UPDATE: ANSWER TO A CHRISTIAN WHO WENT TO A SEDER MEAL AND WAS "INFORMED ABOUT THE ELEMENTS"

Below are the texts of an e-mail chain, from and in response to, a Christian relative who went to a Seder meal at an Evangelical Free Church recently. 

Please note that we recognize that these are typical "Christian" responses these days in which much of the church world gets its information from the apostate "Christian" cable TV networks which promotes positive confession, wealth and prosperity gospels, god in us, self healing, and charismatic, pentecostal beliefs. It is a mindset of willing ignorance disguised as faith, and liberal, socialist, and ecumenical "must get along with everyone" compromises disguised as grace. We have decided not to answer this person any further. We have a certain focus to this blog and we do not intend to deviate from that, which is described in the blog header and the welcome post of December 10, 2012 when this blog started. We do not attempt to restrict our posts to "positives only", nor do we offer a feminized, cheery, fantastical, pop-psychological, pastel wonderland type of blog. In fact, having noticed so many "Christian" blogs out there with those characteristics, it made us even more convinced for the need of, and more determined to present, a hard hitting, no excuses, unapologetic, no compromises blog. See: http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/search/label/Welcome. We fully expect that a certain number of visitors will find our revelations offensive, but we make no apologies for the effects. Our goal is to provide a necessary service to the Christian world in providing information that is for the most part being purposely hidden from Christians because it is deemed inappropriate in a church setting and counterproductive to the financial and ministry goals of churches which are carefully controlled and manipulated within growth methodologies. Also, we have disabled comments right from the start because we do not have the time or energy to answer, refute, and/or argue with visitors. We do our own private evangelization as the Lord leads by divine appointment. "Approachable levels of interaction", "approachable discussions" and/or "focusing on the positives" are typically fostered privately with people of like mind who are biblically sound and not errant. We do not compromise our beliefs or adhere to the "in essentials unity" philosophy so prevalent in the churches, so that we can just "get along" with everyone. We faithfully expose, reprove, rebuke and contend for the faith (and the true gospel) once delivered to the saints as Christ commanded. The negatives of modern Christianity exist prior to our research and postings. We do not create them. We only expose them; not to do so would only add to and give more cover to the growing apostasy out there. This is a battle for the minds of men and women in the spiritual realm, and we expect the attacks to be constant, coming from the world, Satan and the apostate churches. We will continue to be "hard core researchers" with the help of God and for as long as He desires and permits. To be otherwise would be treasonous and complicit with apostasy. 

    

    First the email (in part) from the relative after seeing our blog post titled:
                        "Hebraic Craze Going Viral": 
"Great article! You can rest at ease as our church did this as a way to learn about the Jewish traditions and the elements....nothing viral or crazed. No yearly ceremony or replacing the Communion. Simply informational."
    This is our response:

We have to date 17 posts filed under the Hebraic/Messianic category on our blog. Besides that we are following 45 websites that have Messianic outreaches to Christian churches which are seeking to convince Christians that they are Jewish like Jesus once they are saved and likewise brought under the Jewish covenant. Not so! Theologically, they are seeking (among other types of heretics) to blur the lines between Christians and Jews leading to the apostate one world church headed by the antichrist. Even if your church has not gone crazed or viral with this, there are many others who have, and see nothing wrong with this, as our research proves. Yes, it may only be done once a year, but many churches have been doing it for years, with more all the time. So it is viral because it is spreading throughout the church world, now more than ever.

    We are sorry to disagree but you are wrong when you say this is just informational. You are being deceived. It is just one more initiation and introduction into ecumenical thinking, and its purpose is to draw Christians further yet away from thinking biblically and doctrinally and towards powerless ritual similar to the Catholic church.  See: 2Tim3:5. Your reference to the term "elements" of the Seder is also a very Catholic term, used to describe the transubstantiated bread and wine which a priest allegedly turns mystically into the body and blood of Christ. By freely using this term indicates you have been instructed to think in terms of the sacredness of religious objects which is non-Christian. 

