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Sunday, January 29, 2017

VIRGINIA CHURCH HOSTS LECTURE ON " ISLAMOPHOBIA"; PROFESSOR CLAIMS IT'S DRIVEN BY "IMPERIALISM"

 Todd Green
 Todd Green is serving as a Franklin Fellow and advisor on Islamophobia in Europe.
 Todd Green visiting with Representative Keith Ellison (MN) in Washington, DC.
ABOVE: GREEN WITH ELLISON 
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT ELLISON:
VIRGINIA CHURCH HOSTS LECTURE ON 
" ISLAMOPHOBIA"; PROFESSOR CLAIMS IT'S DRIVEN BY "IMPERIALISM" 
BY ANDREW HARROD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
“I have lots of relationships with Muslims. They have taught me compassion and peace,” stated Luther College Professor Todd Green during a January 22 presentation at McLean, Virginia’s Lewinsville Presbyterian Church (LPC). Here this self-proclaimed “scholar of Islamophobia” and “anti-Islamophobia activist” reiterated his fantasy that interpersonal relationships with Muslims can refute supposed “Islamophobic” prejudices arising from Western sins like imperialism.
Green, author of the 2015 book The Fear of Islam:  An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West, is currently a Franklin Fellow at the United States Department of State, where Green “assesses and analyzes Islamophobia in Europe.” He has had ample opportunity to expound the book’s themes in various appearances in radio (see here, here, and here) and online, as well as public presentations such as at the 2016 Peacestock conference of the leftwing Veterans for Peace. He also writes for left-leaning publications such as the Huffington Post and Sojourners.
Without specific definitions, Green has concluded that “Islamophobia is an irrational fear, hostility, or hatred of Muslims and Islam” and is “one of the most acceptable prejudices in the United States today.” This presents a “cultural racism” in which “Muslims are essentialized; they are treated as a race,” he elaborated at LPC. Nonetheless, he has previously vaguely qualified that critical study of any such posited bigotry “is not an attempt to cut off critical conversations about Islam.”
Green has assessed that “imperialism is one of the main factors driving Islamophobia in the past and in the present,” resulting from historical “imperial tension and imperial competition” between Christians and Muslims. “In the seventh century when Islam came on the scene, it spread very quickly and Islamic empires developed quite quickly,” he has stated, while leaving unmentioned the Islamic supremacist jihad doctrine that propelled such conquests. With shifting power balances between Western and Islamic civilization across the centuries, Islamic empires gave way to the European colonialism that subjugated many Islamic lands.
Westerners colonizing Muslims, Green has argued, realized that “with imperial projects there must be some ‘other’, and this ‘other’ must be demonized and dehumanized in order for the imperial nation to galvanize popular support.” The “neo-imperialism” of rival Cold War superpowers followed European colonialism. Even post-Cold War, “much of U.S. foreign policy is incomprehensible apart from understanding that we are still engaged in the imperial project.”
Casting Muslims as passive victims of Western aggression, Green believes that such stereotypes influence Americans today who “have seen and continue to see Muslims in many parts of the world as obstacles to our imperial ambitions.” In the Huffington Post, he emphasizes the “history of Western interventionism in Muslim-majority contexts, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S. exploitation of energy resources in the Middle East, the legacy of European colonialism.” The oft-debated question “Is ISIS [the Islamic State in Iraq and (Greater) Syria] Islamic?” is merely a “thinly veiled form of Islamophobia intended to heighten our fears of Islam while absolving the U.S. of its own responsibility in contributing to the rise to ISIS.”
“Religion is rarely the driving force behind terrorism,” Green’s article claims, befitting his oft-disproved analysis that socioeconomic disadvantage, not Islamic doctrine, lies behind jihadist violence. At LPC, he described Muslims joining ISIS because of factors like discrimination in Europe or oppression from Middle Eastern dictatorships, just as socioeconomic factors might influence Westerners to join rightwing movements. “White Christians have an empire to hide behind.  Many of these young men joining ISIS don’t.  When you are politically disenfranchised you will sometimes find other ways to find power.”
In identifying “Islamophobia’s” past and present purveyors, Green resorts to well-worn, hackneyed tropes. He embraces the fraudulent Edward Said’s Orientalism thesis that “knowledge about Islam coming from Orientalism was being distorted by the imperial project.” Past Western Islamic studies served not intellectual inquiry, but rather “knowledge for the sake of control” over Muslims.
Green today castigates “professional Islamophobes” supposedly motivated by pure malice, such as Pamela Geller, Daniel Pipes, Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer, and Geert Wilders. “From the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to bed at night, their job is to figure out ‘how can I better demonize Muslims today.’” While “Islamophobia” often appears among conservatives, it is “more dangerous in the way it manifests itself among those who claim to be liberal,” such as talk show host Bill Maher, Green noted at LPC. He meanwhile makes the common yet baseless claim that “Islamophobia” forms a well-funded “powerful industry,” while the “anti-Islamophobia side does not pay quite as well” for individuals like him.
Contrastingly, in Green’s estimation Islamic belief seemingly can cause no harm, as he rejects “misconceptions” that “sharia law is somehow incompatible with democracy or with the West.” “The overwhelming majority of Muslims” globally “really are trying to practice their religion that helps them and their fellow human beings flourish,” he has argued. At LPC he added that “I hate the language of ‘radical Islamic terrorism’” and its “simplistic understanding that Islam programs people to be violent.”
Islamic rule past and present thus raises few concerns for Green while he condemns the United States for having supported dictators like Iran’s shah. Like many academics, he whitewashes Islam’s often brutal, subjugated “status of dhimmis or protected minorities” for non-Muslims, stating that “for much of the history of Islam Christians and Jews were protected and lived in peace with Muslims.” Today Americans in the Middle East should “be very consistent when it comes to supporting democratic movements, even if that means risking losing an alliance with an autocratic government,” irrespective of such “democratic” results in 1979 Iran and 2011 Egypt.
More often than not, non-Muslims draw Green’s criticism. Writing in Sojourners, he approved of President Barack Obama’s regurgitation of the common canard that the Crusades were unjustified aggression, not a just war defensive response to jihadist conquests. “Obama did his best at the National Prayer Breakfast in February [2015] to address the legacy of violence carried out in the name of Christianity.” Green also has falsely relativized that the “Bible has its fair share of violent texts” along with the Quran, thereby ignoring fundamental differences between violent verses in these two scriptures.
Green’s Huffington Post writings betray a less than stirring defense of free speech against jihadist censorship. Geller and Spencer’s 2015 Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, where security guards killed two Muslim assailants, merely exemplified “hate rallies that engage in Muslim-bashing under the pretense of defending freedom of speech.” Reviewing Iran’s 1989 blasphemy death sentence for British writer Salman Rushdie, Green mused that “minorities rarely have possessed the same opportunities to shape public opinion as those with political power or cultural capital.” Therefore, “Rushdie and some of his more outspoken supporters adopted a fairly uncritical approach to freedom of expression, assuming at times that this freedom benefits all members of Western societies equally.”
For Green, individual relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims are the antidote to what he has called a “perfect storm of Islamophobia” in a French television interview. He laments supposedly skewed media representations emphasizing Islam’s violence while “there simply are not enough strong relationships in the West between Muslims who are in the minority and the non-Muslim majority.” As one venue for interfaith outreach, he advocates the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)-derived Muslim Students Association (MSA), which he addressed in 2010 at Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University.
One of Green’s book interviewees, Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, currently under fire for his anti-Israel statements and extremists Islamist affiliations, presents for Green the kind of Muslim people should befriend. “If you have a really jaded, negative view of politicians and think that they are intellectually disengaged, you should have a conversation with Keith Ellison, and you will change your mind,” Green has stated about the Minnesota representative. Accordingly, Green’s wife and fellow leftist, Tabita, has written about how he took Luther College students from their Iowa campus on a field trip to Ellison’s Minneapolis mosque, where the radical imam Siraj Wahaj has been a featured speaker. Tabita also noted that the field trip included a visit to the Minnesota chapter of the Hamas-derived Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “to learn about their civil rights work.”
Green’s tweets round out his Islamist sympathies. In one, he calls the radical, anti-Semitic Woman’s March on Washington organizer Linda Sarsour a “shining star in the battle against racism and bigotry” and therefore “#ImarchwithLinda.” In another, his CAIR and MSA affiliations apparently make him worry that “[d]esignating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist org. will open the door to witch hunts aimed @ Muslim civil liberties groups.”
Yet even Green recognizes that interfaith relations with Muslims are not without their pitfalls. “You want to see a nonstarter happen,” he has indicated in his various appearances, including at LPC, then introduce the subject of “Palestine” between Jews and Muslims. Before tackling such hot topics, he recommends that interfaith groups undertake noncontroversial community projects like Habitat for Humanity homebuilding; “I tend to prefer more organic relationships to evolve,” he has stated. Apparently then, Jewish legal legend Alan Dershowitz should build a house with Ellison before deciding to leave the Democratic Party if he becomes the Democratic National Committee chairman.
Reality belies Green’s “getting to know you” thesis in which individual relationships with Muslims dispel reservations towards Islam that actually come from the faith’s hard facts, not imagined prejudice. Numerous Christians from Muslim-majority countries have impressed upon this author Islam’s oppressive nature towards non-Muslims, even though these individuals lack no opportunity to meet Muslims as Green bemoans in the United States. Likewise Europe’s significantly larger Muslim populations, recently increased by an influx of “refugees,” have done little to improve Islam’s popularity.
The arguments of Green, who by self-admission is by training a student of American and European religious history, not Islamic studies, might impress his fellow leftists as indicated by his largely positive reception at LPC. Paralleling the Obama Administration’s State Department, LPC has made an appeal to “Actively Support the Boycott of Products Made in Israeli Settlements” and is pro-LGBT. Yet individuals like James Lafferty, head of Christians Against Radical Islam (CARI), indicated during audience questions why skepticism is warranted. He recalled a local presentation 25 years ago by Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam once feted as a Muslim “moderate” and later killed in Yemen as an Al Qaeda supporter by a 2011 American drone strike. “He said many times exactly the same words I have heard tonight,” Lafferty noted.
______________________________________________________
 THE FEAR OF ISLAM BY TODD GREEN:
 
