical youth, when I was asked to imagine myself on my wedding day, in a pristine white dress—and then asked to picture a bright red handprint anywhere that a man has touched me. This image of a bloodied bride, of flesh corrupted by flesh, seared into my imagination a picture of the body, rather than the soul, as the source and site of sin.

This is not a new misunderstanding. The view of embodiment as the epitome of evil was a central tenet of Gnosticism, which St. Irenaeus refuted in the late second century. But the notion that our fall is metaphysical, not moral, persisted. In the early fifth century, St. Augustine faced an interpretation of St. Paul that placed the Apostle’s warning about the weakness of our flesh and our bondage to carnal works within a Platonic framework. For the Platonist, the material world and the spiritual world are distinct and hierarchically ordered; the material is illusory, temporary, imperfect. The body is the seat of harmful desires and passions, from which the soul must be released. The body weighs down and corrupts the soul.

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Believers

Christian Arrests in Nepal, Hindu Nationalism, and How Young Believers in the East are Affected by those Older in the Faith in the West

By Theo Theo May 28, 2019

Those arrested recently in Western Nepal have finally been released by the authorities. Earlier it was reported that the US woman was deported and had pledged to return. I’m not sure if she’d be allowed. As I mentioned earlier the attacks of Sri Lanka (a new article with more understanding) and how it has affected many in the region by empowering some to rise against Christians and causing others to be wary. Here’s a good article to catch you up on all the recent ramifications. It additionally tells of the release of all involved in those arrests after a week. It seems to report that she was not deported after all. It is hard to get proper details at times, even in the media. I try my best to document what I report, but my sources are not failproof. Nepali press is reporting that the consulate/embassy actually intervened. I find that quite doubtful. Apparently, though, she is still in Nepal regardless. It would seem as this article reports that locals demonstrated and paved the way for a better outcome. It would also seem the earlier reports were not entirely accurate.

Muslims in Nepal

Someone asked me about Muslims in Nepal, so I’ve posted the above video on Hindu Nationalism. Here’s a more recent article on Muslims in Nepal. Hopefully, this article and a few of the earlier ones can help anyone interested to see what it is like to be in the minority here. You can see how Muslims are affected and how it compares with the treatment of Christians. Religious freedom in Nepal is tricky at best.

Bird Flu

Also, here is an update on the bird flu situation. People have now died. We are still avoiding chicken. If everything tastes like chicken, I suppose one just should eat everything else until the flu flies because the chickens can’t fly all too high. Go figure!

Cat 4 Storm

Additionally, this morning, a category 4 storm hit India named Cyclone Fani and has sent more rain our way. Nearly 100 million appear to be affected in India. Many of those had to be evacuated. They have been doing well at these pre-storm maneuvers recently as I recall. We sure didn’t need any more rain and certainly are in no danger as compared to those in India.

They have not been hit by such a storm for almost two decades. In the wakes of severe persecution and the death of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, a similar storm belted the same area back then. Here are two updated article revisiting those events two decades ago, and this one. While visiting the region myself during the 2008 persecutions, I was told by an Indian pastor that a member of parliament while in session begged for Jesus’ forgiveness for the persecution seeing the storm as some form of Biblical judgment. I could not find anything to document that claim.

How Young Believers in the East are Affected by those Older in the Faith in the West

As you can begin to see, what affects neighbors in the region here has a significant impact on Nepal. What happens to Christians in the world affects Christians here to a much stronger degree than per se those in the West. Even what happens to Western Christians significantly impact those in the East here. Conversely, what other groups do to Christians also affect what others end up doing to believers here. It is quite a relationship and sets a strong measure of responsibility on those “older in the family of the faith” to act wisely as those “younger” are watching and deeply affected.

Christians here look with “honor” upon others in the family all across the globe. They also connect to any “shame” and share it more than Westerners can imagine. I can only point to David deSilva’s book on this topic to advise one on how to better understand such connections that are still very much alive here that go all the way back to antiquity. It is crucial to understand the world here and also the worldview and culture of the Bible as a whole.

There is a certain amount of this idea of momentum, whether up or down that affects people in general over here. It is to a much larger extent here than I realized when I lived in the West. It seems to me to be much more inherent here. People here are well communal.