    The New Testament is a New Covenant not of laws, ordinances, rituals, holy days, dietary laws, and/or observances of religious custom, because they only give the appearance and suggestion of holiness on the outside, but fail to affect the heart and soul of mankind, like a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We have been freed from all that stuff. There is no need to be informed, educated, indoctrinated or even persuaded that you as a Christian are missing something that you should have known about all along. There is nothing that can or should be added to, removed, or changed about Scripture. To suggest otherwise is pure gnosticism, which purports to reveal secrets, mysteries, and knowledge heretofore undiscovered. A good current example of this heresy is Jonathan Cahn's "The Harbinger" book which is a top seller, but filled with heresies and distortions of Scripture. He is a Messianic Jew from a congregation in Wayne, NJ.

    For your information, Messianic Jews claim to have "accepted Jesus", but will not address Him as Jesus, but as Yeshua. They also, generally speaking, do not accept Him as divine, but only as the Messiah man. They believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit just like Pentecostals. Messianic congregations give up nothing Jewish, and "accept Jesus" in name only, not as Savior. It is the Christian who associates with Messianics who gives up much. 

    Please reconsider what you have taken part in.

March 13, 2013 retort to our email above: (selected applicable parts). 

    

    "But what I cannot do is sort through the vast amount of info you present. It's beyond comprehension. I feel as if you enjoy researching the life out of something and leaving people in the dust rather than engaging in a mutual and approachable level of interaction. 
    It is not my occupation to know all these many other false teachings except to know they exist and I am to not partake of them.
    You have such a high level of defense on this and other matters of the church. Good motive but overboard a bit. Can you step down for a few minutes and answer some simple questions for me? Research has its place, but God wants us to SHOW and DO so others are DRAWN TO Christ, not away from Him. I can appreciate your deep research to a point, then you lose me. Is there anything that you agree with ? Can you simply share the love of Christ and come to an approachable discussion?
    I get bogged down with the deep, detailed alarm you spread. 
    I would love to see in you a gentle, loving and simple side, leaving the hard core researcher out. What a transformation that would be. I want to see and know you as Christ-like in demeanor and focusing on the positives of the Christian walk. Where is your Jesus? There is a place and time for sounding the alarms, but all the time? Yikes! I would love to have a simple discussion about your answered prayer, how the Lord has touched you this week, or what did He teach you about? We are called to encourage each other and uplift each other in our walk."

UPDATE ON ROMEIKES, GERMAN HOMESCHOOLING FAMILY

Here is a recent video interview with attorney Mike Donnelly of Home School Legal Defense www.hslda.org regarding the fate of the Romeike family who fled to the United States but may be deported back to Germany by the Obama Justice Department.

HEBRAIC CRAZE GOING VIRAL: SHOULD THE LAST SUPPER BE CELEBRATED AS A PASSOVER SEDER MEAL?

