Understanding "The Mixture"

April 3, 2025

In an age where pop psychology is masquerading as biblical doctrine things can become very confusing. Today we hear so much about things being a mixture of truth and error, or carnal and spiritual, good and bad, or even godly and demonic.

To make matters worse, we are too often being given mixed signals. Instead of giving a clear indication of what the signals actually mean so many of our pastors and once respected leaders are now telling us things like "the light is neither red nor green but amber" - leaving us suspended in a limbo not knowing whether to go or to stop. Arriving at a right doctrinal position and discerning things in a biblical manner in times like this has become more and more difficult for many sincere believers genuinely wanting to know the truth so as to do what is right. But in an increasingly complexed maze like this, the first and foremost question is to ask "What does God say about mixture in his word?"

1 Thessalonians 2:3-5 & 2 Peter 2:1

Understanding The True Nature Of Spiritual Seduction And How It Operates From God's Word

In 1 Thessalonians, writing under the direct inspiration of The Holy Spirit Paul tells us that the true apostolic exhortation is not of "error, nor impurity, nor deception". Any exhortation containing doctrinal error,

Impurity, or impurity cannot therefore possibly be of God. Paul is also directed by The Holy Spirit to place these three words in a sequence, because they engender each other. Doctrinal error misleads us into impurity which in turn results in deception or guile.

It begins with error (the Greek term being planas) which has to do with wrong doctrine. Biblical doctrine is the teaching of Jesus. Jesus prayed that The Father would sanctify us in truth - God's Word is truth (John 17:17).

The Greek term used for truth here is logos (in Hebrew Dvar) as indeed we know that Jesus Himself is the logos or The Word incarnate (John 1:1). This is why Jesus therefore defines Himself as "The Truth" (John 14:6).

If someone is not standing in biblical truth they are not standing in Christ and are not being sanctified unto God.

We therefore see that in the Last Days those not loving doctrinal truth really do not love Jesus Christ, as one is the barometer of the other. Such unsaved people will be easily taken in by the antichrist (as indeed they are already under the influence of what theologians and philosophers call by the German term the zeitgeist or 'spirit of the age' which is the spirit of anti Christ -1 John 2:15-18). But this text shows us that it also includes some who profess to be Christians that "go out from among us", like the Son of Perdition (linking Judas with The Anti-Christ). This thought becomes frightening and directly refers to what Paul calls the apostasia or 'great falling away' after the anti Christ by those 'Christians' who do not love biblical (2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12), because as this text tells us in not loving truth, they do not really love Jesus but delight in unrighteousness.

We are even told those falling away will actually do so under the judgment of God who will cause them to be deceived for not loving His Word, and therefore not loving His Son. Moreover we are even told how it will happen. The anti Christ will be God's agent of judgment on those not loving biblical truth (Zecheriah 11:12-16- Son of Perdition) and will use bogus signs and wonders to do it (Revelation 13:14, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11, Matthew 24:24). Like Pharaohs magicians the anti Christ and false prophet will use demonic power to do signs and wonders that mimic The works of God and counterfeit a genuinely biblical usage of The Charismatic Gifts of The Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:8). It is for this reason that Jesus warned that it was "wicked and adulterous generation seeking a sign" (Luke 11:29). This too is frightening. As we have for some time pointed out, if people can not see through obvious heretics like Benny Hinn and John Arnott , or see through proven false prophets like Gerald Coates, Paul Cane, and Rick Joyner or cultic churches like Elim following money oriented hype artists like Morris Cerullo there is no way they will evade the coming real deception.

Just as the bible warns us, such Christians when showed that their beliefs and actions are not biblical will often accuse you of being a Pharisee. In fact, such people are too ignorant and willfully blind to realise that the New Testament tells us Pharisees are those 'teaching inventions of men as precepts of God' who lack a biblical foundation for their views and practice (Matthew 15:9), and it is actually they whom God's Word describes as being pharisaical. Indeed, judging biblically for instance, it would be John Smith who is responsible for Elim's Direction Magazine that advertises such unbiblical and unethical travesties such as Morris Cerullo's antics that publicly discredit the church, or David Shearman of The Assemblies of God who joins with Cerullo that are modern days Pharisees. Cerullo was actually found guilty of all four charges of improper fund raising by the UK Advertising Standards Council, yet mainstream British Pentecostalism still stands with him. Whenever challenged about televised bogus healings, or Cerullo's Sin of Simony , such leaders inevitably try to defend continuing to promote or advertise men like Cerullo, even though he was pressed to resign from The Evangelical Alliance by saying "it is not all bad - there is a mixture". But what saith The Lord of such a mixture?

Jesus spoke of false doctrine and wrong practice based on it as "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Matthew 16: 6, Luke 122:1). In biblical typology, leaven represents spiritual pride and the sin resulting from it (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). False doctrine is sin and always involves spiritual pride. When we therefore speak of "A Mixture" we must remember that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" (1 Corinthians 5::6). Most of what the Pharisees believed was in fact biblically true, but what was false was all it took to mislead the people away from The Lord.

Today it is the same. Much of what hyper Pentecostalism or Charismatic extremism teaches may be true. Cultic movements like Restorationism, Elim or The Church of Christ are largely true in the majority of their professed doctrine. Most of what is found in Alpha courses is probably true. But what is not leavens the whole loaf.

This is not to say that all faithful Christians and all faithful churches will always agree on every point of doctrine, but it is to say that they will all agree on every point of essential doctrine like the authority of scripture, the gospel, the nature of the Triune God-head, and Christian morality. When we see pneumo-centric worship based on The Holy Spirit instead of Christo-centric worship with The Spirit pointing to Jesus (John 14) we know there is leaven (as we in Alpha and in the heretical writings of Benny Hinn) we see leaven. The fruit of The Holy Spirit is self control (Galatians 5:23) when drunken behaviour and animal imitations are advocated as manifestations of The Holy Spirit (as in David Blake's article in Elim's magazine) we know it is an alien spirit and we see leaven. When we see Morris Cerullo pronouncing a little child healed who tragically dies shortly afterwards and we see him marketing his "£24 Holy Ghost Miracle Cloths to Remove debt with Elim's John Smith continuing to advertise him, we see leaven".

Jesus said to make disciples, not converts. The first step of biblical discipleship is baptism, not a "weekend away to get people into the Toronto Experience" as Alpha Director, Nicky Gumbel teaches. The bible teaches that 'the Blood of Christ cleanses from all sin', but Roman Catholicism teaches we must burn in a temporary hell called purgatory to atone for our own sins . This is indeed another gospel we are commanded to reject and those teaching it are accursed of God (Galatians 1:2), yet Alpha tells people to stay in the Roman church. Alpha courses are based on leaven mixed in with real grain. Such 'mixtures' God has plainly damned.

The Hebrew's were forbidden to make a garment of linen and wool because God hates mixture (Deuteronomy 22:11). Thus the "mixture" has its root in "error". The biblical basis of purity is the truth of right doctrine. This is the reason that The New Testament contains twice as much exhortation to right doctrine as it does right conduct. If we do not have right doctrine we cannot have right conduct. In the perverted state of the ecumenical church we see men like George Carey, Pat Robertson, J.I. Packer, Bill Bright of Campus Crusades For Christ,

Dr. Kent of The Church of The Nazarene, and Chuck Colson signing 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' agreements accepting Romanism as Christian and agreeing not to witness to Catholics (despite Rome having a different gospel, idolatry, and even persecuting evangelicals in Latin America). When pressed they will seek to defend their compromise of biblical truth arguing "well we may not agree with everything in Roman Catholicism - it is a mixture".

An even more pathetic example of this is found in the unfortunate position of theologian Dr. Norman Geisler, (whom Hank Hannegraaff sadly lauded as a great apologetic scholar). While Geisler claims to be an evagelical scholar, his academic background reflects a Thomist orientation, grounded in the Aristotelian influences of Thomas Aquinas from The Roman Catholic Loyola University (named after the founder of the genocidal Jesuit order). Geisler openly proclaims "The Roman Catholic Church is not a False Church with some truth in it, but a True Church with some falsehood in it". Again, Geisler attempts to defend the biblically indefensible - "The Mixture". Along this line Moriel recommends the book 'On The Edge Of Apostacy' by Robert Zins.

The result of the wrong doctrine is wrong conduct. People cease witnessing to Catholics because they are misled into believing they are saved which few are, and the individual Catholics who may have been saved instead of repenting of their idolatry continue to practice the cannabalistic abomination of transubstantiation, the sin of necromancy in praying to the dead, and praying in tongues to Mary. Wrong doctrine brings wrong conduct.

Today, Satan has raised up agents like Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting who teaches that doctrine is not important because it brings division. They of course discount the fact that doctrine is the teaching of Jesus, it is His Word and if we say doctrine is not important - biblically we are saying Jesus is not important. They also forget that the Word of God teaches that doctrine is meant to bring division (1 Corinthians 11:19, Romans 16:17), because The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, not error and a unity of the Spirit cannot exist where there is heresy (1 John 4:6). Those propagating such deception always do so in the name of love. Their perverse reasoning is that the truth may offend and that is not loving and it could prove divisive.However, God's Word on the contrary teaches that real love cannot abound unless it abounds in doctrinal truth and discernment of what is true and false (Philipians 1: 9). This is how Jesus loved the woman at the well. He lovingly but uncompromisingly and directly told her the truth about her false religion (John 4: 22) just as he did with Syro Phonecian woman (Mark 7:27). Because He loved her He told her up front that her religion was not for human beings but fit only for dogs. So too for instance is Roman Catholicism, and we must be like Jesus and love Roman Catholics enough to tell them so. Indeed, in this same Pauline Epistle dealing with Mixture, The Lord commands us to admonish those who are not biblically disciples (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Although John Arnott taught the diametric opposite, God commands us to 'test all things' holding fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). A mixture is never and can never be good. Thus we see that doctrinal error produces a mixture of truth and error which 1 Thessalonians calls 'impurity' and this results in spiritual deception.

This impurity arising from an infiltration of erroneous teaching in the Greek text of 1 Thessalonians s called Akatharsis the opposite of the Greek wordkatharsis from where we derive the English term 'Catharsis'. This term does not mean unclean in the sense not of being 'washed from sin", that would be a completely different Greek word called absolusio (from where we get the term "absolution"). Neither does it mean to "separate the bad and keep the good" . The Septuagint translates this from the Hebrew text meaning 'bring forth the good from the bad' using yet another Greek word ekagageis in Jeremiah 15:19 . The impurity of akatharsis means that there is a mixture where there can be no be washing a separation process as with ekagageis.In Katharsis there is a purified form of something. In akatharsis it is something which is a mixture of the pure and impure.

The mixture is not just something on the surface that can be washed away, it is a homogeneous mixture that must be done away with and utterly replaced.

This is best demonstrated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts of scripture. The Hebrew equivalent of katharsis is Tahore, meaning "pure". As King David prayed in the penitential Psalm 51 "Create In Me A Clean Heart Oh Lord" -
"Lev Tahore Bera Le Elohim". It is something that must be created afresh. Man is fallen. We cannot have our sins simply washed away, something new must be created (John 3:3). In order to become tahore our old sinful self must be crucified with Jesus and buried with Him (Romans 6:3-6). We are told directly that Baptism is not a washing away of what is wrong with us (1 Peter 3:21), it is the burial of us (Colossians 2:12).

Because we are made in the divine image and likeness but have a fallen nature, we are a mixture of good and bad, but God demands purity. The Lord does not waste time trying to purify us by trying to remove what is right about us from what is wrong as in trying to wash away the bad and keep the good. The mixture is too homogeneous - sin affects every aspect of our being. When we go to the water to be baptized we are not going to be washed per se but to be buried. The futility of trying to wash something impure to make it clean was illustrated in Jesus analogy of the Pharisees. They tried to do a katharsis to correct the akatharsis (the actual word is the active verbal form katharizo) by washing the cup, but the inside remained filthy (Matthew 23:25). We can cleanse ourselves as Christians (2 Corinthians 7:1) but only by going back to the cross and co dying with Christ daily, not by trying to separate the good from bad, but by getting rid of the mixture and living as new creations.

Typologically, as we explain on the Tsaraat tape series on 'The Cleansing of the Lepers' that healing of leprosy is a type of salvation, with leprosy figuratively representing sin and its consequences. That is why when Jesus healed lepers the Greek text mainly uses the word katharizo for making pure (by separating the diseased tissue from the healthy) instead of he wordtherapeo for healibng. Only The Lord can purify . It is absurd to try to purify such a mixture by getting rid of the bad and keeping the good. Something clean that has become a bit dirty from our contact with the world can be washed (John 13: 10-14), and when we are saved it a different Greek word completely (eplunan) for washing our robes in the Blood of The Lamb (Revelation 7:14). But we cannot cleanse ourselves. Once there is a mixture there can be no washing or separating ; the precious can only be extracted from the worthless by rejecting the whole thing and allowing God to remake it (eg. Jeremiah 18:4).

Thus when we see pastors trying to argue about compromising over things like Roman Catholicism, liberal Protestantism or not rejecting all of TV money preachers, Toronto, Alpha, Promise Keepers, Pensecola, JIM Challenges etc. because there is 'A Mixture', and we should ' keep the good and reject the bad' - we are seeing men who are biblically ignorant and not qualified to be in church leadership (1 Timothy 3:2 7 Titus 1:9) as they are unable to rightly teach and divide the word of God upholding right doctrine. The ranks of popular Pentecostal leadership are swelled with such ecclesiastical quackery.

We so often see this in the cheap versions of prophetic ministry in the church today where we are told "well sometimes his prophetic predictions are right" in speaking of false prophets. Yet, God's Word clearly gives us a strong and unmistakable caveat against this thinking (Jeremiah 5:30-31). Of Bob Jones of the Kansas City prophets (who was found in immorality), the late John Wimber said "he is like a pipe with two open ends, sometimes the devil speaks through him and sometimes The Lord"! Wimber, who became a hyper charismatic Calvinist after being forced to leave a doctrinally conservative Wesleyan Arminian Pentecostal movement , was the prime architect of charismania in its contemporary Neo-Gnostic/New Age expression. His Reformed ideas of Covenant theology that led him into the deception of dominionism by blending the Calvinistic doctrinal errors of Reconstructionism with the errors of Experiential Theology are a mixture.

Judging scripturally, The Word of God warns us that the very fact that there is such a ' mixture' in things like Alpha courses, Pensecola etc. tells us that they are not of God. The elements of doctrinal error create a mixture yielding only deception as the end product. The root of this mixture is always compromising with a significant doctrinal error. This in turn produces a mixture of truth and error, carnal and spiritual, or even godly and satanic.

Many people who contacted us were distraught when David Pawson refused to take a firm stand one way or another or give the many who were looking to him a clear direction over the Toronto Affair. In his book on the subject, 'Is The Blessing Biblical'? Pawson 'sat on the fence' saying the light was neither red nor green but amber. An amber semaphore remains amber for only a few seconds, it tells us the light is about to change and we must be prepared to go or stop. It does not remain amber for the 6 years since the laughing and barking experience began and by now everyone knows it has brought no revival. The question of how much of it is good and how much of it bad is not an issue. By virtue of the fact a mixture exists the light is red. Someone who has become color blind is hardly in any position to give instruction to others. Concerning such spiritual drunkeness, God's Word again specifically warns us of those who totter when rendering judgment when the deception floods through the gates (Isaiah 28: 7). The reason they do this during the drunken climate is seen in the following verse (Isaiah 28:8) where the 'vomit' speaks of rejected spiritual food. There is an unwillingness to accept uncomfortable biblical truths so as to discern biblically and issue clear and definite judgments on the basis of God's Word. Seeking people looking to a trusted bible teacher are neither told to go or stay. Instead of green or red the light remains amber.

After relating the dynamic of this false exhortation of 'error, impurity, and deception' in 1 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul goes on to explain the motives underlying it in verses 4-6 in comparing his own ministry and that of Silvanus and Timothy. Those who engage in the mixture becomes a deception that Paul in Greek calls dolo meaning guile. Those engaging in this in other words, have an agenda. Paul tells us they practice flattery to please men, but their real motive is simply greed. How amazingly accurate the warnings The Holy Spirit gave us through Paul have proven to be! The common denominator in the deception we see in the church today is inevitably money. As just one example, of the $6.6 million collected for missions in Pensecola according to The Associated Press only 2% went to missions. The rest went to extravagant houses and all manner of profiteering by the leaders. Pensecola mixes truth with error, the impure mixture produces deception but the bottom line seems to be cash. After falsely prophesying that God would bring Hank Hannegraaff down in 3 months, Pensecola Pastor John Kilpatrick himself instead literally was brought down when he fell off a roof smashing his pelvis and winding up in a wheelchair, but business continued. As Paul wrote, under the mixture you find greed.

Such a mixture of truth and error has been Satan's trick from the beginning. He deceived Adam and Eve by mixing truth with error when he subtly distorted what God truly said out of context. In the temptation narrative, he likewise tempted Jesus by twisting scripture out of context. This reflects his nature as disguising himself as an angel of light. This is why Paul warns those that Satan's servants sent by him to deceive the church likewise camoulflage themselves as angels of light (2 Corinthians11:3 & 13-15)and therefore as Peter warns they similarly twist the scriptures out of context unto their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). Faith-Prosperity, Replacement theology, Ecumenism, and Restorationism are all deceptions Satan perpetrates against the elect through his servants by distorting scriptures from their context. Sometimes as in the case of Bishop David Pytches, Mike Bickel, John Avanzini, and Rodney Howard Brown, the distortions are so ludicrous it is amazing anyone could believe such nonsense. Yet today many so called Christians unfortunately do.

The New Testament describes this mixture of doctrinal truth and error as 'secretly introducing destructive heresies' in 2 Peter 2:1 using the Greek termparasoxousin meaning they place truth next to error. This passage tells us that such men are false teachers and false prophets using the Greek prefixpsuedo meaning pretending to be real ones. Peter tells us that such men even deny the master who bought them, which is exactly what we see.

In the satanic doctrines of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland who say that Satan not Jesus got the victory on the cross and after being tormented 3 days and nights in hell as one nature with Satan, Jesus had to be born again in hell. Copeland even teaches that he could have died on the cross instead of Jesus Christ. The process may indeed end up in such blasphemous heresy, but it does begin that way. It rather begins with a mixture.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Understanding The Difference Between Biblical and Secular Psychology

The source of the mixture problem is chiefly wrong doctrine; again - wrong doctrine begets wrong practice.

However 'mixture' is not simply an academic matter of 'truth and error' but the mixture of flesh (carnal) and spirit (spiritual) that results. Peter for instance uses false prophets and false teachers interchangeably because if one's doctrines are wrong, their prophecies will be wrong (2 Peter 2:1). This is for example why men like David Wilkerson have a good track accurate for predictive accuracy in prophecy - his doctrine is right, while it is also why men like Gerald Coates and Rick Joyner are so hopelessly wrong so often - their doctrine is wrong.

Because their predictive prophecy fails, they are of course not prophets, but mere clairvoyants.

False prophecy is not only a good illustration of how wrong doctrine produces wrong conduct, but it further shows how the mixture of truth and false doctrine becomes transposed into a mixture of carnal and spiritual.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke of this when he wrote how false prophets do not necessarily prophesy by demons, but by their own imagination and the futility of their own mind (Jeremiah 23:16). What they imagine to be from the Holy Spirit communicating to their spirit is simply their own imagination. When the Kansas City prophets were challenged over their false prophecies, true to form, their defenders said: "it was a mixture - partially right, and partially wrong". In fact all clairvoyants are partially right and partially wrong. They do not have The Holy Spirit, but a spirit if divination. They too, 'divine' for money (Micah 3:11). When The Holy Spirit spoke through Israel's prophets however, there was no error, no clairvoyance, no divination, and no mixture.

All charismatic gifts and manifestations lend themselves to being merely psychological. I am convinced that most tongues is not real, but neither demonic. Most are purely psychological (even though I personally believe in the biblical gift of tongues). Likewise most prophecy, words of knowledge around today are purely psychological, this is one reason why they must be judged (1 Corinthians 14:29). People are confusing their own mind with their spirit. In the Toronto phenomena similarly most of the manifestations were simply matters of hypnotic induction combined with demonic deception. The same is certainly true of the overwhelming majority of so called 'deliverance ministry' - it is purely psychological with absolutely no biblical precedent for casting demons out of saved Christians. Deliverance manifestations and Toronto manifestations alike mainly come from the same source - the human soul. It is a matter of hypnotic induction used by Satan to mislead people.

It is a certain personality type and a certain fleshly type of Christian who is predisposed to Pensecola style deceptions. Similarly it is a certain personality type and certain type of Christian who gets involved with deliverance. People get back in line to fall down again or fly back to Pensecola for "another touch", so also we see the same people repeatedly going for 'deliverance', but in neither case does their life normally change. Even a cursory survey of Christians continually involved in being "delivered" demonstrates how many suffer with chronic emotional instability which translates into spiritual instability because they confuse the spirit with the soul. Instead of obtaining 'deliverance', more frequently it would appear that Satan uses deliverance to keep these poor souls in bondage. Indeed, such people are usually sincere and they genuinely desire the holiness and freedom as new creations they are hoping to find in deliverance - it is not that there is nothing spiritual about their actions or that the entire thing is psychological. It is rather simply that there is "a mixture".

This kind of mixture easily lends itself to confusing what is spiritual with what is psychological. The Word of God recognises that we are psychological as well as spiritual and physical beings when it speaks of the 'soul'.

The mental and emotional anguish of Jesus is called "The Travail of His Soul". Continuing in 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes much of the suffering for which he was destined (1 Thessalonians3:4). He also speaks directly of the collective discouragement of his ministry team (1 Thessalonians 3:1) and his personal inability to emotionally endure what was taking place (1 Thessalonians 3:5). Not least of all he relates how more than once Satan "hindered" his plans (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Moreover, such accounts are things The Holy Spirit placed in the cannon of scripture and represent a spiritual perspective of emotional trauma and satanic opposition.

Today however, with the pop psycho-babel dominating so much of the contemporary church scene, Paul would be seen as 'lacking faith', 'being negative', and 'not having the vision' (as one faith - prosperity huckster already accused him of). This of course echoes the heretical attack by Benny Hinn on Job for his suffering.

In reality walking by faith and not by sight has nothing at all to do with pretending adverse circumstances do not exist (as in the lies of the word - faith that 'ones body is lying to them when they experience symptoms of illness'), it rather has to do with trusting The Lord despite the circumstances. The victorious Christian walk is certainly not a matter of not being afflicted, but trusting The Lord in those afflictions to sustain us (2 Corinthians 4: 8-18) and not loosing heart. Neither does walking in faith in victory not mean that we can confess victory and bind Satan from obstructing us. In its context, such nonsense has nothing what-so-ever to do with what 'binding and loosing' actually means in the bible, any more than it means the silly "speaking into the heavens to establish kingdom dominion" sort of rubbish characterizing the ecumenical March for Jesus foolishness. It does mean that The Lord will build a hedge around us and limit what Satan may and may not do to us (he can only kill us if God allows it) and it means that when The Lord does allow Satan a given victory, it is a gambit that God will turn around for His purposes; we read in Romans 8 that "all things worktogether for the better", not that all things work for the better. We are promised Satan looses the war, but not every battle. When God allows Satan to win a battle however, it will only backfire on Satan (as in the crucifixion of Jesus and martyrdom of Stephan).

In all of these things, we are moreover assured that The Lord will sustain us and never allow us more hardship than He is prepared to sustain us through with His grace.

Yet because of pop psychology, these biblical truths are distorted, ignored, or have even been heretically rejected. People are just told to 'confess victory', or 'bind the enemy' not meaning what God's Word means by those terms, but actually meaning what positive thinking and motivational psychology means.

If one were to go to a secular motivational sales seminar for sales executives, a slick looking motivational speaker with a glossy charisma would prance around on a platform with a microphone saying things like "There Are Three Steps". "Step One - realize your vision". "Step Two- forget the indicators or adverse circumstances, give no place to any negative thoughts - just focus on your goals and on your vision". "Step Three - Once you realize your vision and maximize the positive and forget the negative, you will be in a position to get others to invest in your vision".

Thus , this secular psychology gets into the church masquerading as biblical theology. A hype artist preacher will stand up on Sunday and share "his vision", and when questioned he will "Reject that negativity in The Name of Jesus", and tell you "God wants it to be your vision too and you should sow to the vision".

I have seen more churches get into financial trouble and loose people over this kind of psuedo-spiritual idiocy than I can count. One Kingdom Now/ Toronto maniac in the North West of England who came under the influence of anti Israel Restorationist preacher Rick Godwin literally got his church into massive debt on a massive building program not ordained of God, lost most of his flock , then began selling insurance part time to make ends meet and finally left the country. Another Pentecostal Church of the same denomination a short distance away got into a financial scandal over a scheme involving Christian retirement villas.

When of course the building program or whatever other scheme he cooked up turns out not to be God's vision, but purely his own and things do not work out then it becomes a matter of "standing in faith resisting Satan".

When people get fed up with being financially exploited and begin to leave the church, the heavy shepherding takes over and these people are told "they have a spirit of rebellion".

All of this mess comes from the 'Mixture' of secular psychology and the vain philosophies of the world with biblical psychology and Christian doctrine. This same mixture is why we see so many Christians in churches like Toronto Preacher Phil Pringle's City Church in Sydney get involved in things like Amway and in pyramiding schemes. Psychologised Christians are prone to such things because such schemes are based on psycho babel disguising itself as biblical principles. While there are ex-alcoholics who dried out through Alcoholics Anonymous groups and then were saved, we see so many people in 12 Step Programs on their way to hell not believing they need Christ because the mixture of biblical principles and pop psychology in such organizations misleading them into a subjective, universalist 'God as I understand Him' view of The Almighty instead of to The Cross of Jesus.

The theological root of this mixture is of course gnosticism , where a subjective mystical perspective of scripture ignoring the context is substituted for an objective exegetical perspective. Gnostics always use biblical terms but have different definitions for them. The gnosticism of Roman Catholicism is called sensus pleniore. The Roman Church will be quick to point out that they like classical Protestants believe salvation is by grace. By grace however, they do not mean the Hebrew word chesedmeaning 'God's covenant mercy', or the Greek term Charism meaning 'gift', nor the English definition meaning 'undeserved favor'. The actual and sanctifying grace of Rome is not a gift of mercy or unmerited, but an ethereal substance earned by the paganistic sacraments of their spiritually corrupt false religious system. Yet etymologically, they believe in "grace".

