Judas' Resurrection

Yet another assault on Biblical Christianity has been unleashed. This time it is the Gnostic Gospel of Judas. Within this writing, Judas is the stellar friend of Jesus who understands Christ like no other. He alone can be trusted with betraying Jesus! Jesus must be betrayed so that his divine spirit will be set free from his all too human body.

Isn't it amazing the things we can’t find a trace of in the sixty six books of the Bible? If only we had found the Gospel of Judas earlier. Thousands of people could have spared themselves from martyrdom, stopped wasting time praying and finally figured out that life really is meaningless!

Liberal scholars and the National Geographic Society are embracing the Gospel of Judas and proclaiming that it carries equal weight with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Brandishing the Gospel of a traitor, they desire to rewrite our understanding of Biblical history.

The Gospel of Judas is certainly not a recent discovery. Ireneaus, the bishop of Lyons, had this to say about the Gospel of Judas circa 180 A.D:

They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.

The Gospel of Judas is obviously a late and highly embellished rendering of fiction. The copy now being paraded on the news and on National Geographic is written in Coptic and was translated from an earlier Greek version. It bears the marks of a fully developed Gnosticism which only came into existence well after the time of eyewitnesses to Christ's earthly activities.

Here is an excerpt from one of the more interesting passages (please forgive the translators conjectural emendations):

The multitude of those immortals is called the cosmos— that is, perdition—by the Father and the seventy-two luminaries who are with the Self-Generated and his seventytwo aeons. In him the first human appeared with his incorruptible powers. And the aeon that appeared with his generation, the aeon in whom are the cloud of knowledge and the angel, is called [51] El. […] aeon […] after that […] said, ‘Let twelve angels come into being [to] rule over chaos and the [underworld].’ And look, from the cloud there appeared an [angel] whose face flashed with fire and whose appearance was defiled with blood. His name was Nebro, which means ‘rebel’; others call him Yaldabaoth. Another angel, Saklas, also came from the cloud. So Nebro created six angels—as well as Saklas—to be assistants, and these produced twelve angels in the heavens, with each one receiving a portion in the heavens.

Gnosticism sought secret knowledge to open the doorway of immortality. Within Gnostic belief, the spirit of man partakes of the divine essence, but his physical body shackles him to drudgery. Gnostics view the corpus as evil and abuse it either by throwing it into extreme pleasure or extreme impoverishment. The ultimate ideal of Gnosticism is separation of the spirit from the body.

Gnostics were some of the early perverters of the unembellished story of Christ’s death and resurrection. Dissatisfied by the story of God’s loving sacrifice on their behalf, they denied Christ came in the flesh. In fact, Christ was in a worse condition than being in hell when he was in physical form. An incipient form of Gnosticism probably inspired John to write “And you can know which ones come from God. His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body” (CEV, I John 4:2).

This early heresy would later become highly embellished, highly symbolic and totally separated from reality. I guess it is the perfect topic for our “modern scholars” at National Geographic. I never cease to be amazed that hacks can dredge up old heresies and recast them as scholarship.

To take a peek at the Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism, visit the following sites:

Wikipedia on Gnosticism
National Geographic Web on Gospel of Judas
National Geographic Video on Judas
(highly recommended, but you had better have a decent internet connection – 4Mbs)
Christianity Today on Gospel of Judas
Comprehensive Articles on Gospel of Judas
(Great site that contains a translation of the Gospel of Judas in English!)

Sexual Plague

While watching MSNB’s Dateline, I was reminded of the sexual disaster of America. Utilizing a non-profit group known as Perverted Justice, MSNBC trolled for men who were willing to engage in sex with a thirteen year old girl or boy. Decoys would engage these men in chat rooms or via the phone and would invite them to meet them in a quiet residential neighborhood.

MSNBC trolled for a mere three days. I would have expected half a dozen men to greet the MSNBC cameras. Shockingly, over fifty men were arrested subsequent to their surprise interviews. With nary a blush, the men would spin the most outrageous lies. “I did not know how old she was.” “I just came to teach her a lesson about online predators.” Then the MSNBC reporter would unveil their lewd and offensive chat room dialogues that left all of the lies naked. Seldom did any of the men show shame.

