Month: June 2019

Adonai with female body parts?

[Reader, I sincerely apologize for the title, and for having to present the quotes from Paul Young’s novel, Eve. Young’s false teaching and mother goddess first entered the visible church through his book, The Shack.]

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: (Proverbs 1:29)

Many do not know or  understand the biblical God, or this would not be happening.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; (Daniel 9:9)

Goddess worship has already manifested in the visible church. This is only going to increase as the counterfeit church continues to coalesce. One of the enemy’s most useful weapons in bringing confusion about the nature and attributes of God has been the writing and teaching of Paul Young, author of The Shack.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

While The Shack has been described as theology masquerading as fiction, the same can be said of Young’s novel, Eve, where we learn that God birthed Adam as a baby.

The following quotes can be found on pg. 142 of Eve:

“Adonai nursed him, of course. If God could birth a baby, you think They couldn’t feed him? The very reality of nursing an infant had to originate in God’s being, don’t you think?”

“I suppose so, but that would mean that Adonai has…”

“Breasts?” John finished her sentence. “Of course. They have breasts, and full of milk, according to the Scriptures. Mother’s milk.”

According to the Scriptures? Here Paul Young chooses to misinterpret 1 Peter 2:2-3:

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

This goes hand in hand with the sexual and gender chaos now in the world. Something is happening, and happening rapidly.

According to James DeYoung:

“I think that Paul Young is imbibing at the drink of pagan mythology, myths that were in vogue in the Canaanite era of Israel’s past history, and which God warned them all about, delivered Israel out of that, but [Paul Young] is conceiving of I think the writing of Genesis as a different way to take these myths and give them a different kind of character.”[1]

DeYoung is the author of EXPOSING Lies We Believe About God: How the Author of The Shack Is Deceiving Millions of Christians Again.

Specifically regarding Paul Young and his books, The Shack, Eve, and Lies We Believe About God, it is time once again to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

Pray that Christians, especially pastors from the pulpit, will confront this. The unclean spirit behind the mother goddess is in the visible church, and it is perilous to lack  knowledge of this.

Source Notes:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs04-l5cHkY&t=1941s      (32:23 approximately)

Born For Endurance

Christianity was born for endurance; it is not an exotic, but a hardy plant, braced by the keen wind; not languid, nor childish nor cowardly. It walks with strong step and erect frame; it is kindly, but firm; it is gentle, but honest; it is calm, but not facile; decided, but not churlish. It does not fear to speak the stern word of condemnation against error, nor to raise its voice against surrounding evils, knowing that it is not of this world.
― Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Ancient Anna in the Temple

Ancient Anna in the temple, she’s in there night and day

Worshiping and fasting, she kneels down to pray

Ancient Anna in the Temple, her prayer is far from done

Her desire never changes, she serves the Holy One

With prayer and while fasting, she kneels before the Lord

Praying for the people, that sinners be restored

Speak not while she’s before Him

Say not a single word

She’s on her face in the Holy Place

Knowing she’s been heard

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage. She never left the temple, serving night and days with fastings and prayers. (Luke 2:36-37)

Bethel Redding singer Amanda Lindsey Cook’s Jesus as “Enlightened Master”?

“Happy Good Friday everyone. I never know how to greet people on this day….a day we mark as a moment in time when the Enlightened Master seemed to descend into shadows.”[1] — Amanda Lindsey Cook

Enlightened Master?

Bethel Redding worship leader Amanda Lindsey Cook is a gifted singer/songwriter, and her music can be heard in churches around the world.[2] After an interview with the Christian Post to promote her latest album, Cook drew attention for her strange comments about God–so strange, in fact, that Holly Pivec, co-author of two books on the New Apostolic Reformation, wrote:

In light of this interview, I believe churches should reconsider their use of her music and any other music coming from Bethel Church (or elsewhere) that is written by songwriters with such a woefully deficient view of God. [3]

Readers who follow Holly Pivec’s reports on the NAR and other subjects know she is not given to hyperbole. In her article, Pivec noted some of the puzzling statements Cook made about God during  the Christian Post interview:

  • “Every day I increasingly felt like gravity and the great beyond, called God, was working in my favor.”
  • “I love this divine essence that we so commonly refer to as God. I think it becomes this common, almost familiar thing that it has connotations because we basically impose our belief system on whatever we think God is when we say the word ‘God.’”
  • “I love the names that this essence and this divine presence gives itself. In the Old Testament, where God describes themselves as ‘I am,’ also the name Yahweh, ‘the intake and the exhale of breath.’”
  • “It’s this common acknowledgment, this communal aspect of living, where we’re all connected, we’re all part of the common thread … to be connected at the source to this divine presence, this Christ consciousness…”

Some of Cook’s comments seem as if they come from a contemplative practitioner or even from a new age perspective. My concern grew as I discovered she addressed Christ as the “Enlightened Master” in her Facebook post on Good Friday.

