THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
In November 2010, Richard Bennett (EX-CATHOLIC PRIEST) met John Callan, a Catholic man from Ireland. Richard explained to him our tract, "Are you right with God?" John told him that it all made great sense. He then returned to Ireland and after many telephone calls and emails he was truly saved. Then in November 2013, John desired that he be interviewed for a video on his conversion. When Richard asked John just how he had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, John simply replied, "I got rid of the Middle Man." (THE CATHOLIC PRIEST & PRIESTHOOD) Our video entails a fascinating interview. We request that you forward its URL to your family and friends.
""I am enthusiastic and optimistic about Corban University's partnership with Mars Hill Church," said Sheldon C. Nord, president of Corban University. "It is consistent with our strong desire to be 'Christian thought leaders'"
Corban University President's Greeting:
VIDEO published on Jul 24, 2013 on YouTube:
http://www.corban.edu - Corban University President Dr. Sheldon C. Nord and his wife, Jamie, talk about why Corban is special to them and their vision for Corban's future.
Dr Sheldon C Nord Inauguration Address:
VIDEO published on Oct 6, 2013:
http://www.corban.edu - Corban University President Dr. Sheldon C. Nord delivers his inaugural address during the University's inauguration ceremony held Oct. 5, 2013.
QUOTES: "It's a whole other thing to keep such a university Christian in 2013." "We will leverage current partnerships to expand and enhance opportunities for students and faculty, and to create new partnerships where training and education are needed."
From Lighthouse Trails Research is their latest update about the descent of another "Christian" university into deeper involvement in contemplative mysticism and spiritual formation which can never be biblical.
See: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=14154, reprinted in full below for educational, informational and research purposes:
Corban University of Salem, Oregon used to be called Western Baptist College. It used to be a Christian college that did not promote contemplative spirituality or the emerging church, and it used to be on the Lighthouse Trails “good” Christian colleges list (colleges that don’t promote Spiritual Formation). But that was then, and today is a new day for Corban University.
Mars Hill
Lighthouse Trails has watched the slow but steady change at Corban for the last several years, hoping it would not begin to fully engage in the Spiritual Formation movement. But a recent headline about Corban caught the attention of Lighthouse Trails editors who were compelled to respond. The headlines of that article read: “Corban University Signs Unique Partnership Agreement With Mars Hill Church.” In that article, it states:
Starting in the fall of 2014, Corban University of Salem, Ore. and Mars Hill Church will offer a 24-credit Bible certificate at the Mars Hill Bellevue, Wash. location. Classes are slated to begin in the fall of 2014.
The curriculum will include Bible and Theology Foundation, Ministry Skills Foundation, Introduction to Bible, Introduction to Theology, Christian Worldview and Apologetics, Biblical Spiritual Formation, Gospels, Bible Study Methods.
“We are anticipating a great, ongoing relationship with Mars Hill Church, pending approval of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities,” said Corban Provost Matt Lucas.
The article talks about the huge influence that Mars Hill (home to Mark Driscoll) has with “15 locations in five different states, reaching millions around the world.” Mark Driscoll has been the topic of several LT articles because of his promotion of contemplative spirituality and other emerging beliefs (see our research links and video below documenting Driscoll’s mockery of biblical eschatology related to the last days and the Lord’s return).
Lighthouse Trails first became involved with Corban University (then Western Baptist) in 2002, when it was discovered that a summer youth theater day camp being held at Corban was introducing children attending the camp to visualization techniques. An editor at Lighthouse Trails arranged a meeting with three Corban professors to explain the concerns (it so happened that one of the LT editor’s children was attending that camp). At that time, the concerns by Lighthouse Trails were dismissed by the professors as erroneous. The LT editor took that opportunity to warn Corban professors that if they did not take a pro-active stand against the contemplative prayer movement and the emerging church and make sure all of their instructors understood the dangers, in time, the school would become an adherent to these heretical teachings.