 

TRUMP ORDERS "A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY & PLANS FOR THE DEFEAT OF ISIS"

 
TRUMP ORDERS "A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY & PLANS FOR THE DEFEAT OF ISIS"
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 What is refreshing about this Memorandum is that it doesn’t contain what
 it certainly would have contained in the previous administration: a 
clause or two about how the Islamic State (which is actually the name of
 the group, not the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is perverting the 
great, noble, peaceful religion of Islam. This statement doesn’t say 
anything about whether or not the Islamic State is Islamic, which is 
just as it should be: the President of the United States is not and need
 not be the nation’s Chief Theologian. The motivating of the ideology of
 the enemy needs to be identified, discussed, and countered; no 
declaration of whether or not it is actually Islamically correct is 
needed from the U.S. government.
 
“Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” White House, January 28, 2017:
NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM – 3
MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT
THE SECRETARY OF STATE
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OF STAFF
THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR
NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS
THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF
SUBJECT: Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is not the only threat from radical Islamic terrorism that the United States faces, but it is among the most vicious and aggressive. It is also attempting to create its own state, which ISIS claims as a “caliphate.” But there can be no accommodation or negotiation with it. For those reasons I am directing my Administration to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS.
ISIS is responsible for the violent murder of American citizens in the Middle East, including the beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, as well as the death of Kayla Mueller. In addition, ISIS has inspired attacks in the United States, including the December 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, and the June 2016 attack in Orlando, Florida. ISIS is complicit in a number of terrorist attacks on our allies in which Americans have been wounded or killed, such as the November 2015 attack in Paris, France, the March 2016 attack in Brussels, Belgium, the July 2016 attack in Nice, France, and the December 2016 attack in Berlin, Germany.
ISIS has engaged in a systematic campaign of persecution and extermination in those territories it enters or controls. If ISIS is left in power, the threat that it poses will only grow. We know it has attempted to develop chemical weapons capability. It continues to radicalize our own citizens, and its attacks against our allies and partners continue to mount. The United States must take decisive action to defeat ISIS.
Sec. 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States that ISIS be defeated.
Sec. 2. Policy Coordination. Policy coordination, guidance, dispute resolution, and periodic in-progress reviews for the functions and programs described and assigned in this memorandum shall be provided through the interagency process established in National Security Presidential Memorandum – 2 of January 28, 2017 (Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council), or any successor.
(i) Development of a new plan to defeat ISIS (the Plan) shall commence immediately.
(ii) Within 30 days, a preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS shall be submitted to the President by the Secretary of Defense.
(iii) The Plan shall include:
(A) a comprehensive strategy and plans for the defeat of ISIS;
(B) recommended changes to any United States rules of engagement and other United States policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of international law regarding the use of force against ISIS;
(C) public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies to isolate and delegitimize ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology;
(D) identification of new coalition partners in the fight against ISIS and policies to empower coalition partners to fight ISIS and its affiliates;
(E) mechanisms to cut off or seize ISIS’s financial support, including financial transfers, money laundering, oil revenue, human trafficking, sales of looted art and historical artifacts, and other revenue sources; and
(F) a detailed strategy to robustly fund the Plan.
(b) Participants. The Secretary of Defense shall develop the Plan in collaboration with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
(c) Development of the Plan. Consistent with applicable law, the Participants identified in subsection (b) of this section shall compile all information in the possession of the Federal Government relevant to the defeat of ISIS and its affiliates. All executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, promptly comply with any request of the Participants to provide information in their possession or control pertaining to ISIS. The Participants may seek further information relevant to the Plan from any appropriate source.
(d) The Secretary of Defense is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register
DONALD J. TRUMP
 

JOHN MACARTHUR ON THE REFORMATION: A LESSON ABOUT HERESY & THE POWER OF TRUTH

 
JOHN MACARTHUR ON THE REFORMATION: 
A LESSON ABOUT HERESY & THE POWER OF TRUTH
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
This is THE year.   2017.  So many have been awaiting its arrival with anticipation, with hope, with a desire to see history repeat itself.  And NO. It isn’t about some eternally unimportant temporal American election.
It’s about the explosion of truth … God’s Truth … across the planet. It’s about when Truth was unshackled from a millennium of virtual bondage in a blasphemous prison built by the apostate hands of man.   It’s about not a mere celebration of a historical event – the Reformation – it’s about praising God for giving bold, historic evidence of his claim in Psalm 138:2:
You have exalted above all things
your name and your word. Psalm 138:2
The Reformation serves as providential, temporal, historic evidence that His Name and His Word will always remain unfettered by the prideful whims of man and unshadowed by the efforts of a God-hating enemy. Utterances from the truthful lips of God (Proverbs 12:19) remain forever.
The Reformation was a providential movement of God, protecting His Truth and thereby extending grace to the undeserving world. Its’ fruit has, as of this year, continued to bless the world for five hundred years.
But, though we know the many warnings of end-time diversions off the narrow path and how the church will increasingly be plagued with false teachers and false gospels, the true church – not the superficial one – prays for another reformation.
We want another reformation that brings to the modern church what the Reformation brought to the 16th-century one – the restoration of God’s Name and God’s Word to their rightful, exalted place. We want that preached in our pulpits and taught in our Sunday school rooms. We want THAT Truth to be the visible image of the church to an onlooking world. And we want that Truth to be proclaimed, defended and contended, so that the elect hearts of men may be saved by it. We want that Truth blasted across an increasingly depraved world because THAT Truth gives glory to Jesus, the Lord and the Savior.
But the modern superficial church – the one most unbelievers think of when they think about “church” – is light years away from the authentic light of God’s Word, though that Word is so often merely a fingertip away. False teaching is rampant because the Word goes unheeded. Error is hurled, tolerated, and endorsed with ever greater ferocity because sound doctrine is ignored. Deception continues WITHIN the church as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 5:19) appealingly deludes with unsound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3) imprisoning men’s minds in strongholds of darkness. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
On his daily Grace To You Radio broadcast today, John MacArthur prefaced his message with a quick look at two particular lessons from the Reformation. These studio comments come ahead of the rebroadcast of his message, Is Jesus The Only Way?
Here’s what Dr. MacArthur had to say:
“I think there are a couple of things that come out of the Reformation that are just really profound, far-reaching lessons.”
“The first one is that error, heresy, false Christianity can survive for a very long time. It can not only survive, it can actually be a dominant force in society. That is exactly what happened for a thousand years in the development of Roman Catholicism.”
“If you think that there’s not a powerful, massive, embedded force for heresy, for a corrupted Gospel and a corrupted church, alive and well in the world, you don’t know history.”
“Error is always seeking to be permanently embedded and given a kind of dignity, a kind of acceptability, a kind of prominence in the world. And that’s what happened for a thousand years in the development of the Roman Catholic Church.”
“The other thing that comes out of the Reformation is this … that as profoundly embedded as evil is for such a long time and through tens of thousands of people, God can use one person as He did Martin Luther – or two or three – to literally bring the Truth.”
“That’s something we ought to pray for even today.”
There’s really only one thing that can be said to this … AMEN.
 

HERESY-NEUTICS: A REVIEW OF "DESTINED TO WIN" BY KRIS VALLOTTON

 
HERESY-NEUTICS: 
A REVIEW OF "DESTINED TO WIN" 
BY KRIS VALLOTTON 
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Destined To Win: How To Embrace Your God-Given Identity And Realize Your Kingdom Purpose
Author: Kris Vallotton
Foreword: Lisa Bevere
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 3, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0718080645 / ISBN-13: 978-0718080648

