NEW AGE INFILTRATING THE CHURCH

FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS

MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

DEUTORONOMY 18:10-12
10 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,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 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.

JUDE 10-13
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

MATTHEW 10:32-33
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

JAN & ERIC TALK ABOUT THIS NEW AGE HOGWASH THAT IS INFILTRATING THE CHURCH THESE DAYS.HOURS 1 & 2 JAN 15,2011
http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/

Contemplative Mysticism promoted to Evangelicals...again
Strange Disciplines from Christianity Today

Over the years the editors of Christianity Today haven't tried to veil their increasingly liberal views and now - once again - they are serving up a heaping plate of contemplative mysticism aimed at Church leaders.It is no secret to most observers that Christianity Today has been a harbinger of every idea - whether biblical or not - to come through the Church. Liberals, cultists, Emergents, and true bible believers have had their say in its pages. When favorably citing articles from CT that actually present a biblical viewpoint, I have found myself qualifying the fact that indeed something worth reading is occasionally found in its pages. However rare that may be, the proverbial blind squirrel does indeed find an acorn to munch on from time to time. There's my disclaimer, now on to the issue at hand.For some time I have been receiving newsletters from Building Church Leaders - Leading Outreach, a division of Christianity Today International. Without doing much investigating, I have been suspiciously uncomfortable with much of the advice found in these communiques. This week those troubling inklings were more than confirmed.

The Building Church Leaders newsletters are produced by Drew Dyck, the managing editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com. Dyck manages the Leader Training Team at Christianity Today International and oversees four online publications geared for ministry leaders.In the recent Building Church Leaders newsletter, Drew Dyck has endorsed what he once referred to as strange practices. He wrote, When I first started to hear about spiritual disciplines, they made me nervous.Lectio Divina sounded strange, even a little New Age. Walking the labyrinth seemed like something people in a cult might do.Don't laugh! Coming from a low-church, evangelical background, this was all new stuff to me. Fortunately, in recent years, I've come to deeply appreciate these ancient Christian practices and recognize their powerful potential for enriching my walk with God. Learning a couple key Latin phrases helped ease my fears as well.Drew should have stuck to those original feelings. It may have actually been the Holy Spirit softly warning him of the spiritual mine-field that lay ahead.At first glance, many of the things mentioned in the offer from Christianity Today sounds fine and I'm sure some of it may be. However, the more one investigates, the more mysticism one finds being advocated as normal Christianity.

Packaged at a special combo price of $44.95, here are just a few of the resources Mr. Dyck is advocating to help Build Church Leaders.

An Introduction to Solitude
Practical wisdom on giving God our undivided attention
by Henri Nouwen

Keeping Your Clock Ticking
A primer on the benefits and practices of solitude
by John Ortberg

Silence and Solitude for Beginners
Here's how to break through common barriers to these necessary disciplines.
by Ruth Haley Barton

What Is Contemplative Prayer?
Understanding the practice and purpose of an ancient method of prayer.
Adele Calhoun

What Is Lectio Divina?
Understanding the practice, purpose, and art of spiritual reading.
Adele Calhoun

Accepting the Embrace of God
Experience a deep and transforming connection with God through Lectio Divina.
Fr. Luke Dysinger

A Parable of Devout Indifference
Here's why your current approach to studying the Bible doesn't seem to be working.
Eugene Peterson

Lectio Divina and Contemplative Prayer in Small Groups
A practical discussion on two countercultural methods of spiritual growth.
Adele Calhoun

Listening for God
How an ancient method of prayer can deepen your teenager's faith.
Tony Jones

Two Approaches to Group Lectio Divina
Practical methods of incorporating lectio divina into your small group experience.
Fr. Luke Dysinger

Answering the Objections
Teaching your people about spiritual disciplines often starts with dispelling myths.
Paul Anderson

(Note: This last one may well instruct congregations not to listen to people like Yours Truly!)

