THE BIBLE UNDER ATTACK*

There are spirits in our material world working diligently today in all
facets of what is called "Christianity." The spirit of antichrist is the
prime mover in this prophesied formation of the end-times "Whore church
" whose ultimate destiny is to become a one-world religious system under
the control of the devil incarnate.

The frustration for the remnant of us who are loyal to the Lord Jesus is
that we know that we cannot stop a movement whose time has come. It is
God who has put the blindness on those who pay Him lip-service but whose
hearts are far from Him. The most we can do is rescue a few, one by one,
from the flames.

"And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even
the garment spotted by the flesh." [Jude 23]

One way we can recognize where the devil is as work is in the attack on
the Word of God, the Bible. This seems to be coming at us from all
directions – in both conservative and liberal factions of the visible
church. There’s nothing new under the sun; Satan has always cast doubt
upon God’s Word in an effort to deceive God’s people. For instance:

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the
LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, ‘You
shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?" [Genesis 3:1]

MODERN PARAPHRASES

The creation of false Bible translations is the most obvious way in
which the Word of God has come under attack recently. For instance, "The
Message Bible" is sold as a translation but it is a paraphrase that is
meant to be reader-friendly, but it distorts the meaning of Scripture.
One minister noted the losses to the Word of God in "The Message Bible"
that he calls a "paraphrased lie":

"The Antichrist is only an anarchist; The simple words "falling away"
are removed; The whole idea of a "Restrainer" is missing; The judgment
of Antichrist is a ‘puff’; There is no picture of Christ's glorious
return; The wicked are banished rather than damned."

And yet, rather than ‘raise Cain’ over such an assault on the Bible,
many of today’s church leaders lend their names to the endorsement of
the book, i.e.:

"Amy Grant, Benny Hinn, Bill Hybels, Bill and Gloria Gaither, Billy
Graham, Chuck Swindoll, Cynthia Heald, Gary Smalley, Gordon MacDonald,
J.I. Packer, Jack Hayford, Jerry Jenkins, Jerry Savelle, Jimmy and
Rosalyn Carter, John Maxwell, Joni Eareckson Tada, Joyce Meyer, Keith
Miller, Kenneth Copeland, Madeleine L'Engle, Max Lucado, Michael Card,
Michael W. Smith, Newsboys, Rebecca St. James, Richard Foster, Rick
Warren, Rod Parsley, Stuart and Jill Briscoe, Tony Campolo, Vernon
Grounds, Walter Kaiser Jr., Warren Wiersbe".

EVANGELICALS

A good barometer of the Evangelical Church today are the popular
magazines, such as "Christianity Today" and "Charisma." To see how far
off Evangelicalism has gotten from the truth of Scripture, just peruse
the pages of the latest CT or "Charisma" and see what ministries are
being promoted or what conferences are advertised.

For instance, CT published an article about controversial Catholic
author Brennan Manning, whose writings present a new age ecumenical
mindset. Although many apologetics ministries have exposed this fact, CT
ignored this and referred to his book The Ragamuffin Gospel as a
"spiritual classic" in an October 6, 2005 interview, though that book is
full of very dangerous teachings. The article, "A 'Coward' Who Stayed to
Help" was Manning’s story of his heroics helping victims during the
Hurricane Katrina disaster. In a twist of events, CT had to publish a
correction to the story some five days later. It turns out that Manning
made the whole thing up and CT editors put an addendum to the story that
reads:

"From the Editors: We regret to inform our readers that, following this
on-the-record conversation, Brennan Manning called our office to
apologize. He reiterated that he had been "disoriented, confused, and
depressed" lately and that certain details he provided were not true. He
did not help identify a child from his apartment complex. He did not
help an elderly woman get a ride. And while he was the last one to leave
his apartment complex, "the truth is that there was nobody around here
for me to help," he said in a voice message to Christianity Today. "The
essential truth: I lied."

In spite of the lies, CT kept the interview up unedited and linked to a
former story on Brennan Manning from the June 2004 issue of CT that
pointed to all the evangelical leaders who embrace this former
Franciscan priest. The list of Manning enthusiasts are a who’s who of
evangelical leaders such as Eugene Peterson, who wrote "The Message"
paraphrased bible and popular Christian counselor Larry Crabb. He is
also endorsed by many popular musicians like the late Rich Mullins,
Michael Card, Michael W. Smith, and members of U2. These endorsements
have given this heretic entrance into evangelical circles and magazines.

Brennan Manning has popularized the idea that the Bible is not to be
taken literally and any who do uphold Bible standards are Pharisees and
hypocrites. The Bible has to be demoted from the Word of God to a book
that only contains the words of men mixed in with the words of God so
that ecumenical unity can be achieved between Catholics and Protestants.
Both CT and Charisma magazines promote that agenda.