Shortly after A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen was released in the fall of 2002, Corban professor Dr. Robert Wright invited Ray to address his World Religions & Cults class. From that point on, Dr. Wright became a strong advocate for Yungen’s and Lighthouse Trails’ message and had Ray return on several subsequent years. At one point, Dr. Wright wrote an article about the emerging church, which LT carries to this day on the research site. In that article Dr. Wright called Ray Yungen a “competent researcher” of the New Age and mysticism and that “[t]he methods of contemplative prayer are the same as those used in Eastern religion.” Dr. Wright said that some ”very popular authors in the evangelical church have latched on to contemplative prayer as a way to go deeper with God.” And then he names Richard Foster and Brennan Manning. Of contemplative prayer, Dr. Wright stated:
[T]he purpose of contemplative prayer is to enter an altered state of consciousness in order to find one’s true self, thus finding God. This true self relates to the belief that man is basically good. Christian proponents of contemplative prayer teach that all human beings have a divine center and that all, not just born again believers, should practice contemplative prayer.
Unfortunately, Lighthouse Trails began to notice that not all the faculty at Corban held to the same convictions that Dr. Wright did. For instance in 2007, in Corban Magazine in an article titled “Understanding the Emerging Church Movement,” a book co-authored by contemplative author J.P. Moreland, was recommended (see page 11). The Corban article made several comments that indicated some at Corban did have a good understanding of the emerging church movement. One comment, made by Corban professor Sam Baker, echoed contemplative J.P. Moreland. Baker stated: “The extreme of rationalism is that we worship the Bible instead of the God of the Bible.” J.P. Moreland, in a Christianity Today article, says that Christians are too committed to the Bible: “In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ.”
Also in that Corban article, Sam Baker suggests we must be careful not to “throw the baby out with the bath water” when it comes to the emerging church. In regard to “mystical ancient rites,” Baker said that “some people have found these practices to be beneficial to their faith.” He says that if the practices produce good results, then they have “merit.” However, as Lighthouse Trails has often pointed out, just because one’s intent is “good” does not legitimize practices that are clearly Hinduistic and New Age in nature. Baker says that the emerging church has “stirred believers’ interest in meditation.”
In Corban’s Winter 2008 magazine the following is stated: “Dr. Kent Kersey [Corban campus pastor] brought Dan Merchant and his documentary, Lord Save Us From Your Followers, to campus as a conversation-starter. The film takes a critical look at American Christianity.” A Corban news article titled “Lord, Save Us From Your Followers’ gets ‘followers’ thinking”explains that Merchant spoke at Corban’s chapel service and later answered questions students had. “Campus Pastor Kent Kersey hoped the film would ’cause discussions.’ He deemed the event successful, therefore, because many classrooms have been abuzz since Merchant’s presentation, not to mention the informal conversations taking place.” The article said that Kersey believed “the message of the movie paralleled the maxim of St. Francis of Assisi, Preach the Gospel.” On Kersey’s blog, he says Merchant’s message is “compelling” and perhaps through it God is trying to say something to Christians.
However, the gospel Dan Merchant is promoting may be a “different gospel” and “another Jesus” (II Cor. 11:4) than that of the Bible. In the last chapter of the book Lord Save Us From Your Followers titled “The sea refuses NO RIVER,” Merchant refers to the people he interviewed over the course of the last few years. They represent many different religious, sexual, and political persuasions, including atheists and practicing homosexuals. Calling them “wonderful children of God,” he adds: “I know we’re both children of God. If they don’t know it shouldn’t change anything for me and I know it doesn’t change anything for God.”
Back in 2008, if you typed the term “Spiritual Formation” into the Corban search engine, nothing would come up. Today, the term comes up around 30 times. One of the reasons is that when Corban became a university, they developed a Masters degree programwith a concentration in Spiritual Formation. It’s in other places too, like the Major in Student and Family Ministry where TH463 Biblical Spiritual Formation is one of the courses. (Incidentally, there is no such thing as “Biblical” Spiritual Formation. Spiritual Formation is a term that is tied in with contemplative spirituality – just ask Richard Foster, a pioneer of the Spiritual Formation movement, if Spiritual Formation can exclude contemplative).