Who or what can enlighten God? Why would she use such a term?

Amanda Lindsey Cook has been in Bethel Redding for a number of years now. Is it possible her new age term for Jesus, “Enlightened Master,” and these other strange comments about God are the result of exposure to Bethel Redding teaching and to the deception of contemplative prayer?

Bill Johnson believes in a teaching called kenosis, an unorthodox, heretical belief that the Incarnate Christ laid aside His divine attributes and walked the earth as a completely limited, human man.[4] According to Johnson, Christ “performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God . . . not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unobtainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. Recapturing this simple truth changes everything.”[5]

In other words, Bill Johnson believes the miracles Jesus performed came about because He, as a man, and only as a man, had access to the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Johnson teaches that Christians should be capable of wondrous feats of healing and miracles due to our own relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Thus Johnson’s kenosis doctrine serves to reduce the biblical Christ and elevate man. As one apologist points out:

Jesus is no longer unique, but only a special enlightened one who could lead the way to many such enlightened ones in the future. Thus we have a New Age Christ.[6]

Kenosis comes from a faulty understanding of Philippians 2:7:

but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Kenosis is proven false by the simple fact that Christ not only created the universe, but He holds it together. If Christ had given up His divine power and attributes and had operated only as a man until Resurrection, all creation would have come apart.(Colossians 1:16-17).

Is there some kind of explanation for some of Cook’s statements? Unfortunately, as of this writing there has been no response to questions we sent, and which were received by her management.

In Part 2 of this article, many of Cook’s disconcerting statements about God will be examined within the context of the theology-altering practice of contemplative prayer.

 

Source Notes:

1. Amanda Lindsey Cook, Facebook

2.https://bethelmusic.com/artists/amanda-lindsey-cook/

3. Holly Pivec, Spirit of Error

4. Kenosis, Christology, and Bill Johnson, Crosswise Blog, http://notunlikelee.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/kenosis-christology-and-bill-johnson-part-ii.

5. Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles, op. cit., Kindle location: 259.

6. Bob Dewaay, “An Invasion of Error” (Critical Issues Commentary, Issue 124 Jan.-Feb. 2013, http://www.cicministry.org/commentary/issue124.htm).

 

 

“Behind the music: The baffling views about God held by Bethel Music’s Amanda Lindsey Cook” by Holly Pivec

According to Holly Pivec over at Spirit of Error:

I was baffled and dismayed by the responses in an interview the Christian Post conducted, in April, with Amanda Lindsey Cook, a prominent worship leader and songwriter with Bethel Music. The interview was about her most recent album, House on a Hill, and about what Cook was thinking about God as she wrote the songs for this album.

I was baffled because it is very difficult to make any sense of Cook’s words. And I was dismayed because she makes a number of statements about God that raise many serious questions, including, most basic, what is her view of God? You can read excerpts of her statements below, but the bottom line is she seems to have some very confused and unbiblical views of God.

Yet, despite her muddled and misleading statements about God, her music is very popular. Some of her songs that you may have heard include “You Make Me Brave,” “Closer,” and “I Will Exalt.” They’re played on Christian radio stations and sung in churches throughout the nation. But the combination of Cook’s half-baked theological views and the popularity of her music raises the question: does the songwriter’s viewpoint or intent matter when it comes to writing songs for others to worship God?

Consider that question as you read some excerpts from her interview, below.

Amanda Lindsey Cook’s peculiar statements about God

  • “Every day I increasingly felt like gravity and the great beyond, called God, was working in my favor.”
  • “I love this divine essence that we so commonly refer to as God. I think it becomes this common, almost familiar thing that it has connotations because we basically impose our belief system on whatever we think God is when we say the word ‘God.’”
  • “I love the names that this essence and this divine presence gives itself. In the Old Testament, where God describes themselves as ‘I am,’ also the name Yahweh, ‘the intake and the exhale of breath.’”
  • “It’s this common acknowledgment, this communal aspect of living, where we’re all connected, we’re all part of the common thread … to be connected at the source to this divine presence, this Christ consciousness…”

If that interview isn’t cause enough for concern, Amanda Lindsey Cook also teaches at Bethel Church in Redding, California, home to Bethel Music. Given her unclear and curious responses during the interview, one may wonder how she ever was approved to teach at any church, let alone one as large and influential as Bethel Church.

What’s the right response? (Click here to continue reading Holly Pivec’s article)