 
    JEW OR GENTILE? LAST SEDER OR LAST SUPPER? COULD THEY POSSIBLY BE THE SAME? IF SO, THE NEW TESTAMENT IS WRONG AND THE OLD TESTAMENT IS REALLY THE HEBREW BIBLE! THIS IS THE NEXT PHASE OF DESTROYING THE WORD OF GOD AND REDEFINING JESUS CHRIST AND HIS GOSPEL BY ECUMENICAL APOSTATES.
    We know that the celebration of Jewish Passover Seder meals is as old as the blood on the doorpost and the angel of death passing by. But in recent years some churches have picked up on the ritual and have been having Seder meals for celebrating Good Friday or Lent.
    The Huffington Post ran an article about "ersatz" Passover Seders, which they describe rightfully as "bait and switch" proselytizing events: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-i-pinsky/messianic-passover-seders-jews-for-jesus_b_1398334.html.
    In this recent article at Religion and Politics, http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/03/12/evangelical-ketubah-messianic-mezuzah-judaica-for-christians/, we see that some Unitarian Universalist congregations, liberal apostate Protestant churches, some Catholics and an occasional "evangelical" have been celebrating a form of Seder since the 1960s to foster their ecumenical "common ground" pursuits.
    Now it seems that more than a few Evangelical Free Churches, identified as a "smorgasbord of heresies" denomination, (see: http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/efca.htm), have jumped on the bandwagon to satisfy the urges of their biblically bored followers who continuously seek after greater sensual experiences in their contemporized forms of worship, even if they have to go outside of Christianity. Although not an outright or visible compromise of the Christian faith or return to Catholicism, they seek to at least blend Judaism with Christianity, Messianic style, but hidden within the smoke and mirrors "sacramentalism" of Jewish rituals and observances. The effect is to deflect marginal or nominal Christians further away from true biblical Christianity as found in the Bible's both Testaments.
    This is an example of a complete Passover "Potluck" Seder meal at an Evangelical Free Church for Good Friday, with its contents, foods, layout and preparations at this link: http://www.moorparkevfree.com/templates/System/details.asp?id=28304&PG=Events&CID=1006863&rDate=2010-04-02:

PASSOVER POTLUCK INSTRUCTIONS AND RECIPES

 During Passover, it’s inappropriate to use any leavening – that means no regular flour or bread of any kind.  We eat unleavened bread (matzah) only.  The newspaper food section and the Internet are good sources for Passover dish menus (use Google to search for Passover recipes).

 What to bring: 

The church will supply the ceremonial elements, bowls, plates, cups, eating utensils, and grape juice.  The dinner will be potluck style (see below) – please bring a generous amount as it will be shared with church members and guests.  We will need the following food items:

 (1) Main dish: 

You have a choice of lamb, turkey, chicken, or perhaps a tzimmes (meat cooked in sweet broth with carrots and sweet potatoes or fruit).  Remember, no bread or flour should be used.  At Passover we use unleavened bread only.  (Sorry, no pasta!) Roasted chicken from Costco is simple and delicious—but cut it up before you arrive, please!  All food items should be brought ready to serve.

 (2) Soup:

Traditional matzah ball soup is easy to make; you can use a packaged mix from the Passover display in the supermarket.

 (3) Charoset

This is a mixture of apples, nuts, and cinnamon, sweetened with a little honey and grape juice.  There are many different recipes for charoset, but here is an easy one that would be enough for about 4 people (exact measurements are not critical.)  Make a generous amount.  

·         Peel and 2-3 core apples.  Slice and cut into very tiny pieces (tiny blocks). 

·         Finely chop the walnuts and add to apples.  Stir in some cinnamon, honey, and wine, and mix thoroughly.

·         Refrigerate until serving.  This is always a treat so make a lot.

 (4) Salads, vegetables, and other side dishes (remember, no leavening!)

 (5) Dessert

You can buy Passover desserts at your local supermarket.  Typical desserts would be a sponge cake, macaroons, cake mixes or brownies, all made without yeast or flour. 

Notes: 

Bring something to keep the food warm if possible, as we do not actually eat dinner until halfway through the Seder service.

Bring serving pieces (spoons, ladles, etc.) as the churches will not be supplying these.  Label all your items so you can find them easily at the end of the evening. 

 Directions for Preparing for the Seder

The following information will explain what needs to be done to prepare for your Passover Seder.

General set up – A head table for the leaders of the Seder, the pastor(s) and their families.  Both Michael and Norma will need a microphone and should be seated where all those in attendance can see them (but on the same level as the rest of the seats.) A lectern or music stand for the leader’s notes is also needed.  We also need multimedia projection and sound for the PowerPoint slides and DVD film clips we use during the Seder.  Microphones and amplification for the worship teamare also needed.

Having the tables rather close together will add to the fun and the feeling of being family.  Kids are not only welcome, they are encouraged to come and participate, as Passover is a unique family experience! 