It carries even beyond Asia. I cannot discern if I’ve changed personally by living here. Or, perhaps my studies of authors like DeSilva has made me aware that it’s the same in the West. Maybe people here are just that much closer to the Biblical worldview and the West is more removed. It was reported in India that 19 students committed suicide over their exam results. I cannot fathom if the shootings in the West are somehow similar in some sense that people keep doing this because they feel connected to those who did such violence in the past. Many see suicide as their only option to tell the world here that it needs to change. Apparently, they feel that they have no other way in which to express the need for that change to come. Let’s hope their deaths matter in bringing some sort of change.

This incident here shows the communal nature of Asians in their thinking. This is only a recent example. Each felt the need to end their own life because the pressure they would face ended any chance of a proper life. Stereotypes had already made them out to be failures before the truth could be known. They also now have made them as a statistic.

As I stated in a previous update, it is akin to what one sees in a game where things seem to work for or against a particular team, and it carries or drags on the rest of the members. Sort of an ebb and flow type atmosphere that seemingly is ingrained in thinking in those religious over here that drives them positively or negatively into their actions. They are in “communion or fellowship” with all those of like faith across the planet. In the West, we tend to stereotype. Here in the East, they join in any group whom they feel indebted because of the kind of patronage DeSilva describes in that same volume. They also very much stereotype others based upon any group that others share in.

Catholic

Ecumenical School of Exorcism’s ‘Best Practices’ Assembles in Rome

By divinecouncil May 22, 2019

by Jamie Seidel

Exorcism is going multi-denominational. Where once those competing for the souls of followers would burn each other as heretics and engage in bloody wars, the world’s mainstream Christian denominations are now rallying together to battle a resurrected threat.

And that’s no less than Satan himself.

The Roman Catholic Church has for the first time opened up its annual exorcism class in Rome to representatives of all major Christian faiths. The Pontifical University of Regina Apostolorum is a Vatican-affiliated university in Rome that has been conducting the increasingly popular annual exorcism conventions for Catholic priests for the past 14 years.

But now the doors of the 14th Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation Course have been thrown open to groups once considered heretical and demon-infested only a few short centuries ago.

Now some 250 Catholics, Lutherans, Greek Orthodox and Protestant priests have assembled to arm themselves with the sword of the holy word to battle Satan amid the souls of their parishoners.

It is itself a dark art, born of a dark age.

The Catholic Church, however, insists demonic possession is on the rise.

In 2014, it formally recognised the ancient ritual of exorcism under Canon Law and gave official approval to the formal creation of the International Association of Exorcists.

It blames the secularisation of society (separation of religion and state) along with the increasing popularity of competing religions, tarot readings, astrology, the internet and atheism for opening the demonic floodgates.

And the best way to fix this, it believes, is to tackle the ‘possessed’ head-on.

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

“We are called to fight against the Devil with all our might and determination,” keynote speaker and Catholic priest Jose Enrique Oyarzun addressed the assembled exorcists in Rome.

In this enlightened age, the practice sounds odd to many.

And that’s the problem, exorcists insist.

Speaking in lost tongues. Vomiting weird objects. Unexplained wounds. Writhing. Shaking. Shrieking abuse. Supernatural strength.

While there is rarely evidence beyond the anecdotal, exorcism practitioners insist their behind-closed doors experiences are very real.

And it’s a threat Pope Francis himself has been keen to highlight, making regular references to the power of the Devil in his sermons.

“He is evil, he’s not like mist. He’s not a diffuse thing, he is a person. I’m convinced that one must never converse with Satan — if you do that, you’ll be lost,” the Pope recently told a Catholic news service.

Now, the Pope has a spiritual army of his own at his command.

The International Association of Exorcists counts some 400 priests among its members worldwide. And the death of its most famous demon hunter, Father Gabriele Amorth, in 2016 served only to inspire a surge of fresh applications.

But they’re not enough.

So the Catholic Church is seeking a source of fresh recruits.

SHIELD OF FAITH

When it comes to skewering Satan, there are problems of doctrine.