New Agers are Gnostics who also believe in "seeing the light" by which they mean realizing the cosmic illumination of the inner self. Many, copying Hinduism, they also believe in being "born again", meaning reincarnation. Sufi Islam, Chassidic Judaism, and Mormonism are all false belief systems who use biblical terms with a different meaning. This is all part of the Gnostic maze, and whenever witnessing to such people we not assume that they mean what we do by the same words, but terms need to be carefully and biblically defined.

This same problem is found in Gnosticized expressions of the charismatic movement such as Vineyard and Restorationism. The biblical terms are there but often with an entirely different meaning from the bible, especially with terms like 'kingdom', 'proclamation', 'apostle', 'binding and loosing', and 'prophetic ministry'.

The Promise Keepers Movement grew out of Vineyard, and distributed tens of thousands of copies of Robert Hick's book 'The Masculin Jouney' as a guide to Christian male discipleship. The book teaches "Jesus Christ was tempted to have sex with other men" and "teenagers loosing their virginity out of marriage and having their first experience with drugs should be seen as a rite of passage, for which they should be congratulated for being human - because we need to find a way to celebrate the experience of sin"Such blasphemy and moral abomination however is eclipsed by the book's emphasis on New Age Phallic symbolism. The entire travesty derives from a mixture of pop psychology with biblical psychology and a mixture of the bible and New Age ideas all facilitated by gnosticism. The biggest problem however is that the Gnostic syndrome is intrinsic in the faith - prosperity/word-faith camp.

"Making your sales potential your goal" becomes "Realizing your vision". "Thinking Big" becomes "Extending your tents" . "Ignoring the negative" becomes "walking by faith not by sight". "Thinking positive" becomes "Faith Confession", or "Rebuking that negativity in The Name of Jesus".. Tragically, the educated clergy are being taught this more and more in lieu of biblical doctrine in their seminaries, and the uneducated clergy , (particularly among so many Pentecostals where there are often no more biblical standards left anyway) , the untrained clergy are too biblically illiterate and intellectually deficient to have the ability to even grasp the difference in the mixture.

As always, wrong doctrine gives rise to wrong conduct. Two lecturers from the Elim International School of Ministry in Auckland, New Zealand wrote us to complain that they were instructed not to teach those being trained for the ministry to teach repentance because Elim believes rather in grace, and repentance is a negative message. The lecturers rightly felt that this underpinned the plight of Elim's leading preacher in New Zealand, Ian Bilby who was exposed as into an adulterous relationship the entire time he was sanctioning Benny Hinn and promoting Toronto claiming that God was moving. This is the same Ian Bilby who nationally propagated the false prophecy of Gerald Coates to prepare for an major earthquake at a fixed April date. The false prophecy was from the soul, not spirit as was Toronto. But it was the "Negative/ Positive" pop Psychology that helped pave the way for Bilby's sin.

The ontogeny of this seduction is well documented. Robert Shuller of the Chrystal Cathedral near Los Angeles was a protégé of the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peele of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, a Thirty Third degree Free Mason who taught and wrote about "the power of positive thinking'. Shuller became Satan's chief instrument in importing this secular psychology into Evangelical circles. From there it was picked up by the Faith Prosperity deceivers influenced by A..A Allen, E.W. Kenyon, Agnes Sanford, and William Branham.

The money preachers gave claim to a gnosos (a special mystical revelation) saying "The Lord showed me.", with no reference to the fact all they were engaging in was the parasoxousin of their father the devil.

In this same epistle, The Holy Spirit tells us through Paul that the solution to these kinds of problems is not to despise prophetic utterance or to suppress The Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22). We correct error with truth and not with another error like cessationism (the false view that the Gifts of The Spirit forever ceased with the original apostles). We are rather commanded here to abstain from evil and test things to see if they are from God.

We then need to comprehend the difference between biblical psychology and secular psychology, which is what The Holy Ghost inspired Paul to explain to us next in the following verse (1 Thessalonians 5: 23). Paul prays for our sanctification in 'body' (soma), in soul (psuche), and in spirit (pneuma). In order the equivalent Hebrew terms would be guf, nefish, andruach. The three are distinct. We are three dimensional - tripartite beings because we are Imagio Dei creations made in the image and likeness of a Triune God. Our soul is as distinct from our spirit as our body is from our soul.

In secular psychology however and in eastern religious mysticism (which New Age imitates) we are only two dimensional beings, where the functions of soul and spirit become convoluted because the two are mixed up and seen as one entity. Emotion, intellect, will etc. are mixed with our spiritual function which communes with God.

At worst feeling or at best reason become confused with the communication with God. When this happens, instead of the soul serving our spirit, it serves our flesh. This is why we see so much carnality in hyper Pentecostalism and in Charismatic extremism. Once experiential theology usurps the place of God's Word and we are told discerning biblically is being a Pharisee or grieving The Holy Spirit we are in real trouble because it is God's Word that is the means to distinguish between what is carnal and what is not (Hebrews 4:12). This is why there can be no hope and no future for churches and movements that went into things like Toronto and Pensecola a few years ago. The only way to have a future in this life pleasing to The Lord is to leave such places.

The best handbook of biblical psychology is The Book of Proverbs. Proverbs tells us much more about human behavior and our motives than any secular psychology book, because secular psychology like eastern mysticism wrongly reduces tri-dimensional beings into bi-dimensional beings and therefore cannot properly discern or even recognize the inner most man or woman which is our spirit. Both secular psychology and eastern religion have a view of the human spirit which is metaphysical not biblical.

When for instance a behavioral abnormality is organically rooted (eg. Chemical imbalance, trauma related, side effects of medication, neurological, hormonal etc.) psychiatric medicine can help a person to some degree because it sees mental illness from a bio medical perspective physiologically as a disease, and if there is an organic source to someone's condition, treating the chemical basis of the problem physiologically can result in alleviation of destructive behavioral symptoms.

Once we go into the realm of clinical psychology however, where we are dealing with disturbances rooted in emotional experience, the most secular disciplines can do is treat the effect but never the inner most cause. This demands a regeneration of the spirit (new birth through faith in Jesus). The root cause of man's collective problems is sin and we all have it but secular psychology does not usually recognize sin's existence in any biblical sense, nor would it be able to deal with it even if it did.. Often the symptom is treated not the disease, and not infrequently secular psychology makes people only worse because its two dimensional premise is fundamentally flawed. Therapeutic psychology essentially tries to deal with man's problems from the outside to see an inner change, while biblical psychology says one must first repent of their own sins and accept the atonement of Jesus and His spiritual lordship, and be willing to forgive others - then the outward changes take place from within as a result of salvation (Romans 12:2).

While we become new spiritual creations, becoming new psychological creations is a process of daily co-death of the old flesh serving self, and co-resurrection of the spirit serving renewed soul . This is not all at once but a renewal process where psychological renewal mirrors spiritual renewal ( Ephesians 4:23). This is why in describing the 'sound mind' we are promised as Christians, Paul does not use the word psuche butsophronismon meaning 'in control of one's behavior'. This directly reflects the fruit of the spirit as self control (ekreitei) - the psychological self control reflecting and resulting from the spiritual change taking place. This transforming process begins at salvation but climaxes in completion with the return of Jesus (Philipians1:6).

In biblical psychology, people's abnormal behavior changes to right behavior as a result of the spiritual change that comes from a personal encounter with Jesus (John 5:15). We may not be all self destructively dysfunctional , but unregenerate people are all abnormal because of the fall. In others words, the common insanity is only a matter of degrees; all unbelievers in Jesus by definition are in some way crazy because their will is in bondage to the power of sin where the soul (mind, emotions etc.) serves the flesh (Titus 1:15). It is in Christ alone we find the power of sound mind in the genuine sense because a process begins where we are being transformed and are being given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). The only way an unsaved person's souls can be subordinate to their spirit is if they are demon possessed and their spirit is under satanic control. All of this biblical psychology goes directly contrary to the world's two dimensional misunderstanding of the human soul and its relationship to the spirit.

But secular psychology is more than clinical. From the consumer psychologists who advise the advertising industry how to manipulate us to want to purchase things to the 'muscle memory' reflex conditioning psychological warfare experts devise to train soldiers to kill without thinking and blindly accept orders to kill, to the political psychologists who advise media relations specialists on spin doctoring - contemporary western society has been heavily psychologised, and so has its church. 

At first the incursion of psychology into the church began as something innocuous with some apparent value. When writers like C.S. Lovett tried to find parallels between what the bible says about things like how Satan tempts us and various elements in human behaviorism. Then certain warning signs went up when Bill Gothard began using scriptural narratives not as examples of right behavior but as a doctrinal formula to establish what right behavior is and his seminars played heavily on psychological factors not well documented from any firm biblical basis that could mislead youth into unbalanced views of authority and an unbalanced aversion towards marriage with potentially dangerous repercussions. His opinions, for instance, that marriage should be best delayed until age 30, have no biblical foundation and seriously conflict with clinical factors that this is the gynecological age when obstetric risk factors for first time pregnancy complications, infertility, congenital defects and ante natal complications begin to statistically increase. His arguments were not grounded in solid biblical exegesis, but in his view of his perspective of youth psychology mixed with the bible. His ministry came under additional fire when he was accused of trying to put his own celibacy on others after a sex scandal involving his brother and staff rocked his organization.

In more recent times, the church has been psychologised in America by James Dobson, who is both ecumenical and a Promise Keepers advocate. Dobson's seminal influence set the stage for many problematic things. From an early point in his prominence, 'the amber light syndrome' featured in Dobson's lectures when he told Christian parents that he was unsure if teenage masturbation was wrong. This set the ball rolling to the point where Promise Keepers again pumped Hick's view that teenage premarital sex as a 'rite of passage' to be celebrated.

While Fuller Seminary had its missiology faculty taken over by the unfortunate pre-eminence ecumenical Morris Cerullo advocate and John Wimber colleague Peter Wagner, its graduate school of psychology was busy pumping out a version of psychology that was a mixture of the biblical and unbiblical. His endorsement of Cerullo is no coincidence. Pop psychology is a natural bed fellow for word - faith and prosperity hype artistry. From here matters went from bad to worse, and worse to worse still. We do not state that Dobson and Gothard never said or wrote anything true or never said or wrote anything scriptural - they did. What we do say is that there was "a mixture", and the mixture is Akatharsis.

A further area of influence of secular psychology in the church is in heavy shepherding churches which begin as theologiclly churches but sociologically cults, then eventually disintegrate into heretical doctrine combined with spiritual and psychological abuse. This is rife in Restorationism and is found today in the view of many in such groups as The Jesus Army (UK), The Church of Bible Understanding (USA), Bible Speaks/Greater Grace (USA& UK) and The London and Boston Church of Christ.

In some of these groups psychology in the form of manipulative peer pressuring, engineering a false guilt, and other techniques are used as a form of conditioning that masquerades itself as 'Christian discipleship', and is used to a blind loyalty to the group and its leader where all forms of exploitation may take place.

One such group called 'Rhema' based in Spain but operating in several countries including Britain and The USA saw its leaders telling people to marry people who were HIV positive and 'just trust The Lord'!

This kind of conditioning again mixes group psychology with valid biblical principles into a potentially deadly mixture well camouflaged as 'discipleship'. Biblical discipleship is a 'unity in diversity' where each member has different spiritual gifts complimenting their natural ability and disposition (Matthew 25:15), where the individual contribution to the body must be developed according to what God has given them.. Psychological conditioning however was really launched by the behavioral engineering of Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner where people's profile was simply manufactured by environmental means. With this thinking is mixed with biblical discipleship, such a mixture is devastating. The Church of Bible Understanding cult in The USA and Canada virtually turned thousands of teenagers into personality clones of the cult's founder, Canadian Stewart Trail, a gifted (but not academically well trained) bible teacher who went well into apostasy and also set an example where harshness replaced the Fruit of The Spirit and mental cruelty was elevated to the status of virtue. Becoming personally harsh like Trail and imitating the dress and mannerisms of Trail became the cults measure of discipleship and the standard of spirituality. Everyone in the cult was expected to conform.

With the prominence of Ruth Carter Stapleton (The President's sister) in the nineteen seventies, the primal therapy of Dr. Arnold Janov was put into Christian jargon and became 'inner healing', where instead of reckoning the emotionally traumatized old creation dead as the bible teaches, people were 'counseled' to dig up the corpse and relive the experience in a "Christian way". Again, another "mixture".

The biblical model of the human being as three dimensional is illustrated by the Pauline description of as 'Temples of The Holy Spirit', where our body corresponds to the temple's outer court, our souls to the holy place' and our spirit where God's Spirit dwells to the Holy of Holies. When a person is demon possessed the New Testament calls the expulsion or exorcismekballo (where we get the word 'ballistic'), and this term is never once mentioned in connection with a saved believer. Possession involves a demonic indwelling in the spirit. Christians however are indwelt by The Holy Spirit and can only be oppressed, not possessed (unless they backslide). When the New Testament speaks of demonic oppression however, the demonic intrusion is limited to the flesh as in 'soul and/or body (2 Corinthians 12:7). The remedy for oppression when it happens is calledtherapeou (meaning cured).

Yet in deliverance ministry, there is a mixture of the biblical and psychological. What people think to be spiritual is mainly as we have already noted psychological. Benny Hinn, deliverance ministers and a stage hypnotist can all produce the same manifestations because it is all essentially rooted in the soul.

There are two primary schools of secular psychology. The Freudian and the Jungian. The Freudian has its influences in 19th century German rationalism and has a kindred parody in Darwinism. In this thinking, with 90% of our DNA in common with Great Apes, human beings are simply a philo -genetically advanced model with a body and a brain whose mental functions are the mere consequences of electro- biochemical neurological metabolism with homeostatic norms that are chromosomally programmed in response to varied environmental factors. Models were constructed to show behavior in terms of the 'id', 'ego', 'alter ego', 'libido' etc.

Jungian psychology does see a spiritual view of man called the 'collective unconscious' but its view of man's spirit is again two dimensional with man's spiritual aspects being functions of the soul. This is closer to Eastern mystical philosophy.

In Eastern Religion like Hinduism, Bhuddisdm, Oriental Shammanism, and Sufi , Ahmadi and other strains of mystical Islam, the soul and spirit are likewise confused as a mixed entity. This is why pop psychology and eastern religion are natural bedfellows. It is also why the Gnostic Vineyard movement of churches that has influenced Fuller Seminary and The Pop Psychology that has influenced it fit so well together. There is a natural co-valency between the two because both western psychology and eastern mysticism have a bi -dimensional view of man. These two have not only simultaneously entered the charismatic and much of the Pentecostal church and mixed the psychological with the spiritual, but also through Gnostic hermeneutics have created a psuedo-theology for it.

The most crude example of this may be Korean preacher David Yongee Cho. In his book 'The Fourth Dimension', Cho combines the Positive Confession nonsense the TV money preachers borrowed from motivational psychology with eastern Shammanism. People in the west are often impressed by Cho because his church is said to have nearly a million members. As anyone who has visited Seoul, Bangkok, or Singapore will know however, by the standards of Asia where Bhuddist visualization cults flourish, Yongee Cho's church is no big deal numerically.

The human imagination is of course a function of the soul. Contrary to this , but identical to Bhuddism, Cho teaches that our subconscious imagination is our spirit where we picture or "visualize" what we want and speak it into being by faith. This is of course Gnosticism at its worth , with man as God replacing faith in Jesus with faith in faith. Cho admits in his book that Hindus and Bhuddists have known this for centuries but claims that Jesus Christ has now revealed it to him. Whether or not Cho is a Christian is something we are not top be the judge of. What we can say however is that the gross error he is teaching is Bhuddism and not Christianity, and unless he radically repents he will be held accountable for teaching it and leading so many astray (James 3:1).

Following the eastern two dimensional view of man, Cho mixes the soul with the spirit., yet is lauded for it.

We should not try to take what is true in Bhuddism or Eastern Mysticism, and reject the bad. It is a mixture and the entire mixture must be rejected. This mixing of paganism with scripture on the basis of common ground is precisely how the church was plunged into the Dark Ages in the aftermath of Constantine's so called conversion.

Bhuddism, Hinduism and Shammanism are false beliefs people should be saved out of, not saved into - but this is what seems to be happening. The Asian evangelist to the Hindus, Tom Chakko, has warned that Pensecola and Toronto phenomena are Kundalini Yoga coming into the western church, and the video evidence contrasting the two confirms his warnings. Yet Alpha Director Nicky Gumbel sees Alpha as a way to get people into these deceptions. While it doctrinally waxes very shallow, Alpha courses are highly psychology oriented in content.

Man again becomes two dimensional. We simply become the advanced animals Darwinism and Freudian psychology say we are. It is therefore no surprise that Elim's David Blake, with the approval of Elim Superintendent Wynn Lewis defends such animal imitations as a spiritual experience, irregardless of the fact that the one case God caused someone to act this way it was a judgment (Daniel 4:33). It is similarly not surprising that the Joe Chambers videos show human beings on dog leads crawling around on their hands and needs imitating dogs. Indeed I have seen exactly the same kind of manifestations taking place under demonic animation in the jungle in Indonesia. The two dimensional man's spirit is indistinct from his soul. But it is those sanctified three dimensionally will be ready for Jesus to appear (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

The co valancy between the eastern religious view of man as two dimensional and the western psychological view as two dimensional also share the same philosophical roots. In Taoism we have the mixture of 'ying' and the 'yang' in tension with each other creating a theoretical balance. In the western Hegalian dialectics springing from Darwinism that constitutes the philosophical basis of everything from Marxism to liberal higher criticism, we similarly have the 'thesis' and 'antithesis' in tension forming a theoretical balance called the 'synthesis'.

Again, the mixture is seen as normal in both western rationalism and eastern mysticism. But what occurs when this thinking gets into the church? We have already seen the shambles theological higher criticism has caused.

Yet in an article in Elim's Direction magazine, an Elim minister argued that God raises up people in one doctrinal error in order to correct those with the opposite error so that a balance will be created. Upholding such a mixture is of course dialectic philosophy and Taoism, but it is not biblical Christianity. As we have noted, God corrects error with truth, not other error. The mixture itself is wrong and must be rejected. We do not try to derive anything good from Taoism or Hegalian philosophy, and reject the rest. What may be right is once more too homogeneously mixed with what is certainly wrong to salvage any of it. It is akartharsis, ' impure to God'.

In the new psuedo Christianity where Psycho-babel is repackaged as doctrine, where Neo-Gnostic New Age mysticism is re-packaged as Vineyard spirituality, and where ecumenical surrender to apostate papal hegemony is repackaged as unity- where is the authentic unmixed faith? Instead of liberation from the old creation, 12 step programs with the increasing blessings of the church keep poor souls in bondage to the old alcoholic or compulsive gambler. In place of the old creation being reckoned as co-dead in Christ, these people are perpetually taught to believe they are still "recovering" alcoholics or gambler instead of dead ones - not only 30 years since their last drink or bet, but since being saved. Instead of being told they have sin and need to repent, these people are told they are a 'victim of a disease and to recover'. Again, we have the Mixture; indeed alcoholism may organically be a disease, but it is also a sin. No body ever went to hell for having polio.

A certain amount of biblical truth is mixed with codependency psycho-babel, and the sinner becomes a victim. Then, since they are always "a recovering alcoholic" instead of biblical discipleship based on new creation, it is 12 steps based on the sin of the old creation. In deliverance seduction, the same 'Mixture' convinces people generational curses or indwelling demons from the old creation must still be dealt with - but where does God say so? In all of this 'Mixture', the true power of the cross becomes insufficient, all spiritual things are not new.

In the new fusion of pop psychology and New Age mysticism mixed with biblical truth, Joyce Hugget teaches the visualization exercises of Ignatius Loyala (founder of the genocidal Jesuits) as a model for Christian prayer. The exercises were designed to destroy logic as in yoga , in order to attain a higher spirituality based on unquestioning submission to corrupt leaders. She goes on to teach yoga style breathing exercises for use in Christian prayer, yet this mixture of New Age with biblical Christianity and the confusion of soul and spirit is accepted as discipleship. Unable to defend her views from scripture, her supporters simply insist "but I was blessed by her books", and "she is not all wrong, there is a mixture". Indeed there is a mixture - Satan mixes great cocktails. But as in Toronto , Pensacola, Sunderland, Holy Trinity Brompton, and Kensington Temple -were they actually blessed or simply inebriated and too drunk and biblically ignorant to realize the difference?

Yet here the modern church stands. As psychologized as the world, and as confused as the world, because it is as mixed as the world. But an unchanging God still hates mixture. The Lord knew that fallen man would reduce himself to the glorified apes secular evolution thinks we are. Without our spirit we are incomplete. The political correctness of the world has been infused into the church to the point it is now considered unchristian to openly challenge the promulgation of deception as the Hebrew prophets and Apostles did, or as they did, to name the promulgators. Even the moral relativism (instead of moral absolutes) and relative truth (instead of absolute truth) of secular Post Modernism has found its way into the contemporary church due to Satan's cocktail, mixing truth with error, grace with licentiousness, and carnality with spirituality - all fraudulently under the name 'Christian'.

Since the tragic errors of Augustine of Hippo (although we may applaud his refutation of Pelagian heresy denying original sin) mixture has theologically and historically been the down fall of the church. Both Roman Catholicism and Reformed and Luthern Protestantism unfortunately derive in large measure from Augustines false doctrine of 'The Church', an erroneous ecclesiology where instead of the church being the ecclesia or called out ones, it becomes a 'mixture' of the saved and unsaved. This was the Augustinian heresy of the 'Visible and In visible Church', designed so everyone could be a member even if they were not saved. Augustine invented this to accommodate Constantine making christendom the religion of the state opening the door for a further 'mixture' of the pagan and the biblical. That is why sprinkling infants replaced believers baptism and instead of correcting this as the Ana Baptists did, the Reformers half reformed the church leaving a Protestant version of the medieval papacy's unbiblical marriage of church and state where all were called 'Christians' even if they were not (please see 'What The Reformers Forgot' in Moriel issue 7).

First Augustine's Christianity had a mixture of scripture and Platonic philosophy. Then it was a mixture of the saved and unsaved . This ultimately led to the contaminated church of the Dark Ages that was amixture of Christianity and Paganism. During the Renaissance, Thomas Aquinas and late medieval scholasticism in imitation of philosophical Islam and the Aristotelianized Judaism of Moses Maimonides, created a mixture of Christianity with Aristotelian philosophy. John Calvin, influenced by 16thcentury humanist scholarship devised a mixture of Christianity and humanism and ignorantly mixed the inja allah fatalistic doctrine of Islam with
the bible's teaching on election. In the late 19th and through the 20thcentury, Rudolph Bultmann produced a mixture of Christianity with 19thCentury German rationalism, and Wellhaussen specifically a mixture of hegalian dialectics with the bible yielding 'higher criticism'. Today, the Vineyard Movement is a mixture of Christianity and New Age. Satan's first attempt to seduce the church was with a mixture as we read in Galatians when legalists tried to mix the two covenants and place non Jews under Mosaic law in a form of nomianism.

Strangest of all worlds, there are those like Jay Grimstead today who are openly advocating mixture as a mission strategy. His 'Coalition on Revival' is linked to Earl Paulk, Francis Frangipane, and Rick Joyner and holds to Dominionist Theology and Restorationism stressing 'Neo-Apostles' and consorts with reconstructionist ideas about coercing people to accept Christ (as Augustine taught the church should vuse violence to convert people). In a radical Post Millenialism, the 'Sphere documents" of 1985 speak of each sphere coming under the dominion of the triumphant church and its so called "apostles".

Just like the errors of Constantine the ideas of some modern mixtureadvocates actually call for giving old customs new meanings missiologically. Just as with Constantine and Augustine, in 'World Mission" on page 87 An Analysis of World Christian Mission - The Strategic Dimension Pt. II, edited by Jonathan Lewis and published by The Wm. Carey Library of International Studies in Pasadena the call is for "Don't Baptize One - Go For Group Decisions". Such things destroyed the church in the fourth century courtesy of Augustine & Co. , so it is not surprising that Satan is raising up latter day Augustines today to once more bring about a "Mixture".

Perhaps nothing points to a correct comprehension of 'The Mixture' better than the message of Jesus to The Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22). This Church at the close of The First Century in modern Turkey is the last of the seven and a picture of what the church in the last days will be. Like. It will be what it now mainly is - Lukewarm, materialistic, and blind to its own spiritually abject condition because it substitutes the world's barometer of affluence as a means to measure its spiritual standing for God's.

The key to understanding this is found in the Greek meaning of its name coming from two Greek word; lao meaning people, and dikaomai meaning opinions. Indeed , the modern word - faith con artistry operates on this very form of self deception (Zecheriah 11:5) redefining Christianity as a consumerist religion using the same consumer psychology as the advertising industry, only falsely calling it doctrine. As with all of Satan's lies, (and the ones we often tell ourselves), word-faith mixes biblical truth about the subject of prosperity with error. It mixes genuine faith with pop psychology into a psuedo scriptural hybrid known as 'faith confession' where the sin of covetousness is not only called 'faith' but becomes elevated to the status of a virtue. It is all a matter of 'people's opinions', where God's truth is mixedwith man's inventions.

But what saith The Lord of this "Mixture" and the materialistic , lukewarm Christianity it engenders? Drawing on the temperature of mineral springs surrounding Laodicea as an illustration, Jesus compared the state of that church to lukewarm water, which is of course a Mixture of hot and cold. As the same Lord who hated the mixture in Deuteronomy 22:11, Jesus also made it clear what would become of that Mixture at His coming if they did not repent (Revelation 3:16).

We must remember that in terms of literary genre and theme, Revelation is an eschatological apocalypse, while 1 Thessalonians is an eschatological epistle (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11). Both books are addressed to believers in a given historical situation, but use their situation to project ahead to The Last Days and the Return of Jesus.

The faithful remnant in Laodicea whom Jesus corrects (Revelation 3:19-22) are the ones sanctified in body, mind, and spirit at the Second Coming of Jesus in 1 Thessalonians 5: 23.

Those who read, understand, and believe this epistle - will be preserved complete and blameless at the soon Coming of Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:23). On that day impurity will not be found. There will be No Mixture!

As Paul wrote in closing this epistle: "I adjure you by The Lord to have this letter read to all the churches".