What needs to be provided for the Seder: 

The church should supply the ceremonial elements for each table. You should decide who will bring what, and tell people well in advance (please refer to the Passover recipes file.)  What is needed:

§  Plates and utensils for eating and serving (disposable is OK).  Need one dinner plate, and two dessert plates per person.

§  Bowls for soup

§  Napkins

§  White tablecloths, a vase with flowers for the tables

§  Plastic cups – one for juice, one for water (2 per person) 

§  2 candlesticks and candles, matches for each table  

§  Grape juice (each person will drink 4 cups of juice during the Seder, so make sure there is enough to go around. 12-16 oz. of juice per person is probably a good estimate).

§  Water – bottled or in a pitcher, to drink during the meal.

§  Matzah for each person.  Figure at least one whole piece of matzah per person.

§  One or two bowls per table with charoset (apple mixture) – very tasty and popular, so plan to have enough for everyone to have at least a ½ cup serving.

§  One or two small bowls per table with enough horseradish for one small spoonful per person (the hotter the better J).

§  A bowl with salt water for each table.

§  A bowl with sprigs of parsley – everyone will need one sprig.  

§  One Haggadah booklet for every person

Shopping hints:  You can buy jars of white horseradish in the deli section of any supermarket.  Right before Passover you can get really good deals on 5-10 lbs. of matzah at the markets if you watch the ads and clip coupons. “Yehuda” brand is our personal favorite because it’s nice and crisp.  You can’t beat Costco’s roasted chickens for convenience.  There are special Passover displays in the markets with dessert mixes that use no flour and are surprisingly good.   

There isn't really an "order of service" as you generally think of it in a church service. The entire Seder is the service, and when we send you the complete Haggadah handouts for everyone this will become clear.  Here's how it will go:

• Greeting and introductions by host pastor
• 1 or 2 worship songs (lyrics on PowerPoint)
• Lighting of the holiday candles
• The seder plate and table elements explained
• The first cup of wine (cup of sanctification)
• Cleansing of hands (done by leader only, to save time)
• Eating the greens
• Breaking the matzah, hiding the Afikomen (kids asked to leave the room while it’s hidden)
• Recitation of the service (the Passover story from Exodus 11-12). Includes DVD film clips.  
• The second cup of wine (cup of praise)
• All sing “Dayenu”
• Eating the matzah
• Tasting the bitter herbs
• A reminder of the Temple
• The Passover meal and dessert (buffet style)
• Kids search for and find the Afikomen
• Eating the Afikomen
• The third cup of wine (cup of redemption)
• Song: Eliyahu ha Navi (Elijah the Prophet)
• The fourth cup of wine (cup of benediction)
• Final worship song(s)
• Dismissal and clean-up

Other examples of Evangelical Free Church Seders:

http://annandalefree.com/sederpassover-dinner-event/.

http://pcefc.blogspot.com/2012/04/christ-our-passover-were-looking.html.

http://www.adathatikvah.org/passover-2013-information/.

http://waysidechapel.org/703258.ihtml.

http://www.spartaefc.org/view.asp?ID=60.

Messianic Ministries bringing Seder meals to Christian churches (itineraries):

http://www.lightofmessiah.org/upcoming_events/itinerary.php, and http://lightofmessiah.org/presentation_programs/jesu_in_passover/index.php. (full instructions for churches)

http://jeffreydmiller.com/Schedule.html.

http://messianicminutes.com/schedules.html.