And today, a look at the Fall 2013 Corban textbook list is disheartening to say the least. Professor Kersey is using Phyllis Tickle’sThe Great Emergence, John Franke’sBarth for Arm Chair Theologians (Barth’s ideas are highly favored by the emerging church) and Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity in TH413. You can’t get more emergent than Tickle and Borg. Borg actually denies basic tenets of the Christian faith such as the virgin birth and the deity of Christ. Tickle thinks Brian McLaren could be thenext Luther. Professor Kersey also uses textbooks by John Piper, a contemplative advocate. At least one other course, IS202, is using a Piper book as well.
We did thankfully notice in the Fall 2013 textbook list that Dr. Wright is still using A Time of Departing in his World Religions & Cults Class at Corban. However, all of the books being used that are pro-contemplative, pro-emerging in other classes at Corban by other professors send a message loud and clear to Corban students that contemplative/emerging is OK. Another example is the Senior Seminar course where Professor Gilbert is using Dan Allender’s book Leading With a Limp. Allender resonates with Brian McLaren (McLaren is listed in the acknowledgements in Leading With a Limp). Gilbert also uses a book by Allender in the Group Dynamics course (To Be Told: God Invites You to Coauthor Your Future).
Corban professors may defend themselves and say they are just using these books to take the good from them and leave out the bad (following Baker’s injunction not to “throw out the baby with the bathwater”). But why do students have to be immersed in heresy to spot it? Wouldn’t reading the Word and biblically solid books do a better job? Why is it that after a decade Ray Yungen’s book is still confined to just one professor’s class? We know for a fact that a high percentage of Corban students are attending an extremely contemplative/emerging church in Salem, Oregon. These students are getting it from every direction. Do their parents, who are paying high dollars to get their children a Christian college education, realize what their kids are being exposed to at church and at college? Most of them, probably not.
The Corban Music Department has been affected by contemplative/emerging spirituality too. In MU403, a book by Constance Cherry titled The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services is being used as the textbook. Cherry is one of the faculty at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies (that should be called the Institute for EMERGING Worship Studies). The lateRobert Webber was a foundational figure in building momentum for the emerging church.
We could give many other examples to show that contemplative/emerging has taken root at Corban University. A few more are: Biblical Leadership in Education using Phil Yancey’s book, The Jesus I Never Knew; BA593 using Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive; Professor Baker in CM333 using contemplative Mark DeVries’ Sustainable Youth Ministry; CM641 using Bill Hybels Axiom; and CM501 using textbooks by contemplative Bruce Demarest (Seasons of the Soul and Four Views on Christian Spirituality).
Finally, we’ll look at a Corban class called Servant Leadership (a term largely used in the emerging church to liken Jesus to a good model or servant to follow rather than to a Savior from sin). In that particular class, a book titled The Servant: A Simple Story by James C. Hunter is the textbook. We could say many things about this book, but we’ll just point to the acknowledgements page where Hunter thanks emergent Tony Campolo and New Ager M. Scott Peck for their “skills in articulating some of the great truths of life” and “Simon, monk and archabbey librarian, St. Meinrad Monastery, St. Meinrad, Indiana for sharing “the ropes” of monastic life” with him. We find it astounding that Hunter’s book is the best Corban could do to teach students how to be good leaders. A book that thanks a Catholic Benedictine monastic monk, an emergent leader, and a New Ager for truths about life!
Lighthouse Trails editors find it nothing short of a tragedy that Corban has ended up in the contemplative minefield of Christian colleges. Now that they are partnering with Mark Driscoll, the descent into apostasy will no doubt be hastened more than ever.