From a short four years in ministry, I met many men who struggled with sexual issues. Dozens were addicted to pornography. Some may have been emerging predators. How many men have sexual sin at some point in their life? 100%! In the words of a New Zealand evangelist, “There are only two kinds of men in this world. Perverts and forgiven perverts.”

America is in the throes of a great plague. Predators are being created daily by our over-saturation with sexual content. MTV and HBO know no limitations to their exploitation of man’s desire for sexual gratification. Recent Victoria’s Secret advertisements aired at all hours have only one purpose; arousal.

If the Church does not mobilize to address the silent plague, our young men will be rapists, our young women will be victims and our parents will be complicit. God has made us fully aware of the scope of our degradation.

To read the full MSNBC story, go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11152602/. Please be aware that the content is graphic. This is the third time that MSNBC has pursued sexual predators.

Afghanistan's Freedom in Islam

Editor's note: This story was reported by ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1746943&page=1. It details the plight of a man who embraced Christ in a country that utterly rejects Him. Death is often the end of those who leave Islam for Christ. Pray for this man.

ABC NEWS

By GRETCHEN PETERS and LARA SETRAKIAN, with reporting by BILAL SARWARY

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 20, 2006 — Despite the overthrow of the fundamentalist Taliban government and the presence of 22,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a man who converted to Christianity is being prosecuted in Kabul, and a judge said Sunday that if convicted, he faces the death penalty.

Abdul Rahman, who is in his 40s, says he converted to Christianity 16 years ago while working as an aid worker helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Relatives denounced him as a convert during a custody battle over his children, and he was arrested last month. The prosecutor says Rahman was found with a Bible.

Human rights workers have described the case as an unsettling reminder that the country's post-Taliban judiciary remains deeply conservative, and they have called on President Hamid Karzai to intervene. During Taliban times, men were forced to kneel in prayer five times a day, and couples faced the death penalty for sex outside marriage, for example. Reform efforts have been slow, say experts, since there are so few judges and lawyers with experience.

The U.S. State Department is watching the case closely and considers it a barometer of how well democracy is developing in Afghanistan.

"Our view … is that tolerance, freedom of worship is an important element of any democracy," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "And these are issues as Afghan democracy matures that they are going to have to deal with increasingly."

A number of Christian nonprofit groups do humanitarian work in Afghanistan. Dominic Nutt of Christian Aid calls the Rahman case a step backward for the country, especially if Rahman is executed.

Nutt, who has spent time in Afghanistan, tells ABC News "few practitioners are used to the concept of democracy and toleration … [many] are educated only in Islamic law."

Presiding judge Ansarullah Mawlazezadah tells ABC News a medical team was checking the defendant, since the team suspects insanity caused Rahman to reject Islam.

"We want to know that the doctors have given him a green light on his mental state, because he is not normal when he talks," says the judge.

The post-Taliban constitution recognizes Islam as Afghanistan's religion, and decrees that Islam's Sharia law applies when a case is not covered by specific legislation. The prosecutor says under Sharia law, Abdul Rahman must die.

The judge, however, holds hopes for a solution.

"We will ask him if he has changed his mind about being a Christian," Mawlazezadah says. "If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance."

Article continued at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1746943&page=1

Islam's Forgotten History

If it were not for the intervention of God, we would be speaking Arabic, praying five times daily to Mecca and participating in the hegira. Few remember their history. It was a fateful day in 732 A.D. that Charles “The Hammer” Martel brought the Cordoban Muslim emirate to its knees. By stopping the Islamic hordes at Tours, Charles stopped Islam from conquering all of Europe.

Even fewer people realize that modern day Spain was controlled by Islam until 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella finally reclaimed the Iberian Peninsula for Roman Catholicism (Map – Dark brown denotes Muslim dominion in 750 A.D.).

It is a grand history of hundreds of years of domination, glorious conquest and fabled wealth that still inspires many of those who practice jihad or holy war.

