ANOTHER ASSEMBLY OF GOD PASTOR DECRIES CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM

To Lighthouse Trails: 

I have never responded to you before, but I do wish for you to know that I have been following your series of articles concerning Ruth Barton speaking at the AoG GC with extreme interest.  You see, I am a credentialed AoG minister.  I, along with many other ministers and lay people inside the AoG are extremely concerned with what has been taking place within our fellowship over the past few years.  In fact, there are several conservative factions inside of the AoG that have actually been able to bond over the common cause of bringing a halt to the contemplative prayer movement that has been lurking around in our fellowship.  I just wished to thank you personally for all that you do for the gospel.  I would also like you to know that many of your Ruth Barton articles are being used in AoG Theology discussion forums on Facebook.  It may amuse you to know that many of the older line AoG ministers, who would not even look at a Lighthouse Trails article before, have come to respect your writers, and how well they research their articles.  I would just like to ask that you pray for us as we go through this time of testing in our fellowship.  It seems bad now, but I am hoping and praying that it will lead to a Reformation within the AoG.  Again, thank you so much for your great articles and your research.  It has really been a bigger help than you will ever know.
 
In His service,
Rev. ___________

PASTOR PINDER DRAWS ON YET ANOTHER APOSTATE HERETIC AND TWISTS BOOK OF JUDE

PASTOR PINDER A MISGUIDED, CONFUSED OR COMMITTED APOSTATE?
BOOK OF JUDE NOT ABOUT EVANGELIZING THE LOST, BUT RESCUING THOSE BELIEVERS BEING SWAYED AND DECEIVED BY APOSTASY WITHIN CHURCHES
Since our previous post about pastor Jeff Pinder of Faith Baptist Church, Wilmington, Delaware, we have not seen or heard of, and did not expect, any evidence of repentance from his "confused" apostate teaching which incorporates numerous references to known apostates for sermon support.
See: http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2013/07/jeff-pinder-pastor-of-faith-baptist.html.
    Pinder delivered a sermon July 14, 2013 (http://www.fbcwilmington.com/audio.html), about the latter part of the epistle of Jude, i.e., Jude 22-23, speaking of "the confused and confirmed apostates", part of a series about Jude, but which has yet to even mention biblical personal or ecclesial separation or give concrete real life examples of modern apostasy in individuals, churches, movements or organizations.
    Jude is clearly about Gnostic Antinomianism, as per the commentaries, but Pinder cannot even find it in him to at least mention one commentary in this sermon.
    We researched and found some very good ones easily:
1) John MacArthur's sermon series on Jude, which describes the "confused, convinced and committed" WITHIN THE CHURCH:
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/65-14/survival-strategy-for-apostate-times-part-3.
2) http://www.angelfire.com/mi/universe/jude.6.html.
3) http://www.angelfire.com/mi/universe/jude.html.
4) http://www.christianinconnect.com/jude.htm.
5) http://versebyversecommentary.com/jude/jude-22-23-2/.
6) http://versebyversecommentary.com/books/introduction-to-jude/.
7) http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/jude-1-23.html.
8) 

    Other than mentioning the local heretical Unitarian Universalist "church" which has never been known since its inception to be comprised of believers in Christ politically and/or doctrinally, and therefore an inappropriate model of apostasy, there has been no mention throughout this series of the poisonous "emerging" apostates running free within alleged "Christian" churches with impunity, including the Baptist and Methodist denominations he referred to, once true to the Christian faith but have since departed from it.
    Included in this particular sermon was a mention of Gipsy Smith's "Peter Apples" soul winning, which is irrelevant to the book of Jude's focus on the protection and rescuing of existing believers, not the evangelization of the lost.
   