The endorsements alone are enough to warrant a “Warning: Heretical & Hermeneutical Danger Ahead” notice on its cover.  With glowing endorsements from the likes of “apostle” Mike Bickle, Jesus Culture founder Banning Liebscher, Ted Dekker, Che Ahn, Heidi Baker, and Shawn Bolz, there is little doubt that Destined To Win is borne of a “wide path” false theology.  Add the obligatory laudation from Vallotton’s cohort in charlatanry, Bill Johnson – whom Vallotton compares to Moses – and the assurance that the book will distort and defile the truth of God is more manifest than fake Holy Ghost gold dust blowing through Bethel Church’s air ducts.
Kris Vallotton, the author of this “everything God does is about you” tome, is the “senior associate leader of Bethel Church and co-founder of Bethel School of Ministry, where he has served with Bill Johnson for more than three decades.”  This just goes to prove that one can spend decades in the “Jesus biz,” presumably surrounded by Bibles, (serving primarily as visual aids to prop up the “Christianized” illusion of Bethel’s otherwise heretical endeavors) and still not apprehend Biblical truth.  As Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”  (John 3:7)
Source: Bethel School Of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) Website: http://bssm.net/
school/academics/
Oh, and it is noteworthy that the book’s bio makes references to the “Bethel School of Ministry” when actually it’s the “Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.”  It’s where, if you’re devoid of authentic Christian doctrinal understanding, you go to be anointed and receive an “impartation” in order to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.  I’m not sure if “grave-sucking” – for which Bethel is notorious – is part of the core curricula or if it’s an a la carte elective. Anway, the book curiously downplays the “supernatural” element and adjective to Vallotton and Bethel’s frolics in falsehood.
Another – perhaps surprising – endorsement comes from Eric Metaxas, the Greek Orthodox, Yale-graduated author of some recent, more mainstream books of a Christian slant. (His bio on Bonhoeffer won a Christian Book of the Year award) He may have been tapped with an invite to endorse in order to give Vallotton and Bethel a more cultured, dignified, mainstream appeal.
“Vallotton’s faith is contagious.  That’s the point.  Read this book and catch it.”  Eric Metaxas
Frankly, if you’re a believer, you’d be safer waltzing into a CDC ebola biohazard lab in your birthday suit than to risk catching any of Bethel’s toxic spiritual microbes.  What was it our Lord said?  “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  (Matthew 10:28)  Spiritually cavorting with the toxins of Vallotton may not kill your body, and though the subtle incubation period of Bethel’s lethal virus may seem temporally-appealing, the full-blown contagion is eternally terminal.
 
