Perilous Times are Here: Lovers of Self

Christians have a responsibility and our responsibility is to God. In short, Christians have one job in spite of what is happening in society at any point in time. Our job is to preach Christ and Him crucified! The only real healing and justice that can happen in society is when it happens with one person at a time and that is only through Christ and the salvation that only He provides! There is NO other way and this is why in society there are many checks and balances with lower courts to higher courts to eventually the Supreme Court. Even there, true justice might not occur, but it has a far better chance of happening than if there was only one court and one group of judges…(continue reading Study-Grow-Know blog article)

Part 3–The Watchman and the Hunter

The watchmen who were set on the walls by God were to give His message. That also means they were His prophets, as they spoke God’s words of warning to the people. The walls were also His.

The modern watchman of today who is called by God to speak out and warn His people must be standing on the right wall. Continue reading…

Apostasy Update #1

Outstanding. Hope this will be a weekly show.

The Nations That Forget God…Part 2

Pastor Randles writes:

But with the cultural Revolution of the last century, which had been long simmering, but which took off in the 1950s and 1960s, we lost sight of God, and of our religion, (Christianity in various forms), and secularized.

Eventually enough of us jettisoned the old Judeo Christian outlook, in favor of a secular humanist worldview. To put it in Deuteronomic terms, we would not listen to the voice of the LORD.

And things have rapidly been deteriorating ever since. I will highlight four notable examples from Deuteronomy of what it looks like when a nation forgets God; Continue reading…

Counterfeits within the visible church

“So, you’re not mad I took away your Antichrist?” — The Passion Translation author

It seems like Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, does whatever he wants to the meaning of the Scriptures, whenever he wants, and however he wants.

“There is no reference to the Antichrist in the book of Revelation.” (The Passion Translation footnotes, l. Rev 13:18)

Yet, according to the Book of Revelation:

⁵There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. ⁶And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

⁷It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. ⁸All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. (Revelation 13:5-8)

Brian Simmons– Well, it’s obvious that five times John uses the phrase antichrist. He never uses the definite article ho in Greek ho, the Greek definite article. The antichrist is not in the Bible. The never occurs with antichrist. It’s either a spirit, or the one who denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is antichrist.

So, we’re convinced, although there are other interpretations we make obvious room for, but I’m personally convinced that the antichrist is everything in us that is yet to be brought into submission, the subduing influence of Jesus, that opposes Christ. (16 minutes 30 seconds in video)

According to the footnotes in The Passion Translation (l. Rev 13:18):

There is no reference to the Antichrist in the book of Revelation. The beast is equated to the nature of humanity. The number 666 is the number of man; not an incarnation of the devil, but human nature. The number six is always equated with man, for man was created on the sixth day. The wild beast rising out of the ground (which man was made from) is the sin of man that wars against our souls and prevents the image of Christ from emerging in fullness within believers. The number 666 cannot be literal, for a literal number would need no wisdom to interpret. Both the mark of the beast and the mark on the foreheads of God’s faithful followers is a metaphor of the character of the beast revealed by thoughts (foreheads) and by actions (the hands).

Brian Simmons– So you’re not mad I took away your Antichrist? It’s really amazing, Americans, you take away their rapture and the Antichrist and they, like, whuh whuh buh buh buh buh buh. (34 minutes in video)

2 Thessalonians 2 states:

³Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Obviously, fake Bibles such as The Message and The Passion Translation are the devils’s strategy to keep people from the (real) Word of God.

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105, NASB)

The Bible guides us in matters of wisdom. Strength. Love. Forgiveness. Obedience. Salvation. Sanctification. Correction. Knowledge. And so much more. It’s been said many times that if you really want to hear from God, open the Word of God and start reading. If you really want to know God, open the Word of God and start reading. And, no, this is definitely not referring to The Passion Translation.