Research Articles on Mark Driscoll (see video below):
Civil disobedience to common core testing is growing, as expressed by parents at Commissioner King's Common Core forum in Albany. At a recent Common Core forum in Troy, Dr. Sandra Stotsky offered civil disobedience as an honorable option.--December 18, 2013
A SLIGHT CHANGE TO A MUCH MORE PROGRESSIVE & DEVIANT PARADE
UNSUITABLE FOR CHRISTIANS &
THEIR CHILDREN
"Husbands-to-be Danny Leclair (l.) and Aubrey Loots in the office of one of their hair salons. They say they could never have imagined getting married on a float in the Tournament of Roses parade, but hope spectators will see how their relationship is no different than other people's." FROM:
TAKE ACTION: to contact Tournament of Roses organizers about celebrating homosexual perversion in the storied parade watched by countless children, call (626)449-4100 or go HERE.
CHICAGO – Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) President Peter LaBarbera offers the following seven lessons from the first-ever homosexual “wedding” float at the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena on New Year’s Day — another tragic marker of America’s moral decline.
THE HOMOSEXUAL “MARRIAGE” MOVEMENT IS EVIL: Moral-minded Americans need to face the truth of what the homosexual “marriage” movement is: a social evil – anti-Christian to the core – that celebrates what the Bible calls an egregious sexual sin as a moral good. Homosexual activists’ are desperate to “normalize” their aberrant lifestyle; their movement has become the Left’s vanguard in undermining and redefining civilized Judeo-Christian principles. The LGBT Lobby has become what historian Paul Johnson calls a “Monster in our Midst,” trampling over and appropriating society’s wholesome traditions and institutions – even Christianity itself — to achieve its godless goals.
PLATFORM TO CORRUPT CHILDREN: The homosexual “marriage” movement corrupts impressionable children by teaching them that wrong is right (Isaiah 5:20) and that erotic “love” between two people of the same sex is “equal” to natural marital love as ordained by God. Jesus Christ had strong words for anyone who promotes sin and corrupts the souls of innocent children.
EVEN “CONSERVATIVE” ASPECTS OF LGBT AGENDA ARE RADICAL: The Rose Parade’s live homosexual “wedding” again illustrates that even the supposedly “conservative” side of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) agenda is revolutionary and destructive – primarily because legalized, “domesticated” homosexualism provides a very public platform from which to redefine God’s wonderful institutions of marriage and family. “Gay” activists and their liberal allies co-opt noble institutions like the Rose Parade and use them to indoctrinate children in the Big Lies that homosexuality is: 1) just another kind of love; and 2) a mere “civil rights” issue. Similarly, schools across America are being used to promote immoral same-sex conduct as an “equality” issue.
SYMBOLIC OF AMERICA’S DECLINE: The “gay wedding” float is symbolic of America’s ongoing moral disintegration: in the name of “tolerance,” “diversity” and “inclusion,” we proudly parade our sin down our streets – defying our Creator and aggressively corrupting the minds and souls of future generations. As historians have documented, sexual immorality, escalating fornication and the abandonment of fidelity in marriage bring about the collapse of civilizations; the United States will be no exception. No wonder developing nations like Jamaica don’t want to emulate us.
FOLLY OF SECULAR (PRO-“GAY”) “CONSERVATIVES: The homosexual “wedding” float clearly demonstrates the folly of secular “conservatives” (like atheist S.E. Cupp) and libertarians who argue that legalized homosexual “marriage” is a conservative proposition. Radically remolding God-given institutions to celebrate sin – and modeling such deviance and confusion as normal to impressionable children – is hardly “conservative.” In fact, it is the essence of the Left’s destructive Sexual Revolution. Republicans will seal their own demise if they foolishly embrace counterfeit “marriage” and other aspects of homosexualism, replacing their pro-family Platform.
