Last year as a ministry we spent much time and energy reporting on and exposing the fraudulent so called ‘Miracle Healing Crusades’ conducted by Todd Bentley in Lakeland in Florida and I don’t plan to revisit those God-dishonouring events in this article – a search of our website and those of other faithful watchmen ministries will yield all the information necessary to discover the devilish nature of events in Lakeland. The ‘Miracle Healing Crusade’ came to a shuddering halt when it was discovered that Todd Bentley had ‘entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff’ – at least that’s how the board of Mr Bentley’s then ‘Fresh Fire Ministries’ initially put out the story – subsequent revelations showed how very wide of the mark this first statement was.
Category Archives: Take Heed Ministries
News From The Front – March 2009
Dear praying friends,
For most of the past year large swathes of the world have been engulfed by what has come to be known as the ‘credit crunch’. Supposedly prosperous nations in Asia, Australasia, Western Europe, the British Isles and North America have been brought financially to their knees. Some of these in times past would have been viewed as bastions of Christianity but they have been found to be not only virtually financially bankrupt but also to be spiritually bankrupt. In Deuteronomy 8:19-20 God issued a warning to His people as they were making their way to the Promised Land – “And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish…because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God”. The finances of many nations have been destroyed by corruption in high places – and so it has also been with their spiritual resources – they too have been corrupted. Much of this newsletter brings to light some sources of such present-day and popular corruption. May God be pleased to give His people discernment to preserve and prosper a faithful spiritual heritage amongst the nations that will bring true glory to Him, for that surely is one genuine biblical purpose that God has for His redeemed people.
Churchill and Islam
For a secular newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph published quite a remarkable article in its edition of Friday 20th February 2009. This link will take you to the article
and there you can also read various comments submitted by readers of the article.
I am also now going to reproduce the text of the article just in case for any reason at a future date it might be removed from the newspaper’s website.
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’.
News From The Front – December 2008
Dear praying friends,
When commenting on the parable of the householder and his vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46) the great English Anglican Bishop J C Ryle wrote ‘The fruit that the Lord receives from His vineyard in this land is disgracefully small compared with what it ought to be. We should note what an awful reckoning God sometimes makes with nations and churches… A time came when the long-suffering of God towards the Jews had an end. Forty years after our Lord’s death…they received a heavy chastisement for their sins in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple… And will the same things ever happen to us? Will the judgments of God come down upon this nation… Only God knows. But history tells us that judgments have come on many churches and nations. Where are all the early African and Eastern churches? They are run over by Islam and destroyed…Nothing offends God so much as the neglect of privileges. Much has been given to us and much will be required’. Truly remarkable and in many ways ‘prophetic’ words seeing that they were first published in 1856. Margaret and I thank you all for another year of encouragement and support and wish you His rich blessing in 2009 [DV].
The ‘gay christian’ TV debate
A number of recent articles posted to the website have been dealing with so-called Christian groups and individuals who have been teaching that a sexually active homosexual or lesbian lifestyle is compatible with a profession to being a Christian.
In October 2008 on GENESIS TV [which as you will see has a leaning towards ‘things Pentecostal’] a debate took place between David McIlveen, the minister of Sandown Road Free Presbyterian and a self-confessed lesbian ‘Bishop’ attached to the Metropolitan Community Church denomination. In an article that I wrote several years ago on the worrying views of Philip Yancey on this issue I referred to an interview that he gave and in the course of it he himself refers to this MCC grouping. That article can be accessed on
https://www.takeheed.info/philip-yancey-turning-the-grace-of-god-into-lasciviousness/
The contribution to this debate by David McIlveen, which as you will see was overwhelmingly endorsed by the vast majority of those who emailed or telephoned the programme, is I believe Scripture-honouring and God-glorifying and I pray the Lord will use it to bring biblical clarity to this contentious issue.
Comrade Barack Obama by Shaun Willcock
The election of Barack Obama to the White House is the greatest disaster for the United States of America in its entire history
Of course, the fawning millions who voted for him don’t believe that. Throughout his campaign they hung on his every word, and gazed on him adoringly as if he were a messiah. And as the truth dawned that he had won, millions of people, not only in America but even around the world, stood and openly wept. Marxists, liberals, New Agers, Muslims, sodomites, illegal immigrants, and the dumbed-down masses in general, all rejoiced in the streets. The only thing comparable to it was the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa in 1994. Mandela himself gushed over Obama after he won, saying his victory was an inspiration to people all over the world. But just as the rainbow began to lose its sparkle very soon after Mandela came to power in the “rainbow nation”, so the glitter will fade from Obama’s victory. This latest “Marxist Messiah” will be no better than the one before him.
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”.
News From The Front – September 2008
Dear praying friends,
This entire newsletter, continuation enclosure [Professor Nevin and Peter Jennings] and enclosed CD are given over to a debate prompted by the Todd Bentley so-called ‘Healing Revival’ taking place in Florida and in other locations. I apologise for the smaller than usual font size of the entire newsletter and enclosure but I did want to include all that is relevant. This whole Todd Bentley ‘affair’ is one of the most distressing deceptions I have ever had to address and it is amazing how many around the world are actually accepting this as a ‘move of God’. Truly our foe is “more subtle than any beast of the field” [Genesis 3:1]. You will also see an enclosure reviewing and recommending 2 books – “True to His Ways” by Ruth Davis and “Test All Things” by Joe Mizzi. The first is absolutely essential reading in the light of the Todd Bentley fiasco and the second will be a wonderful tool in seeking to reach Roman Catholics for Christ so I would encourage you to seriously consider obtaining a copy of each from us. Your ongoing support and prayers are ever appreciated.