Consider Mark Batterson’s endorsement.  You know Batterson from circle-praying false-teaching fame.  He said, “Destined To Win gives readers a proactive plan to deal with the true, deep needs of their souls.”  Well clearly, the capacity for discernment from a guy who actually believes that Christianizing spirit-summoning prayer techniques from the world of witchcraft are legitimate ought not require much Berean examination to be summarily dismissed.  Following Batterson’s method, you end up with an unbiblical technique that leaves the “circle” of truth broken, shattered, and its practitioners spiritually comatose.  Little wonder he’s endorsed a book that offers much the same fare.
Vollotton’s book opens with a Foreword penned by pastrix and fellow Bethel charlatan Lisa Bevere.  Well … it was possibly penned by her.  She promotes some sort of Holy Spirit automatic writing so it’s possible that she’s claimed somewhere that she actually didn’t write it.  But, given the glowing words it contains, it’s a certainty that the Holy Spirit didn’t automatically – or accidentally – write it.  God does not use charlatans to endorse charlatans, nor does He do it Himself. Had the Holy Spirit actually aided Bevere, His Words would doubtlessly have had a much more first-century, Biblical ring to them … something more like … “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”  (2 Timothy 4:3)
(Just a rabbit trail here before proceeding. While this may be common sense to many folks, I’ve encountered many who don’t do it. Pay close attention to who is endorsing a book. I generally will read every endorsement before I’ll even read the dust-jacket or back-cover synopsis of the book. If a single known false teacher – or, as in this case, enough of them to make a baseball team – endorses a book, then it most surely ought to be avoided. Charlatans are not asked to endorse the works of Biblically responsible authors,and vice-versa. You’ll not find a toothy-grinned Osteen giving a gleaming review on a work of John MacArthur. And you won’t find R. C. Sproul endorsing Jesus Calling.  It’s a useful practice to employ in order to avoid unhelpful books by unfamiliar authors.)
IF THE ENDORSEMENTS DON’T WARN YOU OFF, THE MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY SHOULD
The modern superficial Christian church echoes so much of the post-modernism of culture around it (or, more correctly and more often, that culture isn’t just echoed, it’s invited in to “take a pew and enjoy the show.”)   It disregards absolute truth. It doesn’t do the diligent work to comprehend, teach, and preach what accords with sound doctrine, instead opting to promote the popular, the appealing, and all things that tend to fill pews, sell books, and keep coffers brimming.  It’s far more important for the church to have hipster appeal in a Youtube video than it is for it to offer the faith-maturing truth of God’s Word for the souls of authentic sheep.  Such is the case with anything coming out of Bethel Church.
Though the superficial church has largely jettisoned adherence to any absolutes of Biblical doctrine, Vallotton’s book hawks the one persistent, but false, absolute that remains ecclesiastically pervasive.   What is that one absolute? That nothing in all of creation is more important than you. That God wakes up every morning fixated on how to make your dreams, hopes, and desires come to fruition. That He wants to you be actualized, to be anointed, to be imparted some supernatural empowerment to achieve your dreams.
“God is all about you!   I don’t mean you are all He has; I just mean you are His favorite.” Kris Vallotton
Scripture, though, teaches a rather different exalted One.
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” God the Father, Matthew 17:5
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Paul, writing of the “beloved Son,” Romans 11:36
But Destined To Win is less high-pressure with its emphasis on the supernatural than Vollotton’s previous tomes. (He’s currently got 20 titles listed on the Bethel Church store website.) This latest volume doesn’t carry the same charismatic tone as, say, Developing A Supernatural Life: A Practical Guide To A Life of Signs, Wonders, and Miracles. Published in 2007, the marketing hype for that book proposed to find Vallotton reaching “into God’s arsenal” to equip the reader with supernatural weapons that will “catapult you into your divine destiny.”
His 2016 volume, Heavy Rain, finds Vallotton offering “guidance and inspiration … to become a vessel that catches the downpour of the Spirit’s rain – and helps release God’s Kingdom like a flood.” The 2014 text by Vallotton, Basic Training For the Prophetic Ministry, is hawked as a resource to help “all believers to operate in prophetic ministry.” In it, one will presumably “learn the languages of God and hear His voice like never before,” how to “discover and develop your prophetic gifts,” as he helps one to “step out and confidently share words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy.”
Though he has certainly not recanted the charismatic false teachings from his earlier books, Vollotton has toned them down in Destined To Win. You’ll still find such notions as anointing, impartation, and Holy Spirit “gifts” mentioned throughout the text.  Yet their mentions are subtle but no less dangerously toxic to authentic faith.  The book maintains more muted undercurrents of NAR dominionist theology (God’s kingdom being made manifest on earth by your God-empowered success) as well as a smattering of the “little gods” teaching from the prosperity gospel.  Shades of covetousness for the supernaturally miraculous are persistent in the book, unlike the importance of sound doctrine which is absent.
“I dream of a day when the people of God are so filled with the Spirit of God that by the Word of God we calm storms, stop earthquakes and reconcile warring nations. I envision a time not too far into the future when tens of millions of believers unleash heaven wherever they go and thereby shift the atmospheres of nations.” Kris Vallotton
Destined To Win is much like a plagiarized and expanded outline of power point slides from a rah-rah, pump-you-up, you-can-do-it self-help pep rally from some soap-selling pyramid scheme seminar. It’s alleged to be a “how-to” book on getting “actualized” (a New Age notion, perhaps, but not a Biblical one), to operate as a leader in your divine capacity in God’s kingdom.
Vallotton gives an inane evidence for why God wants you – and everyone else – to understand that “You are destined to win!”