Not all the Christian faiths believe the same things. And they’ve put each other to the torch and started wars over such serious matters in the past.

Why not now?

“This is the first time that different denominations have come together to compare their experiences on exorcisms,” Spanish priest and theologian Pedro Barrajon, one of the convention’s organisers, told media in Rome.

“The idea is to help each other, to establish best practices if you will. The Catholic Church is most associated with exorcisms because of films like The Exorcist and The Rite, but we are not the only church that performs them. Expelling the devil goes back to the earliest origins of the Christian Church.”

It’s a spiritual battle winning secular attention.

The Italian government also apparently takes the alleged possession crisis seriously.

Its education ministry this year offered its teachers the option of attending the intensive 40-hour “exorcism and prayers of liberation” crash-course in Rome. At the cost of 400 euros ($A640) each, every attending teacher was promised to be taught how the ancient rite should be “correctly practised”.

The move attracted ire from the Italian opposition parties who insisted the education system had more to worry about than training teachers in magic.

“With all the problems in Italian schools, the ministry is trying to bring back the Dark Ages,” opposition, centre-left MP said Laura Boldrini said.

“Schools need to prepare young people for the challenges of the future. And what does the education minister do? He promotes exorcism courses. (Meanwhile) schools are not safe, gyms are not fit to be used and teachers are not properly paid.”

BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Father Barrajon, 61, told the conference in Rome that non-Catholic denominations were less structured in their exorcism rituals. “Some of the other churches are more creative, they don’t use a precise format,” he said.

And that could present a problem: perhaps any harpies inhabiting a human body won’t be entirely evicted.

Which is why they want priests to attend demonology school.

Participants attending the conservative Legionaries of Christ religious order run university study such subjects as “The Symbology of Occult and Satanic Rituals” and “Angels and Demons in the Sacred Scripture”.

The need to get it right, according to the exorcists, is pressing.

Last year, exorcist Benigno Palilla told Vatican Radio that there were some 500,000 cases of possession appearing in Italy each year.

But there are rising concerns about the validity of the priestly practice.

Some faith healers have been accused of sexually molesting their possessed patients.

One case in Palermo saw a priest and soldier arrested after using the pretext of “expelling demons’ to touch the genitalia of women.

In another Italian case, an underage girl was sexually abused by a 69-year-old practitioner, her boyfriend and her mother. “He convinced the girl she was the victim of strong ‘negative forces’ and consequently convinced her to undergo ‘purification rites’ consisting of sexual intercourse, sometimes in a group,” Italian police said at the time.

Pope Francis said shortly before the convention that priests entrusted with the “delicate and necessary ministry” of being an exorcist must be chosen with “great care and great prudence.”

BELT OF TRUTH?

The broader Catholic Church admits to being dubious about most claims of possession.

Its officers publicly state the majority of such claimants are, in fact, mentally ill. Instead of priests, they should be seeking medical attention to address physical health issues.

But Pope Francis has recently adopted a more urgent tone.

In March, he reportedly told a group of priests they “should not hesitate’ to refer confession-box allegations of posession to an exorcist.

“They could also have spiritual disturbances, whose nature should be submitted to careful discernment,” Pope Francis said, “taking into account all the existential, ecclesial, natural and supernatural circumstances.”

The exorcism convention, however, has made some concession to modern science – admitting there may be complicating medical issues at hand and included talks on psychology, criminology, pedophilia and pornography.

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Church

Holy Week or Weak?

By Theo Theo May 3, 2019

Jai Mashi from Nepal!

Holy Week or Weak?

Here is a brief update of my previous week. This is round #2 compared to what we experienced early in 2019. God is in control. I am here to help the locals to encourage them. We sure appreciate all your prayers.

On Good Friday, I had a meeting nearby. After completing it, I noticed I had a flat tire on my bicycle. I found a shop to fix it where I thought I lost my phone. Instead, I merely misplaced it on my bag, fortunately. Conversely, on Easter Sunday, bombings ravaged the region in nearby Sri Lanka, an island nation south of India which is south of Nepal. ISIS apparently targeted Christians in answer for the recent massacre of Muslims in New Zealand. Some are estimating over 250 dead and many more hospitalized.