And, finally, thanks to Andrew Chapman, who offers this correction to Brian Simmon’s alleged translation concerning antichrist:

Simmons at 16.34ff in the Patricia King video: ‘five times John uses the phrase antichrist. He never uses the definite article, h o in Greek ho (ὁ), the Greek definite article, ‘the’ antichrist is not in the bible. ‘the’ never occurs with ‘antichrist’.’

EXCEPT IT DOES! in 1 John 4.3b – ‘.. καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου..’ ‘and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist – τοῦ is the article in the genitive case. ὁ is the article in the nominative case.

Also Greek doesn’t have an indefinite article (a, an in English), so it’s not actually correct for Simmons to say that John doesn’t use the ‘definite article’ ὁ. But that’s a relatively minor point.

If Simmons had actually translated 1 John from Greek he would know this. I wonder if he was looking for ὁ and couldn’t see it and didn’t know that the article declines? He doesn’t know basic Greek, and in reality is cobbling together a new English fake ‘translation’ from real translations, adding and changing things to suit his purposes and predilections.

The Passion Translation author’s heretical views about Christ’s return

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And my people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it? (Jeremiah 5:30)

Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, is teaching heresy about the return of Christ. Simmons says the Bible uses “clouds” as a term for men eight times. Simmons states the Bible says Jesus comes within clouds, so therefore it means Christ is coming from within us.

Here is what Simmons said to Patricia King:

The Book of Revelation is “not primarily a manual of coming events. A sneak preview of what’s coming. Rather it is the coming one. It’s the unveiling of who is coming. And His coming is within us. We experience that unveiling in our lives.” (5 minutes 9 seconds in video)

Here again is Simmons to Patricia King:

Brian Simmons– What about the clouds? Jesus is coming, Greek is meta nephele, He’s coming, meta nephele, within clouds. He’s coming within clouds. Not on clouds. Within clouds. Eight times in the Bible, CLOUDS ARE PEOPLE. (11 minutes 14 seconds in video)

P.K.– Right. Wow.

Brian Simmons– So, maybe the Second Coming isn’t what we think.

P.K.– Wow.

Brian Simmons– Maybe we don’t have it all figured out.

Here is Brian Simmons at the Glory of the Last Days Conference:

Something about clouds. God really likes clouds. He rides, His name is cloud rider. I put that in Psalms, the translation of the Psalms. Thou shalt get the Book of Psalms on your way out too. But His name is Yah, cloud rider, ha ha ha ha. He rides upon the clouds. Okay, you’re the cloud. Eight times in the Bible. Uno, dos, tres, quatro, eight times. Men are clouds. Cloud of witnesses. Jude speaks of false teachers that are clouds with no rain.

Throw up Isaiah 60 verse 8. Put up Isaiah 60 verse 8, if you dare to read this. The Passion Translation: Who are these that soar like clouds, like doves flying into their portals. Jesus is coming in the clouds! I’m here to announce to you, ladies and gentlemen. Everybody missed His first coming. Everyone missed the first coming. Only people who got revelation understood the first coming.

Even though they had the Bible, they knew it’d be Bethlehem, but yet He was from Nazareth so they, He purposely let them get offended over being in Nazareth, but He wasn’t, He was from Bethlehem, but they called Him from Nazareth. He didn’t set the record straight. He let them be deceived.

But those with spirit revelation would understand. He was from Bethlehem. Micah 5:2. So if everyone missed the first coming except by divine revelation, how is it you got all the Second Coming figured out? There’s so much more to the unveiling. I want to unveil, I want to lift some of that veil as we go into Revelation 1. After lunch I want to show you some secrets about the coming of the Lord. (10 minutes 54 seconds in video)

We’re the seed of Christ, the 42nd generation, we complete the genealogy of Jesus. Christ is no longer a man, He’s a people. YOU AND I CARRY LIKE MARY. WE WILL BRING FORTH THE CHRIST. THE SECOND COMING IS THE BECOMING OF THE LORD. The Father loves the Son so much, he is going to fill the earth with people just like Him. (4 minutes 31 seconds in video)

Please note that Simmons proclaims, “Christ is no longer a man, He’s a people” and “The Second Coming is the Becoming of the Lord.” It appears that Simmons, beneath his New Apostolic Reformation exterior, is promoting a New Age, corporate manifestation of Christ.