By Mea Fredrickson June 16, 2025
Please Pray for repentance and mercy for the UK and the church as a whole. We are one body.
By Mea Fredrickson June 2, 2025
LORD WE LIFT UP OUR BROTHERs!
By Jacob Prasch May 10, 2025
lord we lift up our brother teerth!
By Jacob Prasch April 22, 2025
OBITUARY FOR A DEVIL
By Mea Fredrickson April 12, 2025
PRAY FOR THE BELIEVERS IN INDIA
By Mea Fredrickson April 11, 2025
A Rescue and a warning.
April 3, 2025
Japan is an incredible nation with impressive inventions, a unique culture, and a brilliantly efficient way of life in spite of having limited natural resources. Where else can a person ride on a bullet train at 320 kilometers per hour, eat raw fish (safely), hear about snow falling on monkeys "chilling" in hot springs, see spring cherry blossoms in front of a 500 year old castle, watch a sumo wrestling match, and be in the country where words like "ninja," "samurai," "karate," "karaoke," "Kawasaki," "Yamaha," "Canon," "Toyota," "origami," and "sushi," originated? Japan, also known as the land of the rising sun, has a very interesting history. Much of that history was shaped and influenced by various religious convictions. In this paper I will first give a historical overview of Japanese Buddhism and then focus on its most popular forms today (which mostly fall into the category of Mahayana Buddhism- "large vehicle" Buddhism). For a list of statistics, reflecting the popularity of various Buddhist influences in Japan, please see appendix A. In looking at Japanese Buddhism, several themes keep popping up: the popularity of the Lotus Sutra (a sutra is a Buddhist text), ancestor worship, chanting and the use of rosaries, pantheism, Shintoism (Japan's pre-Buddhist religion which is sometimes mixed with Buddhism), savior figures such as Amida (Amitabha), Kannon (Avalokitesvara), and Dainichi (Vairocana), and mystical revelations as opposed to historically verifiable truths. Of course the various schools of Japanese Buddhism have differences in their emphasis or denial of these themes, sometimes teaching completely opposite doctrines of one another. The goal of this paper is to show the sure foundation of the Bible in contrast to man-made systems, which are interesting, but don't have the ultimate saving power which every person in this world needs to get to heaven. Periods of Japanese History Related to Buddhism The Kofun Period (AD 250-538) The Asuka Period (AD 538-710) The Nara Period (AD 710-794) The Heian Period (AD 794-1185) The Kamakura Period (AD 1185-1333) The Ashikaga Period (AD 1333-1568) The Shokuho Period (AD 1568-1603) The Edo Period (AD 1603-1868) The Meiji Period (AD 1868-1912) The Taisho Period (AD 1912-1926) The Showa Period (AD 1926-1989) The Heisei Period (AD 1989- present) The Kofun Period (AD 250-538): Foundation This period is named after the "kofun" which were large burial mounds used at that time. Although the date given in Japanese legends is 660 BC for the beginning of the Japanese state, modern historians would place the beginning of the Japanese state in the Kofun Period instead, "...modern historians present us with the hesitant statement that a start was made towards building a center of political power in the Yamato region in the late third or early fourth century A.D. They regard the date 660 B.C. as about a thousand years too early" (Mason & Caiger, 25). "Pre-Buddhist Japanese religion centered on the worship of kami: beings (spirits, people, animals), objects, and places possessing charismatic power. This charisma was perceived to have not only a religious dimension, but also political and aesthetic dimensions as well" (Robinson, 241). Later, this pre-Buddhist Japanese religion came to be known as Shinto. "Shinto, as this animistic religion is called, has no founder and no bible” (Mason & Caiger, 33). "The first emperor of Japan did not ascend the throne in 660 B.C., but Japan's imperial institution is still the world's oldest hereditary office" (Mason & Caiger, 32). "The head of the imperial family in Yamato, from whom the present emperor is descended, claimed direct descent from the sun goddess (Amaterasu Omikami)..." (Mason & Caiger, 32). "In 1946, the emperor publicly denied his divinity; in 1947 the traditional system of interlocking households was dismantled, so that individuals were no longer bound by their family religion" (Robinson, 264). "...the kami were numerous and essentially amoral, with no established order among them...One of the principal problems in unifying Japan as a country thus lay in establishing a fixed narrative cycle to explain the hierarchy among the kami so that the various clans could be brought into a hierarchical relationship as well. The truth of these narratives was tested in the battlefield, and a shift in the balance of power would be reflected in a retelling of the relevant narrative" (Robinson, 242). Buddhism's claim was that it was based on "...universal principles rather than uncertain narratives" (Robinson, 242). We will see later in this paper that Buddhism also beckons help from uncertain narratives and thus has an uncertain foundation for its principles. The Asuka Period (AD 538-710): Hesitation "Buddhism was probably first brought to Japan by Korean immigrants...The first recorded contact on the royal level, however, was in 552" (Robinson, 243). King Syong-myong of Paikche (one of the three main states of Korea at that time), sent the emperor of Japan a request for military assistance against his enemies, along with a Buddhist image and Buddhist scriptures, telling him that Buddhism, "...leads ultimately to the highest wisdom and in which every prayer is fulfilled" (Saunders, 92). Ten years later, in AD 562, this Korean king who introduced Japan to Buddhism, "...was ultimately killed and his country conquered by the Sillans..." (Saunders, 92). Meanwhile, back in Japan, this new religion was met with suspicion by many. The Nakatomi and Mononobe families stood against the new religion, but the Soga family was in favor of it, and turned their house into a temple for this Buddhist image from Korea. Soon however, a pestilence broke out, and the Buddha image was blamed for this. The Nakatomi and Mononobe families, "...burned the temple and threw the image into a canal" (Saunders, 93). Years later another Buddha image was set up and another pestilence broke out. This time the image was again thrown into the river, but this did not seem to stop the pestilence, so the image was fished out of the river and set back up. The Mononobe family claimed that, "...they were descended from a kami [Shinto deity] who flew down from heaven riding in a 'heavenly-rock-boat'" (Mason & Caiger, 39). The Soga clan, who were descendants of Korean immigrants, defeated the Mononobe clan militarily in AD 587, and Buddhism began to gain more ground. "Prince Shotoku (AD 573-622), who was later regarded as the founder of Japanese Buddhism...imported Korean artisans to build temples...as well as Korean monks and nuns to staff them" (Robinson, 244). Prince Shotoku was himself descended from Korean immigrants, being a member of the Soga clan. Among other commentaries, Prince Shotoku also wrote a commentary on the Lotus Sutra, which would become a very prominent sutra in Japan. "Because Buddhist Sutras were all written in Chinese, it became plain to the Japanese that they might do better to establish direct contact with China, rather than go through Korean intermediaries" (Robinson, 244). The Nara Period (AD 710-794): Experimentation In 710 the capital moved from Asuka to Nara. There were six Buddhist schools of thought in the Nara Period (Kusha, Jojitsu, Sanron, Hosso, Kegon, and Ritsu). "Kusha, Jojitsu, and Sanron were never more than curriculum subjects..." (Robinson, 245). Only the Hosso, Kegon, and Ritsu schools still have an active following in modern times, which together account for only about half of one percent of Japan's population. Here's a brief description of some of the beliefs of the surviving three schools: Hosso: "In the Hosso teaching, things exist for us through the projection or reflection of their image on our minds..." (Saunders, 121). "...the Hosso school does not recognize that every being has within it the Buddha nature" (Saunders, 123). Kegon: "The Hua-Yen [Kegon] worldview was adapted to political ideology by equating Vairocana, the Cosmic Sun Buddha, with the emperor, whose uji [tribe or clan] claimed to be descendants of the sun" (Robinson, 245). "...the Kegon school which flourished in Nara times, taught that all phenomenon were fundamentally one and interchangeable" (Mason & Caiger, 239). "The Avatamsaka-sutras (J. Kegonkyo), which are the basis of the Kegon school, are also intimately connected with Zen. They teach a kind of cosmotheism in which the various aspects of the universe are completely interdependent...Moreover, the Buddha-nature is in everything, as much in a grain of dust as in man" (Saunders, 204-205). Many of the Japanese Buddhist sects cancel each other out, as can be seen in the Hosso and Kegon beliefs about the Buddha-nature. Ritsu: "Ritsu, named after the Chinese Lu, or Vinaya tradition, concerned itself with exegesis of the Vinaya (the Buddhist code of monastic discipline)...this sect was also responsible in Japan for the ordination of the clergy" (Noriyoshi, 163). The Heian Period (AD 794-1185): Amalgamation "In 784, THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL was transferred from Nara to Nagaoka and from there in 794 to Heian , the present-day Kyōto , where it was to remain in name at least, until 1868" (Saunders, 134). In this period two new schools of Buddhism emerged: Tendai and Shingon. "...both the Tendai and Shingon sects explained that the Shinto kami were actually nirmanakaya (emanation bodies) of the great Cosmic Buddhas" (Robinson, 246). "...Both Tendai and Shingon retained the Hinayana concepts of rebirth (karma), monasticism, and self-effort" (Mason & Caiger, 100-101). Tendai Saicho (AD 767-822) founded the Tendai School of Buddhism after spending time in China learning from various schools there. He set up his headquarters on Mount Hiei. "Mount Hiei went on to become the major monastic center in Japan and remained so until its destruction at the end of the sixteenth century. In its heyday, it housed thirty thousand monks and contained more than three thousand buildings... The vast amount of wealth donated to the temple required that some of the monks be armed to protect it from thieves. These armed monks formed factions that then became involved in disputes over succession to the position of abbot" (Robinson, 247). "...all the major monastic reformers of the following period- Eisai, Dogen, Honen, Shinran, and Nichiren- spent their early monastic careers at Mount Hiei and were largely motivated in their efforts at reform by the corruption they witnessed there..." (Robinson, 248). "[In Tendai]...there was a belief in the eventual salvation of all beings...there was the idea that all life, and not just human life, was basically the same; that is, an idea of underlying unity of existence...This teaching was based on the Lotus Sutra, one of the great scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra claims to be a final sermon preached by Gautama shortly before he entered nirvana. In reality, it was composed long after Gautama's death..." (Mason & Caiger, 102). The five reformers mentioned above were all influenced to some degree by the Lotus Sutra. "Saicho adhered to the T'ien-t'ai doctrine that recognized universal salvation, that is, the existence of the absolute nature of Buddhahood in all beings" (Michio, 270). In 2004, Tendai still claimed followers among 2.7% of the Japanese population. "Tendai recognizes Vairochana, the solar pan-Buddha, as an expression of the dharmakaya..." (Saunders, 144-145). Shingon The founder of Shingon was Kukai (AD 774-835) who also went to China to learn. There are four statues of him in Japan ranging in height from 16-21 meters. "From Prajna [a Kashmirian monk], Kukai is said to have received sutras and a rosary with which he is frequently portrayed in Japanese representations of him" (Saunders, 154). Using prayer beads was a practice used in Hinduism hundreds of years before Christ. "In addition to founding Shingon he devised a syllabary that greatly simplified the reading and writing of Japanese" (Robinson, 248). "Shingon posits a kind of pantheism in which the whole universe is a manifestation, an emanation, of the central solar divinity, Vairochana (J. Dainichi)" (Saunders, 161). "[Vairochana's] marked solar character made it particularly easy to establish a relationship with the native sun goddess Amaterasu, the Dual Shinto system..." (Saunders, 168). "Shingon was Mahayana Buddhism with a strong mixture of Tibetan or Tantric emphasis on such things as ritual speech and mystic union with the deities" (Mason & Caiger, 105). The texts which Shingon was based on, "...involved a pantheon heavily influenced by Hinduism, containing numerous divinities not purely Buddhist" (Saunders, 161). Practicing Shingon requires disciples to, "...bring body and speech into harmony through the use of the mudras [sacred gestures] and mantras [sacred words or phrases] taught by Mahavairocana. Then, by absorbing one's mind in these physical manifestations along with visualization of chaste but colorful mandalas [sacred pictures], total harmony can be attained..." (Robinson, 248-249). The goal of these exercises was actually to become Mahavairocana, which fits in with Shingon's pantheism. "Shingon was based on Tantras of the Yoga class...the practice of imitating the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha Mahavairocana (The Great Sun), so as to assume the identity of that great being" (Robinson, 248). Ezekiel, who prophesied around 590 BC, before Israel's temple was destroyed by Babylon, recorded Israel's unfaithfulness to God. They worshipped the sun. "And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose." (Ezekiel 8:16-17) Putting "the branch to their nose", probably refers to the practice, still used in modern times, of holding up incense sticks in a worshipful gesture. Shingon's idea of pantheism is also reflected in art. "Shingon's idea that Truth (i.e. the cosmic Buddha) included the unpleasant as well as the agreeable sides of life..." (Mason & Caiger, 115). Also related to Vairocana's unpleasant side is, "...a secondary group of divinities called Wisdom Kings (myo-o)...Fudo (skt. Achala), the Immovable, a form of Shiva...He is regularly portrayed holding in his hands a sword and a rope; with the former he cuts down the evils of the world, and with his rope he binds them...with a terrible face from which two fangs protrude, while behind him arises a background of flames" (Saunders, 176). In Hinduism, from which Fudo is derived, Shiva is the destroyer. "Fudo Myo-o is the central deity in all Myo-o groupings...Today, the Myo-o are revered mainly by the Shingon sect...Indeed, the Myo-o are forms of Dainichi [Vairocana], and represent Dainichi 's wrath against evil and ignorance." (http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/fudo.html) In pantheism, even the evil sides of life are part of the "deity." In the sutra of the Kurikara incantation, "He [Fudo] assumes the form of a flame-wreathed snake or dragon coiled around an upright sword..." (http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/dragons.html) Shingon continues to hold sway over many people in Japan. Fudo, who supposedly can change to be a snake or dragon, and who is derived from Shiva the destroyer, is supposed to be a manifestation of Vairocana. The Bible declares clearly who this snake/dragon-like being is. "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:9). In 2004, about 9.9% of the population considered themselves to be adherents of Shingon. The Kamakura Period (AD 1185-1333): Reformation In AD 1185 power was taken from the emperor and a new form of government emerged under the authority of a shogun. The imperial capital was still in Kyoto, and the emperor was allowed to hold his title, but the political capital was moved to Kamakura, where the shogun resided. During this time on Mount Hiei, near Kyoto, there were five prominent men who came out of the Tendai school, and became reformers of Japanese Buddhism: Eisai, Dogen, Honen, Shinran, and Nichiren. Eisei and Dogen: Zen Buddhism As of 2004, about 2.6% of Japan's population claimed to be Zen Buddhists. Although that's a pretty low number, internationally, Zen is probably the best known form of Japanese Buddhism. "Myoan Eisai (1141-1215) established the first Zen (in Chinese, Ch'an) temple in Kyoto in 1202...Dissatisfaction with the eclecticism of Eisai's Zen led a number of monks in the following generation to travel to China on their own to receive transmission of a less adulterated teaching to bring back to Japan. The first to do so was Dogen Kigen (1200-53)....Zen, he [Dogen] says, is essentially 'dethinking thinking.' With what means is dethinking to be thought? 'Beyond thinking'" (Robinson, 251). Altered States of Consciousness Zen focuses on meditation as the way towards enlightenment. The word Zen comes from the Pali word "jhana" and the Sanskrit word "dhyana." "The four dhyanas are best understood as a series of altered states of consciousness characterized by an increasing degree of enstasy. The term 'enstasy' literally means 'standing within.' An enstatic practice, then, is one aimed at the withdrawal of the practitioner's senses and thoughts from contact with the external world and at the reduction of the contents of her consciousness" (Griffiths, 38). "It is even possible to see strong parallels between his [Dogen's] thought and that of early Buddhism: Dethinking thinking corresponds to the use of right view to go beyond views...Dogen became regarded as the founder of the Soto school of Zen" (Robinson, 252). Early Buddhism, which is carried on in the Theravada tradition, resembles Zen in some of their meditation goals and techniques. In early Buddhism, "Jhana...signifies a state of trance in which all sensory input, aside from the subject of meditation, is totally excluded from awareness. At the higher jhanic levels the meditator is also incapable of speech or movement, and in the highest possible, attention is said to be without ordinary consciousness and to reach the trance of cessation. According to the Pali Canon, Gotama reached Buddhahood (enlightenment) by means of the four classic jhanas, gained by concentrated attention on the (unspecified) meditational subjects he had chosen" (King, 88). Beyond Words and Logic Bodhidharma (c. AD 470-534), who in Japan is called Daruma, is said to be the first Chinese patriarch of Zen. "His [Bodhidharma's] teaching goes back traditionally to that of the Buddha himself, who once while preaching held up a flower and smiled. Only Kashyapa understood that the Buddha meant to symbolize the inadequacy of words to express the essence of his Doctrine. This is the 'wordless tradition' Bodhidharma brought to China, the transmission of which henceforth depended on intuitive apprehension of the Absolute" (Saunders, 208). According to the "Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall", written in AD 952, Bodhidharma is said to have faced a wall for nine years, not speaking at all. Whether or not this is legend, it is in keeping with the wordless philosophy. This tendency against rational thought continues in the modern Zen school. "Zen holds that nobody can actually think himself into a state of enlightenment, still less depend on the logical arguments of others. Rationality must eventually give way to intuitive insight, which alone frees a person to live naturally and spontaneously..." (Mason & Caiger, 169). This kind of approach to morality and religion does not match the real world. If a teacher "intuitively" gave grades to students without looking at test scores and other rational factors, there would be an outcry of "that's not fair" from the students. If a doctor "intuitively" and "spontaneously" prescribed medicine, people would die. The same chaos would result if this were applied to financial decisions, driving decisions, moral decisions, etc. An "enlightenment" which is "beyond views" and "beyond thought" is really a suppression of the truth. Instead of freedom for rational thought, experience is overemphasized, which results in going away from truth. The rationality we use in everyday life also applies to understanding spiritual truths. Koans are one way to "overcome" rationality in Zen, such as meditating on the question, "What's the sound of one hand clapping?" In addition to the koan, sometimes a "shocking yell" is used. "Koans are, so to speak, undeveloped themes, which often illogically confound the intellect and appeal to the intuition for understanding. Like the yell 'katsu!' they are meant to establish a direct intuitive understanding, bypassing inhibitive intellectual processes" (Saunders, 212). "...the purpose of asking such questions [koans] from all possible sides is not to come to any conclusive answers, but to become more and more familiar with the dynamic of 'beyond thinking'..." (Robinson, 252). Another technique to overcome thought, used in some schools, was (and is) the whack of a stick: "...the stick which, like the yell, was used- corporally- to startle the mind to sudden enlightenment" (Saunders, 213). One example of a longer koan, was a case in a monastery in China. "Monks of the northern and southern halls of Nan-ch'uan's monastery engaged in a rowdy dispute over the possession of a kitten. Catching the cat, Nan-ch'uan held it up before the disputing monks and said, 'If any among you can tell me why I should not kill this cat, I will spare its life.' Since none of the monks spoke, Nan-ch'uan dashed the kitten to the ground and killed it. The monk Chao-chou (J. Joshu, 778-891), returning to the monastery after a day's absence, was greeted by Nan-ch'uan and asked what he would have answered had he been present. Chao-chou removed his straw sandals, placed them on his head, and left the presence of Nan-ch'uan. Whereupon Nan-ch'uan said: 'If you had been there, the cat would have been saved.' Chao-chou's action implied neither affirmation nor negation. In other words, it expressed the Void that is the only answer to any problem, and his pointing out the nonexistence of the problem constituted the saving word which was never spoken" (Saunders, 212-213). "The Prajnaparamita-Sutras are studied today in Zen cloisters, and their concept of the ultimate Void of all things continues to influence Zen thinking" (Saunders, 204). There are many negative implications of a philosophy like this for society. Chao-chou's disinterested response about the kitten, show a classical Buddhist detachment, combined with the Mahayana doctrine of the "Void of all things." This "ultimate Void" is in contrast with the belief of the Buddha-nature being in everything (see under Kegon about cosmotheism on page 4). As we've seen already though, logical coherence is not a priority in Zen. The popular Zen author, D.T. Suzuki wrote, "Zen is neither monotheistic nor pantheistic; Zen defies all such designations...Zen defies all concept-making. That is why Zen is difficult to grasp" (Suzuki, 41-42). Suzuki then quotes Yengo (AD 1566- 1642) to help "define" what Zen is: "The great truth of Zen is possessed by everybody. Look into your own being and seek it not through others...In its light all is absorbed. Hush the dualism of subject and object, forget both, transcend the intellect, sever yourself from the understanding, and directly penetrate deeply into the identity of the Buddha-mind; outside of this there are no realities" (Suzuki, 46). Suzuki has contradicted himself by quoting Yengo's concept-making and designations for Zen, which he said Zen defies. In the quotation we also see the pantheistic statement, "In its [Zen's] light all is absorbed." A follower of Zen is supposed to "transcend the intellect," bringing a person to the very dangerous place of leaving logic and commonsense behind. In the koan above, regarding a kitten, what if the case concerned a human baby, would there still be indifference shown and sandals worn on the head? In Keown's 1996 book he wrote, "In Japan...abortion is legal and around a million abortions are performed each year. This compares with a figure of 1.5 million for the United States, a country with over twice the population of Japan" (Keown, 102). America as a nation has also gone far from God and the compassion that should be shown to a baby in the womb. The problem with the view of indifference is that some things really are evil and some things really are good. If people go through life indifferent and detached (but ironically very attached to the view of indifference), this filter for life (also called the middle way of equanimity) will cause them to miss God who is ultimately good, and cause them not to avoid some things that really are evil. Honen and Shinran: Pure Land Buddhism This is by far the most popular form of Buddhism in Japan today. About 15.3 % of Japanese people in 2004 identified themselves as being Pure Land Buddhists. "While Amidism [Pure Land Buddhism] stressed salvation through others, i.e., through the Buddha Amida, Zen emphasized salvation within oneself. Every man has the Buddha-nature, and this nature is perceptible through a 'realization of self' (Saunders, 228). "Amida's presence in the Tendai and Shingon sects testifies to his existence as an Esoteric divinity. Thus, like other Esoteric gods, Amida was an object of meditation...Merely calling on Amida's name (nembutsu), was not sufficient..." (Saunders, 189). This Tendai and Shingon emphasis (which like Zen involved much self-effort) changed through the influence of Honen and Shinran. Honen (1133-1212) founded the Jodo sect of Pure Land. This was based on the idea that a person could call on the Amida Buddha's help to bring them into the Pure Land when they die. "A charismatic leader, he practiced what he preached- chanting the Nembutsu up to seventy thousand times a day- and drew disciples from all levels of society..." (Robinson, 254). Shinran (1173-1262) was a disciple of Honen. "We are told that he dreamed Kannon instructed him to study with Honen, which he began to do in 1201" (Saunders, 198). Shinran later had some dramatic visions, which eventually led him to found Shin Buddhism (a.k.a. Jodo Shinshu). "After twenty years on Mount Hiei, grappling with the constraints of celibacy, he experienced a revelation, in which the Bodhisattva Kuan-yin (in Japanese, Kannon) appeared to him in a dream and promised to come to him in the form of a young woman who he should marry" (Robinson, 254). Shinran did get married and then had another revelation, "...that the saving grace of Amida required only one Nembutsu" (Robinson, 254). "Shinran's doctrine, similar to Honen's, opened itself to all sorts of abuses and misinterpretations. His own son, Zenran, preached such an inflammatory version of the teaching as to make it an outright invitation to sin. Shinran eventually had to sever all relations with him" (Robinson, 255). "Honen had thought that the greater the number of repetitions the greater the believer's chances of rebirth in the Pure Land" (Mason & Caiger, 164). Over the years there were many debates about whether one calling on Amida was sufficient or whether repetitive callings were necessary. Nowadays both schools are still in existence, but Shin Buddhism (one calling) is more popular. "China, Korea, and Vietnam decided in favor of combining devotion to Amita [Amida] with Ch'an [Zen] meditation (known in Korea as Son and in Vietnam as Thien), while Japan divided Pure Land and Zen into separate lineages" (Corless, 263). Tao-ch'o (AD 562- 645) of China, "...is credited with the introduction of the rosary into Pure Land practice, with the aid of which both laypeople and monastic people notched up record numbers of nien fo [Nembutsu]" (Corless, 263). In contrast, Jesus said, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" (Matthew 6:7). Although Shinran's devotion was primarily to Amida, he also paid respect to Kannon (which has the largest number of tall statues in Japan). From the picture given in Pure Land sutras, "On either side of him [Amida] are his chief bodhisattvas, the greatly compassionate Avalokitesvara [Kannon] and the greatly powerful Mahasthamaprapta..." (Corless, 253). However, both of these personalities (Amida and Kannon) date from after the time of Christ. And, they are not real historical figures, but inventions of hagiographers. "Whereas Honen had stripped meditation and merit making away from the teaching, leaving only faith and the Nembutsu, Shinran stripped it down still further, leaving only faith in tariki (other-power), with no trace of jiriki (self-power) at all" (Robinson, 255). The well known Thai Buddhist scholar P.A. Payutto has said, "No matter where Buddhism spreads to, or how distorted the teaching becomes, this emphasis on human endeavor never varies. If this one principle is missing, we can confidently say that it is no longer Buddhism" (38). According to Payutto, Shin Buddhism should not even be called Buddhism, because of its complete lack of emphasis on self-effort. Only One Savior At first glance, Amida seems to fulfill the role that God does in Christianity- bringing salvation by grace and not by works. But there are some big differences between God Almighty and Amida: "[Amida]...is not unique in the universe as a whole, being only one of many Buddhas...he does not create, sustain, or destroy the universe as a whole, nor is he the ontological support...for the universe as a whole...he does not stand above the worshiper as an ontologically 'Higher Power'...his life is not infinite, since there was a time when he was not a Buddha" (Corless, 247-248). Honen and Shinran were not the only ones to make changes to Pure Land doctrines. "These two points- recitation rather than meditation, and the inclusion of sinners with those who can benefit from Amitabha's [Amida's] vows- were the main Chinese departures from Indian Amitabha doctrines" (Robinson, 196). Over the years many changes have been made in Pure Land doctrine. Shin Buddhism has strayed not only from Pure Land doctrine, but has also strayed far from reality in following after a non-historical person who has no authority to save us. When we look for a doctor we look for good credentials and reliability. When we look for an insurance company we likewise look for reliability and trustworthiness. When looking for a saviour we should not expect less. In fact, we should expect more. "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour" (Isaiah 43:11). "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22). "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). There is only one God Almighty! God said "beside me there is no saviour," and yet Jesus is called "Saviour." This is because Jesus is God Almighty. Jesus' salvation is far reaching, even promising salvation to the thief on the cross who put his faith in Him. This was not an empty promise. Jesus proved his authority when He rose from the dead. The historical records regarding the resurrection of Jesus from the dead are of the caliber that have brought many lawyers to faith in Jesus. "And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus can save someone from any walk of life. To read the story of how the granddaughter of a Shin Buddhist priest's daughter became a Christian, please see Appendix B. Nichiren: Nichiren Buddhism As of 2004, the various Nichiren sects accounted for about 13% of Japan's population. Nichiren (AD 1222-1282) also left the Tendai school, but focused exclusively on the Lotus Sutra to form his Buddhist sect. "Only the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren felt, contained the unadulterated True Dharma. All other Buddhist sects were wrong..." (Robinson, 256). "Nichiren's life followed the pattern of a Shinto shaman more than that of a Buddhist leader. He attracted a following largely through his courage and...his personality, which at times resembled that of a medium possessed" (Robinson, 256). "...the practice he [Nichiren] recommended was simplicity itself: the repetition of the daimoku (mantra) 'Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō'...Later he worked out a mandala [sacred picture] representing his beliefs, called the gohonzon, at which one was to stare while repeating one's declaration of homage" (Robinson, 256). The name "Nichiren" which was not his original name, but is a name that he chose, means, "sun-lotus." "...nichi standing not only for the sunlight of true faith, but for Japan itself; ren, for the Lotus" (Saunders, 231). Nichiren also wrote a lot. "...these writings were devoted to exposing the errors of other sects, especially the Amidist and Zen, and later the Shingon and Ritsu. In fact, adverse criticism of these four branches became an integral part of Nichirenism" (Saunders, 233). "Although Nichiren promoted the doctrine of universal salvation, his school developed into the most exclusive and often militant group in Japanese religious history" (Michio, 273). Nichiren once said, "It is a great pity that they should have cut off the heads of the innocent Mongols and left unharmed the priests of Nembutsu [Pure Land], Shingon, Zen, and Ritsu, who are the enemies of Japan" (Mason & Caiger, 165). "Nichiren presented his doctrines as complex meditations on the Lotus Sutra's teaching of the original Buddha-nature...placing faith in the conviction that the Eternal Buddha Sakyamuni, the truth of the Sutra, and all beings were ultimately one..." (Robinson, 256). This belief, like those of other schools in Japanese Buddhism (Kegon, Tendai, Shingon, and Zen), sounds very pantheistic. For example in Tendai, "...there was the idea that all life, and not just human life, was basically the same; that is, an idea of underlying unity of existence...This teaching was based on the Lotus Sutra..." (Mason & Caiger, 102). Such a "unity of existence" and the supposed ultimate oneness of the Buddha and "all beings" can make no distinction between good and evil. It is pantheistic, saying that everything is one, which would include good and evil! Even though Nichiren tried to make distinctions of "right" and "wrong," based on the Lotus Sutra he had no grounds for doing so. Nichiren was not indifferent about what he thought was good or evil, but he had no standard within his system which was authoritative and separate from the evil of this universe. Only God almighty can provide that perfect standard. Kannon In Kyoto there is a temple that has 1000 idols of Kannon. Surrounding these are 28 "protectors" of hers, many of which look like demons, some having snakes hanging out of their head or arms. Many of these 28 were taken straight from Hinduism. Doesn't that say something when a "deity" is being protected by demon-like beings? Demons certainly don't want to promote the truth. The Dalai Lama is said to be the manifestation of Kannon even though he is male, and usually Kannon is portrayed as female. "In China, Avalokitesvara [Kannon] was eventually represented as a woman" (Robinson, 108). By the way, the brand name "Canon" (cameras, printers, etc.) is also named after Kannon. (http://www.canon.com/about/history/outline.html) Kannon receives much attention in the Lotus Sutra, going by the name of Avalokitesvara. In the Lotus Sutra, it is recorded that Avalokitesvara (Kannon) can change its form, becoming a woman, a boy or a girl, a garuda bird, or even a naga snake (www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dbet_t0262_lotussutra_2007.pdf). "The Avalokitesvara Sutra was incorporated into the Lotus Sutra as late as the third century C.E." (Robinson, 108). "...Maitreya, Manjusri, and Avalokitesvara [Kannon]...These great beings are nonhistorical; there is no evidence that any of them is an apotheosis of a human hero.... Strangely, no Sutra preaches devotion to a celestial bodhisattva until the third century C.E..." (Robinson, 105). In Japan there are 10 statues of Kannon taller than the U.S. statue of liberty, and 32 statues of Kannon ranging in height from 17-100 meters. Sadly, millions of yen have been poured into this non-historical idol, while ignoring the One who really deserves our praise and attention, namely our Creator. God doesn't want to be worshipped with idols though, but in "spirit and in truth," as Jesus taught. Jesus' existence is very much confirmed in history. He performed miracles, led a perfect life, was raised from the dead, and his life was prophesied in hundreds of details in the Old Testament, hundreds and thousands of years before he came. Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). The Ashikaga Period Through the Edo Period (AD 1333-1868): Stagnation During this time, "All Buddhist sects aside from Soto and Rinzai [both Zen] had formed armed societies to protect their interests, only to be slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands, which destroyed Buddhism's credibility as an instrument for national unity" (Robinson, 257). Government headquarters were set up in Edo at this time (modern day Tokyo). From the Kamakura Period (1185) up until the beginning of the Meiji Period (1868), Japan was mostly ruled by shoguns. "...the long period of uneventful existence, of status quo, the absence of new ideas or challenges from abroad, were ultimately to sap the vitality of Buddhist institutions until, by the end of the Tokugawa period [1868], their condition can at best be called apathetic" (Saunders, 247). "...at the beginning of the Meiji era [1868], Buddhism was at its weakest. The years of stultification under Tokugawa control had terminated in the identification of the religion with the shogunal power...In 1867, the shogunate collapsed, and the next year Buddhism was disestablished and largely disendowed" (Saunders, 255). The Meiji Period (AD 1868-1912): Renovation The Meiji Restoration involved many aspects of society, but of course began with, "...restoring the emperor to his rightful position which had been usurped by the Fujiwara and a succession of shoguns" (Mason & Caiger, 258). The exaltation of Shintoism went hand in hand with the exaltation of the emperor. "The government proclaimed the adoption of Shinto as the national religion in 1870 under the name of Daikyo, or 'Great Doctrine.' A strong propagandist movement was initiated, and missionaries were sent throughout the land, whose duty it was to refute Confucianism and Buddhism and defend the concept of Shinto" (Saunders, 257). The Taisho Period to The Heisei Period (AD 1912- present): Innovation After World War II, "...the emperor publicly denied his divinity...individuals were no longer bound by their family religion...[and] a policy of land distribution was enacted...The combined effect of these directives was to create, for the first time in Japanese history, a totally secular government; to give individuals total religious freedom" (Robinson, 264). Many new religions (shinko shukyo) sprung up. On the other hand, "Polls indicate that large numbers of Japanese do not view themselves as belonging to any particular group" (Robinson, 265). Soka Gakkai Soka Gakkai Buddhism is an offshoot within Nichiren Buddhism. It began in 1938 and is based on Nichiren’s teachings. "The sect recommends the traditional Nichiren practice of chanting...although the purpose of the chant is to attain this-worldly goals: Job promotion, financial success, family harmony, and the alleviation of physical and psychological ills" (Robinson, 265). "The Gohonzon scroll is the religious core of the Soka Gakkai faith" (Dumoulin, 259). "The personal character of the religion is particularly apparent in the spirituality of President Ikeda, who teaches the faithful to pray daily: 'Gohonzon, help me to accomplish this today'" (Dumoulin, 259). "Among the many mandalas created by Nichiren to represent symbolically the total content of his teachings- that is, absolute reality according to the vision of the Lotus Sutra- one [the Gohonzon] is accorded special importance by the Nichiren Shoshu and the Soka Gakkai...a scroll upon which Chinese ideograms are written in vertical order..." (Dumoulin, 258- 259). Dumoulin, in visiting the Daisekiji temple, writes, "...I was not only touched by the intense conviction of the young people there, devoid of all human fear, but I also felt that their disposition unmistakably exhibited a personal relationship with the Gohonzon" (Dumoulin, 259). David Hesselgrave, writing about a disagreement between Soka Gakkai Buddhism and Nichiren Buddhism (their umbrella organization at that time) says, "Built a quarter century ago at a cost of $100,000,000 (well over twice that figure at today's exchange rate), the Shohondo [a main hall on Nichiren temple grounds, but largely built by Sokka Gakkai donations] was one of the most impressive buildings in the Buddhist world. And yet, in spite of the pleas and protests of prominent architects, politicians and religious leaders of various persuasions, a Nichiren Buddhist priest had spent $35,000,000 to have it demolished!...Power struggles and factionalism finally reached a climax in 1991 when High Priest Abe took the radical step of excommunicating Ikeda [Soka Gakkai's president] and all his followers." www.emsweb.org/images/stories/docs/bulletins/hesselgrave_nichirenists_2_2000.pdf Conflict between Nichiren and Soka Gakkai went back further to after World War II when Soka Gakkai president Toda, forced one of the Nichiren monks in 1952 to sign a declaration of guilt. "This particular monk was blamed for the suppression of the Soka Gakkai during the war, and for Makiguchi's death [the founder of Soka Gakkai] in prison, because as a leader he had favored syncretism with Shinto, the state religion, as well as an organizational merger with other Nichiren sects from Mount Minobu" (Dumoulin, 258). This conflict aside, Soka Gakkai members focus on the Gohonzon, which Dumoulin was told was, "...nothing other than the presence of the holy Buddha Nichiren" (Dumoulin, 259). Having a relationship with a scroll, which is supposed to invoke the presence of Nichiren, a dead man, whose personality, "at times resembled that of a medium possessed" (Robinson, 256), is spiritually dangerous to say the least. More on this later, when discussing "familiar spirits." Reiki Reiki was a Japanese adaptation of some Hindu ideas (e.g. chakras- the seven energy centers). In 1922 Mikao Usui , after going through a Buddhist training course, said he received a revelation regarding Reiki. It's a method that aims to bring healing through "supernatural influence." "...many nurses, counselors, and especially massage therapists use Reiki as a supplement to their work" (Yungen, 95). "Reiki came to the United States (from Japan) in the mid 1970s. It took about twenty years for this particular practice to reach 500,000 practitioners....By the year 2005, the number skyrocketed to an astonishing one million practitioners in just the U.S." (Yungen, 13)! Reiki claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. (http://www.reiki.ne.jp/reiki_japan/en.html) "...many Reiki practitioners report having verbalized channeled communications with the spirit world" (Yungen, 97). In Reiki, guidance is given by spirits, called "Reiki guides." One Reiki master wrote of her experience, "For me, the Reiki guides make themselves the most felt while attunements are being passed. They stand behind me and direct the whole process, and I assume they also do this for every Reiki master. When I pass attunements, I feel their presence strongly and constantly. Sometimes I can see them" (Yungen, 95). Reiyu-kai Reiyu-kai, was founded in 1925, as an offshoot of Nichiren. In 1963, they claimed to have 3.6% of the Japanese population as members. Presently, they have about five million members worldwide (http://reiyukaiglobal.org/introduction.php). "It is based on the Lotus Sutra and stresses filial piety and duty towards ancestors" (Saunders, 281). "...ancestor worship is the core of its teaching and practice. Easily understood by the common man, it gives him access to the world of spirits and souls which the shamanistic cofounder mediated to her following" (Dumoulin, 241). Funerals and Spirits "...traditional Buddhism has lost much of its appeal, except as a relic of Japan's cultural past. 'Funeral Buddhism' is the name that many people use to refer to the traditional sects, in light of the ritual role to which many of the priests have been reduced" (Robinson, 265). "Many temples have become funeral institutions, whose administrators concern themselves primarily with well-paid rites for the dead" (Dumoulin, 217). "As a means of gaining their [provincial samurai and the peasantry] allegiance Soto [a school of Zen] assimilated a certain amount of popular beliefs and rituals but devised, above all, funeral and memorial services for the dead, a trait that was to become one of the characteristic features of almost all Buddhist schools in Japan" (Noriyoshi, 169). "The time-honored ritual of sutra copying (shakyo), still popular among Jodo, Shingon, and Tendai followers, is undertaken to bring repose to the spirits of the dead, accumulate merit for the practitioner, and deepen faith in the sutra copied" (Unno, 323). Also related to bringing "repose to the spirits of the dead" is the Obon festival. "...it [Ullambana, known in Japan as Obon] began in the sixth century in China and soon after was introduced to Japan...the origin of the Ullambana ceremony is found in the legend of Moggallana...who through transcendental vision saw his mother suffering in Avici hell. In order to save her he followed the advice of Sakyamuni Buddha and practiced charity by feeding hundreds of monks" (Unno, 320). This story is a very late invention, not being in the Pali Canon, which in and of itself already contains many legends. It comes from a text, "made in China," called the, "...Ullambana Sutra (a text composed in China)..." (Robinson, 215). "...much of the content of the Ullambana festival is non-Buddhist in origin" (Unno, 320-321). The main purpose of the Obon festival is, "...aiding the dead in their proper journey, keeping them from becoming malevolent and thereby dangerous to the living" (Robinson, 215). Involvement with spirits is a trademark of many Japanese Buddhist sects. Shintoism, being an animistic religion, also involves ceremonies to appease spirits, ask them for blessings, etc. In the Bible, "familiar spirits" are actually devils. God forbids us to invoke or communicate with them, because they are deceivers. When people die, they don't float around in this world. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment..." (Hebrews 9:27). There is nothing we can do for those who have died already. Whatever they have done in their lives will be judged by God, whose judgment is perfect and fair. The spirits that are in the spiritual realm of this world are not deceased family members, but are either angels or devils. If we are NOT submitted to God and adopted into God's family, then we are in danger of deception by devils pretending to be merciful and powerful beings. They try to take people's attention away from God, and towards bondage to spiritual lies. Even those who are Christians and part of God’s family are told to be careful. " Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). The word "try" here means "put on trial"- to test. We do this by comparing their message with the standard of the Bible. God made it very clear that we are not to seek spiritual direction from anywhere apart from His Word. "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Isaiah, who lived about 700 years before Christ, rebuked the people for seeking dead spirits instead of God Almighty. "And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:19-20). God has authority over every spirit, so we need not be troubled by any lesser spirits. We can simply submit ourselves to God almighty, and He will lead our lives. God Almighty If we found a computer mouse laying on the road, would anyone doubt that it has a maker? A computer mouse cannot make itself. Even though we may not see the maker, the computer mouse itself is evidence that points to it having a creator. People have factories for making computer mice. But, people have no factories for making real mice. A computer mouse is impressive in that it can transmit information via it's "tail" to the computer, or in some types, the mouse has no tail and can transmit information "remotely." But, a real mouse has its own brain with which it can transmit commands to its body. Although we normally would think of a computer mouse as being "high-tech," seeing that people can make these, but cannot make real mice, we should actually call a computer mouse "low tech" and a real mouse "high tech." Only God can make a real mouse! Although we don't see God, the mouse itself is evidence that it has a Creator. Being far more complex than a computer mouse, it cannot make itself, nor randomly come into being without a Designer. God created people, too, but He created people in His own image, different from the animals. Monkeys don't have police monkeys, nor courtrooms, nor prisons, nor libraries, nor philosophers, etc. They follow instinct. People have the freedom to choose right or wrong. People will one day be held responsible by God for what they have done with their lives and how they have responded to God their Creator. Right now, the tallest statue on earth is an idol of the Vairocana Buddha in China, which stands at 128 meters. Compared to God Almighty, that statue is like a tiny piece of dust. How could people fit the Almighty God who made everything, into an idol made by people? Even if people could make an idol 8000 meters tall, with its head in the clouds, or 12,000 meters tall, with its head peering above the clouds, that is still tiny, compared to God Almighty. " Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest" (Isaiah 66:1)? In Japanese Buddhism, the Vairocana Buddha is exalted as a solar deity, and in Shintoism, Amaterasu Omikami is exalted as the sun goddess. Is the sun a worthy object of our worship? The universe itself is also said to be a manifestation of Vairocana. Is the universe a worthy object of our worship? The sun truly is massively big and amazing. But, compared to the rest of the universe it is likewise tiny. The sun and the universe point to God's incredible design. God almighty is separate from His creation and awesomely greater than it. The universe is also still under the curse brought about through sin, and is thus only an imperfect reflection of God's power. We should worship the Creator, not the creation. Jason Lisle gives us some insight about the sun and our universe, "The sun is about 400 times more distant than the moon. Remarkably, it is also 400 times larger. So it has the same angular size as the moon- meaning it appears the same size and covers the same portion of the sky [making the moon the perfect size to eclipse the sun]... If it [the sun] were hollow, it could hold over 1 million earths...When we consider the immensity of the Milky Way, with its 100 billion stars...the overwhelming power of the Creator becomes clear. Yet, our galaxy is not the only one...It is estimated that there are at least as many galaxies as there are stars in the Milky Way (100 billion)." http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tba/splendor-of-creation#fnMark_1_1_1 As incredibly large as the universe is (making the sun seem tiny), God almighty is even greater than the universe He created. "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:24). Conclusion The large vehicle of Buddhism (Mahayana Buddhism) is expressed in a large variety of ways and is practiced in Japan, China and elsewhere. Within this large vehicle there are schools of thought that are completely opposite of one another, but they are still considered to be part of Mahayana, since they cater to a larger group of people as opposed to Hinayana (the "small vehicle") for which enlightenment is seen as something few people can attain (Theravada is the only surviving school of Hinayana). Mahayana had a later start historically, mystically adding many new ideas to an already faulty system (Hinayana). In this paper, we've seen some of the shortcomings of the large vehicle in Japan. Shingon and the other schools which emphasize a pantheistic type of view implode on themselves when we consider that if all is included (which Shingon especially is very clear about, and other schools hint at), then evil also is included in the "Buddha-nature." Zen relies on the silent sermon and the "beyond logic" approach, defeating itself with any attempt to communicate anything. Shin Buddhism sees the vanity of self-effort, but suggests believing in a limited and imaginary being to help. The various Nichiren schools have an equally unreliable foundation in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra was composed around AD 200 (Robinson, 85), but claims to be a final sermon of Gautama Buddha, which makes it about 600 years too late to be credible. Various other schools of thought which call on the "spirits of the dead" are likewise limited and in the dark, not knowing that these are actually deceiving spirits they are calling on. Besides this, no lesser spirit can help us find eternal salvation. God is almighty. Because He is almighty He expects us to put all of our faith in Him, not 50% in Him and 50% in something else. If we compare any of these schools of thought to a "vehicle" which is supposed to save us and get us to heaven, they are like vehicles that have no gasoline, or no tires, or are only imaginary, having no ability to take us anywhere. People have factories for making nice vehicles for the roads here on earth, but we have no factory to make a vehicle to get us to heaven. Only God almighty can bring a person to heaven, and that must be on His terms, which are revealed in the Bible through Jesus Christ. Tokichi Ishii, a former criminal, became a Christian in 1916. He wrote the following words: "Again, chaplains and pastors, and those who see men die, agree that the last words a man utters come from the depths of his soul, and that he does not die with lies upon his lips. Jesus' last words were, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, and so I cannot but believe that they reveal his true heart." "What did the verse reveal to me? Shall I call it the love of the heart of Christ? Shall I call it His compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that with an unspeakably grateful heart, I believed. Through this simple sentence I was led into the whole of Christianity" (Ishii, 36). Christianity is not just a good idea, but is confirmed with historical and prophetic evidence. This is essential. Experiences, dreams, or even visions are not proof of spiritual reality. Such "evidences" would be thrown out of a court of law very quickly. What we have in Christianity are not only life transforming and wonderful truths about Jesus and His teachings, but also the kind of evidence that can be proven in a court of law. God our Creator deserves all of our worship and faith. Will you come to Jesus and put your faith in Him today? "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (I John 5:11-12). References Corless, R.J. (1997). Pure Land Piety. In Yoshinori, T., Van Bragt, J., Heisig, J.W., O'Leary, J.S. & Swanson, P.L. (Eds.), Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asia, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, volume 8 (pp.242- 271) New York: Crossroad. Dumoulin, H. (1976). Buddhism in Modern Japan. In Dumoulin, H. & Maraldo, J.C. (Ed. & associate Ed.), Buddhism in the Modern World. (pp. 215- 271) New York: Collier Books. Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac 2005. (2004). USA: Encyclopedia Britannica. Griffiths, P.J. (1997). Indian Buddhist Meditation. In Yoshinori, T., Van Bragt, J., Heisig, J.W., O'Leary, J.S. & Swanson, P.L. (Eds.), Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asia, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, volume 8 (pp. 34- 66) New York: Crossroad. Ishii, T. (1918). A Gentleman in Prison: The Confessions of Tokichi Ishii written in Tokyo Prison. Keown, D. (1996). Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. King, W. (1997). Theravada in Southeast Asia. In Yoshinori, T., Van Bragt, J., Heisig, J.W., O'Leary, J.S. & Swanson, P.L. (Eds.), Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asia, Tibetan, and Early Chinese, volume 8 (pp. 79- 92) New York: Crossroad. Mason, R.H.P. & Caiger, J.G. (1997). A History of Japan: Revised Edition. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. Michio, A. (1989). The Schools of Japanese Buddhism. In J.M. Kitagawa & M.D. Cummings (Eds.), Buddhism and Asian History (pp.267- 275). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. Noriyoshi, T. (1989). Buddhism in Japan. In J.M. Kitagawa & M.D. Cummings (Eds.), Buddhism and Asian History (pp.159- 173). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. O'Brien, J. & Palmer, M. (2007). The Atlas of Religion: Mapping Contemporary Challenges and Beliefs. London: Earthscan. Payutto, P.A. (1998). Toward Sustainable Science. Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation. Robinson, R.H., Johnson, W.L., Wawrytko, S.A., & DeGraff, G. (1997). The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Saunders, E.D. (1976). Buddhism in Japan: With an Outline of Its Origins in India. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. Suzuki, D.T. (1964). An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. New York: Grovepress. Unno, T. (1989). Buddhist Cultic Life in East Asia. In J.M. Kitagawa & M.D. Cummings (Eds.), Buddhism and Asian History (pp.317- 330). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. Yungen, R. (2012). A Time of Departing. Eureka: Lighthouse Trails Publishing. Websites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_by_height http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/fudo.html http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/dragon.shtml http://www.canon.com/about/history/outline.html www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dbet_t0262_lotussutra_2007.pdf www.emsweb.org/images/stories/docs/bulletins/hesselgrave_nichirenists_2_2000.pdf http://www.reiki.ne.jp/reiki_japan/en.html http://reiyukaiglobal.org/introduction.php http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tba/splendor-of-creation#fnMark_1_1_1 Appendix A Numbers and Hearts Japan has a land mass that is smaller than California, but a population over 3 times that of California. The entire population of the United States is only about 2.5 times that of Japan. In other words, about half of the United States could move into the state of California, and this would be roughly the population density of Japan. In spite of being a fairly small nation compared to other nations (but with a large and very diligent work force), Japan has done very well economically. "...the generally sustained increase in annual production has raised Japan to a position where, today, it comes second to only one other nation, the United States, in economic strength" (Mason & Caiger, 361, copyright 1997). More recently China has moved into the number 2 spot, but Japan is still number 3 in the world (as measured by GDP). In this situation of economic strength, many people's hearts in Japan, China, and America have decided to follow money instead of God almighty. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:13-15). In Dale Saunders' book "Buddhism in Japan," he cites two other books dated 1960 and 1963, showing the number of members of the various Buddhist sects in Japan. Between 1960-65 the population of Japan was about 95.85 million people. Using the statistics from Saunders' book, but as a percentage of the total population, here are the seven most popular Buddhist sects at that time: Jodo Shin (also known as Shin Buddhism) 14.9%, Soka Gakkai 10.4%, Zen 9.6%, Jodo (the predecessor of Jodo Shin) 3.7%, Reiyukai 3.6% [an offshoot of Nichiren], Shingon 3.1%, and Nichiren 2.3%. Also reflecting the popularity of Shin Buddhism, a book published in 1918 ("A Gentleman in Prison") states that all prison chaplains at that time were Shin priests (Ishii, 49). The 1960/1963 statistics show that about 56.77% of the population of Japan was Buddhist. Statistics from 1995 show that about 69.6% of the population was Buddhist and 93.1% of the population was Shinto. Christians accounted for 1.2% and other religions for 8.1% of the population (Encyclopedia Britannica). Clearly there is an overlap between those who consider themselves to be Buddhist and those who consider themselves to be Shinto. Many people consider themselves to be followers of both Shintoism and Buddhism. These two religions have a history of syncretism with each other, though at times forcible distinctions were made. Comparing these statistics with more recent ones in 2004, we see that about 44% of the population considered themselves to be Buddhist, based on a population at that time of 127.6 million people. Nara religions accounted for 0.56% of the population, Zen 2.6%, Tendai 2.7%, Shingon 9.9%, Nichiren 13%, and Pure Land 15.3% (O'Brien). It seems that Soka Gakkai, Reiyukai, and Nichiren are all included under the heading of Nichiren here. Also, Jodo and Shin Buddhism seem to be included under the heading of Pure Land Buddhism. In summary, Jodo, Shin Buddhism and schools based on Nichiren's exaltation of the Lotus Sutra were still the most popular, with Shingon Buddhism, Tendai Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism also accounting for a large percentage of followers. The tallest statue in the world presently is in China and is of the Vairocana Buddha, which stands at 128 meters. Japan has 10 idols of Kannon that are taller than the U.S. statue of liberty (which is 46 meters tall). The tallest statue in Japan is the Amida (Amitabha) Buddha at 110 meters. Of all the Buddhist statues in Japan ranging from 13 meters to 110 meters tall, the top four types are as follows: Vairocana Buddha (3 statues), Kukai (4 statues), Amida Buddha (4 statues), and Kannon (32 statues). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_by_height). The massive amount of money that is poured into these statues tells us something about where people's hearts are at. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). The popularity of various statues gives a slightly different picture compared to the popularity of the various Buddhist sects. With the popularity of Shin Buddhism, we would expect there to be more statues of Amida. Kannon is overwhelmingly the most popular statue, but it doesn't even have a sect dedicated solely to it. Kannon features prominently in the Lotus Sutra though, which Soka Gakkai, Nichiren, Reiyukai, and Tendai all exalt. Shin and Jodo Buddhism also give a place to Kannon, next to Amida. Vairocana is the central Buddha of the Shingon sect. And, Kukai (AD 774-835) was the founder of the Shingon sect. So, in a way this distribution does make sense. Appendix B Ayako Kawanishi's Story from Hyogo Ken, 90 years old (June 2013) (Thank you Geoff and Fumie Toole for recording this.) Praise the Lord. About 30 years ago there was a pastor who had been a teacher in my son’s school. He saw that society had given up taking care of children’s souls. Realizing that the training of the soul was important, as opposed to only teaching academic subjects, he quit teaching and ended up studying in a theological college to become a pastor. My son also attended his church and one day he visited me at home. He invited me to come to church and shared with me the following scripture. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). But I thought that it would be impossible for me to go to church. Actually my grandmother was the daughter of a Buddhist priest [Jodo Shinshu]. As a child I had gone to Buddhist Sunday school, learned to recite the "Okyo" Buddhist chants and learned stories about the Buddha. I repeated the Buddhist chants each morning and evening. On top of that, our lives were saved by returning to my grandmother’s temple in the countryside just before my house was burned and destroyed during the war in Hiroshima. They had looked after us during the war, so I felt that I could not turn away from their religion...I was always against my son’s faith. Even in the days following the war in Japan, every day was a struggle with my children and family. Everything had been burned down and all resources had been lost. Somehow we managed to live day to day. In search of some solution to my problems, I bought a Zen book and read it but it didn’t contain the answers I was looking for. I finally thought (after many years) I would go along with my son to church one day. The first church I went to was Nishinomiya Baptist Church. There was a wonderful American missionary couple there who taught great things about the Bible. It was wonderful for me to see all the smiling faces and to be in such a happy environment. I learned that God had given Jesus Christ to a world lost in sin to die in my place for my sins. My small, narrow heart which had long been troubled was turned 180 degrees and filled with light. I don’t know how many people’s hearts have been saved by the many words God has left us in the Bible. I am so grateful that Japan has become a nation which legally recognizes freedom of religion so that even people like myself can freely go to church. Ever since then I have looked forward to going to church each week on Sunday and now I find that I am 90 years old. I greatly enjoy living each day in good health and in God’s care. As I look back on my life there have been many struggles, but the words of the Bible have always given me the answers. I give thanks to the Name of the Lord for all things.
April 3, 2025