“We don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads,” he says, “because we weren’t designed to back up, retreat, or lose ground.” “Our arms were created to only work in front of us,” he writes and, “our feet point forward and are incapable of swiveling rearward.” What’s all this anatomical reality mean? “It’s all a sign of our Creator’s desire for us to gain ground and to live successful, productive lives. God is our rear guard and we are to face forward.”
God is our rear guard?   Jesus never taught that. In fact, far from even implying that “God’s got your back,” he said the exact opposite, “Follow me.” (Matthew 8:22, Matthew 9:9, Matthew 19:21, Mark 1:17, Mark 10:21, Luke 5:27, John 1:43, John 21:22)  Not only that, but Jesus clarified “follow me” even further: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) Now that’s worrisome. How am I supposed to have my “best life now” a la Vallotton if, according to Jesus, I might be dead? Somebody’s wrong …  and it is not the Son of God.
“I long to see people fully actualized in a way that causes them to embrace their God-given identities and fulfill their divine purpose.”  Kris Vallotton
In order to achieve your destiny, posits Vallotton, you must realize that you can only accomplish the task – be actualized in it – by
Kris Vallotton
knowing who your peeps are. You’re the leader and your identity, your divine destiny, is tied to your followers.   “It’s impossible to escape the fact that our destinies lie in our people,” writes Vallotton.  Elsewhere he says that “you can’t find your purpose until you have found your people, because your ultimate purpose is in your people!”  By comparison, the Apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ.”  (Philippians 1:21)
SCRIPTURE IS CITED, BUT HERESY-NEUTICS IS APPLIED
To substantiate this claim with Scripture – which itself is not heralded as the place for a believer to go to find their purpose – Vallotton, citing Acts 9:27, says, “Think about it: would Paul have become an apostle if Barnabas hadn’t ‘taken hold of him’ when he was still young in the faith?”
This fails the basic rule of hermeneutics: context rules. Barnabas was “taking hold” of Paul AFTER the Lord’s dramatic interruption of his Damascus road trek. By the time Barnabas took hold of him, Paul (then Saul) had already been chosen by the risen Lord. Barnabas was merely taking him to the Jerusalem disciples who were wary of the well-known former persecutor of the Way. Barnabas testified on Paul’s behalf, but Barnabas’ actions didn’t “make” Paul an apostle.  The Lord had already chosen him.  But this contextual fact was in the way of Vallotton’s narrative.
No doubt it’s this sort of disregard for “rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)– consistent throughout the book – that prompts Vallotton to suggest that the work of the Holy Spirit might more appropriately be credited to Barnabas:
“It’s possible that Barnabas inspired Paul to write as many as thirteen books of the Bible.”   Kris Vallotton
Possible encouragement aside, Paul did not write because of Barnabas; he wrote because the Holy Spirit prompted him to.
But Barnabas didn’t pose the only hermeneutical challenge for Vallotton. So did the “heart.” In the book’s second chapter, the author proceeds to lay out the solution to all the ills of the world, and a truth necessary for us to succeed. He says, “I am convinced that wars would cease, crime would plummet, divorce would diminish, and immorality would fall if the human race just experienced these three words: you are loved!”
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
Vallotton’s not merely hyping Arminianistic salvation here. He’s towing with a twist the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” false gospel.   He’s promoting a sort of universalism in which the depravity of man suddenly vanishes not because of  Gospel-born regeneration, but if and when the “truth” of God’s love “stored in their heads” makes the “eighteen-inch journey to their hearts.” Citing Proverbs 3:5, Vallotton states that “I am convinced that your heart can take you places your head can never go.”
“‘Mind’ and ‘spirit’ in man communicate with one another.  It is a false dichotomy contrary to the scriptural teaching about man that suggests that  man’s ‘spirit’ (pneuma) is an irrational, purely emotional aspect of man, while his ‘mind’ (nous) refers to his reasoning abilities.” O. Palmer Robertson, The Final Word
This false – but culturally and ecclesiastically prevalent – dichotomy of heart and mind may be dismissed to read further what is being posited.   Referring to the verse from Proverbs, Vallotton asks, “Did you just notice the wisest man in the world clearly said that we must trust God with our hearts, not our heads? In fact, he went on to say that we shouldn’t put a lot of weight on what we understand.”  We can be certain that Vallotton’s gleaning from Proverbs is completely erroneous because the Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture never inspired anything in it that is self-refuting, as the Apostle Paul does with Vallotton’s interpretation.  Writing to the Colossians, Paul emphasized learning and knowing and understanding as paramount to faith, not thoughtless, heart-driven emotionalism.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,  so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”  Colossians 1:9-10
But Vollotton is somewhat of a Proverb-ial bi-polar. Some 70 pages later he cites another Proverb that refutes the very “follow your heart” point he made earlier: “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)
In providing a “guide” to help readers achieve their God-given destinies, which can only be found once they’ve found their “people,” Vallotton takes a different tack on an age old technique of Biblical interpretation.  Instead of hermeneutics, you might consider what he does more akin to heresy-neutics.  Vallotton doesn’t encourage readers to play Bible roulette, randomly opening Scripture, pointing to a verse, and interpreting it as a valid, imminent revelation for their lives.  He’s not suggesting random verse-plucking for personal gain.  Instead, he recommends parable-plucking.
“Discovering which descriptions of the Kingdom you most resonate with and then finding others who resonate with the same aspects of the Kingdom will help you find your people,” he writes.  “I suggest you reread all the parables of Jesus in light of this revelation and pay attention to the ones you relate to the most.”
Kris Vallotton and The Pope
Well, charlatans for centuries have been doing this very thing with Scripture.  (Rome, for example, has constructed a massive religious empire through this practice.) It’s been treated as a self-help smorgasbord of pithy witticisms ever since the canon was closed.  Convenient, personally embraceable nuggets of Scriptural wisdom are often subjectively selected and placed on the cafeteria tray of our preferential beliefs, while the more difficult, unpalatable lessons from the Word are left untouched (and often unserved by the attendant pastors of the church who prefer to offer only a menu of nutrition-void, Scriptural feel-good food to their “flocks.”) Vallotton does the same here.  Find what you like, embrace that, find like-minded folks, and skip the rest.
