Valient Voices New Year Bash

We may have made a mistake kicking off the new year by inviting Valient Voices to come to our party. We thought it would be amusing - ya know start 2009 with a chuckle.
We're not laughing.

We thought it would be amusing inviting Valiant Voices in for our New Year's Bash - you know, like, out with the old in with the new. These geezers were perfect representatives of time-gone- by.

They have no clue about the fine, felt, froliking of the new and relevent gospel of Whatever World. We thought it would be funny hearing them go on about old landmarks and timeless truths. But geesh, these guys are serious about this stuff!

They talk about things we put in the closet decades ago. So the evening was a dud. We brought in a crowd to have a good time - they brought in a cross. We were ready to celebrate - they wept.

What was so confusing...it was hard to tell which of us was more out of place.

Man, are they party poopers.

Politics at Whatever World

Election years have become good vehicles to demonstrate just how open, intellectual and diverse we are here at Whatever World Assembly.

No longer pawns to the radical right wing elements of a few outspoken demagogues, we take a holistic view of governing and being governed.

The simplistic days of one-issue voting are far behind us. How can we expect someone who will lead the free world to be absolute on issues that have splintered the country for years? We say, “Peace, peace”. Let’s focus on the things we can agree on.

We all agree the air should be clean, don’t we? And isn’t it high time we fed every hungry person in the world? And because we agree that the ground is level at the Cross – we feel it should be level everywhere! Take from those who have saved and accumulated and give it to those who may have handled their opportunities with less foresight or success. Why should they be punished and impoverished?

That’s what Jesus would do, right? (Mt.25:14-30) So should the next president.

Why hand out voter guides that state the obvious? Why get mired in the controversy of abortion and same-sex marriage and whether or not it is constitutional to pray at high school sporting events?

Should a candidate be written off just because he is unable to make a decisive stand on hot topics like partial birth abortion? Of course not.

To bring up the gruesome act of pulling a full-term child from the womb (but for its head) and then plunging scissors in the back of the skull and removing the brain with suction…well enough said…Why bring such conversation into the homes of millions? How can we expect a man to state definitively where he stands on such a procedure as that?

Now you see, don’t you? There are much more respectable discussions we should be having. Or how will the world ever take us seriously?

And why be so unreasonable as to demand our next president lift up voice with conviction on the unique role marriage has within the social structure? Is it all that important?

It’s not as if social adhesion and procreation and common sense were at stake. It’s not as if all of nature would revolt or as if all moral sensibility would unravel.

Do we think simply because a candidate cannot firmly put together words to express outrage at abortion scenes with disembodied babies piled in trash bags…do we think that means he won’t take care of our babies or care about the children in Darfur or not be resolved about human abuses in China, Iran, Korea and elsewhere?

And simply because a candidate might be a bit confused as to whether marriage should exist between two people of the same sex, is that any reason to believe he won’t be able to make clear decisions about right and wrong? Simply because he might sanction the legal establishment of homosexual homes by marriage isn’t a leap to think he had no moral compass?

Because we uh, need to focus on...uh...things that, you know, really matter…like clean rivers and –uh-…making friends with –uh- …and education, yeah our little babies need…to be smarter…and …so they can grow and...uh...succeed and raise fam….uh...well you know,...whatever.

Two Words, Two Letters, Two Worlds

Well, a most embarrassing blunder has been made here at Whatever World. But it is one anybody could have made. Come to find out, the often coined phrase describing a believer’s relationship with the world is really, ‘In the world - but not of it.’ Yeah, who knew? We kind of misread it and well…flip-flopped it. So here we have been operating on the premise that Jesus wanted us to be, ‘Of the world - but not in it.’ Oops, our bad.

We are just now realizing how far this dixletic moment might have set us back. ‘Of the world’ –..... that has been the church growth pattern we have been striving for.

So we made the business model our guide and the bottom line our purpose. We replaced our pastors with managers and missiology with sociology. ‘Of the world…of the world’…ask what would the world do...what would the world want? And that’s what we did, that's what we wanted.

We put Starbucks in our foyer and cup holders in our sanctuaries.

No need to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. We have one right here.

We have door prizes and giveaways. It’s like a game show and there are no losers!

We accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. No crosses, no conviction, no shame. We latch on to the affirmative. You aren’t lost and in danger of God’s wrath. - You ain't no sinner! You are a Pre-Christian!