DEMONIZING CHRISTIANS AS “HATERS” AND “BIGOTS”: As the Phil Robertson/Duck Dynasty controversy shows, homosexual groups like GLAAD regularly smear moral and religious critics with malicious slurs like “Bigots, Haters, and Homophobes.” Opposing homosexualism (the ideology of proud homosexuality as a “civil right”) in all its forms is not “hate.” Rather, it is being faithfully obedient to our loving, holy Creator. True Christians should offer the hope of the life-changing Gospel – not counterfeit “marriage” – to homosexuals. Jesus has helped many people like Michael Glatze abandon homosexual sin.
FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS MUST SPEAK OUT NOW: The unbiblical “progressive evangelical” and liberal Catholic movement to affirm unrepentant homosexuals as “Christians” serves Satan’s agenda, not God’s. (Substitute another sexual sin for “gay” and see if it makes sense: would the Rose Parade allow a live incestuous “union” atop one of its floats?) Bible-believing Christians must speak out against the agenda to normalize homosexuality — especially since children are its target. If Christians will not resist the evil specter of homosexual “marriage,” who will?
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Educate Your Church and Social Network
Peter LaBarbera (on Twitter @PeterLaBarbera) has more than two decades experience fighting and exposing the powerful, well-funded homosexual lobby. He is available as a speaker on a number of topics surrounding the “gay/transgender” agenda and the promotion of biblical sexual morality, such as:
"two gay men “will take their vows before the nearly 500,000 people who will line Colorado Boulevard on January 1 and millions of television viewers watching around the globe.”
The publicity stunt comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's June ruling that made same-sex “marriage” legal in California, and the two homosexual men are excited about “standing on the shoulders of thousands of men and women who came before us in this fight for marriage equality,” Leclair told the Pasadena paper. “We’re excited to be part of that story, to be able to do this because of them. We’re looking forward to honor that.”"
"However, some have characterized the float as propaganda and state that it is indicative of the continued moral downfall of the nation.
“This float is symbolic of proud homosexual sin on parade for the whole nation to see,” Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) told Christian News Network. “This is what America has become.”
LaBarbera said that he believes the float is part of the agenda to desensitize the nation to the homosexual lifestyle, and to work toward acceptance and legitimization."
“God is not mocked,” LaBarbera warned. “The more we celebrate sin, the more we are in danger of [further] declining in this society, because any society that leaves God behind and abandons the natural family and wholesome morality is a society headed for the dustbin of history. And that’s where America is headed, unfortunately.”
"The two gay beaus will not be alone as they preen for gawking observers along the Rose Parade route. “Sharon Raphael and Mina Meyer, a lesbian couple together for 42 years, will also join Leclair and Loots on the float,” "
Published on Jan 30, 2013 on ChristianVoice08 YouTube channel:
You can't judge me, you're a Christian! What a lie from the lowest pit of hell. So, why do you buy into it??? Because so many teachers and preachers are telling and supporting that lie! What does the Bible really say about judging? You may be surprised. Taken in context Matthew 7 does not contradict any commandment of Christ. And, since it is a commandment of Christ to judge, Christians are to judge or they are not Christians. Any who teach against this are liars or deceived.
Published on Dec 26, 2013 on ChristianVoice08 YouTube channel:
What is Biblical Separation? Christians are to be SPIRIT LED not Purpose Driven. We are not worker bees serving the collective! Hear why a loss of the doctrine of Biblical Separation has led to a mass false movement that claims to be Christian but is tied to the occult instead.
Beware of the Church Growth Movement
Proclaiming the Gospel Broadcast
Published on Dec 27, 2013 on YouTube channel of proclaimingthe gospel.org:
More and more pastors are discarding our Lord's blueprint for building His Church and exchanging it for a seeker-sensitive approach in order to attract a larger following. In this week's broadcast, Mike Gendron interviews his pastor Jesse Barrington on the dangers of the church growth movement and easy-believism. Mike and Jesse discuss why pastors fall into this unbiblical movement and what people should do if they find themselves in a seeker friendly church.