The Sincerity of New Believers

I have learned here that just like momentum in sports, politics, or even a battle as tides turn, it does affect people here even traumatically. Many see this as a time of the end. Those here in Asia seem to be much more deeply affected as members of the body and have a far more profound empathy for such incidents than I experienced in my life as a Westerner back home. Life here is much more communal in nature. Believers here sense a much stronger connection with each other and even of those abroad they see as family. They are among the youngest siblings globally with a church history in Nepal of mere decades and not centuries. They look to others in a particular way that is hard to describe in sincere kinship.

Persecution & Electricity Theft

The very next day (Easter Monday) four people were arrested in far western Nepal by police. One was an American. They were supposedly guilty of violating the anti-conversion law that went into effect in August of last year. She was deported on Wednesday evening. Incidentally, my uncle’s funeral in the States was also on that day.

Meanwhile, the nearby transformer blew on Tuesday evening leaving us without power for over a day where I rent. My guess is someone each evening is stealing electricity and finally blew it. Hard to catch them at night. That night my oldest daughter was up most of the night sick and vomiting. Here is a strand of bird flu that is currently affecting local chickens. We haven’t eaten in a while and now won’t.

Earthquakes on Wednesday

We awoke Wednesday morning to earthquakes. The first I felt since January of 2016. Thursday was the fourth anniversary of the 2015 Earthquakes that rocked the nation for almost a year and for many recoveries still alludes them. That night my youngest daughter was up also with sickness. I awoke to diarrhea and had to administer exams. The school’s office let me know the gov’t was coming to visit to inspect the school. They are hoping to delay it until my current term ends at the end of May.

On my way home, we had more rain. In fact, it is raining now again. We have not even started the monsoon season. I am concerned for the farmers and those out in the villages whose homes are primarily made of mud. When the monsoons do come, I am not sure the infrastructure can handle it. Lots of mudslides and the loss of lands plus the concern of earthquakes.

We seem to be healthier this morning. Lots of sicknesses are perhaps due because the of the rains and cooler temperatures than usual for this time of year shifting the climate quickly week to week from cold and wet to hot. The weather changes make it challenging. Many are sick here. One child in the church needs surgery today due to infections.

Visa Due in May

Lastly, my visa is due in May. We pray it goes well. Everyone seems to think I should be fine. One never knows. This thread has a lot of news related to Nepal here to keep you updated. For those interested in “seeing” more of Nepal, I found this mini-documentary illuminating. Thank you all for your continued prayer support! Just click here to subscribe!

Christianity

Churches Have Become The #1 Target For Hate Attacks

By Guest Post April 22, 2019

by Michael Snyder

The bombings in Sri Lanka have once again put a spotlight on the rising tide of violence against Christians all over the world. According to Open Doors USA, an average of 105 churches and/or Christian buildings are burned or attacked every month. That is more than three per day, and almost all of those attacks get ignored by the mainstream media in the western world. In addition, an average of 345 Christians are killed for faith-related reasons every single month. Of course these numbers will soon be out of date, because violence against Christians continues to escalate all over the globe, and the horrifying attacks that we just witnessed in Sri Lanka are a perfect example. The following comes from CBS News…

A series of eight bombings in Sri Lanka targeting Christian churches and hotels in three cities killed at least 207 people and wounded up to 450 others on Easter Sunday. Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene described the coordinated blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

More specifically, the attackers were Muslim extremists.

Why does the mainstream media have to be so politically-correct all the time?

Of course this comes right on the heels of the fire that almost destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral. Authorities are still attempting to determine the cause of that fire, but we do know that many other churches have been hit by vandals and arsonists in France since the beginning of February…

Vandals and arsonists have targeted French churches in a wave of attacks that has lasted nearly two months.

More than 10 churches have been hit since the beginning of February, with some set on fire while others were severely desecrated or damaged.

In an apparent attempt to copy what happened at Notre Dame, a deranged philosophy professor was caught bringing gas cans and lighter fluid to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York…

The man who allegedly brought gas cans and lighter fluid into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City has taught philosophy at different colleges in New York and New Jersey, school officials said.