In this paper I'll be focusing on Theravada Buddhism, since this form of Buddhism, found mainly in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos, claims to resemble the original teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha [1] most closely. Other schools claim this as well, but historically speaking (not mystically speaking), the Theravada school’s claim seems to be the most substantiated. Much of what has been written on Buddhism presents an idealized and incomplete portrait of Buddhist teachings. This is difficult to avoid due to the vastness of the subject, but is enhanced by those who focus mainly on the positive aspects of Buddhism, omitting the more difficult issues. In this paper I don’t claim to provide a comprehensive portrait, but I will attempt to address some of the more obscure and lesser known core issues and dilemmas of Buddhism, showing that it is indeed a fascinating system, but not one which will help a person fulfill their destiny in life. I will also make some comparisons between Theravada Buddhism and Christianity based on biblical principles. The paper will be presented under eight subtopics, namely No soul (anatta [2] ), Rebirth, Nirvana, Karma, Women, Meditation, Science, and God. No Soul (anatta) Descartes is known for the phrase, “I think- therefore I am.” My high school history teacher pun…ished us with the following phrase: “I’m pink- therefore I’m Spam.” Taking an entirely different approach to these evidences for identity, Buddhism concludes with the concept “I am not.” In John Garrett Jones’ book, “Tales and Teachings of the Buddha: The Jataka Stories in relation to the Pali Canon,” Jones takes a look at how popular representations of the Buddha’s teachings, as seen in the Jataka Stories [3] , compare with the more orthodox Four Nikayas [4] of the Pali Canon [5] . I.B. Horner, former president of the Pali Text Society, gives Jones the following recommendation in the foreword to Jones’ book: “Mr Jones is well versed in both Jataka and Canon, and is thus able to draw on both not only with apparent ease but also with aptness and accuracy and dependable documentation.” (vii) Jones in his chapter on rebirth, addresses the doctrine of “no soul,” pointing out that, according to orthodox beliefs, souls are not reborn, because Buddhism admits to no such entity: “Consciousness (vinnana) is one of the five khandhas [6] which are dissolved at death. Deprived of its physical basis, or, if we prefer it, its physical correlate, how could it possibly survive death? In MLS I 313, 320f, Gotama does in fact vigorously refute the ‘heresy’ of a persisting consciousness” (34). The doctrine of “no soul” undermines the entire premise of the Jataka Stories, which are supposed to be rebirth tales of Sakyamuni Buddha. Without a soul, what is the connecting point from life to life? The answer usually given to that question is that the karma of a being carries through. But, what does this “karma” attach itself to, if not to the one to whom that karma was due? Daniel J. Gogerly in his 1885 edition of “The Evidences and Doctrines of the Christian Religion,” (after 44 years of Pali study), wrote the following: “The Buddhist religion is that which Buddha taught, and which is found in his Sutras [7] , and not that which persons may hold who are ignorant of these teachings. We shall in the first instance prove that Buddha teaches, that the person by whom the actions were performed is not the same with the person who is rewarded or punished: that the connection is not between the man who performs the action, and the good or evil resulting from that action, but between the action performed and its results, whoever may be the recipient of those results. This is contrary to every known principle of justice, which associates the doer of the good action with the reward, whereas in Buddhism the reward will follow the good actions, but the performer of the good action will not be the recipient of the reward. This results from Buddha’s doctrine that there is no soul in man which transmigrates, but that the whole of a man;- the whole of the panchaskandha [8] ceases at death.” (54-55) A belief in anatta would mean, for example, that when Adolf Hitler died, the aggregates of his “being” dissolved, and then his enormously bad karma attached itself to someone or something (maybe a lowly insect), having absolutely no consciousness of the evil deeds done, or the reason for the suffering. Can this be called justice? WHO is punished? WHO is rewarded in this system? When the word “self” is used in Buddhism, such as “self-improvement”, “be a refuge unto yourself”, etc., this word is used for the sake of convenience, as opposed to describing an absolute self. Walpola Rahula, in “What the Buddha Taught”, responds to those who try to point to a self or soul in Buddhism: “Those who want to find a ‘Self’ in Buddhism argue as follows: ‘It is true that the Buddha analyses being into matter, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness, and says that none of these things is self. But he does not say that there is no self at all in man or anywhere else, apart from these aggregates.’ This position is untenable for two reasons: One is that, according to the Buddha’s teaching, a being is composed only of these Five Aggregates, and nothing more. Nowhere has he said that there was anything more than these Five Aggregates in a being. The second reason is that the Buddha denied categorically, in unequivocal terms, in more than one place, the existence of Atman [9] , Soul, Self, or Ego within man or without, or anywhere else in the universe.” (56-57) In spite of teaching that there is no soul, but that there is rebirth, Sakyamuni Buddha still held to a conviction that the universe is not amoral. Concerning Buddha’s conviction that this is a moral universe, Jones concludes: “He could not claim that this conviction had a sound basis in the rational, analytical part of his teaching; indeed, it would seem to me not too strong to say that there is a hopelessly irreconcilable contradiction between the two” (36). But, if there is no soul, why does a Buddhist go to such great lengths to be free from rebirth, and why is it said that Sakyamuni proclaimed at the time of his “last” birth (Dialogues of the Buddha II, 12), that it was his last birth? WHOSE last birth? "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Rebirth In the popular story of Sakyamuni’s final birth and renunciation of worldly pleasures, several questions arise. If Sakyamuni had really passed through virtually countless lives previous to that one, why did his father need to shelter him from the harsher side of life- why was Sakyamuni so startled by the sites of death, poverty, and old age, when he finally ventured out of the palace to see things for himself? If we are to take the Jataka re-birth tales at face value, he would have been quite familiar with all of these harsher realities of life- in fact according to the Jataka tales, he was sometimes a participant in the cruel side of life. “…within this group is the one which depicts the bodhisatta [10] himself as being, in one way or another, involved in killing or injuring. The stories concerned are JSS 93, 128, 129, 152, 178, 233, 238, 246, 315, 319, 384.” (Jones, 61). Among the 547 Jataka stories, he is twice said to have been a robber, once a gambler, and twice a giant snake (Jones, 18-19). He would also have been familiar with suffering according to Jataka 538, which states he had to spend eighty thousand years in the Ussada hell [11] (Jones, 43). So why was Sakyamuni so struck by the fact of death or suffering, as if he had never experienced or seen these things? The common answer given to this question is that previous lives must be remembered in a state of meditation, when the mind is free from distraction, and more capable of reaching these deep levels of memory. But how can the mind store such information when the mind and everything of which people are said to consist (the five aggregates) are said to not survive death? Actually though, this popular story of the Buddha’s renunciation is not found in the Pali Canon. In the Pali Canon, as a baby, the Buddha was said to have walked uprightly and proclaimed that it was his last birth: “Chief am I in the world, Eldest am I in the world, Foremost am I in the world! This is the last birth!” (D II, 12) How can a baby be so mature as to speak these lofty words if there is no enduring soul? In the non-canonical story, the problem of anatta arises because meditation does not explain how the 35 year old bodhisatta could “remember” that which according to his own doctrine was not an enduring soul. In the canonical story, the problem of anatta is still there, because his doctrine of no enduring soul stands in contrast to a baby speaking from the perspective of an enduring soul, relieved to see the end in sight. The doctrinal mismatch between anatta and rebirth leaves the intellect unsatisfied, while an attempt is made to appease the conscience with an invented morality: “When two propositions conflict, the simplest possible solution is to ignore one of them- which is precisely what the Jataka does. There is no contradiction in the Jataka between the doctrine of anatta (no soul) and the doctrine of a series of lives of the same individual because the doctrine of anatta is simply ignored” (Jones, 39). Sakyamuni did not want to let go of morality, but his system is one which leads people to contradictions, both intellectually and in “merit distribution”- both the villainous and the virtuous are said to have no soul connection from one life to the next- and thus the ones receiving a particular “lot” are not the ones who “earned” it. But apart from these difficulties with rebirth, what about real life cases of people who claim to have been reborn? Ernest Valea, in his online article “Past-life recall as modern proof for reincarnation,” ( www.comparativereligion.com/reincarnation1.html ) quotes Ian Stevenson, who is one of the foremost authorities in the field of re-birth/reincarnation research: “In my experience, nearly all so-called previous personalities evoked through hypnotism are entirely imaginary and a result of the patient’s eagerness to obey the hypnotist’s suggestion. It is no secret that we are all highly suggestible under hypnosis. This kind of investigation can actually be dangerous. Some people have been terribly frightened by their supposed memories, and in other cases the previous personality evoked has refused to go away for a long time (Omni Magazine 10 (4): 76 (1988)).” Valea points out that this phenomenon is called “false memory syndrome,” and that, “Courts of law know these dangers and most do not accept testimonies produced under hypnosis or from witnesses that have been previously hypnotized.” What about other cases, where the “memories” are not evoked by hypnotism? Valea brings our attention to the demographic of people who are usually targeted for this: ”Almost all cases of spontaneous past life recall experiences are produced by children who manifest them between the age of two and five, when their spiritual discernment is almost nonexistent, especially concerning spirits. This situation makes them easier to be manipulated by external spirits. As the child grows up, the entities lose their power of influence upon him, which could explain why the past life memories are lost after the age of 10.” In one case researched by Stevenson, a person actually had two personalities expressing themselves at the same time. As in the cases of the children, where manifestations took place when the individuals were at a vulnerable time in their lives (especially if their parents were taking them to centers of spiritual activity), spirit possession or the person acting as a “medium” is a likelier explanation. This interference by outside spirits shows the extremely subjective nature of rebirth research. Valea concludes with Stevenson’s conclusion: “For this reason Ian Stevenson, the well known researcher of this phenomena, was forced to admit in his book Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation that the cases he studied, as the very title of his book indicates, are only suggesting reincarnation and cannot be considered proofs for it. Stevenson admitted: ‘All the cases I’ve investigated so far have shortcomings. Even taken together, they do not offer anything like proof’ (Omni Magazine 10(4): 76 (1988). If this is the case, they could also be suggestive of spirit possession.” Seeing the possibility of outside spirits to deceive in this way, how are we to suppose that a monk or nun who is meditating is immune to this outside influence? Meditation actually swings the door wide open to such an influence. The monk or nun may experience many things during their meditations and count them as confirmations of the Buddha’s doctrine. Are they though? Can we really count this as a confirmation when they were trying to have such “memories” in the first place, and when the experiences are largely subjective? Even if a person can reveal information they would not naturally know, this information is something which outside spirits could know and transmit. Why does a person need to be under hypnosis, or have the undiscerning mind of a child, or be in an altered state of consciousness during meditation, in order to have such “memories?” If rebirth is “for real” why isn’t it obvious among the billions of people in the world, regardless of cultural background? Why can’t babies speak the language of their “former life” or any language (besides gobbly gook) for that matter? This is probably the reason for inventing the doctrine of anatta (explains the lack of memory). This places the dilemma in the moral realm though (no real justice without a permanent soul) and still does not solve the practical problem of having a connecting point from life to life. “…it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Nirvana Childers in his Pali Dictionary, presents a very definitive answer to what nibbanam (nirvana) is. He states, “But a creed which begins by saying that existence is suffering, must end by saying that release from existence is the highest good, and accordingly we find that annihilation is the goal of Buddhism, the supreme reward held out to the faithful observer of its precepts.” (265) “Annihilation” may not be the best choice of words here, but for another reason than one might think. Walpola Rahula, points out, “Nirvana is definitely no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self.” (37) In explaining why some canonical verses speak of nirvana as “bliss” and others as “extinction”, Childers shows that both are meant, but that the “bliss” is only a temporary state before final extinction: “I have shown that the goal of Buddhism is annihilation, and that Nirvana is a brief period of bliss followed by eternal death. It is of course conceivable that Sakyamuni should have made Arhatship [12] the summum bonum held out to his disciples. It may even appear incredible to some that having imagined a state of blissful purity resulting from a virtuous life, he should have made it end in annihilation. That he did so is however certain, and it must be remembered that his denunciations of the evil and suffering of existence are levelled not merely against transmigration but against all existence whatever, and that the bliss of the Arhat is chiefly based on the consciousness that he has rooted out Karma and may any day cease to exist.” (268) Rahula, likewise states that nirvana is ceasing to exist: “There is a word parinibbuto used to denote the death of the Buddha or an Arahant who has realized Nirvana, but it does not mean ‘entering into Nirvana’. Parinibbuto simply means ‘fully passes away’, ‘fully blown out’ or ‘fully extinct’, because the Buddha or an Arahant has no re-existence after his death.” (41) In Buddhist cosmology there are said to be 31 realms of existence, including various heavens, hells, the earth, etc. In all 31 of these however, many of which are heavenly “bliss” states, none of them are “nirvana,” because all of these are said to be prone to impermanence and suffering. When even a heaven cannot be nirvana, we see again that nirvana is beyond existence. Among the 31 realms of existence, the top 20 of these are also said to parallel the meditative states. In other words a person who meditates is supposed to be able to experience what these top 20 realms represent. The highest meditative state a person can achieve, also represents most closely what nirvana is supposed to be: “A ninth stage known as the ‘attainment of cessation’ (nirodha-samapatti) is also mentioned in some sources. In this stage all mental operations are completely suspended, and even heartbeat and respiration cease. Life subsists simply in the form of residual bodily heat. A person can, we are told, remain in this state for several days, eventually emerging from it spontaneously at a predetermined time. This condition is held to be the closest anyone can come to experiencing final nirvana while still alive, and is described as ‘touching nirvana with the body’.” (Keown, 91-92) When even mental operations are suspended, we see that it’s not a far step from there to complete cessation. And this is consistent with the Pali Canon teaching of a progression towards more and more detachment, finally culminating in detachment from existence. In a discussion of whether nirvana is taught as a state of bliss or cessation in the Pali Canon, Jones comments, “If this is the case [nirvana as bliss], I can find no basis for it in the Four Nikayas. So far as I am aware, there is not one word in the Four Nikayas which lends support to the idea of nibbana as some positive, transcendent state of bliss.” (152) In a footnote to this discussion, Jones brings to light the most commonly held view among Theravada scholars: “It is interesting to note that, while Jayatilleke, 1963, pp. 475f, does adopt a transcendentalist view of nibbana, his former pupil Kalupahana, 1976, pp. 87f, rebukes him for this and reasserts the more commonly (in Theravada circles) held cessationist view.” (202) A.L. Herman in his article “Two Dogmas of Buddhism,” [13] points out other difficulties with nirvana, relating to both Mahayana [14] and Theravada Buddhism. The more recent Mahayana school of Buddhism tends to hold more to the view of nirvana as bliss, whereas the more orthodox Theravada school of Buddhism usually holds to nirvana as cessation. Herman shows that regardless of which interpretation of nirvana is taken, it is a dogma in dilemma: “The dilemma of nirvana holds that if nirvana is seen negatively as the total absence of passion and desire and feeling then this is tantamount to being dead, and who wants to pursue a goal that leads to death? Nirvana is suicide on this first interpretation. On the other hand, if nirvana is seen positively as the presence of peace and tranquility wherein all that I desire is fulfilled then desire is not ended or blown out and the whole intent of nirvana is contradicted: nirvana is inconsistent on this second interpretation. But, the dilemma of nirvana continues, nirvana must be seen either negatively or positively; there is no third alternative. The conclusion of the dilemma is then that nirvana is either suicidal obliteration or inconsistent continuance.” (170) Herman concludes with this somber note: “The effect of retaining these ill-founded dogmas in the face of these philosophic problems would be (has been) to move Buddhism away from empirical truth and reason and closer to either ‘a questionable pragmatism,’ where truth is measured by sheer usefulness, or towards ‘a non-rationalism and mysticism’ where truth is abandoned altogether.” (174) In the footnote to this conclusion, Herman further explains, “…’a questionable pragmatism’ and ‘a non-rationalism and mysticism,’ were precisely the routes subsequently taken respectively by Southern or Theravada Buddhism, on the one hand, and Northern or Mahayana, Buddhism, on the other.” (174) If we say that the more recent Mahayana view is correct, it flies in the face of the Pali Canon, it being the nearest in time to what Sakyamuni actually taught. If Mahayanists wish to assert a different interpretation, on what higher authority is this based? This would be to negate the authority of the Buddha, and rely on mystical revelations instead. If on the other hand, we concede that the view in the Pali Canon of cessation is indeed what the Buddha taught, then speaking plainly, the Buddhist way amounts to “if you are really good, you get to be extinguished.” It is no wonder Mahayanists have tried to change this doctrine, but in vain as there is no authority to back up the claim. The authority behind the original claim (of cessation) is also quite lacking though. Instead of desire leading to suffering, and suffering being the chief characteristic of existence, there is a way of hope and renewal. Instead of exiting from existence, Jesus Christ offers a way to quench thirst in order to live meaningfully and eternally: ”Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."" (John 4: 13-14). Karma The system of Karma is one which has an appeal to people at the popular level, making it seem that everything that happens is based on what is deserved-- if you do good, you receive good; if you do evil, you receive evil. This seems to explain inequalities in the world, as well as apparent injustices. But, let’s take a closer look at the implications of this system. Firstly, karma is said to be a natural law just like gravity, only that it governs morality instead of governing matter, although matter is also said to be affected. If it is just a natural law, doesn’t that mean it could be subject to mutations just as the laws of genetics are occasionally influenced by an unexpected (and in most cases harmful) factor? How could we place our trust in such a system? Concerning this dilemma, John Jones points out that, “The morality of karmic consequences seems to call in question the strictly impersonal nature of karmic processes since, if these are moral processes, the only type of morality for which we have empirical evidence is that associated with personality. There is thus a tension between the impersonal and the moral attributes of karma” (37). The supposed effects of karma are listed clearly in the Pali Canon (Middle Length Sayings III, p. 248- 253): “This course is conducive to shortness of life-span, brahman youth, that is to say making onslaught on creatures, being cruel, bloody-handed, intent on injuring and killing, and without mercy to living creatures.”… The opposite of this is as follows: “This course is conducive to length of life-span, brahman youth, that is to say, if one, by getting rid of onslaught on creatures [204] abstains from onslaught on creatures, (and with) the stick laid aside, the sword laid aside, lives scrupulous, merciful, kindly and compassionate to all living creatures.” Since the opposite results are easy to guess, and for the sake of brevity, I’ll list a few more with only the negative consequences. The ellipses (…) in these quotes are in the text itself (not something I’ve omitted): “This course is conducive to many illnesses, brahman youth, that is to say being by nature harmful to creatures with his hand…or with a sword.”…”This course is conducive to ugliness, brahman youth, that is to say being wrathful…and evincing…resentment.”… ”This course is conducive to being of little account, brahman youth, that is to say being jealous-minded…of respect and reverence paid them.”… ”This course is conducive to poverty, brahman youth, that is to say not being a giver…of bed, lodging, light.”… ”This course is conducive to being in a lowly family, brahman youth, that is to say being one who…does not honour one who should be…honoured.”… ”This course is conducive to being weak in wisdom, brahman youth, that is to say…not being one who asks: ‘…Or what, being done by me, is for long for my welfare and happiness?’” Thus the causes of a short life, illnesses, ugliness, being of little account, poverty, being in a lowly family, and being weak in wisdom, are spelled out for us- these things are due to bad deeds, words or thoughts done in previous lives. That these are descriptions of causes from previous lives, can be seen in the first consequence: “But if, at the breaking up of the body after dying he does not arise in the sorrowful ways, the bad bourn, the Downfall, Niraya Hell [15] , but comes to human status, then wherever he is born (in a new existence) he is of a short life-span.” This is the way karma explains inequalities in life- according to what people deserve. In this system the poor deserve to be poor, and the rich deserve to be rich, etc. This type of thinking seems to place the crippled person in the same category as a criminal in jail, and the person with material possessions, in the hero category. Are these conclusions really warranted? All of the complex moral effects in a person’s life are supposed to be recorded, not by an intelligence, but by a mere energy force. Then, to compound the problem, the person who dies is said to have no soul, raising the question of how this accumulated moral bank account is reassigned. Karma is the conscience of the Buddhist system, but its practical operation and existence is left unexplained. Jones writes of the Buddha, “He seems to have been convinced that, however much the rational, analytical part of his teaching- especially the doctrine of anatta- might seem to deny it, the laws governing sentient life on this planet and beyond are not amoral.” (36) The Buddha couldn’t deny morality, and yet he also couldn’t synchronize it with his doctrine. Aside from these difficulties though, we should ask ourselves, do we really want what we deserve, strictly speaking? The system of karma supposes that a good deed can make up for a bad deed, like a bank account of merit which could be added to or taken from. This kind of reasoning applied to morality would not hold up in a court of law (judges don’t pardon crimes based on balancing out the good deeds against the bad deeds in the life of the accused). Biblically speaking, morality is not like a bank account which can be balanced out subtracting bad deeds from good deeds, or vice versa. Rather, morality is a set of obligations based on relationships. Children have certain obligations to respect their parents, as parents have obligations to care for their children. Husbands and wives, friends, workers and employees, etc. all have certain obligations to one another. If a husband cheats on his wife, but then gives his wife a wonderful present, will he then break even? Will he have amended his violation as if it were a business deal? There is such a thing as forgiveness in relationships, but morality is not just an impersonal formula that can be treated as a bank account. Likewise, if a person admitted to murder, but then told the judge that even though he had committed the murder, he had also given his life’s savings to a widow in his neighborhood, would that judge cancel the punishment for the murder? He had violated his obligations to love his neighbor (whom he murdered). The crime of murder would still be punished, no matter how many good deeds the person had done. Conversely, if a person lives an upright life and follows all of the laws of the land, does the government then send this person a reward for their good behavior? That person was simply fulfilling their obligations, so while the government would be appreciative, they would simply see the person as behaving as they should. They don’t get any bonus points for that. Violations count against us, but good behavior is simply expected. Even if a person does one hundred good deeds, but one bad deed, they have fulfilled their duty one hundred times, but have one violation on their record. What would we think of an employer who pays their employees 100 times, but the time after that doesn’t pay them, because of their supposed merit in already paying 100 times? Or, what would we think of a hot-tempered teacher who refrains from temper loss with absent-minded students 100 times, but the time after that lets loose and gives one of them a good kick? Does that mean the teacher then has 99 “points” (100 good deeds minus 1 bad deed)? The teacher has fulfilled an obligation 100 times and has one violation on record. People are obliged to forgive others for violations done to them, because they themselves have their own lists of violations, though perhaps in areas differing from those offending them: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15). God on the other hand is not “obliged” to forgive, because He is without sin. A judge in a courtroom, though not without sin, likewise has no obligation to pardon a crime. According to the Bible, not only “good” deeds are expected of us. Our obligation is to do our best: "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 46-48). If a person lives a horrible life, accumulating a long list of cruel violations, but then reforms and lives the rest of life as an upstanding citizen, is the past then balanced out? The reformed life lived was already an obligation, but the former list of offenses is still on record. Likewise, when a criminal has finished serving time for their crime, it doesn’t erase the crime, because their best was expected all along. Violations continue to accumulate throughout a person’s life, and included in that list is the violation of not forgiving others for violations against us. The biblical system is an entirely personal one. Positive or negative morals cannot be separated from relationships as being mere “points.” To rebel against morality is not just to make a bad choice or to accumulate negative points. It is all relational. The laws of the Bible are summed up in two commands— love God and love people. To reject morals is to rebel against a person—the One who created life. To properly acknowledge obligations is also to change our relational standing: “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3: 24). First comes the law and thus a realization of the extent of violations. With that realization, comes a realization of the love of Christ, who being innocent died on the cross for our sins. With that realization comes a yielding to Jesus Christ. Then things that were once “obligations,” become things which are welcome: "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15: 15) On the other hand, to embrace morality, but to reject the relational aspect of morality is like refusing a ride from a ship going across the ocean and trying to swim that incredible distance. The Bible describes such a person as cursed, because they depend on their own abilities and not on God: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’" (Galatians 3: 10). When our faith is in Christ the violations that were against us are nailed to the cross. It is hopeless for people to climb out of the mire of their misdeeds, by their own abilities. And yet there is hope for everyone. God’s offer of forgiveness is not something that can be earned, or demanded, but is a free gift of mercy for all who realize the extent of their violations and truly repent- putting their trust in God, and not in themselves: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Women According to the Pali Canon, it is said that someone can be born as a woman in one life and then as a man in the next, etc. But, nowhere in the 500 plus Jataka lives (though not an exhaustive list of Buddha’s lives), nor elsewhere in the Pali Canon, does Sakyamuni appear as a woman (although it is sometimes inferred that he must have been a woman at one time or another). Jones writes, “The most striking single fact is that, in spite of the tremendous diversity of forms which the bodhisatta assumes, he never once appears as a woman or even as a female animal. Even when he appears as a tree-spirit or fairy, he is always masculine.” (20) His close friend Ananda who appears in many of his lives, appears only once as a woman (Jones, 113). Going further, Jones contrasts the doctrine of the Jatakas with the Pali Canon in general: “But whereas the corrupting influence of an evil woman is the norm in the Jatakas, virtuous women being merely exceptions which prove the rule, the possibility of a friend’s becoming a corrupting influence is so remote that it is hardly ever mentioned. This differs from the canonical position. There, unquestionably, sex and marriage are bad, but so are love and friendship, since these involve one in personal attachments and painful (or potentially painful) emotions. The only love which the canon can bless is that which is quite detached and general; a ‘boundless friendly mind for all creatures’.” (115) Commenting on one of these virtuous women, Jones writes, “That rare thing in the Jataka stories, a virtuous woman, owes her virtue to merit acquired in a former birth- as a male!” (43) In the Pali Canon itself, the depiction of women is hardly better: “…yet, women never tire of sexual intercourse and childbearing (GS I 72) and they never sit in court or embark on business because ‘they are uncontrolled, envious, greedy and weak in wisdom’ (GS II 92f).” (Jones, 