Richard Foster - One of the best know contemplative advocates. Foster, a so-called Christian Mystic, has helped usher in what can only be called a Christianized form of Eastern mysticism.He claims that the reason people are turning to Zen and TM is because they lack the direction of what he calls spiritual directors. NOTE: They’re called Gurus in Eastern thought and Shamans elsewhere! This is all part of the deception by re-identification that has become so prevalent in Emergent thought. It is all about changing the name to change the perception… a retooling of one’s aversion for mysticism.Now, after 30+ years of what is nothing short of New Age tinkering, deceived Christians call them spiritual directors. Foster explains this in his now 1978 book Celebration of Discipline, In the Middle Ages not even the greatest saints attempted the depths of the inward journey without the help of a spiritual director (p. 159). The problem, according to Foster, is that the churches (in 1978) lacked living masters.

Where does the Bible tell us that the path to God takes us on an inward spiritual journey? IT DOES NOT. In fact, this is the road to demonic mystical experiences instead.

Foster is only one of many who are advocating this.Again in the pages of Christianity Today we read these words from Rob Bell of Mars Hill Church in Grandville, MI This is not just the same old message with new methods. We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life.
- Christianity Today, November, 2004, pp. 36-41
(http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html?start=2)

Ruth Haley Barton- Co-Founder and President of The Transforming Center (Wheaton, IL). She was trained through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation (Bethesda, Maryland). Educated at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois) and has been on the pastoral staff of Willow Creek Community Church. She is also on the Christianity Today/Building Church Leaders Advisory Board.Tilden Edwards, founder of the Shalem Institute that trained Barton states: mystical stream is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (and to that of Sufi Moslems and some Hassidic Jews in the West as well). The Zen warning not to confuse the pointing finger…for the moon to which it points is a saying that a Christian mystic easily understands. It is no accident that the most active frontier between Christian and Eastern religions today is between contemplative Christian monks and their Eastern equivalents. Some forms of Eastern meditation informally have been incorporated or adapted into the practice of many Christian monks, and increasingly by other Christians.(Spiritual Friend by Tilden Edwards; page 18)

Henri Nouwen - popularized in writings of Rick Warren, who quoted him in The Purpose-Driven Life and Francis Chan in Crazy Love.Nouwen is one of the most popular contemplative New Age mystic and is a blatant a Buddhist sympathizer who sees a bridge to Eastern mysticism through silence. Moreover, Nouwen was a blatant universalist.In his last book, Sabbatical Journey, Nouwen wrote:Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. (Sabbatical Journey, page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition)On page 22 of the book Here and Now Nouwen wrote: The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is the same as the one who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being.From Bread for the Journey inspirational newsletter Nouwen states: Prayer is soul work because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one, ... It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is.As recently as September 14, 2010 Rick Warren tweeted on Twitter a Nouwen quote: Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.

Tony Jones - Quotes The emerging church is a place of conversation and dialogue and movement. Where that’s going to go, we don’t know. We're figuring this out together. We don’t have an agenda of what it looks like at the end of the road. We just want to gather up people who are on this road, who want to go together on it.
- Tony Jones, PBS Special, July 15, 2005

Emergent doesn’t have a position on absolute truth, or on anything for that matter.”
– Emergent Leader Tony Jones
- At the 2005 National Youth Workers Convention

Tony Jones calls the doctrine of original sin a depraved idea. He says,I have come to reject the notion of Original Sin. I consider it neither biblically, philosophically, nor scientifically tenable.
- From his New Christians blog for January 26, 2009

Tony Jones writes,now believe that GLBTQ (those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer) can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.
(http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2008/11/same-sex-marriage-blogalogue-h.html)

Lynne M. Baab - Another Building Church Leaders Advisory Board member. A Presbyterian minister from Seattle.She is author of eight books including A Renewed Spirituality - Celtic Christian spirituality, Nature, Benedictine Spirituality, Contemplative Prayer

Adele Calhoun - is author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us. The advertising says the book will lead us to Fasting, Solitude Contemplative prayer and Lectio Divina. She recommends Dallas Willard, Richard Foster; and contemplative Emergent teacher, Phyllis Tickle. Again, notice the networking factor as these folks redirect readers and followers to other mystics.
Two of her contributions to the Building Church Leaders Spiritual Disciplines Essentials Combo Pack of materials are:

What Is Contemplative Prayer? Understanding the practice and purpose of an ancient method of prayer.

What Is Lectio Divina? Understanding the practice, purpose, and art of spiritual reading.

John Ortberg - Menlo Park (CA) Presbyterian.