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Christians determine when the Second Coming will occur, says The Passion Translation author

Mike Bickle of IHOP-KC and Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, teach that Christ’s return is dependent upon the actions of the Church.

According to Mike Bickle,

“He is not coming any day. He is not coming until the people of God globally are crying out in intercession with a bridal identity under the anointing of the Spirit.” [1]

Brian Simmons states,

“You hold the reins to the Second Coming. You determine when it comes.” [2]

Many of the Latter Rain heresies have never really gone away. They are percolating away in one form or another in the teachings of New Apostolic Reformation leaders Brian Simmons, Mike Bickle, Bill Johnson, and others.

Source Notes:

1. Mike Bickle audio message #2; given March 6, 2008

2. Brian Simmons, Glory of the Last Days, Session 2, Part 1 (1:45:19 in video )

Bethesda NW a forerunner for androgynous “deity” of the coming false church?

Before traveling to androgynous territory, a brief recap of a recent article:

On Mother’s Day 2019, Bethesda NW, a church closely aligned with Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding, decided to worship the Mother Goddess rather than the Father. Fast forward to Mother’s Day 2020, and church leaders Ben and Tisha Straup continued with this teaching.

In the Mother’s Day sermon, Tisha Straup twisted the parable of the woman and the lost coin (Luke 15) to prove that God can be a woman, and has a female side. She declared:

Jesus is not just giving a parable about God and sinners, He’s saying that God could be a woman, that the Holy Spirit, the Mother Heart of God, is searching for the lost coin like the Prodigal Father and the Good Shepherd. This enraged the Pharisees. They were so, they like, who do you, you think you’re like the Son of God and now you can say that God has a female side, that God can be like a woman searching for a lost coin? This was beyond anything they’d ever heard. It enraged them, it made them so angry. (1 hr. and 41 minutes in video, give or take.)

Tisha Straup also said:

So, God is not male. He’s male and female. (1 hr. 34 minutes in video, give or take.)

Androgynous: having the characteristics of both male and female; neither specifically feminine or masculine. –Merriam-Webster Dictionary

As pointed out elsewhere, The Shack has greatly affected the theological understanding of many, and Bethesda NW epitomizes this. But is there another influence at work here? Perhaps. Bethel Redding’s Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton are enthusiastic admirers of false prophet William Branham, and Bethel Redding exerts enormous influence on Bethesda NW–and on many other churches in the New Apostolic Reformation movement as well.

Regarding William Branham, Mike Oppenheimer writes in Was man first made androgynous?:

It is William Branham that taught emphatically on man being both male and female, androgynous when he was created in heaven (not earth) and many word faith teachers accept this terrible interpretation, such as Kenneth Copeland.

Branham taught that God is an androgynous being, and that he created man as both male and female in his image. “And man in his spirit was both man and woman.” (58-0928E)

Oppenheimer goes on to mention other false teachers who have taught this at various times.

Yet, in terms of the visible church, William Branham and William Paul Young and (other heretics) are simply spiritual middlemen. The Bible tells us:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, (1 Timothy 4:1)

Doctrines of demons. What will the false church look like? Will the Mother Goddess be prominent? Will man, woman, and God be seen as androgynous? Will man, woman, God (and creation) be seen as ONE?

Our biblical churches are to be protected and built up by men and women who know the Word of God. By men and women who are obedient in pointing out false teaching, even if it costs friendships. By men and women who are willing to disciple others. And by men and women who love Christ and the lost enough to do what the Bible instructs–spread the gospel message.