A world ruled by those who take the Koran literally is too dreary to contemplate. Consider the following quotes:

· On February 23, 1998, five Islamic caliphates signed a fatwa declaring war against the U.S. · “The ruling to kill Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it…”
· Surah 2:191 states, “And slay them wherever you catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out, for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter.”
· Surah 4:89 states, “Seize them and slay them wherever you may find them…”
· Surah 9:29 states, “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day.”

When you contemplate your role in evangelism, keep in mind that Christians are beginning to fall behind in the race for souls.

Globalization and Christ

A number of recent books and articles have driven me to believe that God's hand may be shifting to Asia. In particular, I'm re-reading "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. This secular book chronicles the rise of software and outsourcing superpowers such as Bangalore, India and Xianjian, China. The world's wealth and influence are shifting to these two nations in particular as the economic playing field is being leveled by technology.

While we were sleeping last night, executives in America sent their requests for presentations and research overseas to India. India, with its vast intellectual capital, turns these jobs over to men and women with doctorates who will work for a fraction of the wages earned in the U.S. When the U.S. executives arrive at work the next morning, the research and an accompanying PowerPoint presentations will be on their desktop computers. India and China work while America sleeps; the beauty of outsourcing.

If you call to reserve an airline, to order a Dell computer or to resolve a technical computer problem, it is likely an enthusiastic, English speaking West Indian who will fulfill your needs. I recently ordered a Dell laptop and received some of the best service imaginable. When I asked where the customer service representative was located, she sweetly replied "Bangalore, India".

India and China are earning the right to America's repetetive, but skilled IT jobs. In Thomas Friedman's estimation, the only jobs that may remain in America are those that require people skills. If a job has any component that may be done overseas it will be done there in the future; such jobs include taxes, call centers, the reading of CAT scans and x-rays, routine legal work, programming, hotel and airline reservations, project management, data analysis, architectural work, etc. Americans beware! God is beginning to shift world influence to a new world long deprieved of our lifestyle.

World markets and cultures are opening to embrace the surge of American outsourcing. India and China are welcoming American companies, their business practices and ideals unreservedly into their nations. The shift has massive potential for fulfilling the passion of Jesus Christ. The gospel is exploding in India and China. Per a recent article at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/13711/Evangelical-Christianity-shifting-outside-West:

In 1960, there were an estimated 50 million evangelical Christians in the West, and 25 million in the rest of the world; today, there are an estimated 75 million in the West, and 325 million in the rest of the world (representing about 20 percent of the two billion Christians worldwide).

Other experts differ on the number of evangelicals (estimates range from 250 million to nearly one billion) but agree that the number is growing rapidly.

"As the vibrancy of evangelicalism seems to have waned somewhat in the West, many in the non-West are ready to pick up the banner and move forward," said Kilgore, a former missionary who is now associate provost at Philadelphia Biblical University. "Most Americans have no idea how big the shift has been."

Todd M. Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, writes that "Africans, Asians and Latin Americans are more typical representatives of evangelicalism than Americans or Europeans."

The new evangelicals are more exuberant in their worship services; put more faith in spiritual healing, prophecy and visions; and read the Bible more literally than many of their Western cousins.

In a world of globalization and evangelicalization (a coined word), mission agencies relying on indigenous missionaries are enormously effective, while mission bodies dependent upon expensive American missionaries are blunted. Consider these excerpts from K.P Yohanan, founder of Gospel for Asia (http://www.gfa.org/gfa/whynativemissions):

• Although native missionaries do face many difficult obstacles as they take the message from village to village, they still have an enormous advantage over their coworkers from North America and other non-Asian lands.
• Today, over 85 percent of Asian countries do not allow western missionaries to come and freely preach the Gospel and plant churches.
• In the eyes of the people, native missionaries do not represent a foreign country or a strange religion. They already know the language or can easily learn a local dialect.
• A native missionary can be sent out at a fraction of the cost of a Western missionary. In fact, the average cost is only $1,100 to $1,800 per year compared to over $75,000 per year for a foreign missionary.
• The possibility of reaching Asia's multitudes through native missionaries in our generation is very real as thousands are being trained to plant churches across Asia!
• To date 54 Bible colleges have been established in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and at the Bhutan border. Currently, nearly 8,000 young men and women are currently receiving training.
• The quality of GFA students is incredible. Over 98 percent of our graduates minister in places where the Gospel has never before been preached. Frequently, our graduates will establish a new fellowship within their first year on the field.
• On average, our missionaries establish nearly 15 fellowships every day in Asia among unreached villages and people groups.
• The churches planted in each culture are truly indigenous in character, self-governing,self-propagating and, as soon as possible, self-supporting.
  