Marc Lamparello, 37, was arrested on Wednesday night and was charged with attempted arson and reckless endangerment. He was taken into custody after a security guard at the cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan spotted him.

Fortunately a great tragedy was averted in that case, but most churches around the world are very “soft targets” with absolutely no security whatsoever.

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Christianity

Free Christian Movies to Watch for Easter Week

By Terence Gillespie April 17, 2019

Yesterday was Darren Wilson’s “Finger of God” and today is his “Furious Love”. WP Films is making their films watchable for free during Easter week!

I’m half-way through Furious Love and can now recommend it. Here’s the trailer:

I don’t know what movies will be shown, tomorrow, so tune in to find out!

Church

Half of Pastors Afraid of Speaking on Controversial Issues

By Guest Post April 15, 2019

by Caleb Parke, Fox News

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America

‘American Gospel’ Exposes the Destructive Lies of Prosperity Gospel Hucksters

By Terence Gillespie March 1, 2019

I just finished watching a fantastic documentary, American Gospel – Christ Alone, contrasting the Gospel with its predominant portrayal in American culture, today. The filmmaker, Brandon Kimber, did a masterful and thorough job on this 2 hour and 19-minute film.

The buzz around American Gospel is how it defines and addresses the problems of the prosperity Gospel. While it does accomplish that vital task (something I’d hoped for, but didn’t find in “Blessed”), it does much more than that. It first presents the authentic Gospel (first 40 minutes), contrasts it with faith vs. works fallacies, what the Bible really says about suffering and evil, and highlights some of those associated with the NAR controversy though none of these things are its primary focus.

Some ‘Blessed” Questions Answered

In my review of “Blessed”, I posed questions about prosperity and the Gospel the author did not address:

What is the relationship, if any, between the Gospel and human prosperity? How could salvation of the lost have nothing, whatsoever, to do with human flourishing?Every believer with a heartbeat might have an opinion on such questions. But, what is the truth contained in the Biblical text?

What might a believer seeking the whole counsel of God, conclude? Have some, or all, of these prosperity gospel preachers been fleecing the sheep or does the fulfillment of one or more of the missions of Jesus Christ involve prosperity and believers?

“American Gospel” solidly answers the last question with scriptural references that will leave the viewer inspired yet with no doubts about the spiritual crimes of a half-dozen or so of these gospel hucksters.

Soon to Become a Handy Video Reference

Given its quality and thoroughness, I’ll likely be referring to American Gospel as a resource for illustrating, if not altogether resolving, many of questions and issues that come up on forums and in conversations. Therefore, I’ll need to re-watch this documentary and capture timestamps and summaries of the many problems this film handles and illustrates so well. That will take some time since the work, while quite entertaining, is rather comprehensive in its coverage.

If you’re looking for a one-stop resource to clearly delineate many of the ways the predominant modern portrayal of the Gospel in the American culture differs from the Biblical Text, this film is the best single resource I’ve seen on the subject.

Modern Money Changers

There’s plenty in the film that may have you relating to Christ’s anger at the money changers in the Temple. But it’s the trail of needlessly ruined or impoverished lives and the thwarting of those genuinely seeking God that’s probably the greater cost.

The hoarded and fraudulently gained earthly wealth of these hucksters is the best demonstration and proof of their genuinely held values: that the Gospel is just a mesmerizing tale that keeps the attention of believers long enough to separate them from their wallets and purses.

For the benefit of Benny Hinn’s $20k nightly stays in Dubai, the un-healed believer with cerebral palsy spends a lifetime questioning why his faith is not strong enough to convince God to heal him. Too bad he doesn’t know that Benny’s handlers screen out the hard cases before they get too close to the stage.

Pentecostal Lunacy

Kenneth Copeland plagiarizes his loony mentor (Kenneth Hagin) and takes “Ye shall be as gods” to the next level claiming he has Jesus’ DNA. With such exalted genetic street-cred established, it’s perfectly natural to demand another $60 million for a second jet for his private airport. After all, the contributing believers would be entitled to their own earthly empires if they only had the “wisdom” to ask.

