May 2008

I love reading testimonies, and in recent days I’ve come across this by Richard Ganz that I want to share with you. It was first posted by Tim Challies over at his blog, Challies.com.

The Revival Of A Rebel Jew

by Richard Ganz
First published at Challies.com, reproduced in part.

Richard Ganz

In my youth I spent every afternoon studying the Hebrew Scriptures, five days a week, and on Friday night and Saturday I worshiped. As I grew older I worshiped for a time each day in the synagogue morning and evening. I would rise before dawn and before going to the morning service, in obedience to rabbinic tradition, I would put on tefillin — the boxes containing God’s law — on my forehead and arm.

Then one cold, clear midwinter night my life was shattered. My father had a heart attack and I ran for comfort and hope to the one place I thought I would find it — the synagogue. The doors were locked and as I hammered on them I looked up into the New York night sky, cold, crystal-clear and filled with stars and I cursed God. “I am through with you!” I said. But that night, as I turned away from the God of Israel; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, little did I realize that he was far from through with me.

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Having been in the ministry of pointing out false teachers and their false teachings for close to a year now (most of it is on my old blog which I am hoping to port over soon), I have come across some pretty standard responses in the comments of those who say I, and others like myself, have no business doing so.

So I thought, why not do up a Top 10 list of the most common responses to our posts on these false teachers and their teachings? My wife thought it was a good idea, and I’ve also mentioned this to Carol and a new friend I made, John, just this morning over Skype. I hope we can get together to compile our responses to these accusations soon.

Anyhow, since our response to their allegations will be some time coming, here’s my Top 10 list in the meantime. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please feel free to add yours from your experience in dealing with such comments.

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Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Folks running blogs like mine — Christians who point out false teachings, false teachers and their ilk have a bad time mostly. Trust me when I tell you how many times I was that close to shutting down the blog because of all the brickbats, name-calling and other virtual rotten eggs thrown my way both in comments and via email.

Yet, each time I am encouraged and reminded that I do this not for myself, but for my Lord Christ Jesus’ glory and His alone.

This is one such testimony, reproduced from my good brother Phil Naessen’s blog that has not only encouraged me, but reading it made me jump up with joy!

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Please understand that I mean no offense to this brother, but I just cannot stand by and do nothing while he wallows so deeply in such lies spun by the prosperity “gospel” preachers!

I stumbled across a local Christian blog yesterday, and being pleasantly surprised since I don’t really think there are that many Christian blogs in Singapore, decided to read some of his posts.

Written by Yeap Chee Seng, the blogroll on the blog immediately set off some alarm bells in my head — on it were listed the ministry sites of people like Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, and Kenneth Copeland and even a book he authored containing specific verses in the Bible that address prosperity.

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I found these two great video presentations of the prophecies contained in Ezekiel 38 and Ezekiel 39, and am sharing them here with you, for surely these things that have been prophecised shall soon come to pass if one has an eye on what’s happening in the Middle East, Russia and Iran.

Ezekiel 38

Ezekiel 39

Watch, I pray thee, and be prepared for the return of our Lord very soon.

The Book of Acts

I am greatly vexed by this “sowing and reaping” business that many churches are running a circus of today. The modus operandi usually involves the pastor having a promise or revelation he supposedly received directly from God which will bless many in the congregation. To receive that blessing, congregants will have to sow into the church’s building fund, ministry or whatever pet project.

For those not in the know, this “sowing” just means that you give your hard-earned money to the church or pastor in anticipation of returns on your “investment”. It’s sort of like financial investments.

More often than not, the congregation is primed to give readily with carefully-selected candidates going up to the pulpit to give their testimonies of abundance:

We were poor, down to our last five hundred dollars, but we sowed into the building fund, and the next day we received a multi-dollar order to print tee shirts for a football team!

I was doing well, but there was more I can achieve, so I sowed, and this year, after some calculations, I have not only gained a promotion but been given a total of 250 per cent increase in my take-home pay!

Does that sound like these people struck it big at the lottery to you?

Is that how God works?

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Charles Spurgeon

Look at actions which you have thought to be great, and upon which you have prided yourself — how will they look at the last?

You made money; you made money fast; you did it very cleverly; you praised yourself for it, just as others have praised themselves for conquering nations, or forcing their way to fame, or lifting themselves into eminence.

Now you are dying, and what do you think of all that? Is it so great as it seemed to be? Oh, how you leaped up to it, how you strained yourself to reach it, and you have got it, and you are dying. What do you think of it now?

The greatest of human actions will appear to be insignificant when we come to die, and especially those upon which men most pride themselves — these will yield them the bitterest humiliation.

We shall then say what madmen we must have been to have wasted so much time and energy upon such paltry things!

When we shall discover that they were not real, that they were but mere bubbles, mere pretenses, we shall then look upon ourselves as demented to have spent the whole of our life and of our energy upon them!

Charles Spurgeon
“Last Things”, Proverbs 5:11

Todd Bentley

This was brought to my attention over at one of the new blogs I’ve been following lately — End Times Prophetic, Prophecy, Visions, Dreams, Revelation, Christian Blog.

I feel sorry for Pastor Larry Reed’s friend, but at least we know that the good pastor is now with the Lord, and will no longer feel the pain of the bone cancer that has so tormented him.

Reproduced from this forum:

Blessings in Christ Jesus,

This is my first post to this forum, and I’ve been following the Lakeland revival ever since I got word from Andrew through his email about it. I live in Washington State, and I have been dealing with a lot of people asking me about this “revival” and what my thoughts have been. I have advised people to constantly “test the spirits” and the usual, feeling that this is mostly emotionalism and hype and agreeing with most in these forums, that what has been going on here is not of God.

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Some what?

This isn’t of God, people! In fact, it reminds me of those temple mediums in the kampung (village) I observed as a child. Even as I watch this, my wife listened in and remarked that he (Todd) is just freaking her out.

As my good brother The Pilgrim says, this is demonic possession and we are witnessing demonic manifestations here.

WARNING: Please make sure that you are well covered by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ before you watch the video!

Please pray for those who are blindly mesmerized by this charlatan.

HT: Defending. Contending.

The Depravity of Man

A recent uproar in Malaysia over remarks that school uniforms worn by school girls in the country are too sexy and encourages rape and pre-marital sex is both amusing and a great reminder of how depraved the minds of man are.

While I don’t agree that the girls are the primary ones to be blamed and men are just responding to their lusts as it is in their nature to do so, I’d like to state that it doesn’t matter if the school uniforms are perceived to be sexy to begin with, but that the total depravity of man itself is the primary lesson we can all draw from this episode.

Don’t look so surprised or shocked when I say this — that sometimes it doesn’t matter what a woman wears or how she looks, but that if a man has his thoughts on lust, those factors don’t matter one single bit. A woman can be all covered up, but some men can still have perverted pleasure in undressing her in their minds!

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