Rick Warren has been very much to the fore this week with his appearance on the worldwide stage when he delivered an ‘invocation’ at the inauguration of Barack Obama. His use in his ‘prayer’ of a portion of the Jewish SHEMA as found in Deuteronomy 6:4 brought to mind an encounter he had back in December 2007 with Jewish Religious leaders in San Diego.
Category Archives: Assorted Articles
Rick Warren: The art of ‘politically-correct’ praying
Invocation at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama 20th January 2009
When the Apostle Paul came to the city of Athens we read “his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry” [Acts 17:16] and later in verse 22 we read of how he stood up on Mars Hill in that same city and to a people whom he described as “very religious” he proceeded to proclaim the Biblical God of creation and His appointed coming judge of all people, His crucified but resurrected Son, Jesus Christ. Yesterday, along with countless millions around the world I watched on television the inauguration of President Barack Obama and not surprisingly I was particularly interested to listen to the ‘Invocation’ delivered by Rick Warren. As I listened to him speak, like Paul of old, ‘my spirit was stirred within me’ for this was not a prayer offered to the One true God of Heaven, Father, Son and Spirit but rather it was a cunningly crafted idolatrous prayer designed to placate and please many of the false ‘gods’ worshipped in Washington DC, in America in general and around the whole world.
Mark Driscoll’s approach to preaching
In early January 2009 a lady who had been given some preaching tapes of Pastor Mark Driscoll by a young relative contacted me. This lady, whilst acknowledging that there was some commendable content on the tapes, was nevertheless uneasy about some aspects of both the preaching style and content of Mark Driscoll and she wanted to know my views on him.
Mark Driscoll first came to my attention when I was researching and preparing my talk on what is loosely termed ‘The Emerging Church’. Unlike many of the perceived leaders of this grouping [people like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell] who are unwilling to stand up and proclaim ‘thus saith the Lord’, Mark Driscoll does defend and declare many of the crucial doctrines revealed in God’s Word so he has in the past classed himself as “swimming in the theologically conservative stream of the Emerging Church’.
Welcome to the Church of Ireland Diocese of Sodom and Gomorrah
In Luke 17 the Lord Jesus Christ outlined what conditions would be like just before He returns again to “judge the world in righteousness” [Acts 17:31]. He referred back to God’s earlier judgments by a worldwide flood and localised fire and brimstone and said, “as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat…until the flood came and destroyed them all. Also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat…But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in THE DAY when the Son of Man is revealed” [Luke 17:26-30].
Conditions pertaining “in the days of Noah” are vividly described in Genesis 6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination [purpose and desire] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. As the saying goes, it does not take ‘rocket science’ to look at today’s world and to see and to read of the uncontrolled wickedness that pervades every continent on planet earth and to realise that the heart of mankind is today spewing forth those evils identified by the Lord Himself in Matthew 15:19 “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”.
Todd Bentley/Alpha links to St Andrews, Chorleywood
Vaccinate now [via DVD] against the TB [Toronto Blessing/Todd Bentley] and ALPHA outbreaks planned for St Andrews Church, Chorleywood in the Autumn of 2008.
The church website of St Andrews Church, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire in England is currently a living testimony to just how far “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons” [1st Timothy 4:1] have infiltrated and infected professing Christendom.
Their forthcoming events include the following –
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Conferences
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Firestorm UK – FULLY BOOKED!
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Speaker(s): Mark Stibbe[pastor of St Andrews] and Ken Gott
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Date: 25th June 2008
The promotional write-up for this event included the following –
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‘FIRESTORM!
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The Lakeland Outpouring
On April 2nd, a move of God began in Ignited Church in Lakeland Florida. Todd Bentley, a powerfully anointed evangelist, began holding nightly meetings which were initially attended by about 700 people but soon grew to 9000 and even more.
Florida/Belfast ‘Healing Revival’ debate on Sunday Sequence: 22nd June 2008
In the article already posted to our website titled Todd Bentley and his ‘Healing Revival’ in Florida I made reference to how unfortunately this had impacted locally here in Northern Ireland. I wrote the following in that article –
‘Sadly from a local perspective the events in Lakeland are being given both coverage and credence in the Elim Christian Centre in Alexandra Park Avenue and there are links on their website to enable people to watch what is happening…the Belfast Pastor, Brian Madden…the Pastor tells of visiting a young man in hospital who he claims was clinically dead for 15 minutes [during which time he apparently ‘saw the devil’] but of how he felt led to ‘anoint the sides, head and foot of THE BED with oil’ and to ‘rebuke the spirit of death’.
Todd Bentley and GOD TV
What’s’ ‘the pedigree’ of GOD TV?
Currently the so-called ‘revival’ claimed to be taking place in Lakeland, Florida and orchestrated for the most part by TODD BENTLEY is receiving vast worldwide live television coverage via GOD TV that was founded by Rory & Wendy Alec. TODD BENTLEY and other speakers have paid many tributes to GOD TV from the platform(s) in Lakeland.
In April 2005 I invited Alan Morrison who had produced many helpful materials at the time of the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’ to come here and speak in a number of churches on the subject –
If you click on the following link you will be able to view the talk that Alan gave and I believe what you will see and hear should be important factors to be taken into consideration when evaluating whether or not what is happening in Lakeland is truly ‘of God’.
Todd Bentley: Simply a ‘new strain’ of the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’
In the article ‘Todd Bentley and his ‘Healing Revival’ in Florida’ that was posted earlier under CURRENT CONCERNS I wrote – ‘this is quite simply a re-run of many of the horrible ‘manifestations’ that were claimed at the time of the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’ and then its successor [also in Florida] the so-called ‘Pensacola Revival’
On a link later in this article you will be able to watch a segment from the ‘Toronto: Antics & Heretics’ talk [still available on DVD] that I gave at that time and my prayer is that it will be truly helpful in showing that what is happening in Lakeland is nothing more than a repeat of the diabolical deceptions that gripped those who travelled to Toronto [and later to Pensacola] to get ‘the blessing’. Some of those involved in the Toronto and subsequent Pensacola debacles have been hyping up the events in Lakeland as a precursor to ‘another wave of Holy Spirit revival’. According to Charisma magazine [22nd April 2008] we learn –
Angus Buchan
An inquiry received just today alerted me to the upcoming visit to Northern Ireland by Angus Buchan.
The details are posted on http://www.healingtheland.net/default.htm and there we learn the following – [The above link is now ‘not found’]
Todd Bentley & his ‘Healing Revival’ in Florida
A helpful book for such a deception as this:
‘True To His Ways’ by Ruth Davis.
In recent weeks I have had a number of inquiries concerning a supposed ‘Healing Revival’ taking place in Lakeland, Florida under the ‘ministry’ of Todd Bentley.
I was first alerted to these happenings when an inquirer sent me a copy of a ‘personal update’ that had been issued by Mr Bentley. This is that ‘update’ –