Vallotton serves up various parables as examples of how someone might search for clues to their divine purpose through resonating characteristics from within the parables.  He cites  Matthew 13:33, the parable of the leaven, as examples of people “hidden in society” who are “doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways.”  Their “good works” are “secretly causing society to rise.”  If you resonate with this, you must find others who also want to be “stealthy in society” as cultural influencers.
Perhaps you’re more attracted to Matthew 13:45-46, the story of the merchant who found a pearl of great value and who sold all he had to acquire it.  That could mean you are a risk-taker.  “Maybe the risk-taker in you connects with a Kingdom that has embarked on an exhilarating and dangerous journey…”
Or maybe you’re more the “fishers of men” type, exhibited in Matthew 13:47.  “Does your soul long to capture the hearts of people and inspire them to join the kingdom of heaven? … Then there is a strong possibility that these desires should guide your destiny.” Yet “maybe you relate more to the business side of God,” suggests Vallotton, who cites Matthew 20:1.  “As the Lord unfolds the parable of the landowner, the challenges of his business, and the descriptions of his employees, you find yourself basking in His insights and wondering at his wisdom.  If this is true about you, then these aspirations are signs that you may have found your people.”
“Take care then how you hear”  Jesus, Luke 8:18
This technique for identifying your personal “resonances” with Scripture, to thus be enabled to seek your like-minded peeps in order to find your destiny, graphically violates the apostle’s admonition to Timothy to “rightly handle” Scripture.  It fails to heed the Lord’s warning to “take care then how you hear.”
The parables of Jesus are fundamentally intended to convey profound spiritual truth.  As John MacArthur writes, “Parables are not to be mined for layer upon layer of secret significance.  Their lessons are simple, focused, and without much embellishment.”  “If it seems,” writes MacArthur in his book Parables, “the stories Jesus told are capable of endless interpretations and therefore devoid of any discernible objective meaning, that’s because truly understanding them requires faith, diligence, careful exegesis, and a genuine desire to hear what Christ is saying.”  MacArthur adds, “…all unbelievers lack that capacity.”
Vollotton goes to lengths to emphasize finding your destiny by finding your people.  He describes in some detail the organization of Bethel and how creating the proper “environment” for the pursuit of your divine destiny is critical.  “An environment helps to actualize a specific people group with a specific vision,” he writes.  “One of the difficulties in becoming fully actualized occurs when you find yourself in a community that doesn’t have the capacity or vision to collaborate your calling.”
The latter third or so of the book offers superficial and euphemistic encouragements for accelerating your actualization into your peep-found destiny.  “Too many of us are spiritual mummies,” he suggests, comparing to Lazarus who emerged from the tomb “alive but bound.”  To get unbound, you have to confront pain and proceed to freedom.  Later he offers “five foundational questions” that “are meant to help you process and proactively evaluate the structures [your environment and its accouterments] with which you are currently living, so you can determine whether they are empowering or constraining you.”
His five closing questions, “Who is leading?” – “Who are the people you are leading?” – “In what season are you leading?” – “What are you called to accomplish in this season?” – “What core values are guiding you in life in leadership?” – each are bullet-points supported by yet other related questions.  These subjective queries are simply fodder for Christianized psycho-babble self-analysis. They are not in response to the important apostolic exhortation to “Examine yourself,” (2 Corinthians 13:5) but are posed to put you in the position to be the winner God expects and wants you to be.
The words “vision,” “hard-work,” “courage,” and adjectives consistent with self-help pop psychology are strewn liberally throughout the book, spiritualized, of course.  Vallotton couches them with Scripture to provide an appearance of Christianity and slathers the book with Bible verses so that a veneer of divine authority seems superficially evident.  The “supernatural” elements of his – and Bethel’s – well-known, errant theology are present in the book, but only subtly.  For example, he cites direct revelations he or his wife have received from God.  (For example, God told Vallotton’s wife they should move and take a job offer with Bethel.  God told Vallotton that he should make a lifelong covenant with Bill Johnson.)
For the minimal importance that genuine salvation matters in the book, the closing chapter – “Unleashing Heaven” – includes a passing remark reflective of the less-than-sovereign God well known to the prosperity-gospel and much of the modern church, “What I mean is that when you asked Jesus into your heart, you joined the Bless Me Club, because wherever Jesus lives, He prospers.”  But this magic genie “God” does not exist and does not save.  And authentic salvation isn’t winning the golden ticket to Bless-Me-Land; rather, it’s “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24)
The closing section of the book offers a self-scoring “Nobility Assessment Test,” to “help you get a better picture of where you are in your lifelong journey to nobility,” writes Vallotton, adding that, “You are called to be a noble person, a winner, and a champion.” While it is true that we are adopted into God’s family, the full realization of that relationship will not be known on this side of eternity.  While we’re here, it is not the pursuit of supernatural nobility or supernatural gifts or supernatural self-actualization that is to drive us, but rather obedience to Christ in His Word.  (John 14:21)
The Apostle Peter reminds his readers, and us, what our life’s aim ought truly look like, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  (1 Peter 1:16)
Destined To Win is merely poorly Christianized pop-psychology motivational fodder.  It is absolutely not worthwhile reading for a believer.  The only thing going for it is that for heresy-neutics, it’s a worthy example.
 