MAINLINE DENOMINATIONS

Bible-believing Christians have long been shocked and appalled at the
anti-bible rhetoric spewed out by Protestant organizations and movements
who once believed in the truth of Scripture. The "Jesus Seminar"
"theologians" and people like Episcopal Bishop John Spong have been
taken seriously by the secular world as spokespersons for Christianity.

Spong’s latest book is called "The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the
Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love." In it he claims that
the Bible is full of "tribal and sexist prejudices of that ancient
time." And yet he picks and chooses the things he likes in Scripture and
tosses out the rest – which is the majority of the Bible.

In denouncing the Bible in such terms you would think that the Episcopal
church would defrock him, but instead they prop him up and allow his
poison to spread throughout an already dead denomination.

The same problem is seen in the United Methodist Church that also gives
platforms to Bible haters. One of their own, Susan Cady, co-author of
"Sophia: The Future of Feminist Spirituality" pastors one of the oldest
Methodist Churches in Philadelphia. She is a closet witch who denounces
the Bible for what she calls its patriarchal slant. Rather than
receiving discipline for the evils she spreads about Christianity and
the Word of God, she gets elevated into positions of prominence. What
would John Wesley think of that?

Yet it is the Bible-denouncers in Christendom that get all the press.
These are the ones that are featured in secular television documentaries
such as the "Mysteries of the Bible" series who are quoted as denying
the historical accuracy of the Bible. Who better than a seminary scholar
(such as the Christ-denying Jesus Seminar leaders) or an ordained
minister of a large denomination to quote as saying that the parting of
the Red Sea never really occurred? These churchmen/women are a real
disgrace to Christianity and give ammunition to those who hate God.

Many mainline denominations have forsaken the Bible in exchange for the
ideas of the popular culture. Practicing homosexuals are embraced in the
memberships of these denominations and those who object are
marginalized. Churches such as the UCC (United Church of Christ), the
Lutheran Church, the United Methodist Church, Disciples of Christ, and
the Society of Friends (Quakers) no longer tolerate the teaching of
their founders. The "Battle for the Bible" has been lost in the mainline
denominations.

PENTECOSTAL/CHARISMATIC TELEVANGELISM

The largest "Christian" television network in the world, the Trinity
Broadcasting Network (TBN), frequently highlights the "ministry" of
their so-called prophet Kim Clement. Clement, along with another
so-called visionary of a new church, Tommy Tenney, were interviewed by
hosts Matthew and Laurie Crouch on a Praise the Lord program five years
ago. Clement shared a video clip of one of his meetings in which he had
gone into a "prophetic" frenzy and "prophesied" a glimpse of what the
church would look like in the future.

"There shall be a world-wide move of God," Clement shouted to a rock
beat by his band in the background. "There will be a world-wide
universal move of my spirit and the spirit of the lord says, 'they will
prepare for the greatest kingdom that has ever been around, the kingdom
of my son. I will change the laws of this country. I will put favor,
favor, favor, in the church of the living God. And for seven years you
will have the greatest prosperity you have ever dreamed about. And it's
yours! It's yours! It's yours! Says the lord. Come on!" [And the crowd
shouts and jumps and hollers.]

Back to studio, host Matt Crouch responded, "That is church, the way
it's supposed to be!" "All messed up!" added his wife Laurie.
"Absolutely chaotic at the hands of Kim Clement," Matt concluded. "And
that was an awesome service. That was the last day of the year 2000 . .
. And he was prophesying to America. That's what those things are like.
And you know when we talk about wrecking church and walking in with the
hands folded and stuff (Matt says mockingly) -- you walk in there and
you see people going absolutely berserk in the presence of the lord and
dancing. When you talked about losing dignity -- there are people that
lose their dignity that are hungry and passionate for praise and worship
and they will show up at his meetings."

Tommy Tenney piped in, "I think he's got an anointing to kill religious
spirits!" "They are dead as a doornail, ha ha ha," Matt Crouch responded.

On an earlier program with the same hosts and guests, Clement taunted
church leadership as he perceived it. "We may be young, we may be great
looking, we may be very wealthy and rich, we're just provoking them. And
we didn't take 20 years to get there. The whole thing's changing. The
appearance of Christ is so different in every generation." And then he
turned his attach to the Bible. "You know, we aren't even thinking now
about Tribulation and seven years of this and pre and mid and post and
all this stuff. We don't care about that. We just want to see the
kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God. We don't waste
our time with that…We are living in the greatest time the church has
ever been in, we're living right now. And a lot of people don't want to
see that because they'd rather go home and be with the Lord. We don't
want to do that!"