In Ortberg's 2005 book, God is Closer Than You Think, Ortberg quotes favorably from contemplatives such as Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Gary Thomas (Sacred Pathways), Brother Lawrence (who danced violently like a mad man when he practiced), interspiritualists Tilden Edwards (Shalem Institute), Thomas Kelly (Divine Center in all), Jean Pierre de Caussade, Frederick Buechner, Meister Eckhart as well as Dallas Willard and Thomas Merton.

NOTE: German, Meister Eckhart was an alleged Christian monk / occult mystic (perhaps the earliest Contemplative Emergent!?) who lived in the 24th century A.D. He is also the inspiration and assumed name-sake for modern New Age author, Eckhart Tolle. Tolle changed his name from Ulrich Tolle to Eckhart Tolle because of the immense spiritual connection he felt for the ancient mystic. Tolle became world famous in 2008 through being featured by Oprah Winfrey when she spotlighted his book A New Earth on her television program. Winfrey’s adoration for Tolle’s spirituality inspired her to host and participate in a 10 week series of webcasts on her Internet site in which Oprah herself entered altered states of consciousness utilizing Tolle’s instruction and techniques. These New Age and occult practices were nearly identical to those endorsed by Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Ortberg and the other contemplative emergent practitioners. (See video clips of Oprah and Tolle in the video New Age Truth or…Old Age Deception?)

OTHER LINKS TO THIS STORY
http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com/home/offer.html?offer=spiritualdiscessentcombo
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html?start=2
http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2008/11/same-sex-marriage-blogalogue-h.html
http://www.ericbarger.com/tasstore/info.pgs/natruth.info.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ebart32#p/u
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/nam.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/emailers/2008/update6-27-2008.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/cults.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/occult.htm
http://www.understandthetimes.org/ec/exposingec.shtml

RACE TOWARD JUDGEMENT The New Age Movement
by Ed Decker

So much has been said and written lately about the New Age Movement that you almost need a directory to sort out all the material. I recently read in one of the national magazines that books and articles dealing with the New Age accounted for approximately half of all Christian bookstore sales this last year. I don't know how accurate that is but the New Age seems to be around every corner lately. Last year, my wife Carol and I spent a little summer vacation time in Sun Valley, Idaho, a ski resort tucked away in the Sawtooth Mountains. Even though we expected to have a quiet, relaxing time during off-season, the place was crowded beyond capacity with a New Age Conference, complete with Shirley McLaine, Gurus, Channelers and mystics of every size and shape. The attendees paid hundreds of dollars to sit in on this convergence of pyramid power, crystals and New Age clairvoyants. So much for our quiet time away from the pressures and stress of ministry.A few years ago, Carol and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a quiet weekend trip to one of the nearby islands of the San Juans and looked forward to the solitude at Rosario Lodge on Orcas Island. We just squeezed in at the heavily booked resort and as though they were right on schedule, a New Age Conference filled up the rest of the entire resort. It is as though the Lord has wanted to be certain I took a long hard look at this phenomenon. While they pranced around with their shirts crying out for us to "Visualize World Peace", I put on a similar shirt that said, Visualize Hell! It was another fun weekend of rest and relaxation for the Deckers.

I want to talk to you about the New Age movement. I'll leave much of the detail of it to those who are the real experts, but I want to first identify the movement and then show you how we Got there and where this fascination for the mysteries is leading our nation and the world. What is the New Age? That's the first question everyone asks. An actual general definition that can be placed an a table to look is difficult to pull together from the scores of books and articles on the subject. However, one book that cut through the maze for me has been the Huntington House book, INSIDE THE NEW AGE NIGHTMARE, By the late Randall Baer.In it, Randy identified the two major schools of New Age thought. He defined the first viewpoint of New Age thought as Consciousness Renaissance, a transformation in which mankind is stepping beyond its self-imposed limits to merge with the unlimited powers of a utopian universe. Baer stated, Consciousness Renaissance sees humankind currently experiencing the beginning of a new spiritual and socio-political awakening, a modern-day super-Renaissance destined to lead man into a new era of enlightened spiritual humanism. Spurning the thought of man needing divine intervention to assist in the creation of a global utopia, this perspective sees the awakening of unlimited human god-potential as the means by which heaven on earth will manifest. In essence, as man achieves higher states of god-consciousness through New Age practices, heaven will dawn on earth only through the dawning of man's enlightened higher consciousness.(pages 89-90)