Here is a YouTube video of a Messianic Seder meal table layout:

Another church Seder:

Lutheran Church Seder:

WARREN SMITH ET AL ON THE "PLANETARY PENTECOST" & THE DEAFENING SILENCE FROM PULPITS

Warren Smith has written an excellent article for Lighthouse Trails Research which reveals the inexplicable silence from pastors and pulpits about the threats to the Christian faith abounding in the church world these days. A comparable article has been posted by Matt Redmond bemoaning the silence from the so-called "reformed" crowd here: http://mattbredmond.com/2013/03/07/the-silence-of-the-reformed/.
    The link and full text of Mr. Smith's article is below:
    See: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2013/newsletters20130311.htm#abc2.
__________________________________________________________

Why is there almost no call for spiritual discernment within the Church? . . . Why are there so few warnings about a counterfeit “new gospel” movement that maligns the person of Jesus Christ and threatens the lives of His followers?- Warren B. Smith

by Warren B. Smith
(author of False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? )
Traditional Christian believers frequently mention the analogy of the frog that is so slowly and gradually boiled in a kettle of water that it dies before ever realizing what is going on. Yet many believers fail to realize that the very same thing is happening to them as they tell that story. How else do you explain the rapid rise of the “new gospel” movement with hardly a word of concern within the Church about what’s been happening? As “new gospel” advocates continue to publish bestselling books and flock to the airwaves in ever-increasing numbers to advance their cause, there is a strange silence in Christendom. Does the Church have any idea what is going on?
So often we have heard the impassioned refrain, “We can never let what happened in Germany ever happen again.” And with all of the Holocaust memorials, survivor testimonies, and multitudinous books on the subject, we have done a pretty good job of convincing ourselves that we will never make the same mistakes the German people did in allowing someone like Hitler to rise in their midst. We think that Americans would never stand by and allow something like that to happen here in our country. Our democratic processes and old-fashioned common sense would never allow it.
In the introduction to a 1999 publication (Sixth Pressing) of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Konrad Heiden describes how everything that Hitler was about to do was telegraphed in his early writings:

For years Mein Kampf stood as proof of the blindness and complacency of the world. For in its pages Hitler announced – long before he came to power – a program of blood and terror in a self-revelation of such overwhelming frankness that few among its readers had the courage to believe it. Once again it was demonstrated that there was no more effective method of concealment than the broadest publicity.2