I believe we are at a watershed in history. While Asia is rising to new prominence, America's influence in globalization, evangelicalization and mission activity is waning. The next decade of world history will see massive changes in monetary, intellectual, political and Christian capital. Are we ready? What can we anticipate? How can we best support what God is already doing?

Rob and I had a fantastic time at the Grove City Church of God on Sunday (1-29-06). People were very responsive to our Islam presentation and many shared concerning their witnessing encounters with Muslims. I was genuinely surprised at the number of people that came into contact with Islam on a daily basis.

Pastor Barr is truly a pastor’s pastor. We greatly appreciate his invitation to speak before his lovely congregation.

--Owen

First Salvo – The DaVinci Code

The following is a series of questions answered by Dan Brown of the DaVinci Code followed by my preliminary responses. I just finished the DaVinci Code and found it be a page turner and a temper boiler! Many will be taking this book seriously since Brown passes the work off as scholarly fiction. We are already beginning to see a new skepticism arise that is built off of Brown’s fallacious scholarship. Great fiction, poor truth!

HOW DID YOU GET ALL THE INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THIS BOOK? Most of the information is not as "inside" as it seems. The secret described in the novel has been chronicled for centuries, so there are thousands of sources to draw from. In addition, I was surprised how eager historians were to share their expertise with me. One academic told me her enthusiasm for The Da Vinci Code was based in part on her hope that "this ancient mystery would be unveiled to a wider audience."

Response – Dan had to dig deep for this stuff. He should be commended for writing an entertaining story, but the presentation of this material as scholarly is laughable. In particular, Dan misses on his biggest point. He writes that Constantine attempted to meld paganism and Christianity together by deifying Jesus. This goal was seen necessary to unify his factious nation. Brown writes that the Council of Nicea in 325 was a watershed event where Constantine destroyed earlier stories of Jesus’ mere humanity and established by a vote the deity of Christ. Per Dan, before this time, Jesus’ followers only thought of him as a great man.

The real issue at Nicea was not whether Jesus was divine, but whether he was partially divine or wholly divine. The battle was between Arianism which posited that Christ was God by a matter of degree and orthodox Christianity that said that Jesus has always been God. In Arius’ words, “There once was a time when Jesus was not” and “There once was a time when God was not a Father.” Arius still proclaimed Christ’s divinity, but he believed that Jesus was a created being and inferior to God the Father. Orthodox Christianity held forth that Jesus was of the same substance as the Father and had eternally existed as a member of the godhead.

Nicea did not decide whether Jesus was divine. The early church fathers had held this from the beginning. Ignatius of Antioch (died 110 A.D), Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr (circa 140 A.D), Polycarp of Smyrna, Irenaeus, Theophilus (115-181 A.D.), Melito of Sardis (177 A.D.) and a horde of other early church fathers all proclaimed Christ’s deity well before Constantine came onto the scene.

Brown likes to discount the Bible, but the book of John is absolutely rife with statements of Christ’s deity. Here is a small example:

The descriptive “I Am” passages - Jesus himself claimed his deity within these passages.
· The bread of life (6:35, 48). Jesus is the sustenance of existence and eternal life.
· The light of the world (8:12). Jesus is the clearest distinction between good and evil. He provides clarity in discerning evil.
· The door (10:7, 9). This is claim to divine exclusivity. All other means of accessing God are illegitimate.
· The good shepherd (10:11, 14). Jesus is the compassionate God.
· The resurrection and the life (11:25). Jesus claims that the hope of resurrection is vested in his person and that he is the giver of eternal life.
· The way and the truth and the life (14:6). Again, there is the claim of exclusivity. Jesus is the only venue to knowing God and living eternally.
· The true vine (15:1, 5). Without Jesus as the source of life, man cannot live or be productive.