This philosophy works from the perspective that man's true mind has been veiled by his own ignorance and limits; that man is divine and perfect, the world is divine and perfect and the whole cosmos is divine and perfect and we are all part of the same divinity. All we need to do in order to claim our godhood, both as individuals and as an entire world, is to step into the reality of our perfection and divinity.
The second major branch of New Age thought can be termed the Quantum Leap of Consciousness. Baer quotes one New Age source as saying, We are on the brink of a new age, a whole new world. In the twinkling of an eye, mankind's awareness, our collective consciousness, is going to make an instantaneous quantum leap into the heavens. Everything will change in a flash of divine light. Get ready. Your heavenly heritage awaits.(page 90)Baer reported that when sufficient momentum is generated by enough people having developed higher consciousness, then the entire world will be ready to take that quantum leap into a higher dimension. In contrast to the Consciousness Renaissance, this model is directly tied to some form of outside, divine intervention. (page 90) He stated that there are varied concepts as to what form this divine intervention will take. His examples include Highly evolved extra-terrestials, a Council of Ascended Masters, an Enlightened World Teacher or some other all-powerful divine being(s). Earth and humanity are to be pulled up to the next major notch on the evolutionary ladder, thereafter to be governed benevolently by the [pick one] intervening celestial force(s). (page 90)

Baer continued on in that vein for another page, but really hit the new age nail on the head when he summarized his comparisons of the two groups, Although there is much overlapping between these two major philosophies, the Quantum Leap of Consciousness viewpoint is much more predisposed to the metaphysical-occult end of the spectrum. In particular, the predominant themes lie much more towards mediumship, spiritism, witchcraft, psychic powers, and sorceries in myriad shapes and forms. One of the primary dangers from this branch of the New Age is its major contribution to the historically unprecedented unleashing of demonic forces into the world today.(page 91) As those around us who are drawn into the mysterious aura of these movements, we see people who are living in a world somewhere between extreme serenity and joyous euphoria. With bumper stickers and T shirts calling for us to Visualize World Peace, they somehow appear to be playing out the yuppy rendition of the peace movements of a generation ago.When President Bush ushered in his Presidency by calling for A Thousand Points of Light a great New Age wave began to come sweeping across our nation. The Clinton presidency fed on those beginnings and today, the New Age movement is firmly in place.Now we are witnessing what world leaders are calling The Dawn of A New Age, A New World Order. Ever since WWII this nation (and the rest of the world) has been exploding into this New Age of Man with a speed that has the entire Planet reeling with each morning news.

If you are wondering, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR WORLD? Let's look back a little bit. The Mills Brothers generation was shocked at Elvis. Then the Beetles backed out of the scene to Acid Rock and the Madonna generation. Now we have the likes of 2 LIVE CREW and their filth by court decree. In the Art World, filth we used to burn is now being created at taxpayer expense...... In today's America, No emotional, sexual, neurotic behavior of any kind can be restrained except decency and Religious Freedom. If you think this is an accidental situation, you are sadly mistaken. Things will get worse, not better.We have gone from throwing away dishes to throwing away diapers to throwing away families. Today you can go to jail for breaking an eagle's egg yet have the government pay you to kill your own child in the womb. People are given large grants and media support to tie themselves to ships to Save the Whales and Dolphins, yet people who try to Save the Babies are victims of police brutality and severe legal action.We have gone from a country where the priority was the protection of the rights of its citizens to a Nation that now protects the rights of every deviant in society even when those rights take away the rights of the very citizens it is supposed to protect.

50 years ago, we were the most powerful nation on earth. Today, we are like a giant stumbling and groping about in a state of drunkenness, eaten alive by disease, drugs and poison in the bloodstream of our national life, clawing at ourselves as we attempt to gain control of ourselves. We are like that demonized man in chains that Jesus met who tore at himself.Remember the book that took America by storm? I'm OK, Youíre OK! It made millions of people who read it very happy. The word was out, We are all OK, even when we are NOT! It was an answer to prayer - well - the prayers of people who didn't want to bring their sin and guilt before the LORD. Here was someone who bailed them out without a confessional. The country breathed a great sigh of relief.Then, in 1970, I ran out with everyone else and got my copy of Alvin Toffler's new book, FUTURE SHOCK. and saw in it an emerging pattern.