This hatred for the church shows in a view of the Bible as passe.
Clement does not carry a Bible, put presents his spontaneous
"prophecies" as God’s word today. His friend Tommy Tenney who wrote the
book, "The God Chasers" concurs and reveals further the TBN attitude
toward God’s Word.

"A God chaser may be excited about some dusty truth," Tenney wrote,
"that passed in the path, and how long ago it was. But that's just the
problem. How long ago was it? A true God chaser is not happy with just
past truth; he must have present truth. God chasers don't want to just
study from the moldy pages of what God has done; they're anxious to see
what God is doing. There is a vast difference between present truth and
past truth. I'm afraid that most of what the Church has studied is past
truth, and very little of what we know is present truth."

Examples of the recent attack on God’s Word from the TBN camp are too
many to number. TBN continues this trend in upholding ecumenism,
downgrading the Bible, and elevating teachers who have scandals
associated with the ministries. And their network can be seen from
anywhere on the planet, giving legs to the forming Mother Harlot.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

An on-line news service recently reported: "’The Roman Catholic
Hierarchy who penned a document saying that some parts of the Bible are
not true, are sadly misguided.’ So says best-selling author Ray Comfort…
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland last week warned
their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study
of scripture, that they should not expect ‘total accuracy’ from the Bible."

Yet this is not news in the Catholic Church. Rome has never held
Scripture in high esteem as the actual Word of God. Catholic Church
tradition through the writings of their "church fathers" has always had
equal clout.

THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT

The latest trend in the church today is the "emerging church" movement.
One facet of the "emerging church" is a frontal attack on the Bible. The
leaders and theologians of this movement promote a new way to speak
theologically without using biblical terms such as fall, redemption,
salvation, or gospel. These "church" leaders say that those terms are a
turn-off to people who are interested in spiritual enlightenment. We
should somehow adapt our speech to accommodate unbelievers.

Of course, the Seeker-Friendly, church growth movement paved the way for
this to gain admission into the church. It is based on the same
principle popularized by Crystal Cathedral's Robert Schuller decades ago
when he polled the neighborhood to find out what the public wanted in a
church and then found ways to supply it. It is a consumer-based
"christianity" that sees church as a commodity.

Ecumenically minded church leaders have latched onto the popularity of
the "Purpose Driven – Rick Warren" desire for church growth and have
taken it even further away from the solid foundation of the Bible as our
basis for faith and life. The emerging church celebrates modern society
and commercialism as ideas the church needs to adopt and utilize for the
growth and influence of the church. After all, they argue, since people
are looking for a spiritual experience the church should supply them
with one by packaging Christianity in a way that is palatable to them.

Anyone with any true spiritual eyes can see where this will take the
church. History is repeating itself. The Roman Catholic Church of the
Dark Ages used the same strategy by blending Christian and pagan outer
ritual and art to attract the multitudes into her fold. It seemed to
work on the surface, but the church was left with people who did not
enter into the straight gate, but came in the back door. The born-again
experience was no longer the prerequisite for church membership and
therefore the church was taken over by charlatans and apostates.

The "emerging church" glamorizes Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
idolatry by repackaging medieval practices of iconolatry, ritualistic
liturgy, use of "sacramentals," and mysticism. Gregorian chants are
being merged with modern hip-hop to create atmospheres that appeal to
today’s experience seekers.

The Emerging church refuses to allow the Bible to set the parameters of
acceptable worship or theology. Philosophers and Post-Modern thinkers
are their new prophets and they are not limited by "thus sayeth the Lord."

One of their leaders, Brian McLaren, spoke at a recent conference. His
topic was called "Emergence and Convergence." He makes a straw-man
fallacy that all these post-modern emerging theologians do – he
characterizes Christendom of the past 100 years as if it were one giant
conglomeration. Everyone who names the name of Christ gets painted with
the same brush. Whatever mistakes are made in one denomination are
attributed to them all. So every professing believer of the last 100
years – until they arrived on the scene, of course – were legalistic,
colonial, and rigid. Once a person sees that stereotype, they are left
with no choice but to distance themselves from any church that isn’t on
the "emerging" bandwagon.

McLaren demonizes the good with the bad in the so-called "old guard" and
says Christianity needs to be reimagined. "When they emerge," he says,
"they find a natural convergence occurring across race and culture,
politics and denominations. That convergence requires us to rethink the
way we tell the story of our past. It invites us to imagine a new kind
of story for the future."