The exclusive “I Am” passages. These statements by Christ clearly demonstrate Christ’s claim to deity. They directly identify Christ with the Old Testament statement in Exodus 3:14.
· The power encounters (4:25, 26; 8:24, 25, 28; 13:19). Jesus reveals himself as the “I am” during several climactic moments.

The Nicene Creed is a beautiful expression of the belief of the Council.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

It is unfortunate that Brown’s only defense is that ‘history has been rewritten’ and that non-existent documents support his position. That is a whole lot of history to rewrite and control and a whole lot of missing documents!

HOW MUCH OF THIS NOVEL IS TRUE? The Da Vinci Code is a novel and therefore a work of fiction. While the book's characters and their actions are obviously not real, the artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals depicted in this novel all exist (for example, Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings, the Gnostic Gospels, Hieros Gamos, etc.). These real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters. While it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit, each individual reader must explore these characters' viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations. My hope in writing this novel was that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion, and history.

Response – While some of the elements in this work of fiction may exist, this does not mean that they were ever woven in reality into such a complex conspiracy. Dan Brown ultimately is concerned with stoking the hugely powerful fire under his work. Almost every point in the book is intensely debatable; from the symbolism behind DaVinci’s Last Supper where Brown depicts Peter as “threatening” Mary Magdalene to the rather odd notion that early Jewish worship embodied goddess worship and shrine prostitution at the temple.

SOME OF THE HISTORY IN THIS NOVEL CONTRADICTS WHAT I LEARNED IN SCHOOL. WHAT SHOULD I BELIEVE? Since the beginning of recorded time, history has been written by the "winners" (those societies and belief systems that conquered and survived). Despite an obvious bias in this accounting method, we still measure the "historical accuracy" of a given concept by examining how well it concurs with our existing historical record. Many historians now believe (as do I) that in gauging the historical accuracy of a given concept, we should first ask ourselves a far deeper question: How historically accurate is history itself?

Response – Tripe. Dan Brown is obviously part of the revisionist movement that is attempting to overthrow any form of objective truth. As Brown noted in the previous section, “each individual reader must explore these characters' viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations.” Whether those interpretations are true is totally outside of Brown’s concern. He is a postmodernist of the first order.

ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN? Yes. Interestingly, if you ask three people what it means to be Christian, you will get three different answers. Some feel being baptized is sufficient. Others feel you must accept the Bible as absolute historical fact. Still others require a belief that all those who do not accept Christ as their personal savior are doomed to hell. Faith is a continuum, and we each fall on that line where we may. By attempting to rigidly classify ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point where we entirely miss the obvious--that is, that we are all trying to decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each following our own paths of enlightenment. I consider myself a student of many religions. The more I learn, the more questions I have. For me, the spiritual quest will be a life-long work in progress.

Response – There is no center to Brown’s existence. Abandoning author-centered meaning, Brown is always in transition, but never arriving at conclusions. Brown paradoxically calls himself a Christian and then denies the very substance of Christianity; the person and works of Jesus Christ. I think we can safely conclude that Dan Brown is a wolf of Biblical proportions.

THIS NOVEL IS VERY EMPOWERING TO WOMEN. CAN YOU COMMENT? Two thousand years ago, we lived in a world of Gods and Goddesses. Today, we live in a world solely of Gods. Women in most cultures have been stripped of their spiritual power. The novel touches on questions of how and why this shift occurred…and on what lessons we might learn from it regarding our future.

Response – This is Dan’s central premise that goddess worship was repressed by Christianity and destroyed by a conspiracy of the Roman emperor Constantine. Since only the masculine side of the sacred is being expressed in world religions, the earth is horribly out of balance. Langdon’s mission in the book is to unwittingly restore the feminine sacred. In doing so, the earth will once again blossom into peace and love. The world of goddess worship contains orgiastic sex worship and shrine prostitution. This form of worship is seen as a beautiful expression of achieving the fusion of the masculine and feminine sacred.

Upcoming Event

On January 29th, Robert and I will be at the Grove City Church of God for the Sunday morning service. Pastor Randy Barr has graciously invited us to present on the topic of Islamic evangelism. Morning worship begins at 10:30. For driving directions, visit http://www.gccog.org/cog/welcome.