Times are going to get tougher. There will be persecution. The Bible tells us:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe. (Proverbs 18:10)

Apostasy will increase. Strange teachings will continue to bubble up and spew forth from apostate churches. Yet, the news is still good: The gates of Hades will not overpower His church. (Matthew 16:18)

End Part 1

Part 2: Androgynous society, Androgynous “god”

RELATED: When I need to know what the Word of God says about strange or puzzling teachings or teachers, when I need to know the history, I often go to Deception in the Church and Let Us Reason. Here complex histories and theologies are made simple thanks to thorough research and concise writing. If you need to know about something, chances are it’s on these sites.

I have other high priority go to sites, and will be giving links and information in a future article.

Bethesda NW leader: Jesus says God could be a woman…

On Mother’s Day in 2019, Bethesda NW, a church closely aligned with Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding, decided to worship the Mother Goddess instead of God the Father. It was painful proof of the widespread and seductive theology in William Paul Young’s book, The Shack. (Link)

What was the Bethesda NW service like one year later on Mother’s Day 2020? Had Bethesda NW leaders searched the Scriptures and corrected their theology? Unfortunately, in the sermon, leaders Ben and Tisha Straup pretty much doubled down.

Tisha Straup: So, God is not male. He’s male and female. (1 hr. 34 minutes in video, give or take.)

In order to further this assertion, Tisha Straup spoke about three parables, and gave a meaning to the parable of the woman and the lost coin (Luke 15) that simply does not exist.

Tisha Straup: Jesus was communicating to the Pharisees that the Trinity, God the Father and the Son, the Shepherd and the Father, and what’s the one in the middle–it’s a parable of a woman with the lost coin, a woman searching for a lost coin. Jesus is not just giving a parable about God and sinners, He’s saying that God could be a woman, that the Holy Spirit, the Mother Heart of God, is searching for the lost coin like the Prodigal Father and the Good Shepherd. This enraged the Pharisees. They were so, they like, who do you, you think you’re like the Son of God and now you can say that God has a female side, that God can be like a woman searching for a lost coin? This was beyond anything they’d ever heard. It enraged them, it made them so angry. (1 hr. and 41 minutes in video, give or take.)

Those who neither fear the Lord nor comprehend His holiness do not hesitate to attack the biblical understanding of God. If it takes some creative “interpretation” of the Scriptures, then so be it. As Israel bowed before the Golden Calf and worshiped it as the Lord their God, (Ex 32:4) so too is a hideous Queen of Heaven being lifted up and celebrated within the visible church.

“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods to spite Me.” (Jeremiah 7:18)

The Straups are right that the “true woman’s liberation movement was founded by Jesus.” The Straups are right about some other things as well. But God is neither male nor female. He is immutable. He is not to be shaped and crafted as if He is some malleable deity.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24)

He is never referred to as “she” or “her” in the Bible. He is the Father, and that is how we are to understand Him. The Holy Spirit is also addressed as “he” or “him.” And of course, so is Christ.

Why does this keep happening? Why are so many in the visible church enthralled with The Shack? Is The Shack theology really that seductive? Yes, for many, it is–because this is the time we are in. The Bible tells us:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, (1 Timothy 4:1)

The Shack author William Paul Young has done much damage with his Mother Goddess mythology. But it goes far beyond that. What Young and close ally C. Baxter Kruger are teaching is that creation, man and God are all one. This is the very definition of New Age spirituality.

We noted recently how one pastor was promoting elements of C. Baxter Kruger’s (and therefore Paul Young’s) theology, while another pastor–in the same denomination!–was warning his church against this heretical teaching. (Link)

The pastor who warned the saints wrote, “We have to be close to the return of our Lord. ‘Surely, I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’” (Revelation 22:20)

This article is not about Bethesda NW. It is not about The Shack, William Paul Young, or C. Baxter Kruger. It is about the timeline. The apostasy is here. It is a great time to get right with God.

Note to readers: The times on NW Bethesda video are approximate.