I just read back through it again after 20 years.Toffler showed that we were being bombarded with all the elements of massive future shock. Something was radically happening to our society. Toffler said that the pace of change was picking up at such a rate, the curve was going off the chart. I agreed with him then and even more so today.My first house cost less money than my last car. My last computer cost less money than my first new car and my first used car cost less money than the check for the last meal our family had out. Things are happening so fats it is almost impossible to adapt to them. We've passed the limits of Adaptability.Toffler talked about a soldier in battle(pp306) being bombarded from every side with bullets, screams, groans, explosions, shells bursting, rapid machine gun fire, flares lighting up the sky, etc. He said that sometimes in such an over stimulating environment, a soldier is pushed beyond his limits or beyond the upper reaches of his adaptive range. Army Doctors called it, long range penetration strain. Too long - too far and too intense.And this problem has permeated every sector of our society. Its symptoms are Mental deterioration, fatigue, emotional exhaustion. Its victims become dull and listless, irrational, confused, mindlessness, dazed, and bewildered.

We are a nation of confused people running in the wrong direction.To the many people without an anchor, life has become a surrealistic nightmare. They collectively end up with a subjective feeling of loss and a sense of isolation and loneliness, from this massive bombardment of the senses. In truth, it has a probable purpose and an end goal orchestrated by the master of deceit himself. The answer, he wants us to believe, is in the teachings of the New Age, which in reality is still the Old Age lie.The tricks of the New Age trade are hardly new. The cults have been doing the same things since even before Christ for years and the brain washing techniques of the Korean war gave ample evidence that it either worked or destroyed its victims. It is the same thing in some factories where abusive noise levels create everything from chronic sickness to dysfunctional families. Hard Rock music is not only destroying the hearing of a generation, it has bred rebellion and anger.The New Age masters have realized that they can easily take advantage of the present chaotic state of mankind and offer our disturbed world a tasty kind of peace that soothes the jangled nerves of society, without society having to deal with its creator.

Toffler gave the example (pp314) of the housewife confronted with squalling children, jangling phones, broken washing machines, the screech of heavy metal music from the basement hideout of her sullen teenager and the blare of the TV from the family room. He said that this lady is probably at full overload and can no longer process data rationally. She has reached the point of decision stress overload. She is most likely incapable of rational decisions.She is probably not alone. We all fall into that state from time to time. Should I take the new job? Should you buy the new house? Should he have an affair with the secretary? Will insurance cover all the costs of the operation? Will she have to borrow more money? Can the car last another winter or should I buy a new one? Every change requires new decisions, the more complex life gets the more chance for error and the more likely we fall victim to Future Shock.Some people block out unwelcome reality and let in welcome unreality, now matter how fleeting, how destructive, how costly. Here comes the entry point for drugs, booze and even the soaps and the Guru's of the New Age. It is here where the Solid Rock of Calvary has always offered the firm foundation of faith to withstand all the fiery barbs of the onslaught. It holds the answers to all the puzzles and pressures of life and brings an everlasting peace within to every one who will let go of self and hold on to Christ.But there is another kind of belief system that often goes into gear in these tense conditions. It's a rampant intellectual faddism that moves faster than even the rate of these future shock explosions, because it is being propelled by the enemy of God.These lost and confused people who refuse to reach out to Calvary try to pull from within themselves and failing there, seek help from any source other than God. Here they trade a host of painful, unsolvable problems for a temporary fix as lasting as the last New Age miracle cure.