So in other words, the gospel must converge with our culture’s ways of
thinking in order to be relevant today. Jesus has to be reinvented to
suit the modern man who rejects absolutes. This convergence is
reminiscent of the new age movement’s attempt of unifying the world as
one in its failed "Harmonic Convergence" gatherings in the late 1980s.
No doubt this is where these new emerging "prophets" get their
inspiration. They didn’t invent these ideas themselves

Barry Taylor’s mirror as the new Jesus – Peter Ward’s "we are god" and
the new age’s Shirley MacLaine "I am god" – all joining together for the
new view of the divinity of man and god is the whole – panentheism.

THE SECULAR WORLD

The general consensus regarding spiritual truth in the secular world is
that there’s a little truth in every religion and not one faith embodies
the whole truth -- at least to those people who are deists or agnostics
that think we just can’t know. Atheists think all religion is utter
nonsense, but they’re the minority in America anyway.

The advancement of the new age movement in the secular realm, especially
in the area of medicine and philosophy, has permeated secular collective
thinking. People by the droves are hungering after anything supernatural
or mystical – not in a quest for truth – but a quest for titillation.

The Bible, once held in high esteem in the world, is now seen as just
one of many ancient books with no relevance for today. The Gideon Bible
is becoming a scarcity in hotel rooms across America. When I asked one
innkeeper why there was no Bible in the room he told me it was not
politically correct to advance one religious book over others.

The Bible used to be a mainstay in the courts in America, but in many
courtrooms it is no longer used for swearing to tell the whole truth. A
mere affirmation without a hand on the Bible is now sufficient.

I heard a song on the radio recently that spelled out the secular
opinion of Christianity. The male voice sang, "The world is too large
for just one religion." America, and the world, has no tolerance for
anyone to claim certainty about anything.

ECUMENICAL UNITY IN DIVERSITY

Those who believe what the Bible teaches and defend the faith that was
once and for all given to the church 2,000 years ago, have been
marginalized. They are given labels, depending upon which group is
speaking, as heresy hunters, Pharisees, and legalists. This keeps most
Christians silent because they don't want to be disliked.

The call today in all streams of Christendom is to allow the secular
culture to dictate how we interpret and live out Scripture as those
calling ourselves Christian. They say we have to change in order to be
relevant and they denounce any who allow the Bible to dictate belief and
behavior as dogmatic and backward. The Post-modern theology has no
absolutes and the enemy are those who take the Bible literally.

These kinds of ideas could never invade a Bible-believing church with a
frontal attack. No, they come in the back door and introduce these ideas
in steps so the leaven is incremental. The Bible warns us of this
strategy: "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our
God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ"
Jude 1:4.

So the question is, Where are they taking us?

* A return to idols – iconology;
* Celebration of christianized pagan rituals;
* Mixture of sacred and profane ideas;
* Renouncing of the authority of the Bible for an anything goes tolerance;
* Trade in the old stories (of the Bible) for new stories of what God is
doing today in all religious traditions;
* Spiritism – any and all spiritual experiences are acceptable if they
appear positive;
* Panentheism – the belief that everything in creation is a part of
God’s essence;
* No doctrines of the fall, redemption, hell in exchange for
universalism – all humans are God’s people;
* Acceptance of the "gay lifestyle" as equal to heterosexual;
* All become one and transform the planet into a peaceful place where
all religions have truth and celebrate together.

CONCLUSION

This ecumenical attack on the Word of God is filling a void in the Body
of Christ in a time in which a pandemic of lukewarmness has set in. This
is due in part to a post-holy-laughter apathy in churches who followed
after titillating spiritual experiences that left them empty and
unsatisfied when it did not live up to its hype. All the talk of the
coming greatest end-times revivals has not happened and so those banking
on these coming "moves of God" are left disappointed. They are ready for
something new. They like hearing that "God is doing a new thing." What
He did in the times of the Old and New Testaments aren’t relevant to
people today. They want something they can see, hear, taste, smell and
touch now. They want something new and now.

Paul ran into this in Athens in Acts 17:16, 21 – "Now while Paul waited
for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that
the city was given over to idols… For all the Athenians and the
foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to
tell or to hear some new thing."

But there is nothing new under the sun. These carnal desires have led
God’s people into error for thousands of years. These carnal urges
caused the Israelites to build a golden calf. These carnal urges
motivated the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day to seek after a sign, to
which Jesus responded, "It is an evil and perverse generation that seeks
after a sign." He directed them back to the writing of the prophets and
to the sign of Jonah. New Testament believers are to "walk by faith, and
not by sight." But the carnal man can only worship what he can see.

What is emerging is slimy and evil and, for the present time,
undefeatable. God has blinded the minds of those who do not love His
Word of Truth. The most we can do is rescue a few who stumbled in
accidentally and point the way out to them before they are swallowed up
and assimilated into the Mother Harlot. She is being formed before our
very eyes – "Look up for our redemption draweth nigh!"