LANCE WALLNAU & A TRUMP PROPHECY: FORETELLING BY MISHANDLING SCRIPTURE

LANCE WALLNAU & A TRUMP PROPHECY: 
FORETELLING BY MISHANDLING SCRIPTURE
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 https://brucegerencser.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/lance-wallnau.jpg
Lance Wallnau: Picture of The NAR’s Seven Mountains False Theology
 https://kingthunder.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/7m.jpg?w=464&h=316
In early 2016, false teacher and hurler of New Apostolic Reformation seven-mountains dominionism, Lance Wallnau got an “impression,” an “impression” from the Holy Spirit.  It was about Donald Trump, specifically about Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of The United States.  It was about Donald Trump being raised up by God just as He raised up Cyrus for His purposes.
By October 2016, Wallnau’s “impression” became a full-blown “prophecy.”  Of course, keep in mind that when a prophecy has a coin-flip toss of being right, it’s “fore-telling” impact is more than slightly diminished, even if revelatory prophecy were still occuring today. (It is not.  FYI.)
According to Charisma Newswhich, believe it or don’t, isn’t a parody site; people actually believe it – Wallnau was reinforced in his Trump prophecy by way of a couple of curious “divine” insights.  Here’s what the Charisma News writer said:
“Wallnau told me he had an impression when he first met Donald Trump early this year that there was an anointing on him. He didn’t understand the impression since he preferred Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina. Then he saw a meme on Facebook showing Trump as the nation’s 45th president. About the same time, he felt the Lord tell him to read Isaiah 45, which says King Cyrus who is called the Lord’s “anointed” and later in the chapter says, “I have even called you by your name … though you have not known Me.”  (Source)
But wait.  Like a bad Sham-wow infomercial, there’s more!
“Wallnau then told me he felt he heard the Lord tell him “common grace,” and he found the term in a Charles Colson book. It was a term the Reformers used to contrast “saving grace,” when there was a basic understanding of God that influenced governments and societies even though the people who had this common grace might not have experienced “saving grace.”  (Source)
(Guess what?  There’s a term I found in a book too.  “False teacher.”  Found it in the Bible.  Far more weighty than a Colson text. FYI.)
But, for Wallnau, it adds up, huh?  Wallnau didn’t support Trump early on.  Then he saw a meme.  Then he “felt the Lord tell him to read Isaiah 45.”   Then the Lord said the words “common grace” to him.  And, wah-la Wallnau!  A prophecy.
The tipping point of authentication?  Not the voice of God.  (If Wallnau heard anything, it wasn’t God.)  The adjudicating validation for his prophetic claim was … SCRIPTURE.  But, not Scripture rightly handled.  (2 Timothy 2:15)  It was Scripture thoroughly “mis-handled” that was the prophetic key.
Wallnau explains:
“With 15 candidates running, many who were clear conservative evangelicals, why would God be talking about Cyrus? I quickly looked up the number of the next president. I confirmed that Barack Obama is number 44. The next president will indeed be number 45. I kept reading Isaiah 45.”  (Source)
If only we could insert mood lighting and drama-building sound effects when we write, you might apprehend how absolutely incredible this revelation is.  It’s big.  It’s huge.  Wallnau predicted, with the accuracy of a coin toss, the outcome of the election … based on Scripture.
Trump is the 45th President.  The “Cyrus” effect is found in … Isaiah 45.  Who said America isn’t the new Israel?  (I jest, of course.)
There’s just one problem with this.  Though we have them now, the original Holy Spirit-inspired, Hebrew Scriptures didn’t have chapter divisions. There was no Isaiah 45.  It seems like the Lord might’ve used some method other than Bible-chapter bingo to confirm his prophecy to Wallnau.
What if Wallnau accidentally misunderstood?  What if it wasn’t Isaiah 45 he was to read, but Jeremiah 45?  I mean, it’s just one book after Isaiah.  If it was actually Jeremiah that Wallnau should’ve read, America could be in for quite a shock.  Instead of “Wah-la Wallnau,” it could easily be “Woe, Wallnau.
“Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land.  And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 45:4-5
Now, I’m not making any prophecies or anything, but Jeremiah 45 sure seems close to what Americans are seeking via Trump … “do you seek great things for yourself?”  What, again, was Trump’s campaign motto?  Make America Great Again.  Hmm.
Scripture itself is evidence that God is not seeking to hide Himself or His Truth from the world.  We need not (and SHOULD NOT) play games with it to rationalize our desires or to justify presumed (and false) prophetic claims.  We need to “abide” in the Word, (John 8:31) to apprehend its full truth, to be compelled to full obedience to it, and to learn from it the assurance we can have because we have an utterly sovereign God.
Beware the false prophets of the NAR who abuse God’s Word.  Skip the spurious Cyrus prophecies.  But, if you’re looking for a genuine revelation, pick up that Word and start reading.  It’s the entire revelation of God that reveals “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).
And God … He doesn’t play bingo with His Word.  Don’t tolerate, then, those who do.