Here’s an episode in Copeland’s apprenticeship with Hagin, his psychopathic mentor:

Passing the Baton

Here’s Copeland “passing the baton” to Todd White. Can we look forward to subsequent references to this episode described as Todd’s “anointing?”

In “American Gospel,” Todd White demonstrates what is apparently his schtick: a super slow manipulation of the ankle to make it look like he’s called the power of the Holy Spirit down to even up the lengths of a seeker’s legs and putting an end to chronic back pain.

The Beginning of the End, Hopefully

Is walking to the head of every line and claiming to be first proof of “God’s plan for your life” or just common lousy behavior? Is a graceful walk through the long process of sanctification only necessary because I don’t understand what my Bible really says, like Copeland or White?

For all “American Gospel” does to clarify the true Gospel and expose the false, it also does a wonderful job in championing God’s word and its role in fostering and deepening a relationship with our Creator. Let’s pray that “American Gospel” is the beginning of the end of the horrible spiritual destruction that follows in the wake of the false prosperity gospel.

Supernatural

How a Move of God in Northern Ireland Provides the Blueprint for Reclaiming Cities

By Guest Post February 7, 2019

by Joshua Olson

Pastor Alan Scott says the key to seeing revival break out in a city is for ordinary believers to partner with God in both the supernatural and the supernarrative—to operate in the gifts of the Spirit and to understand how their everyday life fits into God’s grand story. He saw both these things happen at his former church—Causeway Coast Vineyard in Coleraine, Northern Ireland—and as a result witnessed a move of God break out in a historically divided and secular city. When that happens, even a Starbucks can become a site for the supernatural.

During that move of God, one of Scott’s friends was at a coffee shop when he met a young man whose partner had just come to faith. He told the young man, “Hey, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to pray in a moment. A wind is going to come into this coffee shop. It’s going to swirl around you. Then you’re going to know that God is real, and you’re going to give your life to him.”

The young man, skeptical, shrugged and said, “OK.”

The two bowed their heads to pray together, and the moment Scott’s friend began to pray, a mighty wind came into the coffee shop and swirled around the young skeptic. Immediately, he gave his life to Christ.

“It’s kind of easy bringing people to Jesus when that kind of stuff is breaking out,” Scott says. “But that kind of stuff is a product not of a sudden movement of God but of a gradual movement of His people going after the city, changing the atmosphere of the city. When that kind of climate takes root, it makes everything a little bit easier.”

Scott knows from personal experience. He first came to Christ through an awakening in his community, helped usher in a move of God at his first church and is now eagerly contending for the Spirit to work through his new church in Anaheim, California.

It’s not going unnoticed. Pete Greig, the founder of the 24-7 Prayer Movement, says: “When Alan Scott speaks, I try to listen. Where he leads, I try to follow.”

For Scott, community-shifting transformation won’t be accomplished by scheduled revivals or frenzied church meetings but rather by years of diligently sowing seed into a city.

“Every church thinks their city is hard to reach, and every city is hard to reach—when we stay in the building,” Scott says. “But it’s amazing how open people are when we actually move beyond the services into our communities. People are desperately open. They’re desperately looking for life change. [Christians] can start there. They can start with the people around them whom God is moving in.”

Scott spoke to Charisma about his experience with moves of God, his journey from Northern Ireland to Southern California and how believers can be the catalysts for spiritual renewal in their cities.

Moves of God

Scott wasn’t raised a Christian. In fact, he says, he was a teenager before he ever met a Christian. But that all changed after his brother became a follower of Jesus. And his brother wasn’t the only one coming to Christ in his city.

“Suddenly, there was—a ‘move of God’ would be too strong, but definitely something stirring in our community—where some skinheads and some punks became believers,” Scott says. “One of them happened to be my brother, so I watched the transformation of his life, slightly intrigued and slightly afraid.”

At the same time, one of Scott’s friends began attending a Christian youth organization and invited him to join. Scott began attending, until one night he got saved during a screening of the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. He says he was “absolutely arrested” by what he saw on screen and—despite not knowing any of the sinner’s prayer etiquette—decided to follow God because “what I saw on the screen is real and I need that in my life.”