78). Regarding the establishment of an order for nuns, Jones writes, “When Ananda prevailed upon Gotama to allow a separate Order for women, he is reported to have been very gloomy about this. It would, he said, halve the length of time for which the Dhamma [16] would be preserved in pure form.” (Jones, 77; GS IV 184f). In the Vinaya Pitaka (Book of Discipline V), a similar prediction is made by Sakyamuni, when addressing Ananda: “If, Ananda, women had not obtained the going forth from home into homelessness in the dhamma and discipline proclaimed by the Truth-finder, the Brahma-faring, Ananda, would have lasted long, true dhamma would have endured for a thousand years. But since, Ananda, women have gone forth…in the dhamma and discipline proclaimed by the Truth-finder, now, Ananda, the Brahma-faring will not last long, true dhamma will endure only for five hundred years.” (356) Since women did “go forth” and five hundred years have already passed, the question arises, is the above canonical passage false, or is it true in saying that “true dhamma” will only endure for five hundred years? If we say it is false, then there is falsity in the Pali Canon. If we say it is true, then it is still false, since five hundred years have already passed, and thus “true dhamma” would no longer be around. In this same text, the Buddha compares the influence of women to mildew: “Even, Ananda, as when the disease known as mildew attacks a whole field of rice that field of rice does not last long, even so, Ananda, in whatever dhamma and discipline women obtain the going forth…that Brahma-faring will not last long.” (356) Also in the above text (Book of Discipline V), the eight conditions for allowing the women to join, are spelled out. Among these, here are two examples, which highlight women’s subordinate role to men in Buddhism: “A nun who has been ordained (even) for a century must greet respectfully, rise up from her seat, salute with joined palms, do proper homage to a monk ordained but that day. And this rule is to be honoured, respected, revered, venerated, never to be transgressed during her life.” (354); “From to-day admonition of monks by nuns is forbidden, admonition of nuns by monks is not forbidden. This rule too is to be honoured, respected, revered, venerated, never to be transgressed during her life.” (355) Elaborating on this basic attitude, Tibetan (Tantric) Buddhism has taken it to more extreme extents. Victor and Victoria Trimondi, in their book “The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic, and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism,” devote a large portion of their 816 page volume (in German) to the topic of misogyny: “In light of the complexity of the topic, we have resolved to proceed deductively and to preface the entire book with the core statement of our research in the form of a hypothesis. Our readers will thus be set on their way with a statement whose truth or falsity only emerges from the investigations which follow. The formulation of this hypothesis is necessarily very abstract at the outset. Only in the course of our study does it fill out with blood and life, and unfortunately, with violence and death as well. Our core statement is as follows: The mystery of Tantric Buddhism consists in the sacrifice of the feminine principle and the manipulation of erotic love in order to attain universal androcentric power” (this book is not currently available in hardcopy in English, but the entire English translation of the German can be found online: http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm ) Coming back to Theravada Buddhism, Jones explains the doctrinal gymnastics behind the scenes of the Jatakas and the Pali Canon proper, related to women: “Why such an onslaught on the fair sex? I am convinced that JS 61 gives us the most reliable clue to an answer. The stories are designed mainly to discourage young men from family life and sexual involvement. Now, as we have seen, the canonical reason for turning away from the entanglements of family life is that these are “fetters”, nourishing the illusion of “self” and of attachment to other “selves”; only in the detachment of the realisation of anatta (selflessness) can true peace be found. We have also seen that the Jatakas studiously avoid the doctrine of anatta, since this would undermine their basic premise: that the same person moves on from life to life….Thus women pay very dearly for the Jatakas’ need to avoid the anatta doctrine. In becoming the scapegoat, they must have found it very hard to retain any self-respect. A Theravada woman, bred on the Jatakas, must have felt the dice were very heavily loaded against her- as must a layman who hoped that his marriage, against all the odds, would turn out well.” (99) Instead of rebelling against Buddhism though, many women in Buddhist societies accept their lower status as something they deserve based on supposed karma from previous lives. Cleo Odzer, in the book “Buddhism and Abortion,” writes, “Typically, women in Thailand are undervalued in respect to men, a situation endorsed by the Buddhist religion…”(33), and in surveying women in a Bangkok slum area, it was discovered that “Mostly, the women accepted their lot in the Buddhist belief that they were born ‘as a woman because of bad karma or a lack of sufficient good merit.’”(35) In the Bible women are not seen as “mildew,” incapable of doing business, of lesser status than even young men, the cause of men being defiled, and deserving of any suffering they may be facing. Women and men do have different roles and responsibilities in the Bible, but the inheritance for believers in God’s economy is equal: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3: 27- 29) In the book of Proverbs chapter 31, written by King Lemuel’s mother, the virtuous woman is praised for being wise in business dealings, being clothed in strength and honor, having words of wisdom on her lips, and being trusted by her husband. Meditation Buddhist meditation is often presented as something neutral-- just meditation, as opposed to being a “religious” activity. People from various worldview backgrounds are encouraged to try it, on the assumption that it’s just a kind of mind training-- just as physical exercise is body training. This is an attraction for someone who just wants to have a unique, peaceful, or meaningful experience without necessarily buying into the doctrines of the Buddha. But how neutral is meditation really? In a rarely referred to portion of the Pali canon, a meditation time gone haywire is reported: “Indeed there was one occasion so damaging to the Buddha’s reputation as a ‘peerless charioteer of men’ that it is hard to think it would have been invented. I have never seen it referred to in any of the books on Buddhism I have read. In KS V 284, we read that the Buddha had commended ‘the unlovely’ as a subject for meditation before he himself went off for a fourteen-day retreat. On his return, he found the Order sadly diminished because so many of the monks, contemplating ‘the unlovely’ had ‘as to this body…worried about it, felt shame and loathing for it, and sought for a weapon to slay themselves’- and had in fact, committed suicide. Ananda suggests that in future it might be better if the Buddha ‘would teach some other method’ of meditation. Gotama replies with this suggestion and advises his monks to base their meditation on their breathing in future.” (Jones, 76) To this day, ‘the unlovely’ (such as a human corpse) is still a valid object of Buddhist meditation, although other types of meditation, such as focusing on breathing, are far more common. The above canonical passage raises the question of Sakyamuni’s omniscience (which is claimed for him in other canonical passages). Did he know the monks would commit suicide, and gave them this harsher form of meditation anyway, or did he not know, and thus was not omniscient (this latter view is more commonly held today). Even in the more standard types of meditation, such as focusing on one’s breathing, or observing one’s thoughts as though they were not one’s own thoughts (being detached from the concept of “self” and “objectively” observing the thoughts), there are dangers. Rahula nonetheless encourages such meditation: “Try to examine it as if you are observing it from the outside, without any subjective reaction, as a scientist observes some object. Here, too, you should not look at it as ‘my feeling’ or ‘my sensation’ subjectively, but only look at it as ‘a feeling’ or ‘a sensation’ objectively. You should forget again the false idea of ‘I.” (73) In his chapter dealing with “Meditation on Breathing,” Paravahera Vajiranana relates Vipassana [17] meditation to breathing: “At the moment of insight he breathes in, breathes out, setting free the mind from the idea of permanence by contemplating impermanence, from the idea of happiness by contemplating painfulness, from the idea of self by contemplating non-ego, from the idea of delight by contemplating repulsion, from passion by contemplating detachment, from cause of origination by contemplating cessation, from clinging by contemplating renunciation.” (255) Also related to a breathing meditation, Vajiranana writes, “Thus in these two stages the bodily element of respiration is said to be completely tranquilized. It is with a view to attaining this state that ‘he practises mindfulness of breathing in and out’” (243) In this instance, the goal of breathing is not breathing! In a footnote, and based on Visuddhimagga [18] 283, Vajiranana points out, “There are eight states in which there is no breathing: within the mother’s womb, when one is drowned in water, in unconscious beings, in the dead, in the fourth Jhana [19] , in the unconscious form-world, in the formless world, and in Nirodha-samapatti, the attainment of the cessation of all feelings and perceptions” (243). Ernest Valea in his online article points out some further dangers with Vipassana meditation: “…the experiences that accompany Buddhist contemplation on the mental states (citta samapatti) can be explained as misperceptions of the surrounding reality due to the imposition of an abnormal way of functioning on the senses and mind: ‘As meditators passively watch their own mental states come and go without trying to control them, these begin to fluctuate more and more rapidly and unpredictably. After a while this chaotic activity creates the strong impression that the mental events are springing into life on their own, from some separate source, rather than the observer’s own mind. As meditators persist with this practice, they also notice that there is a definite separation between the mental events being observed and the mind that is doing the observing. As meditation progresses still further, both the mental events and the observing mind begin to seem alien and impersonal, as if they do not really belong to the observer. At about this point the meditator’s sense of “self” becomes confused and weakened, and finally it disappears entirely for brief periods of time… (E. Hillstrom, Testing the Spirits, IVP, 1995, p. 114-115)’” ( www.comparative religion.com/Buddhism.html) When a person becomes a “third person” observer of themselves, and even renounces the idea of “self”, it is like relinquishing the steering wheel and sitting in the passenger seat. This presents the possibility of outside spirits entering in and having a very real and dangerous influence, even if it’s “only” deception. Why does a person have to move into an altered state of consciousness, in order to accept the “higher truths?” Would we not be suspicious if a real estate agent told us we needed to take mind altering drugs before appreciating the full value of the house being sold? The ultimate goal of meditation, canonically speaking, is nirvana- freedom from suffering via the non-existence of the individual. Many meditators who try Buddhist meditation at the basic levels, do not have this as their goal. Their goal may be inner peace, mental health, or just to experience something unique. Nonetheless, travelling farther along the pathway of meditation, when the stated goal is nirvana, meditators become more and more detached from their feelings, and become spiritually leprous. A person with physical leprosy is someone who has lost the sense of touch (and thus is in danger when leaning on a hot stove, not having an impulse to pull away, etc.). A person who becomes completely detached from emotions becomes spiritually leprous, and may appear to be quite peaceful, but is also unaware of emotions which give needed warning and provide other healthy functions. There are said to be states of bliss and even supernormal abilities attainable along the pathway of meditation, but according to canonical teachings, these are supposed to be rejected as distracting from the ultimate purpose- that of complete cessation (nirvana). Thus the “positive” experiences of meditation are mere “lures” leading to the “hook” of cessation. Speaking of the highest level of meditation (Nirodha-samapatti), Vajiranana writes, “But that which is experienced in the Nirodha-samapatti is the state of Nirvana, namely the cessation of all mental activities, which is comparable to that of final Nirvana. The final Nirvana is called ‘Khandha-pari-nibbana,’ the complete cessation of the five aggregates, and is attained by the Arhat at his death” (467). Apart from the dangers of meditation on a personal level, meditation does not deliver the objective standard it claims. Meditation is sometimes labeled as scientific, because in it, the claims of the Buddha are said to be experienceable. However, as mentioned before, the meditators are instructed beforehand in what they can expect to experience. This expectation removes objectivity since it conditions people to generate what is expected. If the instructor tells them they can expect to see previous lives, they are already predisposed towards that. Also, it is not objective, because there are “wrong” or heretical views described in the Pali Canon. In other words, if someone meditates and experiences something heretical- such as “I do have an eternal soul,” this will be rejected. Buddhist meditation takes people who are relational by nature, and makes their mind more like a machine. Even when the meditation is “spreading compassion to all beings”, the focus is on one’s own ability to direct the mind to this challenge, and the compassion is meant to be a detached one. When the meditation is a concentration upon one object, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, this silences the voice of conscience calling us to a relationship with God, and sets the mind instead on a path toward increased detachment and isolation. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 1 states, “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.” In isolation one’s own desires may be accomplished, but this situation can be compared to a child who would reject the care of loving parents who provide good food and friendship, and wants to instead go live in the forest- rejecting offers of food, rejecting clothing, rejecting offers for education, etc. Such a child would have difficulty surviving and would eventually lose the ability even to communicate with the parents. Meditation in the Bible means to consider God’s principles and character, spending time with God. It’s a relational process of God “feeding” His children and communicating with them, taking away the burdens in life and providing wisdom. Science This is the topic which brings to light Sakyamuni’s claims to omniscience (or the Pali Canon’s claims on his behalf). How credible is the Pali Canon as a book of facts? If Sakyamuni Buddha did not inspire these writings either directly or indirectly, where is the standard by which truth is measured? And, if it is claimed that the Pali Canon was inspired by the Buddha why does it contain so many factual errors? If the Pali Canon is a mix of truth and error, entrusting one’s destiny to its teachings would be like entrusting oneself to a doctor who prescribes both good and harmful medicines-- a real gamble. All of the scriptural quotations in this science section are from the Pali Canon proper, not its commentary. In the Digha Nikaya (Dialogues of the Buddha III; 137-139), are listed the 32 marks of one who is supposed to become either a Buddha or a universal ruler. Among these marks, it says he must have 40 teeth [as a baby! - the time when such an assessment is made (Dialogues of the Buddha II; pp. 13-18)]. Ordinarily children have only half that amount- 20 teeth. A mature adult will have 32 teeth total (assuming they didn’t play too much hockey), or 28 teeth if the four wisdom teeth are removed. Fitting eight extra teeth into the jaw of an adult would be quite a feat, but fitting 20 extra teeth into a baby’s jaw would be a real stretch- both of the jaw and of it’s credibility! Among the 32 marks, another one is that the potential universal ruler or Buddha must have a large tongue. Just how large? In the Majjhima Nikaya (Middle Length Sayings II), a brahman named Sela came to talk with the Buddha and was looking for the 32 marks on him…”Then the Lord, having put out his tongue, stroked it backwards and forwards over both his ears and he stroked it backwards and forwards over both his nostrils and he covered the whole dome of his forehead with his tongue.” (335). Wow. Although there are many statues of the Buddha with various expressions, and in various postures, I’ve never seen one highlighting this aspect of his anatomy, and yet this is canonical. When responding to Ananda’s question about the cause of an earthquake (Gradual Sayings IV; pp. 208-210), the Buddha gives eight reasons. The first is a natural explanation relating to the structure of the earth, while in the next seven reasons the Buddha says the earth responds with quaking when various “enlightened” ones make monumental accomplishments. In the first reason for earthquakes, we see some real differences between what he says and what modern science knows about the structure of the earth and the causes of earthquakes: “Since, Ananda, this great earth rests on water and the water rests on wind and the wind subsists in space; what time the great winds blow, they cause the water to quake, and the quaking of the water causes the earth to quake. This, Ananda, is the first cause, the first reason, of a great earthquake becoming manifest.” This example and some of the following examples, demonstrate a lack of correspondence with “the way things are” (the kind of insight the Buddha claimed to provide). These are not just examples of miracles, which would have to be examined on an individual basis according to the evidence for or against them. Rather, they are examples of “reality claims”, which can be tested against modern and non-controversial knowledge of our world (such as the layout of the continents, the height of the tallest mountain, the size of the oceans, etc.). In the Dialogues of the Buddha III, a description is given of human ancestors who lived to be 80,000 years old, but gradually through various vices, their life-spans were reduced to only ten years. At that time it is alleged that these humans married at five years of age, and presumably conceived children at least by the age of nine if not earlier (since at age nine “old age” would have already set in). These are clearly referred to as humans in this text, and not monkeys. Then, with an increase in moral living, the humans are said to increase their life-spans once again. If this story is only allegorical, why does the text refer to a well known city as being part of this history/prophecy: “Among such humans the Benares of our day will be named Ketumati…” (73). Also, if it is allegorical, so is the prediction of the future Buddha Metteyya, who is supposed to appear when human life-spans are back to 80,000 years. In another “reality claim” coming from the mouth of the one who “can fall into no error” (Dialogues of the Buddha III, 25), the Buddha says that there are fish in the great ocean, which are anywhere from 100- 500 yojanas long: “And again, monks, the great ocean is the abode of great beings; these beings are there: the timis, the timingalas, the timitimingalas, asuras, nagas, gandhabbas. There are in the great ocean individualities a hundred yojanas (long), individualities two hundred…three hundred…four hundred…five hundred yojanas (long).” (Book of Discipline V, 333) According to the Pali Text Society Dictionary, one yojana is said to be equal to 7 miles. That means a fish which is 500 yojanas long would be 3500 miles long. That’s quite a claim, considering that this distance would be about 700 miles longer than the USA is wide (west to east)! Also, it would be quite a disproportional fish since the deepest spot in the world’s oceans is about 7 miles deep, with the average depth being about 3 miles. For one who claims to omnisciently describe things “as they are” whether in the spiritual or the physical realm, it seems not too much to ask that he would be able to diagnose physical ailments and prescribe suitable cures. In the fourth volume of the Book of Discipline, there are a number of stories which make it plain that the Buddha’s knowledge does not even match up to modern standards, much less omniscience. In one such case the Buddha puts his approval on consuming raw flesh and blood from swine: “Now at that time a certain monk had an (sic) non-human affliction. Teachers and preceptors, although nursing him, were unable to get him well. He, having gone to the swine’s slaughter-place, ate raw flesh and drank raw blood, and his non-human affliction subsided. They told this matter to the Lord. He said: ‘I allow, monks, when one has a non-human affliction, raw flesh and raw blood.’” (274) “A non-human affliction” here may refer to demon-possession as the footnote for this passage points out. The cure approved of by the Buddha, is to let the “non-human” spirit (a.k.a. demon) indulge itself in raw flesh and blood. Is there any disease for which this would actually be a wise practice? Why didn’t the Buddha cast out such a foul oppressor as Jesus Christ often did? In another contrast to the ministry of Jesus Christ, whose healing was often described using the word “immediately,” the Buddha gives permission for various remedies, which are often followed by the words, “he got no better” (278-279). Following such incidents is another passage showing the Buddha’s lack of appropriate remedies: “’I allow, monks, a piece of cloth for tying over the sore.’ The sore itched. ‘I allow you, monks, to sprinkle it with mustard-powder.’ The sore festered. ‘I allow you, monks, to make a fumigation.’ The flesh of the sore stood up. ‘I allow you, monks, to cut it off with a piece of salt-crystal.’ The sore did not heal.” (279) When someone is so much in the dark regarding physical realities, why should we trust him concerning much weightier, eternally significant, spiritual realities? Lastly, because the theory of evolution seems to align itself to Buddhism pretty well (no need for a Creator), does this mean Buddhism is therefore scientific? Firstly, the Buddha didn’t explain ultimate origins and said that speculating about origins is one of the useless endeavors in life (since such speculation doesn’t lead to Nirvana). But, also if there is no Creator, how can we expect our world to have any morals (or any karmic justice), or any beauty if everything came into being through random, mutated, impersonal chance? Apart from the lack of cohesion between evolution and Buddhism, there is the more fundamental problem- evolution is still a theory- and after all these years since Darwin’s “discovery”, the evidence for evolution is not increasing, but decreasing. The famous line-up of monkeys to men, for example, have been shown to be hoaxes, or completely ape, or completely human. The missing links are still missing. The website www.answersingenesis.org has articles, audios, and videos, presented by Ph.D. creation scientists, offering evidence in support of a Creator of this world. To someone raised with evolutionary thinking, a Creator may sound “unscientific”, but the evidence is there. To dismiss this evidence without a fair examination would itself be unscientific. Should we accept something just because it is the opinion of our age or in agreement with our moral preferences in life? An objective person would be willing to follow the evidence where it leads, even if that means to God. God In Jataka 543, questions are asked concerning a Creator [20] : “Why are his creatures all condemned to pain? Why does he not to all give happiness. [sic]” (Jones, 144). The agnosticism/atheism in Buddhism and emphasis on self-effort, claim for humanity a jurisdiction all their own. Suffering that is so evident in this world is often given as the reason for rejecting a loving and powerful God. The book of Job in the Bible addresses the problem of apparent injustices in this world. By making a judgement about their circumstances, people presume to know all that can be known about the situation. Job had a similar complaint, because from his perspective, he couldn’t see any justice in what he was facing. In response, God asked Job four chapters worth of questions (Job 38-41), which made Job realize how limited his knowledge really is. Sitting in judgment on God is presuming to know what is right based on our finite and limited perspective. What knowledge does such a person have, that the Creator has not yet considered? The vanity in this world should turn us towards our Creator for direction and renewal, rather than supposing we can handle the problems on our own. Jesus taught his disciples their need to humble themselves before God: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18: 2-3). What we see in this world oftentimes is unjust- the wicked prospering, the “innocent” facing trouble, etc., but we need to know the perspective of eternity, which includes a judgment day in which God will judge the world in righteousness. In Buddhism, the question of God’s existence is placed in the category of vain philosophical speculation-- supposing that this question does not help a person end suffering through Nirvana. Thankfully, knowing God does not lead us to Nirvana (non-existence). Also, considering Sakyamuni’s lack of omniscience, it is hardly advisable to trust in his speculations about what is or is not a worthy pursuit. If an appliance in our house is not functioning properly, we turn to the owner’s manual or maybe call the maker of that appliance. Similarly, God who made us has the answers to life’s dilemmas. Conclusion Looking at Buddhism plainly like this, if Buddhism were a journey, it would be a journey in which the road map contains known false claims, the “discoverer” of this journey is no longer around to offer any help, and ultimately one is extinguished when arriving at the destination. Although Buddhism is a fascinating system, it leads people along a pathway away from the God who loves them, away from incorruptible everlasting life, and thus away from what we were made for- a life washed of our sins and relating to our Maker- made possible not by “earning it”, but through Jesus Christ taking our punishment onto Himself on the cross. To reject this is to reject a true road map to heaven [21] , help for the journey, and a guide who will not fail us. To acknowledge and accept this is to begin a relationship of trust with our Maker. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3: 16-18). References Childers, R.C. (1979). A Dictionary of the Pali Language. New Delhi: Cosmo Publications. Gogerly, D.J. (1885). The Kristiyani Prajnapti or The Evidences and Doctrines of the Christian Religion in three parts. Colombo: Christian Vernacular Education Society. Herman, A.L. (1996). Two Dogmas of Buddhism. In Pali Buddhism Hoffman, F.J., Mahinda, D. (Eds.) Surrey: Curzon Press. Jones, J.G. (1979). Tales and Teachings of the Buddha: The Jataka Stories in relation to the Pali Canon. London: George Allen & Unwin. Keown, D. (2000). Buddhism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Odzer, C. (1998). Abortion and Prostitution in Bangkok. In Buddhism and Abortion. Keown, D. (Ed.). Great Britain: Macmillan Press Ltd. Rahula, W. (1999). What the Buddha Taught. Bangkok: Haw Trai Foundation. Rhys Davids, T.W. & Stede, W. (1966). The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary. London: Luzac & Company, Ltd. The Debate of King Milinda: An Abridgement of The Milinda Panha. (1998) Pesala, B. (Ed.) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pte. Ltd. The Holy Bible: New King James Version (1991 printing). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. The Pali Canon: Pali Text Society Version. Abbreviations of Pali Text Society books, with Pali titles in parentheses: V = Book of Discipline (Vinaya Pitaka); GS = Gradual Sayings (Anguttara Nikaya); D = Dialogues of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya); KS = Kindred Sayings (Samyutta Nikaya); MLS = Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima Nikaya); JS(S) = Jataka Stories (Jataka). Trimondi, V. & Trimondi, V. (1999) Der Schatten des Dalai Lama: Sexualitaet, Magie und Politik im tibetischen Buddhismus. Duesseldorf: Patmos- Verlag. Vajiranana, P. (1987). Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice: A General Exposition According to the Pali Canon of the Theravada School. Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Missionary Society. [1] Sakyamuni means sage of the Sakya clan (also known as Siddhattha Gotama- “THE” Buddha most people are referring to when saying “the Buddha,” though there are many Buddhas in Buddhism). [2] The doctrine that there is no permanent “self” or “soul” that a person possesses. [3] The verses of the Jataka Stories are considered to be canonical, but the narratives are considered to be more in the category of commentary. [4] The four Nikayas are in the second “basket” of the Canon, called the Sutta Pitaka. There are actually five Nikayas in this basket, but the fifth (the Khuddaka Nikaya) is considered to be less reliable, containing later additions. [5] The Pali Canon is the doctrinal source for Theravada Buddhists. Versions of this vary between countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand), but there is agreement on the majority of texts which should be included in the Canon. The Pali Canon is divided into three “baskets”- the Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. [6] The five khandas of which a person consists are said to be matter, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. [7] The Sutras refer to the second basket of the Pali Canon (the Sutta Pitaka). [8] The five aggregates (khandas) referred to in endnote 6. [9] The Pali of this word is atta. Rahula defines Atman as, “soul, self, ego.” (142) [10] “A being totally dedicated to the attainment of the perfect enlightenment of a Buddha, for which one has to develop the perfections for many aeons.” (Pesala, 110) [11] One of many hells (purgatories) in Buddhist cosmology. [12] The state of one who is an Arahant (also spelled Arhat). Rahula defines an Arahant as, “one who is free from all fetters, defilements and impurities through the realization of Nirvana in the fourth and final stage, and who is free from rebirth.” (142) [13] Herman explains his use of the word dogma in a footnote: “I see nothing sinister in the use of the word ‘dogma’ to describe a fundamental precept or authoritative tenet. Many Buddhists like to believe that they are dogma-free. I would suggest that no one is dogma-free, and to believe differently is to believe in at least one dogma.” (160) The two dogmas he points to are nirvana and the assertion that impermanence always leads to sorrow. [14] Mahayana Buddhism is found mostly in China, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Taiwan and Vietnam. [15] One of many hells (purgatories) in Buddhist cosmology. [16] Dhamma can be translated as the body of teaching or the doctrine. [17] Vipassana meditation is what makes Buddhist meditation unique, focusing on the transitory (anicca), unsatisfactory (dukkha), and non-self (anatta) nature of existence. [18] This is a non-canonical work, written by Buddhaghosa, but very well respected among Theravada Buddhists. [19] Jhana is also spelled Dhyana. Rahula defines Dhyana as, “’trance’, recueillement, a state of mind achieved through higher meditation.” (143) [20] In this case the creator referred to is Brahman, although this is actually an argument against the existence of such a creator. [21] For some examples of the reliability of the Bible, the following sites present some evidence from history, archeology, fulfilled prophecies, etc.: http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html http://www.letusreason.org/Apolodir.htm http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/article-index-b_1.html The Windows update prank can easily trick someone when opened in full screen. It looks and acts like a real install page.
April 3, 2025