Our doctrines have been tested by Barna, our sermons mass-produced by Warren and our staff reprogrammed by Ryan Seacrest.

It has worked so wonderfully! We are dynamic! We have thousands of church-going, ‘Best Life Now’ believers who have no condemnation, no conviction and no desire for things above.

We’re saved! On our way to Heaven! Forgiven and free! And we were able to lay claim to all this without the untidy business of humility, discipleship and sacrifice. We kept our pride, our power, and our greed. (we should have suspected something was amiss.)

‘Of the world’…But by God, we are “not in it.” We created the Whatever World Believer's Dome. (our take on the BioSphere.) No need to go outside. No need to go ‘in the world’. We have it all here under one roof.

No need to mingle with the pagans outside – no need to buy their goods or attend their schools or listen to their music or laugh at their jokes. – We have our own marketplace right under one big roof. We have our own cruise lines our own diets plans, our own 'Thirst No More' bottled drinking water! We have our own concerts, our own comedians, our own magicians. On stage, tonight. Admission only $27.

We are so 'set apart' that we eat nothing but Christian vitamins, watch nothing but sanctified soap operas and have our breath refreshed only by sucking on messiah mints. Our 'Blessed Broadcast Network' increases our faith to the point where we realize any miracle can be bought with a pledge.

So we did it. We are ‘of the world’ – we enjoy all the world enjoys – but under our roof pride becomes positive confession and greed becomes godliness. Sin is softened by our sanctified psychology. Even our old lusts has found a place where adultery, and porn and prostitution is not condemned - but understood, sympathized, ministered to. It's like the Garden of Eden!

We've become disloyal and ill mannered, stubborn and unforgiving, yet all in a very spiritual sort of way. ‘Of the world’, you see, ‘but not in it.’

My God, what have we done?

We are reevaluating our new marketing slogan:
‘Come to Whatever World where it never rains on your parade.’

The Warlocks of Whatever World

“The job is mine. The job is mine. The job is mine! In Jesus name!”

This was the ritual I was taught to get whatever I desired. As long as I did not allow negativity, doubt or unbelief to creep into my thinking or be expressed with my words I was assured the coveted prize was on its way.

I did this for years with incredible results. Positive confession, positive speech, and daily affirmation that ‘what I speak, will be’.

And I did this years before meeting Jesus Christ, before meeting a Christian, or Kenneth Hagin, or attending a church.

It was in my search of cosmic consciousness that I came upon this approach, wrapped in new age jargon, to changing the world around me, simply by having faith - in my faith. My instructor was a witch ('a good one' she said) who introduced me to gurus and spiritual advisors. And along with a small group of disciples I began to learn 'mind over matter' methods of moving the universe by conjuring up realities that I desired to see materialize.

We would discipline the mind to focus on an object or desired result then see that object coming to us – coming to fulfillment. We would center on our core being, progress through a color spectrum, remove all doubt, and deny any reality that was contrary to our purpose. We would breathe in the energy that would cause these things to come to pass, then proclaim, “In the name of Jesus.”

It worked!

I landed jobs, frustrated enemies, saw visions, garnered favor and possessions. Once in the black of night I ran out of gas on a long empty road. Headlights came my way and I began the ‘technique’. The pick-up truck passed me by and I ‘arrested’ it through a complete emptying of mind of any thought that did not agree with the new reality I was creating. “This guy will stop and help me.” The truck sped by. I kept ‘hold of it’ confessing aloud, “You will stop. You will help me. You are mine.” The vehicle kept rolling down the road. I stayed fixed on it with no thought of releasing him.

Nearly a half mile away from me, the taillights barely visible, I saw the brake lights brighten. The truck made a slow turn, headed back toward me and stopped at my car. “Need help? Hop in.” The two mid-aged men hardly spoke, drove me about 5 miles, paid for my gas and the gas can, and drove me back to my car.

“Thanks.” And they drove off. It was as though they were in a trance. I was smug, confident, in control. It worked.

It was demonic.

Countless times I used this ‘conjuring by confession’ to alter my reality. Focus, colors, christ. But the person of Jesus, the value of His name, the foundation of faith, even the existence of God did not weigh in on the process. I was in control. My thoughts determined the outcome. My words created my world.

Imagine my confusion after meeting the living Lord and being set free from this ‘faith without God’ to find the very same mantra like mechanics being practiced and promoted in Christ's church.

The technique does work. It did for Mary Baker Eddy, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, E. W. Kenyon. Each developed doctrines and disciples to follow their Christ-denying, positive insistence that ‘what they say, will be’.