By the time he was 27, Scott and his wife, Kathryn, were co-founding and pastoring the Causeway Coast Vineyard in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. They learned a lot during those early years of ministry.

“I think it’s the same for any pastor,” Scott says. “We always think it’s about building the church, and then you realize, Actually, Jesus was forming me. I am the project, and all these things that are happening around me are designed to create something within me.”

Coleraine, a coastal town of approximately 25,000, enjoys influence belying its small size thanks to 3 million tourists who annually visit the famous Causeway Coast. When the church was founded, Scott says the town’s Protestant and Catholic communities were sharply divided, a situation which was only growing more tense with time. Though Scott’s initial focus was on growing and developing his small church community, his entire paradigm shifted during a church leadership retreat.

During that time, Scott felt God impress upon his heart, “If you’ll go after the lost, I will look after the church.”

“As church planters, we’d been trying to build the church, and it really isn’t our job to do that,” Scott says. “Jesus said, ‘I will build my church.’ … That was the seminal moment for our church, because we began cultivating an outward focus: to go out and engage the lost, to get churchgoers to think beyond the building and develop ministries—[from] healings on the street to compassion ministries. To desire to pursue the Father as He was pursuing the lost.”

Causeway Coast’s first step was to bring peace to its polarized community. Scott says parades were an area of significant tension in Northern Ireland, stoking division and escalating violence within a region. That year, before a key parade, police asked Scott if his church would come attend the event. When Scott asked why, the police officers told him, “We can see that when you show up, there happens to be a change in the atmosphere.”

From there, the church began serving wherever God gave them favor—eventually ministering everywhere from hospitals to public schools to branches of government.

One key initiative that paved the way for revival was the church’s healing ministry.

“We really invented a simple model in the community,” Scott says. “We erected a banner that says, ‘Healing.’ We got out four or six chairs, and we literally waited for people to take a seat, [even] in the rain or in the freezing cold. As we did that, God had this beautiful way of showing up and transforming lives.”

People began getting healed. In a small town like Coleraine, news travels quickly—and thanks to its tourist traffic, news travels far. Healed people brought their friends to be healed too. Scott recalls that once a busload of soccer players pulled up to the healing banner, ready to see the team injuries healed.

“I had people from all over Ireland and even beyond Ireland come,” Scott says. “I saw every conceivable cancer healed—sometimes really dramatically, most of the time really slowly over a period of time. But it never gets old. It’s just an amazing thing to watch God do what no one else can do.”

The supernatural started but didn’t stop with healing. In October 2013, a prophetic voice told Causeway Coast, “This month you have seen on average three people a day come to faith. It has astounded you, but I tell you that from this day you are going to see between five and 10 people a day coming to faith.” The following week, 35 people came to faith. By 2014, Scott says “a significant move of God” took hold in Coleraine, and thousands of people came to faith. Scott says for a time, 56 to 70 people started a relationship with Christ each day. During that time, Scott says the Holy Spirit gave ordinary people prophetic words, words of knowledge and dream interpretation. He believes this move of God is at least somewhat duplicable and the result of reaping a long-sown harvest.

“When you sow a seed in the community over a period of time—the long haul, spending every week on the streets … it actually begins to alter the calling of the city,” Scott says. “It begins to change and blooms this beautiful receptivity to the community, where it’s just easier for people to come to faith.”

Called to California

Alan and Kathryn Scott never imagined they’d leave the Causeway Coast Vineyard. After all, their years of work were finally shifting the atmosphere of the entire community, and they loved their brothers and sisters in the church there. But the Lord had other plans for the Scott family.

“For a long time, Kathryn had sensed God speaking about us living in the U.S. at some point,” Scott says. “I thought it’d be maybe after our kids had gone to college and all that. But then we were in the gathering, and very clearly the Holy Spirit began to speak and say, ‘I want you to build an altar again. It’s time to pioneer again.’ Honestly, you tend to tuck those kinds of things away, but from then on, it was like prophecy central. Everywhere I went, people prophesied over us. Initially, I didn’t want to hear it—we were loving the community there and loving what God was doing. Who would want to leave something like that? It’s what we dreamed of and desired for years. But the Lord kept speaking into it.”

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