When Heresy Goes Unchecked

EmissaryX editor note: No one likes being a "heresy hunter". However, when God's people do not take care of their own, destructive influences destroy the witness of Christ. This posting is from the October 21st, 2005 "Fire in My Bones" column by J. Lee Grady of Charisma Online.


When Heresy Goes Unchecked
In the case of Carlton Pearson’s Universalist doctrines, we can’t soft-pedal. We must confront.

The apostle Paul wrote the Bible’s most eloquent words about Christian love. But when it came to the subject of heresy, he went into verbal-attack mode. He labeled those who were spreading false doctrines “dogs” (Phil. 3:2) and “liars” (1 Tim. 4:2), and he not only labeled heretics publicly but “handed them over to Satan” in his prayers (see 1 Tim. 1:20). Doesn’t sound much like the sloppy agape love we often model today.

Paul believed that if heresy goes unchecked it gnaws at the larger body of Christ and contaminates everyone. He warned his disciple Timothy that false teaching spreads “like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17). The King James Version says the words of false teachers “will eat as doth a canker.” The word “gangrene” can also be translated cancer.

Modern translation: False doctrine is malignant. Get the tumor out before it kills people.



What is troubling me these days is that many American church leaders (and I am talking about my fellow charismatics and Pentecostals) are not displaying the necessary backbone to label a heretic a heretic. We have become masters at soft-pedaling and inaction when the Lord requires us to confront.

Case in point: Bishop Carlton Pearson, who was raised in the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination (the Church of God in Christ) and who once served as an evangelist with the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, began teaching what he calls “the gospel of inclusion” a few years ago. He has become a Universalist, claiming that people do not need Christian conversion in order to be saved by Christ.

Pearson’s deception has been widely reported.

In Charisma magazine we followed Pearson’s demise and announced that one body, the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops’ Congress, labeled him a heretic in March 2004. Since that time, Pearson convened a national conference about Universalist doctrine that featured Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, who does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and has promoted his ideas in books such as Why Christianity Must Change or Die.

You would think that every charismatic leader in the United States would sever all ties to Pearson until he renounces his apostasy. But that is not the case.

Popular gospel singer John P. Kee, who pastors New Life Fellowship Center in Charlotte, N.C., appeared on the program at Pearson’s Inclusion 2005 conference, which was held in Pearson’s Higher Dimensions Family church in Tulsa, Okla., in June. Having Kee’s face on the program certainly gave the conference added credibility in the eyes of some Pentecostals.
Pearson was the featured speaker at a prominent charismatic church in Atlanta on Pentecost Sunday in May of this year. The church’s pastor, Bishop Earl Paulk Jr., put Pearson back in the same pulpit two weeks ago.
The church network that Paulk founded, the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC), still lists Pearson as a member in good standing. When I asked an ICCC leader last week why they did not remove him, he said the organization does not currently have any mechanism to remove members based on doctrinal or character issues.
Huh? Therein lies the root problem. In the loosey-goosey world of charismatic independence, we find it almost impossible to police our own. Everything is about “fellowship,” but we lack the teeth in our policies to ensure that we can properly discipline preachers who veer off into doctrinal error.

When I bring up the issue of Pearson’s apostasy I usually get a lot of glazed looks from people who don’t want to believe that a brother has fallen into deception. “Don’t be so hard on the guy,” is a typical response. “Maybe we don’t understand what he is teaching.”

I don’t need any more explanation. Pearson has a banner on his Web site that announces: “God Is Not A Christian.” And his church is hosting a combined service on Nov. 17 with a local Unitarian congregation in Tulsa.

We Christians are so nice we don’t know how to handle it when the Bible requires tough love. Let’s remember that when it comes to heresy, God does not require us to be nice. It’s time for all of our congregations, denominations and church networks to raise the bar and defend the faith from those who pervert it.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. He writes a column for Charisma Online twice a week.

A Beginning

This blog is dedicated to the glory of God and revealing that God's presence in the human heart makes man fully alive.

Emissary ministries exists to equip bodies of believers to share their faith boldly within the strategic sphere that God has placed them.