Somehow, Christians don’t seem to grasp Jesus’ warnings about the tremendous deception that characterizes the time of the end. Perhaps deceived into thinking that we can’t be deceived, we don’t take seriously enough His warnings that a Hitler-like antichrist figure will one day rise to rule the world – and that many people calling themselves “Christians” will support this spiritual counterfeit who will actually come in the name of Christ. Our adversary wants us to believe that these warnings are for another people at another time. Yet through Scripture, and in our heart of hearts, the Spirit of God tells us that they are not. As we study the Bible, and as we watch and pray and observe the events all around us, we come to understand that these future times described by Jesus are now suddenly and undeniably upon us.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul warns of their vulnerability and susceptibility to false teaching in the name of Jesus. He suggests that if someone approached them with “another gospel,” “another Jesus” and “another spirit” they might very well go along with it (2 Corinthians 11:3-4). Earlier in that same letter Paul had indirectly encouraged the Corinthians not to be ignorant of their adversary’s schemes and devices, lest they be taken advantage of (2 Corinthians 2:11). Paul told the Ephesians that it is a shame that we even have to talk about the things of darkness, but when we expose them they are brought into the light (Ephesians 5:12-13). He also told them that he had not ceased to warn them night and day for three years that men who were “grievous wolves” would “arise” in the Church “speaking perverse things” as they attempted to lead men away from their faith and into the enemy’s camp (Acts 20:29-31). Let us beware of these same warnings today.
And it is, indeed, very disturbing to see many Christian leaders today using many of the same words and expressions commonly used by their “new gospel” counterparts. “New revelation” describing how a great “move of God” is going to take believers “pregnant with destiny” to “a new spiritual level” and into a “new dimension” sounds a lot more like the “new gospel” than the traditional Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Are Christian leaders leading the church ever closer to the cross, or ever closer to the “Planetary Pentecost”? Why is there almost no call for spiritual discernment within the Church (except to warn believers not to be deceived into doubting their appointed Christian leaders)? Why is spiritual experience taking precedence over spiritual discernment? Why are there so few warnings about a counterfeit “new gospel” movement that maligns the person of Jesus Christ and threatens the lives of His followers? Why is “new revelation” in many ministries starting to supercede God’s written Word? Why are Christians only being prepared for blessings and not for persecution? What in the world is going on?
Expecting only revival and the return of the true Christ, will the Church be deceived by the one who will come in the name of Christ and pretend to be Him? Caught unawares, will the Church mistake the counterfeit Christ’s “Planetary Pentecost” for the great “move of God” they had been told to expect? Are we getting set up for the great delusion described in the Bible? Is there any good reason not at least to consider that possibility?
The prophet Daniel makes mention of the God of “forces” in conjunction with antichrist (Daniel 11:38). The “God” of the “new gospel” asks [New Ager] Neale Donald Walsch, “What if I am not a ‘man’ at all, but rather, a Force?”3 The “Christ” of A Course in Miracles states that there is an “irresistible Force” within each person.4 Marianne Williamson explains that this “universal force” can be “activated” within each person and has “the power to make all things right.”5 The “new gospel Christ” tells Barbara Marx Hubbard that on the day of “Planetary Pentecost” a “planetary smile” will flash across the face of all mankind; that an “uncontrollable joy” that he describes as the “joy of the force” will “ripple” through the one body of humanity.6 Benjamin Creme describes the event “as a pentecostal experience for all.”7 The “Christ” of A Course in Miracles tells how the world ends in “peace” and “laughter.”8
Has anyone wondered whether this same “Force” may be counterfeiting the Holy Spirit in churches and may be producing “revivals” and “moves of God” that are not really “revivals” or “moves of God” at all? Is the “God of forces” in the process of preparing the Church for the “Planetary Pentecost”? Should we not be doing a more thorough job of testing the spirits? Have we put our faith and trust in Christian “leaders” rather than in God? Have we all talked ourselves out of the end times? Have we all agreed that persecution is not something we need to be concerned about? Have we prayed to God that we would not be deluded or deceived?
Ten years ago in my book, The Light That Was Dark, I wrote the following: “Clearly many who said they were of ‘the faith’ would soon become a part of the deception too, if they weren’t already.”
Were we already witnessing the great “falling away” predicted in the Bible? Was the “mystery of iniquity” talked about in the Scriptures already doing its deceptive work with “all power and signs and lying wonders”…? Would people calling themselves Christians abandon their faith in the Bible and the Bible’s Christ? Would they join an ecumenical movement that in the name of love and God and unity would sacrifice the truth of the Bible and perhaps one day merge with the new age itself?
Jesus warned that such a faith would lead not to life but to ultimate destruction: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).9
Could it be that the reason the Church is so unaware of the “new gospel” movement is because it is being led by that same spirit and heading down that same broad way? Is it happening now, right in front of our very own eyes?
(For more information, read False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care by Warren B. Smith)
Notes:
1. NBC News “Special Report: America on Alert,” Tom Brokaw hosting Marianne Williamson as guest, September 16, 2001 broadcast transcript (Livingston, New Jersey: Burrelle’s Information Services).
2. Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf (Sixth Pressing), translated by Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.: Mariner Books, 1999), p.xv.
3. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: Book 3, p. 325.
4. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, (Text) p. 479.
5. Marianne Williamson, Healing the Soul of America, p. 13.
6. Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation, p. 243.
7. Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission: Volume Two (Los Angeles: Share International Foundation, 1993), p. 239.
8. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, (Manual for Teachers) p. 37.
9. WarrenB. Smith, The Light That Was Dark, p. 150.

GARY GILLEY: BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT IS NOT "HEARING FROM GOD" VIA PERSONAL REVELATION

Gary Gilley of Southern View Chapel has an excellent article about the difference between biblical discernment and "hearing from God" through the mystical practices of spiritual formation disciplines such as that being offered by Messiah College and a host of other so-called "Christian" institutions.
See: http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/133-spiritual-formation-movement/801-discernment-and-revelation.