This is not an enlightened teaching of ‘faith in the word’. It is piecemeal plundering of the precious Words of God, a distortion that leads to perversion - robbing God of glory, exalting self and imagining that greed is a virtue and gain a godliness.

" But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.
Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things." (2 Cor. 11:3-6)

There is a real faith that speaks with authority into the world around us. A faith that is God-honoring, Christ-exalting and self-denying. A faith that does not need to deny truth to operate. A faith that believes there is no reality into which you have to speak falsely in order to bring God's grace, glory and power to bear upon the circumstances.

Don’t allow false prophets and the warlocks of Whatever World to pull the old switcharoo on you.

Fiddling with Faith

Listen to the mantra coming from within 'Whatever World Assembly'. “Peace, peace. Peace and safety. Peace, prosperity and safety!”

The damning drone of 'wordfaith' philosophy while peddling prosperity has left the church, - well... - faithless and bankrupt.

If 'Word of Faith' teachings sound a bit like Mary Baker Eddy's 'christian science' there is good reason. 'Word of Faith' magnifies the magic of the mind rather than the Person of God. They have no fear distorting Scripture to promote their wares and mocking the faith once delivered to the saints. ("If Paul had only read what he wrote later he would have never suffered his thorn in the flesh." Copeland)

But 'Word of Faith' and christian science come into their most awful harmony in the God-demeaning, man-exalting doctrine both sects espouse.
"The believer is as much an incarnation of God as Jesus Christ" (K. E. Hagin, Sr."The Incarnation," The Word of Faith, 12/80).
"Christ's physical death on the cross was not enough to save us." (K. E. Hagin Sr.)
The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon 'the accursed tree,' than when it was flowing in his veins." (Mary Baker Eddy)


Hagin's conceit goes supernova. "Man was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God's presence without any consciousness of inferiority...God made us as much like Himself as possible...He made us the same class of being that He is Himself...Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms equal with God...The believer is called Christ...That's who we are; we're Christ!" Kenneth Hagin, Sr. (How Jesus Obtained His Name & Zoe: The God Kind of Life)

Now, to be fair, Kenneth Hagin's words aren't exactly Kenneth Hagin's words.

His ‘faith on steroids’ shtick, was not a revelation found in Scripture, but in the teachings of E. W. Kenyon. Hagin’s writings are not similar to Kenyon's - they are identical!

Kenyon - Man is a spirit who possesses a soul and he lives . . . in a body. He is in the same class as God. We know that God is a spirit and He became a man took on a man's body, and when He did it He was no less God than when He didn't have a body. Man, at death, leaves his physical body and is no less man than he was when he had his ... body. (The Hidden Man [Seattle: Kenyon's Gospel Publishing Society, 1970]

Hagin - Man is a spirit being, he has a soul and lives in a body.... He is in the same class with God. We know that God is a Spirit. And yet [He] took upon Himself a man's body when God took upon Himself human form He was no less God than He was before He took the physical body... Man, at physical death, leaves his body. Yet he is no less man than he was when he had his body. (Man of Three Dimensions [Tulsa: Faith Library, 1973]

Hagin's plagiarizing is so extensive, (75% of one of Hagins' best-sellers, 'The Authority of the Believer' was taken from Jack MacMillans' work with the same title) that 'word of faith' teaching is actually 'word-for-word' the teachings of Kenyon!

The roots of Kenyon's life and ministry weave throughout the cults of Science of the Mind, the Unity School of Christianity, Christian Science and New Thought metaphysics. In essence it is E. W. Kenyon who is most truly the godfather of the 'faith-in-faith' phenomana. Even the phraseology used by today’s prosperity preachers, ("What I confess, I possess.") are Kenyon originals.

What we balk at admitting - if the source of this 'new faith' is revamped new age spiritualism - what we balk at admitting - having chosen to call the practice of confessing, claiming, and coveting an enlightened christianity - what we balk at admitting - is that the 'positive confession/prosperity gospel' isn't skewed, it is a destructive substitute to the faith of Jesus Christ!

"Some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons..."(I Tim 4)

"He wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to wear the best clothing, He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything. Don't pray about money anymore, claim whatever you need!" (K. E. H.)

A church that has breast fed on the idea that they deserve "to wear and eat the best!" will not shed the cloak of self-righteousness to put on the silly suit of God's armor. What can you possibly teach a crew who believe themselves to be Christ, a god, equals with Jesus? Nothing. They receive no rebuke and need no correction.