Introduction We are going to focus on two main Greek words: “kleptos” is the primary New Testament word for “thief,” and “harpazo” is what a kleptos does—“to seize away by force; to rip off.” Harpazo is to rip something off and a kleptos is the one performs this action. (This is where we get the word “kleptomaniac.”)To be absolutely accurate, some people try to tell us the word “rapture” is not in the Bible. It is in the Bible coming from the Latin Vulgate derived the Latin translation of “harpazo.” The word “rapture” comes from Latinizing the Greek word “harpazo,” and is most certainly in Scripture. However, it is in more than one place in Scripture. We are going to examine every place it occurs in the New Testament because every place it occurs teaches something about the Rapture. But we must take this a bit further.“Harpazo” plus “anastasis” equals “episunagoge.” The “snatching away” plus “resurrection” equals our “gathering together” to Him. The Greek prefix “epi” means “around.” So in other words, the Rapture and Resurrection are simultaneous; they are two aspects of the same event with the return of Jesus, which is called the episunagoge. It is functionally the same as “parousia,” the revelation of Jesus Christ that is coming. This is not “revelation” in the sense of “apocalypse,” but the revelation of the true believers. “Apocalypse” is a different word for “revelation” that means “unveiling.” This will not be an unveiling but takes place instantly–every eye shall ultimately see. A Practical Example I have a friend in England who is a computer software engineer. He is a nice guy with a family, and is an elder in a church near Stonehenge. He runs his own business with an interesting line of work. He is a computer consultant but he is hired by banks, credit card companies and corporations to hack into computer systems. He is actually hired to hack into computer systems to steal highly confidential information, usually of a financial nature, in order to test the strength of their security. He tells me that Chinese triads and Russian mafia are the most dangerous computer thieves. They are not like American gangsters but are usually ex-KGB agents from the old Soviet Union who have masters’ degrees and PhD’s, and are multi-lingual. If they do not themselves have degrees in computer science, they will hire such to do the hacking for them. He says this is a growing problem and therefore he has a growing business. He does the same things a thief will do: he hacks in and steals the information.When he gets a contract the people in the company do not know when he is going to do it and he does not tell them when or how he is going to do it. He does it remotely such as going through Hong Kong to hack into a system in England so they cannot trace it to him, the same kind of thing a professional hacker would do. He tries to steal that information before a real thief steals it, on the supposition that if he can do it they can do it. Therefore he is going to find out how to do it before they will. As it were, he comes to rob the thief. This is his livelihood. He is a Christian who has never stolen as much as a paper clip, but he does the same thing a thief does. He is hired to break into secure systems. Aware of the Harpazo “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force …” …harpazo Him—rapture Him. It is the same word. Jesus perceived that they were coming to “rapture” Him. “…to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. (Jn. 6:15) Notice He was aware the rapture was coming. This same Jesus will make us aware the Rapture is coming. Every time we see this word it teaches something about the coming Rapture. He knew it was going to happen before it happened. We will not know the day or the hour, but we will know it is getting closer and we will know what action to take.Of course, they were coming to try to forcibly make Him king, and since His kingdom was not of this world (which was not the purpose for His first coming but the purpose in His second coming), He did not allow himself to be raptured and made king; He will come back and make Himself King when He returns. In other words, they wanted to rapture Him, but no, He is coming to Rapture us. But He knew it was going to happen.Grammatically it occurs here in the future-passive—it is “harpazomai,” but it is the same word. Snatching by One Hand or the Other “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;” (“Kill”—“thuso,” “destroy”—“apoleso” where we get the word “Apollyon.”) “…I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches… …”harpazos”… …them and scatters them.” (Jn. 10:10–12) The wolf “harpazos” them—raptures them. Going back to my friend in England, his job is to rob the thief, to steal the information before the thief can steal the information. He does the same thing the thief does. Satan comes to harpazo—to rapture, to snatch away by force. “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out… …”harpazo” them… “…of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out… …”harpazo” them… …of the Father’s hand. (Jn. 10:28–29) This is saying that if we are in the hand of Christ, Satan cannot snatch us away from Him; he cannot touch the new creation. He cannot snatch us out of the hand of Christ.This Scripture does not address the issue of backsliding. People have taken it out of context and given it a meaning that is not warranted in the context. It does not say someone cannot get out of the hand, it simply says they cannot be snatched out of the hand, and has nothing whatsoever to do with a person choosing not to be in the hand of Christ. It simply says if someone chooses to be in the hand of Christ they cannot be snatched away.Unsaved people do not have a free will; their will is in bondage—they cannot choose Christ unless they are convicted by the Holy Spirit. They have to be empowered and convicted to choose Christ and it requires divine intervention for them to be saved. “Nobody comes but that the Father draws him” (Jn. 6:44). In our salvation we get back our free will when we come to Christ. He empowers us to be able to make that choice we could not make had He not so empowered us. Free will is restored at the cross; free will is something we get back; it makes it possible to choose and remain in Christ. John 10:28-29 has nothing whatsoever to do with backsliding or the will of the individual; it only says that the thief cannot do it. Very often this has been misapplied. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.” (Mt. 13:19) Somebody hears the Gospel, gets convicted, and they think about getting saved. No one can snatch them out of the Lord’s hand, but if they have not gone that far yet and the seed has fallen to the earth and died, we know what is going to happen: the devil is going to try to snatch it away. That is how he operates.We witness to someone, tell them the Gospel, they believe it and say they will come to church on Sunday, but the next day Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on their door. The devil sent them there. That is the devil coming to snatch away what was sown. But in Matthew 24 we see… “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.” (Mt. 24:43) He is coming like a thief in the night. In other words, He robs the thief. Jesus comes in the character of the devil and snatches us away before the enemy does. It is the master gambit—He beats the devil at his own game. The devil is a kleptos. Jesus is not a kleptos but comes like a kleptos and does the same thing a kleptos does. In other words, to understand the nature of the Rapture we have to understand the nature of the devil. The Lord comes to rob the thief. The Modern-Day Kleptos Let us look at this idea of the kleptos who comes to “steal and kill and destroy,” how the devil does this, and how it manifests itself. Everybody gets robbed, but the question is, who is going to do it? We are either going to be “harpazoed” by the kleptos or “harpazoed” by the one who is likethe kleptos.In Psalm 50 the leadership of the nation was being castigated and they were told… “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,And you associate with adulterers. (Ps. 50:18) Notice the relationship between impropriety and immorality. So often when we see these ministers fall from grace it involves spiritual pride, financial impropriety, and sexual immorality. It is usually one of those three things, and in some cases they hit the jackpot. The same guys fooling around with women are very often the same ones who are preaching Word-Faith or have their fingers in the cookie jar. This is not a new problem but, as described in this Scripture, existed in ancient Israel.Todd Bentley, a criminally-convicted homosexual pedophile who was in prison for molesting a seven year-old, claimed to become a Christian, had himself covered in tattoos, was kicking old ladies in the face, and night after night was preaching that the Lord showed him there were a thousand people attending each of his services who were going to give him $1,000. And he was getting the money, sometimes raking in over $1 million a night it would seem. The whole time this was going on he was being unfaithful to his wife and yet being trumpeted as a hero by Rick Joyner and C. Peter Wagner. After they prophesied over him that he was going to lead a great revival, four days later he abandons his wife and three children and takes off with this other woman. Soon after, he divorces his wife and marries her. Now they are trying to bring him back into ministry. “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,And you associate with adulterers. (Ps. 50:18) He is an adulterer! They are pleased with him! This is only one contemporary example, but there are many examples of this. In other words, they are getting clipped already. When I would heal Israel,The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,And the evil deeds of Samaria,For they deal falsely;The thief enters in,Bandits raid outside,And they do not consider in their heartsThat I remember all their wickedness.Now their deeds are all around them;They are before My face.With their wickedness they make the king glad,And the princes with their lies.They are all adulterers,Like an oven heated by the bakerWho ceases to stir up the fireFrom the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. (Hos. 7:1–4) (Leaven, of course, is a figure of sin and false doctrine.)Look at this: these people are adulterers and they are thieves, but the kings and the princes are happy about their lies—they make the king glad!Why do we see major pastors and leadership figures lending credence to these con-artists? They make them happy with their lies! They make them happy with their thievery! This brought about the Assyrian Captivity—God’s judgment—on the ten northern tribes, and it is bringing God’s judgment on the contemporary church. As it says in Romans 11, if He did not spare the natural branches He will not spare you either. If Israel and the Jews could not get away with this kind of activity, neither will the church. And yet they continue in it.Todd Bentley leaves his wife and children and they are actually trying to bring him back. It means nothing to them. Money talks. They do not care about the adultery. Your rulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves; (Is. 1:23a) Their leaders are in rebellion against God and companions with thieves!It is so shocking that it has been hard for me to believe this has happened, but when I recite these things in the public domain I am not throwing mud; I am simply stating facts.When Oral Roberts said a nine hundred foot tall Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him if he does not cough up $6.5 million by the end of the month He is going to kill him, people like Jack Hayford defended him and somebody gave him the money to save the hospital. (The hospital wound up closing down anyway and Jesus did not kill him.) He was on television crying, “Please, He’s going to kill me.” Apparently there was a nine hundred foot Jesus who was running a protection racket—that is what gangsters do. And yet there were pastors defending him. Your rulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves; (Is. 1:23a) Jesus warned us how His Father’s house became a den of thieves. (Mt. 21:13; Mk. 11:17; Lk. 19:46) He did not use the word “kleptos” because a kleptos harpazos; these were swindlers.That is how the devil kleptos—he steals and destroys. Jesus is coming in the manner of the enemy to do the same thing the enemy does with an entirely different motive. He comes like a kleptos. To understand what Jesus is going to do we have to understand what the enemy does. The kleptos is always the enemy, but He comes like a kleptos. The Example of Paul Let us look at the other side. Everywhere this word “harpazo” occurs it teaches something about the Rapture. And as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force… (To harpazo him—rapture him. It is the same word in Greek.) …and bring him into the barracks. But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side… (Ac. 23:10–11a) That is the Peshet, the straightforward meaning. Paul was going to be seized; they were going to rip him in half, literally tearing him to pieces. So the Roman commander dispatches his soldiers to rescue Paul before they could rip him to bits. Notice he harpazos Paul before the mob could harpazo him. This is a picture of the Rapture. The Antichrist is going to try to rip the body to pieces. “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Mt. 24:28). But before that can happen, our Commander is going to send His angels to gather His elect. He will harpazo us before the enemy can. Every time we see this word it teaches something about the Rapture. Our Commander is going to snatch us away before the enemy can rip us to pieces; there will be a rescue. There Is Always a Rescue “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. (Mt. 24:43) “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. (Dan. 12:1) Notice that those whose names are in the book will be rescued. There is a rescue coming, and this rescue is the Rapture. In England we have Gerald Coates, and in America there is Rick Joyner—people who teach against the doctrine of the Rapture, saying there is no rescue. How is someone going to get rescued if they do not believe there is a rescue?In the Olivet Discourse Jesus gives a list of signs to look out for and He says, “I am coming like a thief in the night, so look out for these signs. This will tell you it is getting closer. If you had known at what time he was coming you would not have allowed your house to be broken into. Well, I am coming just like that burglar.” We are told by Paul that day should not overtake us like a kleptos (1 Th. 5:4); it is the world that is to be taken by surprise; it is the apostate church that is to be taken by surprise, not the faithful Bride. But in Matthew 24 Jesus says, “Be alert, watch for these signs, I am coming like a thief in the night” (Mt. 24:42-43).Suppose you were going to take your children or grandchildren down to Orlando to Disneyworld and somebody says, “Don’t bother to turn on the burglar alarm. Turn off the lights, leave the door open, drive off to Florida and have a good time.” Who is going to do that? Who is going to believe somebody who tells us that? If we visit the website of Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven Lie we are told to avoid End Time prophecy because it is a diversion. Jesus says to watch out, He is coming like a thief, to be alert, but who cares what Jesus Christ said if you have Rick Warren? Who needs the New Testament if you have the Purpose Driven Lie? Jesus commands that we be alert and watch for these things, but Warren says no. Do you understand who he works for? He works for the thief—the burglar.This is not a “mistake,” this is blatant. Jesus teaches to do one thing, Warren teaches people to do the other. It is unbelievable, but that is what is happening. Paul’s Personal Example I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up… (…harpazo – raptured…) …to the third heaven. (2 Co. 12:2) He did not know if he was in the body or out of the body. When we are raptured we will not know if we are dead, we will just know that we are alive in Christ.The ancient Greeks had three concepts of heaven: the first was the atmosphere of the earth, the second was outer space, and the third was eternity. We have two Greek words for “time”: “chronos” and “kairos.” “Kairos” is the clock, but eternity is not a clock that keeps going; eternity is no clock at all. Yet there is in eternity “chronos” where we get the word “chronology.” It is an order of events, but they take place out of time, such as where it states in Revelation that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). John says in Revelation, “And then I saw…and then I saw…” but he speaks of future events in the past tense and past events in the present tense—there is no “kairos,” just “chronos.” There is an order of events which take place out of time. Time as a clock depends on the second heaven (outer space), on planetary motion.Strictly speaking there is a time and a clock that works by particle emissions. It does not work by planetary motion but it still has to be calibrated in nanoseconds; it still has to express its measurements by planetary motion. Even the one clock we have that does not have to work by planetary motion still has to be calibrated in terms of planetary motion.So when we read in Revelation or Zechariah that the “shamayim”—“sky” is rolled up, this means that eternity meets earth; time and space meet heaven because the “second heaven” is “rolled up.” And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— Notice that he says this twice because it is a mystery; he did not even understand it when it happened to him. …was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. (2 Co. 12:3–4) Paul was raptured—“harpazoed,” caught up. This teaches about what it is going to be like to be raptured. We will not know if we are dead; we will just know we are alive. We will not know if we are in the body or out of the body. Always an Earthly Return When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; (…”harpazoed” him, raptured him…) …and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. (Ac. 8:39–40) Notice when Paul was “harpazoed” we see him again back on earth and when Philip was “harpazoed” we see him back on earth. There is a Millennial Reign of Christ. Every time we see somebody “harpazoed” we see them coming back to earth. It is not a one-way ticket—it is a return ticket, only it will be back to the earth as it was before the Fall of man.Always remember that if someone has only six months to live, they actually have one thousand years plus six months to live. Believers go to sleep and then wake up again; death is for unsaved people.In Acts 8:39 he is “harpazoed” and they do not see him any longer in just the way that Enoch was snatched away and they did not see him anymore. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up… (…”harpazoed”…) …together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Th. 4:17-18) I have heard people say the word “rapture” is not in the Bible. Should they rather say “harpazo”? The word “harpazo” is many places in the Bible, and every time it occurs it teaches something about 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The Nativity Narrative And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up… (…”harpazoed”…) …to God and to His throne. (Rev. 12:5) As I have explained in other teachings, this is a Pesher interpretation of the Nativity narrative. Herod wanted to kill Jesus coming out of Mary, but Jesus by divine intervention was rescued. Herod comes and kills the other babies and so we see here the dragon was enraged with the woman and makes war with the woman and the rest of her offspring. It is a Pesher interpretation of the Christmas story (if you want to call it that), but it is a future event because as Jesus was taken to Egypt, the man-child is here taken up to God and to His throne.There is going to be a harpazo; there is always a rescue. In the context of Paul it is a rescue. Before the dragon could snatch the child away, God snatched Him away. Before the mob could snatch Paul away, God arranged providentially for the commander to snatch Paul away. There is always the context of a rescue. But if you do not believe there is a rescue, how are you going to get rescued? The Amputation For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief… …kleptos… …in the night. (1 Th. 5:2) Remember that the “Day of the Lord” is inaugurated by the episunagoge. When the Church is removed, God pours out His wrath on the kingdom of Antichrist. This is the “Day of the Lord,” but it comes suddenly.Another term for “rapture,” as it were (or at least it is synonymous in its use for “rapture”), is “kolobo”—“the amputation,” as in, “Had those days not been cut short”—“kolobo” (Mt. 24:22).If someone has a highly metastasized cancer in an extremity or organ, he needs a surgical incision before it can spread to other organs. Or if someone has gangrene in an extremity it is necessary to amputate in order to prevent the entire body from dying. This is what is going to happen—the bad parts of the Body of Christ are going to be cut off; there will be an amputation. It will be cut short before the Body dies. When the shattering of the holy people happens (Dan. 12:7), the suffering of the faithful Church is going to be cut short. The faithful Church will not experience the wrath of God, but it will experience persecution, but that persecution will be cut short by an amputation, the kolobo. This is an important word in eschatology. JUST Like a Thief In 1 Thessalonians 5 it does not say that it will come like a thief, but “just like a thief.” How does the devil operate? That is what Jesus is going to do. Just like my friend back in England, they do not have a clue they are going to get robbed, they do not have a clue how he is going to do it, they do not even have a clue when he is going to do it. He might hack into their system at 2:30 in the morning when everything is closed but the system is running. He may hack into their system remotely through another computer in Asia or Africa. They do not have a clue. It says “just” like a thief—it is emphatic. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; (1 Th. 5:4) It should not overtake us like a thief! I am frightened when people are ignoring End Time prophecy or are taught to avoid it by Rick Warren and company. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief… (There it is again: like a kleptos.) …in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (2 Pe. 3:10) That word for “elements” in Greek is “stoicheia” where we get the word “stoichiometry” for elementary chemistry and the period chart of the elements. The Greeks knew about elements, but they did not know about subatomic particles or subatomic physics. They did not know about positrons, electrons, neutrinos, or protons, they just had an idea about elements and had a word for “atom”—“atomos,” which meant “that which is most indivisible.” They did not know it could go any smaller than an atom elementally so that was the smallest to them. It was not until the 20th century that people knew an atom could be dissolved, but this fishermen from Galilee said that not only can an atom be dissolved but the biosphere can be destroyed by doing it. This was long before anyone knew about the critical mass of plutonium or cobalt or uranium 238. It is amazing, but that is exactly what it says in Greek, that an element can be dissolved, that which is indivisible, with enough explosive energy to destroy the biosphere. “I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.” (Zech. 5:4) This is referring to the flying scroll—“magillah” in Hebrew. It goes into the house of the thief and will leave that house in ruins.How many people used to be in crazy churches that were teaching seriously false doctrine, and the Lord got them out of it through His Spirit—through showing them what the Scriptures meant? This is the scroll that went into house of the thief. There are people who through no fault of their own are in these loony churches which preach money, ecumenism, and God knows what else—who do not know any better; it is all they were ever told. I was saved in a cult called “The Children of God.” You would not believe the things I believed when I was first saved, but that was all I knew. I did not know it was crazy. There are people is these places who just do not know any better, who are in ignorance; I was in ignorance. But the scroll goes into the house of the thief. ‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. “Sardis” comes from the Greek word “sarx”—“of the flesh.” It was the church who heard and knew the truth at one point Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. (Rev. 3:3) These are people who used to know the truth, and He is warning them to wake up and remember what they heard.There are churches which at one time stood squarely and solidly on biblical truth. Not many years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find a Baptist church that was not biblical. You would have been hard-pressed to find a Pentecostal church that was not biblical. I am only talking 30 years ago. They heard the truth, but they are not ready for the coming robbery. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) (Rev, 16:15) He keeps saying it over and over and over: “I am coming like a thief.”The people who are caught up in this lunacy of the televangelists and things like that are being robbed already. I know Christian businessmen who have been taken to the cleaners by religious con-artists. They are being robbed already. I do not mean giving money to missions, to honest ministries, or to Christian charity, I mean that these are con-artists. They are fleecing the sheep. But there is a bigger robbery coming. If someone cannot see through an obvious false prophet, what is going to happen when theFalse Prophet comes? If we cannot see through a petty thief cum televangelist, what is going to happen when the real crook shows up? Which Thief Shall It Be? Jesus is coming like a thief. He is going to rob the thief. He is going to do exactly what my friend in England does. He is going to behave just like a thief and He is going to do exactly what a thief does before the thief does it. Everybody is going to get “harpazoed”; everybody is going to get ripped off; everybody is going to be snatched away. The only question is, who is going to do it? The kleptos comes to harpazo in order to kill; the one who is like a kleptos comes to harpazo in order to save. The kleptos comes to harpazo in order to destroy; the one who is like a kleptos comes to harpazo in order to rescue. The kleptos comes to harpazo what is not his; the one who is like a kleptos comes to harpazo those who are His by His own blood.The kleptos comes to harpazo in order to bring death; the one who is like a kleptos comes to harpazo in order to bring life. The kleptos comes to harpazo in order to steal; the one who is like a kleptos comes to harpazo in order to restore. One way or another everybody gets “harpazoed.” You are going to be “harpazoed,” I am going to be “harpazoed.” Your family is going to be “harpazoed,” my family is going to be “harpazoed.” Your church is going to be “harpazoed,” my church is going to be “harpazoed.” We all get “harpazoed.” The only question is, who is going to do it? We have no choice about being “harpazoed,” what we can chose is who we want to do it—either the kleptos or the one who is like a kleptos. That day should not overtake us like a kleptos—that day should not overtake us like a thief.God bless. 
April 3, 2025
Introduction Let’s look at the book of Nehemiah chapter 3... Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. Next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built. Now the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; Nehemiah comes and he sees the devastation, a terrible devastation. And he goes to the king after weeping over the city, and he asks the king for a mandate to rebuild what’s been left in ruins. But there’s a spiritual meaning to what’s been left in ruins when he rebuilds the gates. Now ultimately these gates are what you would see in the book of Revelation, the twelve gates. (Rev. 21:12 ) At different times in history there were different numbers of gates, but they’ve all basically been the same. To some extent they broadly resemble – or vaguely resemble – the pattern of the gates you have in the Old City of Jerusalem today, except that the city then was much, much smaller. The Sheep & the Fish Gates The first two gates we read are the Sheep Gate and, next to it,the Tower of Hananel (which means “God’s mercy”) and the Tower of the Me’ah, which means “one hundred”. That is the gate to which they brought the sheep into Jerusalem to be sacrificed in the temple. However, Hananel means “God’s mercy”, or something to do with the mercy of God. “Me’ah” is the Hebrew word for “one hundred”. Remember when Jesussaid if a shepherd loses a sheep, he’ll leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? ( Lk. 15:3-7 ) It’s like a dozen eggs: if one egg is missing, you don’t have a dozen. Or if one sheep is missing, you don’t have a proper flock. A proper flock had to be one hundred. Sometimes, some of us go astray. Sometimes, some of us fallaway. Sometimes, young believers backslide. Sometimes, in times of crisis, we feel wrongly that the Lord has abandoned us, and we wander off. But the Good Shepherd comes after us. He doesn’t want to lose any. The Sheep Gate. “My sheep will hear My voice,” He says. ( Jn. 10:27 ) But next to the Sheep Gate is the Fish Gate. “I will make you fishers of men”. ( Mt. 4:19 ) When you and I are born again, we get “caught”. Now, remember when the apostles fished and they kept one hundred fifty-three, but they threw the other ones back? There’s good fish and bad fish. Some people will go back to the world. But then it continues, and it talks about the different people according to their families and tribes, rebuilding the gates. Now the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and bars. Next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah... ...“Uriah” means “my light is God”... ...the son of Hakkoz made repairs. And next to him Meshullam the son of Berechiah the son of Meshezabel made repairs. And next to him Zadok the son of Baana also made repairs. Moreover, next to him the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters. “The nobles did not support the work of their masters”. When people set out to rebuild what’s devastated, when people set out to repair the gates of God, when people set out to restore what used to be, one problem you’ll have is don’t trust the nobles. So often you’ll find – now there are exceptions – but the people who you’d think would be the most ready and certainly the most capable of contributing the most, the people who’ve been saved the longest, the people who would seem to know the Bible the best, sometimes the people who are the most educated or are the most affluent in a fellowship will be the ones who are most reluctant to get on with beginning again. Most of the times God has worked, it has been usually – in fact, almost always – through poor people, through the working classes. Big revivals in South America: it’s the barrios, it’s the slums. John Wesley’s revivals in this country: it was the coal miners; they were like the lowest of the working class. At the time it was a terrible job. They had little kids, four years old dying of black lung disease. When the coal miners would get saved, their faces were black, just totally black with soot. And they came out of the mines and they would hear George Whitfield and John Wesley preach and they would begin crying because of their sins, and there were like white streams that go down the faces of these people. If you said somebody was a coal miner it was almost like saying they were a drug dealer or a prostitute or something like this. It was a profession that they associated with being a cutthroat because they paid so little the people probably couldn’t make a living doing it, despite the harsh conditions. It was absolutely unspeakable social injustice. And that’s where the Gospel prospered. I’m not against middle class people or educated middle class people, but the middle class people God will use in rebuilding a devastated church will be middle class people who become servants of the poor and of the working classes. Usually it will be working class people who God will raise up to become upwardly mobile, who’ll get the thing going. Don’t trust the nobles. Don’t think the people who you’d expect to help you rebuild the gates are going to take to the work too quickly. People like that tend to like their comfort too much, they tend to like their position, they don’t like the boat rocked too much, they’d rather make due with what they have. Because if they try to rebuild something, it’s going to cost them something. It’ll cost them something. They don’t need the trouble or the aggravation. The nobles don’t support the work of the masters. They should; some of them do. But generally it’s the salt of the earth people that are going to get things done. It always was, it always will be. Now if you’re a middle class person, don’t take it personally. I’m a middle class person; I’m only speaking the truth, I’m not trying to insult anyone’s class. I’m simply saying if it’s going to happen, it’s going to be because of the salt of the earth. If revival comes to Britain or to any of these societies, it will come from the council estates before it does the middle class suburbs. It’ll happen among single-parent families, it’ll happen to people who’ve been in prison, it’ll happen to people who’ve been unemployed – that’s where these things tend to come from, as it did in the days of Jesus. Who was it? Harlots, tax gatherers, thieves, political dissidents like the Zealots – those people came to Jesus. Who rejected Him? The religious people. It’s no different now. As we look at the gates of Jerusalem in the Old City of Jerusalem today, God is showing us a lesson in history. As you walk through the Old City of Jerusalem, you’re looking at not one thousand, not two thousand, not three thousand, but more than three thousand years of history from the time of the Jebusites onward. And those walls and those gates tell a story, a story of revival and backsliding. Renewal and decline. And the same is true for the church. Even the walls of Jerusalem and its gates are a reflection of the history of the Jewish people, but also of what’s happened through the centuries with the church. The Old & Ephraim Gates Verse 6 of chapter 3... Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, also made repairs for the official seat of the governor of the province beyond the River. So the next gate is the Old Gate. But we also know that next to the Old Gate there was another gate called the Gate of Ephraim. “Ephraim” means “fruitfulness” or “doubly fruitful”. And it was at the beginning of a long valley, a depression called “the valley of the cheese makers” or the Tyropean Valley. Now this valley runs through the present center of the Old City of Jerusalem. You see it here next to the Cardo. And you can see parts of where it was, the wall running parallel to it, excavated. A Christian will progress; there’ll be a choice: two more gates, the Old Gate and the gate of Ephraim. We might be called like a sheep, we might be caught like a fish. When somebody’s first saved, the first few days it’s absolutely amazing. The scales have fallen off their eyes. Now they see the truth. But after two or three days they begin to come to their senses, or so they think. Is this real? Is this what I really want to commit myself to? Is this really the way I want to live my life? Is it going to be like this, that I’m not going to be able to go out and gamble and get drunk and take drugs and sleep with women and fool around with other men and cheat on my wife and to stop smoking? Is this really for real? Then the social pressures begin. Your old friends, your old desires, and within a couple of days you’re confronted with a choice. Think of Matthew 13, the sower and the seed. Three out of four seeds don’t end up so well. The way I look at it, based on that (I’m not teaching this as a doctrine, I’m just saying as an observation) if one out of every four people I lead to Christ stays faithful to Him long term, I’m not complaining. If three out of four fall away I’m very sorry, but I guess that’s par for the course, in other words. I can tell you this: the people that I’ve seen stay the most faithful to Christ are the ones who’ve paid the highest price for it, people who had to count the cost ahead of time. You see this in a lot of places. You see it, certainly, in Israel among the Jews. The social cost is much higher than it is for non-Jews most of the time. Among Muslims its even higher. People like that will count the cost more carefully before they get saved. In Ireland it’s Catholic people. If you’re seen as becoming a Protestant, you’re betraying your family and all this kind of stuff – the cost is higher. When people get saved in prisons, prison can be quite dangerous. You become a Christian, people will try to kill you, try to push you sometimes to the limit to see how far they can make you go before you react violently the way you used to. It’s not easy. Talk to people who’ve been in prison ministry. I talked to Noel Proctor . I mean, he was the chaplain in “Strangeways” in Manchester. It’s very difficult. There’s a much higher cost involved with those kinds of people. People who get saved under those conditions will tend to be less likely to backslide. Less likely. I don’t see it doesn’t happen, I’m simply saying you’ll find less of it because they’ve counted the cost more carefully to begin with. Other people – most of us – we find ourselves in this situation: So you’ve come through the Sheep Gate, you came through the Fish Gate, but now there’s two gates in front of you. Which one are you going to go through, the gate of fruitfulness or the Old Gate, the gate of back to your old ways, your old friends, your old interests – which gate are you going to walk through? And again, this Old Gate lies at the precipice of a decline, of a valley. A long valley. A deep valley. The Tyropean Valley. Valleys in the Bible represent times of trial. What does it say in Matthew 13: but when opposition comes because of the Word they fall away. ( Mt. 13:20-21 ) In the beginning they seem to grow really quick, but no depth. After somebody gets saved, they go through their first trials, sometimes prolonged periods of trial. We go through a valley. Something for Everybody Next to him Uzziel... ...”my strength is God”... ... next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah of the goldsmiths made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs. Malchijah...” ...”my king is Yahweh”... ...the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section and the Tower of Furnaces. Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters. Notice there were things for men to do, there were things for women to do. There were things for people to do from all backgrounds, all trades, all professions, all walks of life. Everybody is involved. The Valley & the Refuse Gates Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall to the Refuse Gate. The next gate you come to is the Valley Gate, but that leads us to another gate called the Refuse Gate. Outside of the Refuse Gate was the garbage pit of Jerusalem, where the Tyropean Valley met another valley called the Valley of Hinnom. In this Valley of Hinnom it is where backslidden Judah sacrificed their children to Molech. ( 2 Ki. 23:10 ) But outside this gate where these two valleys came together – actually there was a third valley on this side called the Kidron, the three of them came together – you’d have the garbage pit which burned day and night. That garbage pit was called “Gehennom” – “Gehenna”. When you travel with me around Jerusalem, when I show the people on the pilgrimages and the study tours, I tell them where I take them when I take them where this is, and I say, “Welcome to hell; I hope this is as close you ever get to going there.” This is literally hell outside of the Refuse Gate where these three valleys came together. You see, we go through the Sheep Gate, we go through the Fish Gate. If we decide to hold onto our crosses and keep following the Lord Jesus, we go through the gate of Ephraim; we choose fruitfulness. The old nature comes up and how does God deal with it? We go to the Valley Gate. God uses the valley, He uses difficulty, He uses times of trial to deal with our old nature. But when we come to the end of the valley, we get to the Refuse Gate. Trials are difficult when you’re going through them, but when they’re over, you see how much garbage God has thrown out of our lives. That’s what He wants to do. Philippians 1:6 , “...He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus”. God wants to throw garbage out of our lives. And although we don’t like it – and understandably we don’t like it – one of the ways God removes the rubbish from our lives is by bringing us into times of trial. He brings us through the Valley Gate. What does it say in James? Count it as all blessing, my brethren, when you go through these trials. (Ja. 1:2) Now as a young believer I made a big mistake; I misunderstood that verse. So I used to pray for trials. I wish God answered all of my prayers as quickly, as instantly, and as thoroughly as He answered those prayers. If you pray for trials, the likelihood is you’re going to get them. I don’t know if you pray for a Mercedes – you might not get that – but if you pray for trials, you can almost bank on it. The Fountain Gate Verse 14... Malchijah the son of Rechab, the official of the district of Beth-haccherem repaired the Refuse Gate. He built it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars. Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, the official of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He built it, covered it and hung its doors with its bolts and its bars, and the wallof the Pool of Shelah... ...that’s the Pool of Siloach where Jesus would later heal the blind man; open the eyes of the blind man... ...at the king’s garden as far as the steps that descend from the city of David. Now this Pool of Shelah, the Pool of Siloach, is where king Hezekiah’s tunnel, where we enter it now and go through Hezekiah’s tunnel where the water was brought into the Old City. Let’s look at the next gate. As you proceed, not far away you come to the next gate: the Fountain Gate, where the Pool of Siloach was, where the water began to flow. Now you’ve heard me say various times -- John 7:39 , Isaiah 44:3 – this freshly clean water that came from the Pool of Siloach entered the city through Hezekiah’s tunnel, this water was called “chay mayim” – “living water”. Which in Isaiah and John is always a type or figure of the Holy Spirit. Let’s understand this in light of the present situation. In our sense of desperation over what is happening to our nation and the other protestant democracies and the state of the church, with Islam and New Age taking over – the church failing. Christianity is failing in this country. Christ is not failing, but the church is not winning. Ultimately the church is victorious because of Christ and His return, but right now we’re losing. We’re losing the battle to homosexuals, to New Age , to ecumenism , to everything. However, for the people wanting to see something happening, they want to see the Living Water flow, they want to see the fountain, they want to find it, but they’re not willing to do what’s necessary to make it flow. They don’t want to go back to the basics. The only way you’re going to get to the Fountain Gate is by going back to the basics. Do you know, so many of the biggest churches of this country don’t even preach the Gospel? They don’t even talk about the blood of Jesus, or the cross, or repentance – that’s not what they talk about. They talk about power and victory and all that stuff -- the “ Kingdom Now ” stuff – without realizing that the only way you’re going to get the power or the victory is because of what Jesus did on the cross and when He rose from the dead. They’ve got everything wrong. So they don’t want to go back and look at the choice we have to make. The choice we make is do you want the Old Gate. If you can really define “backsliding” in its simplest terms, you’d say it means “hoping in this world”. Backsliding is hoping in this world. When somebody’s backslidden, it means they’re trusting in this world. Now think of it. What do you do when you have a guy like Andrew Shearman saying, “I repent that I ever said that this world is not my home; this world is my home. Heaven’s not my destiny, it’s only a benefit.” It’s what he’s teaching. That guy’s at the Old Gate; that’s the gate he wants. Nobody wants to realize we have to go through a long valley, that there’s a lot of garbage in our lives. There’s certainly a lot of garbage in my life. But even more importantly, there’s a lot of garbage in the church that has to be gotten rid of. We all want the Living Water to flow, but it’s not going to flow until God gets the garbage out that’s clogging up the drains and clogging up the pipes and clogging up the water system. There’s too much rubbish. Too much rubbish and sewage that’s clogging it up, and the Living Water can’t flow. So people go out, and they turn on a garden hose, and pretend it’s raining. Again, it’s just so crazy. One thing after another. Kansas City’s going to do it, Toronto’s going to do it – we’ve talked about this stuff enough – but no revival comes. You know, most people in Toronto never even heard of the “ Toronto Blessing ”, except that they saw it on the news or something? It’s had no impact; it’s not even a big thing in Canada. I was in Canada in October and most people don’t even know what it is, don’t even care what it is. They haven’t got a clue. It’s only over here and in Australia and New Zealand and the continent that it’s big; in America and Canada where it comes from, it’s nothing. Very few people are into it. Very few churches are interested in it. When I went to that place, everybody in the Toronto Airport Vineyard church, which has now been thrown out of the Vineyard , was from some place other than Toronto. In fact, they were from some place other than Canada. It’s having no revivals; that’s nuts. Living Water doesn’t flow that way. It flows when you get rid of the refuse, when the Lord has a free hand to do the things He needs to do in our lives and in the church to get rid of the garbage. When they get rid of the hype, and the “ Kingdom Now ”, and the replacementism , and the ecumenism , and the prosperity/money preachers , then maybe the water will begin to flow because the plumbing system won’t be clogged up any more with dreck. The Water Gate But the next gate is what we find at the other terminal of Hezekiah’s tunnel. The next gate we come to is the Water Gate. You have an underground tunnel that flows from the Fountain Gate to the Water Gate that was built by Hezekiah. It’s still there. We walk through it, we show you where it is. You can walk through it if you like. If you’re not claustrophobic, it’s interesting. God doesn’t want us to just have a fountain; He wants us to have a pool. He wants us to be immersed in His Spirit. A Spirit-filled life. A Spirit-filled church. There might be a certain amount of water, but not enough to do what God wants. People who are Cessasionists – churches which say the gifts of the Spirit ended with the Apostles – people like that, they have the Holy Spirit in some measure, but they’re unwilling to open to the fullness of the Spirit, including the gifts. Now I never seek the gifts above the Giver, I seek the Giver. But Cessasionism is as wrong on one extreme as the excesses of Toronto are on the other. There’s a balance. Who’s going to burn their money because money can be counterfeited? Nobody. Nobody should throw the baby out with the bath water, should they? Unfortunately, some people do. But after the Water Gate, the journey continues and they make repairs. It’s a progression. We go from the Refuse Gate down to the Fountain Gate. After the Fountain Gate we come to the Water Gate. The Horse Gate The next gate that they come to after verse 26 is the Ophel. We point out where the Ophel is in Jerusalem. The temple servants living in Ophel made repairs as far as the front of the Water Gate toward the east and the projecting tower. After them the Tekoites repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower and as far as the wall of Ophel. Above the Horse Gate... Now we’re going on the east side of Jerusalem, which is the closest to what you see today to the archeology of the original Old City. This wall would have been on the same location – or approximately the same location – as the present eastern wall facing the Mount of Olives, separated from it by the Kidron Valley. The Mount of Olives is here. Not far away then, as you turn east, is the Horse Gate. Horses in biblical times were not used for transport. In the ancient Near East, donkeys and camels were animals for transport. Sheep were used for meat and wool, cattle were used for meat, for hides, and for milk. A horse hand only one purpose, only one function: the horse was the animal of war. It was used for pulling chariots and for mounted soldiers for cavalry. That’s all. You see, until we have a Spirit-filled church and a Spirit-filled life, we’re not really ready for war. The church in this country is no longer in a spiritual state to take on New Age . It’s not in a spiritual state to take on Islam . We couldn’t win. Islam claims to have a moral agenda from Allah to restore with Shariah – Islamic law – a standard of morality that Christianity can no longer deliver. They claim that. If you read Salaam and these other Muslims who I consider militants – certainly Ahmed Deedat – they’ll tell you things like this. You wouldn’t have this crime in Britain if you had an Islamic state, you wouldn’t have this thing of single-parent families in an Islamic state, you wouldn’t have any of this. You wouldn’t have homosexuality in an Islamic state, you wouldn’t have any of this. Homosexuals? We kill them. Thieves? We chop off their hands. Rape? We castrate. Feminists? We flog them. Shariah Islam can restore what this country doesn’t have morally any more. The church in this country can no longer deliver a standard of moral righteousness. At one time it could -- at one time it did – but it can’t any more. The silliest, most absurd thing you see happening in the western countries is with the Kingdom Now , the Restorationists , they’re saying, “Victory! Victory! Harvest! Harvest! Power! Power!” and the opposite is happening. The opposite! Just look at the stuff, the “Nine O’clock Service”, that’s what the world sees. An evangelical archbishop saying we don’t have all the truth, we should look to the ones who aren’t even saved to get the rest of it? This is what’s happening, and these guys are yelling “Victory!” and rolling on the floor laughing? What, are they nuts? It’s absolutely absurd. No, until you have a Spirit-filled church, you’re not ready to go to war. You can’t go through the Horse Gate until you go through the Water Gate, but you’re not going to get any water until God gets rid of the refuse. And He’s not going to get rid of the refuse until we realize that He has to get rid of it. We’re not even calling it refuse. The desire to trust in this world is refuse. You’ve got a leading preacher, Andrew Shearman , saying this world is his home? They don’t even call it garbage. They don’t even recognize that’s what it is. No way, forget about it. The East Gate Well what’s the next gate? Verse 29... After them Zadok the son of Immer carried out repairs in front of his house. And after him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, carried out repairs. The East Gate we call, sometimes, the Golden Gate. The East Gate is the gate that Jesus came through on Palm Sunday. The evangelical, Christian archeologist Dr. Jim Fleming is one of the people who discovered the Herodian stones under the present East Gate. What that means is we can be quite certain that the present East Gate is where the East Gate that Jesus came through was located. But it also is opposite a certain point on the Mount of Olives, where the High Priest had to stand with the red heifer on Yom Kippur and look through the East Gate into the Holy of Holies across the Kidron. That would tend to verify the theory of Dr. Asher Kaufman of the Department of Antiquities of Hebrew University that would put the location of the original temple not on the exact site of the Mosque of Omar – the Dome of the Rock which you’ve seen pictures of – but about seventy meters north of it. In other words, in order to rebuild the temple, you would not have to tear down the mosque. Wouldn’t it be something if the Antichrist just had an ecumenical center up on the temple mount? Jews and Arabs worshiping together up on the temple mount? You see that Jerusalem is the center of controversy of all the nations. And somehow the Antichrist will have to bring a false peace. One way – I’m not making a prophecy, I’m simply saying – one way it could happen, one way you could get Jews to negotiate over Jerusalem – even Orthodox Jews – was if you got the Muslims to agree to them to rebuild the temple up on the temple mount. OK, let us rebuild our temple, then we’ll allow you to have east Jerusalem. You have yours, we’ll have ours, we’ll all live together. It’s interesting that the Israeli government asked the papacy, before Rabin was killed, they asked the Pope to play a role in Jerusalem being, somehow, a united city of all faiths. Jerusalem is holy to three false religions: • Nominal Christianity – You’ll see in Jerusalem, when you go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you’ll see the people kissing stones and praying to icons and idols of all sorts, open idolatry and superstition. • Rabbinic Judaism – The false Judaism of the rabbis which denies its own Messiah, Yeshua. • Islam – On the Dome of the Rock, on the outside of the periphery is a quotation from the Sorat in the Quran, “God has no son”. We’re told in John’s epistle, that which denies the Father-Son relationship, and denies Jesus is the Messiah is antichrist. Already the Antichrist is setting himself up to be worshiped. I’m not saying the temple has to be rebuilt, I’m simply saying it looks like it’s going to be. Of course, the Abomination of Desolations I’m worried about is what’s already happening in the church: inter-faith worship, ecumenism. The church is the temple of God in seven places in the New Testament. There are different Greek words, as I’ve said before: “oikos”, “naos”, “heiron”. But in seven places we’re told the church is the temple or the tabernacle now. And when you see inter-faith worship with Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims and with Rome in so-called Christian churches, you’re already seeing the Abomination being set up in the temple. This is rebuilt in the image of the Antichrist, when set up it will only be a reflection of what’s already become a spiritual reality. And so it is. The East Gate always has to do with the coming of the Messiah. We have a prophecy in the book of Ezekiel that the East Gate would be shut up after the Messiah entered. We had a sultan of the Turks when the Turks occupied Israel, who knew the tradition of the Jews that said the Messiah would have to come through the East Gate. And so what he did was, he ordered it sealed up so the Messiah would not be able to come through it, and he sealed up the East Gate. We read about this in Ezekiel 44:1 . Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. The Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. Now Jesus entered the East Gate on Palm Sunday. And this gate, right now as you see, is sealed up. So after the Messiah went through this gate, it would be sealed up. And it is. It was literally fulfilled. You can look at the gate. I show you the gate. But it also says that God would enter through it. Jesus was God; He entered through the gate and this prophecy of Ezekiel 44:1-2 is literally fulfilled: The coming of Jesus. The Gate of Judgment But then there’s one more gate. We call this gate in Hebrew, “the Gate of Judgment”. When Jesus comes back, there will be a judgment. There’s two judgments: those for the saved and those for the unsaved. There’s two judgment seats of Christ: the “thronos” and the “bema”. The unsaved appear before the “thronos”, the Judge of the condemnation, and the saved are judged before the “bema”, the magnitude of their reward. Rebuilding the Gates Today We live in a time in most of the western countries where the gates are devastated, and where the Lord is calling for people who will mourn over the state like Nehemiah did and begin to rebuild. There were men and there were women. People from all backgrounds, all professions, working together as families. Different groups had different jobs. Different ones had different territory. And so it’s going to be. We’re not all going to have the same ministry, we’re not all going to have the same territory, but we’re all going to have the same objective: to rebuild that which was devastated. Nehemiah went to something that used to exist and no longer did; it was broken down. He didn’t try to rebuild the Fountain Gate first, or the Water Gate first, or the Horse Gate first. Forget about it. I wish we were in a good enough state we could take on Islam . We’re not. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t witness to Muslims. We should witness to Muslims. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t witness to New Agers, we should. Should we pray for their salvation? Absolutely. But what it means is the church is not in the condition in this nation to throw back those powers the way the church is in the condition to throw it back in the Far East. We have to begin rebuilding in order. Go back to the basics: The Fish Gate, the Sheep Gate. “My sheep will hear My voice”. ( Jn. 10:27 ) The Lamb of God that was slain for us. The Gospel is simply not emphasized or preached in so many churches any more. The hymns are about anything and everything other than the blood of the Lamb. In the Vineyard hymn book – in one Vineyard hymn book I read – they had like 80-something hymns; only 2 of them mentioned the cross or the blood. That’s crazy. We have to rebuild the basic gates: The Sheep Gate, the Fish Gate. “I’ll make you fishers of men”. ( Mt. 4:19 ) OK, I thank God for this group, and the Warsaw group, and the Bangor group, and the one forming down in Rotherham, and the one down in Hastings – I thank God for these groups. We call it in Hebrew, “the shelter of refuge”. We show you the “Jewish Quarter”, the “Shelter of Refuge” or “refuge for the oppressed”. We need places like this for people who are churchless because of Toronto and the rest of it. But we just can’t be clubs for Christians who’ve been abused. We just can’t be a refugee camp for people that have come out of churches because of false doctrine, and because they were being financially fleeced all the time. That’s not good enough. We just can’t be a place where you want to come to because your church is ecumenical or Toronto-ized or whatever. That’s a beginning, but we have to begin preaching the Gospel and going fishing. These other churches are giving people hype, we’ve got to give them the truth. Getting God's Plan for Evangelism One the things we have to begin doing is to pray that we get God’s plan for evangelism. I thank God there’s tracts on the back. Take some tracts and give them out. I think that some of these meetings are going to have to begin to become evangelistic and prayer meetings praying for people to get saved. Let’s go back to the basic things: The Gospel, going fishing. We can’t cast our nets until Jesus tells us where to do it. If we just go out with our own idea for an evangelistic program, it will be another Jim Challenge. We can’t go. He has to get in our boat and tell us where to cast the nets. But everybody can use a fishing rod. There’s nobody who can’t witness day-to-day and there’s nobody who can’t ask the Lord for His plan: “Jesus, please get in our boat and You show us where to cast our nets.” We’ve got to get God’s plan for evangelism. Go back to the basics: The Old Gate, the Gate of Ephraim, the Valley Gate. Reversing the Current State This nation would not be in the state it’s in, New Zealand would not be in the state it’s in, Australia would not be in the state it’s in, Great Britain would not be in the state it’s in, except for one reason: these nations and societies are in the state they’re in because the church is in the state it’s in. We’re supposed to be the “salt” and “light” ( Mt. 5:13-16 ) Until we repent, there’s not going to be any repentance in society. There’s a lot of garbage – rubbish – stuff that’s clogging up the water works. The plumbing is jammed. Nobody wants to crawl down into a pit and clean it out: Dyno-Rod. But that’s what has to be done. We’ve got to realize this. There’s a lot of junk that’s in the church and in our lives that Jesus has to get rid of before the water can really flow again. There’s no easy way out of this mess. I’m tired of people trying things, even things that seem honest and biblical like the “Minus to Plus” of Reinhard Bonnke . There was nothing wrong with it on paper, but it didn’t work. There’s no easy way out of this mess. Certainly the Jim Challenge is no easy way out. Toronto is no easy way out. The walls have to be rebuilt, the gates have to be repaired, there’s a lot of work to do. We’ve got to clean out all the rubbish that’s stopping up the drains and clogging up the water works; then the water can flow again. But the nobles aren’t going to support the work. It’s mainly going to be ordinary people. Always was, always will be. But if we follow God’s plan instead of man’s, that rubbish is going to go. And then the water will begin to flow. When the water begins to flow, it will fill the pool: A Spirit-filled church. Satan doesn’t like Charismatic churches, but he’s not afraid of them. Satan doesn’t like Fundamentalist churches, but he’s not afraid of them. But when you have Spirit and truth, a church that’s based on the Word of God but open to the fullness of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, working in unison, that’s the kind of church he does not want to see. And he will do anything and everything he can to prevent a church like that from coming. He’ll get the fundamentalists to shut off the gifts of the Spirit, to resist the Spirit, suppress the Spirit. He’ll use crazy charismatics to discredit the gifts of the Spirit so to give them a reason to do it. And then he’ll take the charismatics and make them loony, and keep them away from the Bible, saying stupid things. I heard the case of a Pentecostal minister last week. He said, picking up the Bible, “This book has failed us; we need more of the Spirit.” Yeah? What spirit? Now the garbage goes, then the water flows. Then we go to war. Then we mount up for battle. Then we hitch the horses to the chariots. Then we can take on the forces of darkness. Signs of the Time The East Gate – the coming of Jesus. I said it a couple of times and I’ll say it one more time: If you asked me ten years ago why I thought Jesus was coming, I would have told you what Barry Smith says. Because of events in the Middle East, because of the reunification of Europe, the globalization of the world economy, the one-world money system and all this, I would have said that stuff. I still agree; he’s right. Hal Lindsay is right, Barry Smith is right, I agree with that stuff more now than I did ten years ago. But it’s not the main reason I believe Jesus is coming. The main reason I believe Jesus is coming is because of the level of deception in the church. The main leader, the evangelical archbishop of Canterbury, an charismatic, evangelical, born again, Bible-believing Christian stands up in Wimbley in London and tells the leaders of the evangelical churches and denominations in this country that we don’t have all the truth that those that aren’t even born again do. They have truth, too and we need their help? That’s crazy! A preacher stands up in the biggest Assemblies of God church in this country – it’s a student church; that’s why it’s so big, a lot of students go to it, they come and go – and he says this world is our home, I repent of ever having sworn this world is not my home any more. Jesus is coming; the East Gate. But when He comes, there’ll be a judgment: The final gate. Those gates were devastated in the days of Nehemiah and those gates are devastated today. Nehemiah and those who joined him realized there was no easy way out of it. They realized what had to be done, they rolled up their sleeves, and they got to it, men and women alike. They all had their own jobs, their own past, their own areas of work, but they realized it had to be done. There was no easy way. It’s exactly the same today. Those are the gates. The Baptist Union is not going to rebuild those gates; they’ve compromised with Rome. The Assemblies of God is not going to rebuild those gates. The Church of England is not going to rebuild those gates. 30 years of “Charismatic Renewal” – where’s the renewal? There is none. Those gates are not going to be rebuilt by the clergy or the leaders. The nobles will never support the work of their masters. Those gates are going to be built by the same kinds of people who always rebuilt them: People just like you. That’s who’s going to rebuild those gates. We have a lot of work, and the hardest job – the hardest task – is prayer. 
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