PATRIOT NURSE: THE VIOLENT UNRAVELING OF THE LEFT

PATRIOT NURSE: THE VIOLENT UNRAVELING 
OF THE LEFT
SEE ALSO:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/01/convicted-felon-womens-march-featured-female-speaker-kidnapped-raped-tortured-man/;
EXCERPT:
 
From The Daily Caller:
Hylton, along with three men and three other women, kidnapped 62-year-old real-estate broker Thomas Vigliarolo and held him for ransom, before eventually killing him. As noted in a 1995 Psychology Today article, when asked about forcibly sodomizing the victim with a three foot steel pole, Hylton replied: “He was a homo anyway.”
Speaking about Hylton, New York City Detective William Spurling told Psychology Today: “I couldn’t believe this girl who was so intelligent and nice-looking could be so unemotional about what she was telling me she and her friends had done. They’d squeezed the victim’s testicles with a pair of pliers, beat him, burned him.”
The Daily Caller goes on to report that Hylton even delivered the ransom note to a friend of the victim demanding $400,000 even though they had already killed him at that point.
According to the article she was sentenced to 25 years in prison although in the video below she claims she spent 27 years in prison. The amazing thing about this monster is she claims to be a victim which is one of the hall marks signs of a psychopath.
 DONNA HYLTON
 


PRO TRUMP DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII TURNS ON OBAMA'S POLICY OF ARMING ISIS

 GABBARD'S HINDU WEDDING

REP. TULSI GABBARD
 "Gabbard grew up in a multicultural, multi-religious household: her father is of Samoan and European ancestry and an active lector at his Catholic church, but also enjoys practicing mantra meditation, including kirtan. Her mother is of European descent and a practicing Hindu. Tulsi fully embraced Hinduism as a teenager."
 http://lybio.net/wp-content/uploads/Tulsi-Gabbard-Janmashtami-Message-2015.jpg
 Gabbard at the ceremony of her promotion to major 
on October 12, 2015
 
PRO TRUMP DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII TURNS ON OBAMA'S POLICY OF ARMING ISIS 
 Published on Jan 29, 2017
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard recently met with Trump, drafted the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, led a fact finding mission to Syria and met with Syria's president Bashir Al Assad. This is what leadership looks like.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...

Tulsi Gabbard Veterans Day Speech (Nov. 11, 2016)

 
Congresswoman Tells Truth! There Are No 
Moderate Rebels
 Published on Jan 31, 2017
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard went on a secret fact-finding mission to Syria and discovered that the Syrian people were telling a very different story than what the establishment media in the U.S. has been spinning.

Rather than celebrate a U.S. official going above the call of duty to see how Syria can truly find peace, Gabbard has been smeared by the establishment as someone who'd dare question Washington's (and former President Obama and his Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry) decision on how to deal with Syria.

THE "PASSION TRANSLATION" OF THE BIBLE: THE NEW APOSTATE REFORMATION VERSION

 http://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/42/455/056/1424550564.jpg
THE "PASSION TRANSLATION" OF THE BIBLE: THE NEW APOSTATE REFORMATION VERSION 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 There is a new bible translation interpretation
 … let’s just cut to the chase, it’s not even a bible. It’s a collection
 of fiction stories that have a somewhat similar theme to the Scriptures
 but adds a whole lot of personal imagination to it.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book… – Revelation 22:18 (ESV (an actual translation))
This new storybook is called The Passion Translation. It’s popular among the New Apostolic Apostate Reformation (NAR) crowd and quoted regularly by hyper-charismatic false teachers like Bill Johnson and Mike Bickle. The book was translated embellished by “Apostle” Brian Simmons, a former missionary in Panama. Brian Simmons claims that God gave him a direct divine revelation to create this embellished and highly interpreted creation that he refers to as The Passion Translation.

The Passion Translation is not a completed work, only a handful of books have been re-written and of these, they are replete with serious errors. The interpretations and imaginations that Simmons inserts into these texts, of course, support the NAR’s modern-day apostle theology. For example, in Philippians 1:1, a true translation will read as follows:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (ESV)
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (KJV)
Even the less accurate translation, the NIV, reads:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons – Philippians 1:1 (NIV)
This simple verse is translated almost identically in all of these versions because the meaning is simple enough. There is no hidden text that has been recently discovered in the ancient manuscripts (that Simmons claims to have translated from). But let’s look at how Brian Simmons embellishes this verse, then let’s see why.
My name is Paul and I’m joined by my spiritual son, Timothy, both of us passionate servants of Jesus, the Anointed One. We write this letter to all his devoted followers in your city, including your pastors, and to all the servant-leaders of the church.
Notice that Simmons is adding things to the text that simply are not found there. This is his own interpretation of the meaning of these texts. Is Jesus the anointed one? Yes, but that’s not what this text says. Were Timothy and Paul passionate servants of Jesus? Yes, but that isn’t what this text says. Further, the concept of “spiritual son” is found nowhere in this text translated here. It doesn’t exist.
But there is an ulterior motive behind this. Brian Simmons is closely tied to Bill Johnson of Bethel Church. Bill Johnson is an NAR Apostle and believes in the idea of apostolic fathering–a false teaching endorsed by Michael Brown. According to Bill Johnson, in a book edited by Dr. Bruce Cook, Aligning With The Apostolic, the concept of “apostolic fathering” is part of the core of the New Apostolic Reformation.
One of the core values of the New Apostolic Reformation movement is the principle of apostolic fathering — raising up spiritual sons and daughters. And we see that principle here with David. In [Psalm 34] verse 11 he is addressing the 400 as his spiritual children — his spiritual sons. The Hebrew word here is “ben” meaning son — one who is a builder of the family name. This is a relational term, not just a biological one. (source)
The Passion Translation consists of a number of these interpretations and additions to the text. The sole purpose of this work by Simmons is to promote the false ideology of the New Apostolic Reformation. It’s a movement that has its strongholds in the younger generation. It’s appealing because it’s accompanied by signs and wonders, ecstatic music, and mystical experiences that draw attention away from the jejuneness of sound theology normally suffered by unregenerate seekers. Empty promises of unity and love tend to be the general theme NAR gatherings and what better way to promote their false ideology than to create a crackpot version of Scripture that falsely alleges that their “apostolic authority” and theology is true.
Avoid this piece of work, and Brian Simmons, like the plague.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. — 2 Tim 4:3-5 (ESV)
_____________________________________________________

 Rekindle Your Passion for God; Brian Simmons 
at Sid Roth's "It's Supernatural":
 The Passion Translation Overview