Paul says, "He is puffed up with conceit...imagining that godliness is a means of gain...those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into senseless and harmful desires..."(I Tim. 6)span>"...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 listiening to the truth and wander off into myths." (II Tim. 4)

Jude warns, “Beloved...I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed…who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees, wild waves casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars... It is these who cause divisions...

But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:3-21)

Small wonder the church in America is anemic, impotent and without the faith once delivered to the saints. We gorge ourselves on 'the best', - and while the world draws nearer to the flames we fiddle with a faith that is false, foolish and finally... fatal.

Are You a Man or a...uh Pass the Mousse.

My God! We didn’t even notice. Whatever World Assembly has no men! Oh, we have males, plenty of males, but we have no men.

Walk through any mall, any office building, down the streets of the city, in the local Starbucks or Aeropostale. It will strike you – we have no more men.

Our males are soft, delicate, sensitive. They talk of clothes and hair gel and color coordinating their blue-tooths.

They pout and are easily offended. They are protective – not of God’s glory but of their own image – of what other’s might think – not of the beauty of Christ – but of their own beauty, their own fame, and their own uniqueness.

They are primped. More time has been spent in front of the mirror than in front of God’s throne. They rush to make their salon appointment and while viewing their time in worship as discretionary. My God, we have no men.

How did this happen?

We don’t have to look far. We have spent years getting guys in touch with their emotions. We’ve taught them worship songs that focus on their feelings. We even showed them how to lift their hands and bat their eyes in effeminate praise.

Many of us removed songs from our worship volumes that hinted of warfare or battle.

Even our Bible is neutered. Impotent. Gender neutral.

Will these men lift the shield of faith or sword of Spirit? Will these men fight for their sons and daughters or pout at home till their offspring apologize for making the family look bad.

My God! Please don’t let us be attacked by foreign enemies now.

Our call after 9-11 was not to enlist but – to go shopping! I’m not kidding – on the 12th we were told not to let the terrorists win. Go to the mall, use your credit card, and don’t be afraid.”

We have no men. If they can’t fight for soil how can we expect they will fight for souls? Their soft techniques will be void of battle cry or bloodshed.

There will be no cross, no harsh words, no ultimatum.

There will only be negotiation, trade deals, gentle embraces,

and a latte' after the service.

Give me men to match my mountains,

Give me men to match my plains,
Men with empires in their purpose,

Men with eras in their brains.

Worlds Apart

Christians at Whatever World Assembly are faced with a disturbing dichotomy. As a whole, those who profess faith in Christ are as likely to divorce as non-Christians. Church going teens as likely to engage in pre-marital sex as their unchurched peers.

A favorite creed of Whatever World - ‘name it and claim it’ - reveals a love for material possessions as heartily as their unsaved ‘worldly’ neighbors. Less then 10% give 10% of their income, as the Bible instructs, to church and missions.

"If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." Col 3:1,2

Familiar with the same sit-coms, the same Hollywood gossip and the same porn sites, the Christian in America, if polls are in the ballpark, live lives remarkably similar to that of the non-christian.

Whether members of Whatever World believe in God there is little doubt. But that is not the heart of Christianity(that is, back when it was Christian). Indeed, the Bible attributes a God-believing respect found in Satan himself.

“Do you believe that there is one God? You do well: the devils also believe, and tremble!” (Jam 2:19)

No, the core of Christianity is not found in our creed but in our craw. The stuff inside that makes us who we are as apart from who we were.

While in California some kids from Youth With A Mission would take us out in pairs, knock on doors and see if anyone wanted a free Bible. Most would assure us one or two already occupied their shelves.

“Then you know why the Bible was written?” We would innocently ask.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the Bible says for itself ‘why’ it was written. Here, read this.” And we would hand them a little folded card with Bible verses on it. The first verse read, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (Jn. 20:31)

We would then ask if they believed that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. With rare exception the answer would be a matter-of-fact, “Yes.”

Then came the defining moment, “In your believing have you received life in His name?”

Sometimes there would be a bright smile and a glad, “Yes, yes I have.” But most often, a pause, a quizzical look and “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

There’s the catch, the transforming difference, the life or no-life difference. Has believing given birth to receiving? Has receiving the Son of God’s grace in your heart and being transformed by that power made a lick of difference!

Is your creed wonderfully stuck in your craw?