Walmart Introduces '666 Obamacare RFID Chip Machine':
Walmart's RFID chips:
Published on Jul 16, 2013
Wal-Mart's RFID Micro Chips to Track Clothing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns. Wal-Mart will place removable "smart tags" on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores.
SoloHealth Stations. Mark Of The Beast. Obama Care:
Published on Nov 24, 2013
SoloHealth Stations. Mark Of The Beast. Obama Care. Immigration Reform. 2013. Today's Date November 25, 2013 The Mark Of The Beast. Revelation 13:16-17 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Get Saved We are very, very, close to The Mark Of The Beast being implemented. These are just a few examples of how God's Prophecies of The Last Days Are coming true before our very eyes.
Link to SoloHealth Station Youtube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3AWr... Solo Health Stations has received an substantial grant from the National Institutes of Health because they hooked up with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The Real link to Obama Care or Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). http://eproductalert.com/digitalediti... SoloHealth is also committed to working with strategic partners to increase general public health awareness, having received a substantial grant from the National Institutes of Health and having recently presented the SoloHealth Station to a panel including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. SoloHealth is also able to gather valuable data and generate reports regarding overall usage patterns and demographics. SoloHealth, with active involvement from Intel, designed its kiosk with the leading-edge technologies and performance headroom needed to accommodate expansion to meet future needs. I.E. RFID readers and such. must view and read the following link...incredible RFID and implantable device info tied to SoloHealth Stations info and company. http://eproductalert.com/digitalediti... On Tour with Frank Mayer & Associates. SoloHealth Stations. http://www.selfserviceworld.com/slide... Frank Mayer & Associates company info. SoloHealth Station makers. http://www.frankmayer.com/about-fma/f... https://solohealth.com/company/overview/ SoloHealth Station FAQ. https://solohealth.com/products/faq/ International Ties(Europe and World Wide Implications) http://www.frankmayer.com/about-fma/i... Alrec. SoloHealth Station Europe Partner Company. http://www.alrec.info/index.php?nim_id=9 SoloHealth Stations and Affordable Health Care(Obama Care) Partnership. https://solohealth.com/articles/view/... Link to my Video on Immigration Reform Bill Info. This Bill will Accompany Obama Care to Implement The Mark Of The Beast more so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9MxP... FDA Solo Health Station info http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_do...
Teen fights back against tracking chips in school ID cards:
Published on Nov 24, 2012
Andrea Hernandez was told she'd be expelled from John Jay High School's Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio starting next week if she insists any further on disobeying a new policy that requires students to wear ID badges equipped with tiny Radio Frequency Identification ("RFID") chips. A judge gave Hernandez a temporary restraining order from the school district and ruled on Wednesday that the principal's orders to make the surveillance mandatory were a violation of the student's speech and religion. John Whitehead, a constitutional attorney, speaks with RT's Kristine Frazao about his case.
Christian Family Refuses Mandatory
RFID Chip at Texas School:
Mandatory RFIDs Tag Texas Students Like Cattle:
Texas schools punish students who refuse
to be tracked with microchips:
Infowars Nightly News: Wednesday (2-27-13)
Dr. Katherine Albrecht on Tracking of Schoolchildren:
December 26th, 2013 | 
Author: 
Lighthouse Trails first became involved with Corban University (then Western Baptist) in 2002, when it was discovered that a summer youth theater day camp being held at Corban was introducing children attending the camp to visualization techniques. An editor at Lighthouse Trails arranged a meeting with three Corban professors to explain the concerns (it so happened that one of the LT editor’s children was attending that camp). At that time, the concerns by Lighthouse Trails were dismissed by the professors as erroneous. The LT editor took that opportunity to warn Corban professors that if they did not take a pro-active stand against the contemplative prayer movement and the emerging church and make sure all of their instructors understood the dangers, in time, the school would become an adherent to these heretical teachings.