    We previously mentioned Smith in a post about Nancy Leigh DeMoss's use of Smith's "occultic chalk circles" at her recent "True Woman" conference: 
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2013/06/nancy-leigh-demoss-hearts-revived-but.html.
EXCERPT FROM OUR POST ABOVE:

See: The Velvet Covered Brick blog's story "Prayer Circles" http://velvetbrick.blogspot.com/, describes how Jamie McMullan attended a True Women conference and saw and heard the following:
Quote: 
"I recently attended the True Women Conference with Nancy Leigh DeMoss via simulcast. During the simulcast Nancy shared an illustration of a British gypsy evangelist from the 1860s, 
Gipsy Smith, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gipsy_Smith, andhttp://www.biblebelievers.com/gypsy_smith/, and http://bennieblount.com/Books/Smith,%20Gipsy/Gipsy%20Smith%20His%20Life%20and%20Work/Gipsy%20Smith%20His%20Life%20and%20Work.pdf, who encouraged people to 
“Go home, lock yourself in your room, draw a circle around yourself, and pray fervently that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”  

Then Nancy, pointed out they have chalk circles around the auditorium for people to go pray in and she had a circle around herself at the podium; they were used throughout the conference. 

DeMoss with other women standing in a chalk circle around podium:

At the end of the conference, two men named Byron Paulus and Bill Elliff gave a presentation of their ministry movement called OneCry http://www.onecry.com/, inspired by the teachings of Gipsy Smith. See 20 page manual from One Cry on how to use chalk circles here: http://www.onecry.com/media/filer/2012/03/07/draw-a-circle-digital.pdf.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss on Gipsy Smith." See: http://www.truewoman.com/?id=2250.
Jamie McMullan also points out:
Quote:
"Seeing all this at the True Women conference gave me pause. The first time I saw circles like this in the church is from a book I saw being promoted on YouTube called The Circle Maker, by MarkBatterson, 

the Pastor of National Community Church(es) in Washington D.C., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Community_Church, and which meets in movie theaters http://theaterchurch.com/.
    Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church, a multi-site church in Washington D.C. Mark has been a church planting pastor since 1994. He and his wife Lora have three children—Parker, Summer, and Josiah. Batterson is the author of five books, including his most recent one, the Circle Maker. Batterson went to the University of Chicago on a basketball scholarship, majoring in pre-law. His life was drastically turned around when God called him to full-time ministry. His ministry in D.C. began as an inter-city ministry, and God has prospered it to grow into a six-location church with a thriving network of local and international ministries. They even manage the biggest coffee shop on Capitol Hill. Batterson's ministry is all but conventional. Besides the fact that he doesn't wear suits when he preaches, several of the church sites actually meet in movie theaters.

_____________________________________________________

SO, THE QUESTIONS MUST BE ASKED:
1) WHY DOES PASTOR PINDER CONTINUE TO REFERENCE APOSTATES AND HERETICS AS SERMON MODELS?
2) WHY WON'T PINDER IDENTIFY THESE APOSTATES WHEN HE HAS HAD AMPLE TIME DURING SEVERAL SERMONS IN THIS SERIES AND AT OTHER TIMES TO DO SO?
3) WHY DOES PINDER OMIT TEACHING BIBLICAL SEPARATION?
4) WHY DOES PINDER AVOID DEFINING APOSTASY OR GIVE EXAMPLES?
5) DOES PINDER THINK THAT APOSTATES EXIST EXCLUSIVELY IN ALREADY HERETICAL CHURCHES AND NOT IN THE "EMERGING" CHURCHES?

This sort of preaching which dances around the real meaning of Scripture is a disservice to the Word of God and the church and grieves the Holy Spirit. Why? Because whether or not this preaching is purposeful, it nevertheless distorts the true meaning of Jude and misleads the church.
   

PLANNED PARENTHOOD GETS $655,000 OF $67 MILLION FOR OBAMACARE RECRUITING VIA H.H.S. DEPARTMENT

PLANNED PARENTHOOD BRANCH OFFICES ARE RECEIVING $655,000 FROM OBAMA ADMINISTRATION VIA THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES TO PERFORM AS "NAVIGATORS" (RECRUITERS) FOR OBAMACARE. THAT IS ONLY ONE OF 105 ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVING $67 MILLION TO HELP SELL OBAMACARE.

SEE: BREITBART: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/15/Obama-Administration-Awards-Grants-To-Organizations-To-Sign-Americans-Onto-Exchanges.

SEE: "NAVIGATOR" LIST: http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Health-Insurance-Marketplaces/Downloads/navigator-list-8-15-2013.pdf

SEE: THE NEW AMERICAN AT:
http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/16333-hhs-awards-planned-parenthood-655-000-to-enroll-people-in-obamacare.