That's whatís happening to our world and the only ones surviving it are the ones who have anchored to the Rock. All the rest are victims caught up in the turbulent crashing waves of New Age Future Shock. It offers them the chance to Vacate the premises, to empty out all the problems of life and let their New Age guide assist them in refilling their being so that they, too, can experience that joyous Light within The Light and replace the reality of sin and rebellion from God with a new easy loving god from the New World Order.But God knew this was to come, this falling away before the final judgement and told us in His Word that the world would be racing toward it with ever quickening speed. Satan knew it was coming, too. You see, it's not going to get any better. The curves on the graph aren't going to turn downward. We are heading for that final day.The New Agers can gaze through Crystals all they want. Mellow out, dude, isn't going to happen. Chanting and meditating won't stop the clock and a thousand Ramthas don't have the answer. The only way anyone will ever be one with the mighty, creative God of this Universe is through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.That's where we came in. The New Age marketeers want us to see the peace and serenity of their movement as an escape from the pressures on a volatile world, when in reality it is the very vehicle in which the world is spiraling downward in its final Race Toward Judgement. This should come as no surprise to those Christians who have a Biblical perspective to their understanding of human events. The Scriptures remind us that, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables.(II Tim 4:2)

Billy Graham spoke to a large conference on evangelism in Amsterdam several years ago. In that message, he said something that has stayed with me ever since. He said that there is this large empty hole inside the heart of every man and woman in the world that can only be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. God designed us with that hole filled with His presence in the Garden, but when we separated ourselves from him, our spiritual systems became defective.The only thing that will ever fill that emptiness is God Himself and until man steps back into fellowship with God through Christ, that emptiness will just continue to ache away. So many people have tried to fill that emptiness with everything except the Lord and it holds especially true for those people lost in the lies of the new age.Visit Ed Decker and Saints Alive Ministries at www.saintsalive.com

ISAIAH 5:20-22
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

DECIEVERS WAXING WORSE AND WORSE.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Sing of salvation...sip some suds
Patrick Condon - Associated Press - 1/7/2011 11:40:00 AM

TWO HARBORS, MN -- It was a Sunday during Advent, and inside a small pub a few blocks up from the north shore of Lake Superior, 17 people gathered around four bar-top tables shoved into a ring.Betsy Nelson, the bar's cook, lit two candles with a cigarette lighter as Addison Houle strapped on an acoustic guitar and sang a slightly off-key rendition of We Three Kings. Curt Fish Anderson sipped a beer as TVs overhead flickered with NFL pregame shows.Father, thank you for this time we can share on Sunday morning with new friends, prayed Chris Fletcher, an emergency medical technician, part-time bartender and seminary student who has led this service every Sunday morning at Dunnigan's Pub & Grub since last summer. We're getting to know you, and getting to know each other better.

Spending Sunday mornings in a bar sounds like an activity for those running from God. For this small group in a watering hole in Twin Harbors, about 160 miles northeast of Minneapolis, it's about chasing God. It's one unconventional place of worship around the country fostered by an evangelical movement known as the emerging church.I feel closer to God here than I do at a conventional church, said Nelson, 56, a lifelong churchgoer who until recently could be found every Sunday morning in the pews at First Baptist Church nearby. Jesus said we're supposed to be a light to the world. What better place to do that than at a bar? After the opening prayer, Fletcher read a brief passage from the Bible before opening the floor to a group discussion. Gene Shank, a 68-year-old retired police officer making his first visit after reading a notice Fletcher put in the local newspaper, confessed to a bit of discomfort.I'm a reality person, and I'm finding a little too much established religion here to be honest, Shank said. I believe, I pray - but I don't like structured religion.Fletcher responded that, while he wants to be as informal as possible, the main goal is still creating an open space for Jesus to come into our lives, then he does the transforming work.He quickly adds that anyone who questions the way he's running the service has come to the right place.We're all messed up, he said. We're all screwed up some way.Fletcher, a stocky, balding 43-year-old with a bristly goatee, is his own first example. The native of Sudbury, Ontario, grew up in the Worldwide Church of God, a small evangelical sect he described as almost cult-like.He left religion behind as a young man, but was drawn back as he was hitting 40 and experiencing a series of personal crises: the death of a close friend in an auto accident and the dissolution of his marriage.

Last spring, Fletcher was accepted in Bethel Seminary in St. Paul; he now commutes 150 miles south one to two times a week for classes. Initially he intended to incorporate work as a chaplain into his job working with an ambulance crew, but as he began his seminary studies he found common ground with a recent wave of evangelical thinkers including Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne.McLaren and Claiborne have criticized some of Christianity's more conservative traditions as they try to attract people disinterested in traditional Sunday attendance - in particular, younger people.I don't feel welcome in a regular church, said Kayla Edwards, 25, who has been to most of Fletcher's Sunday gatherings. A lot of churches, I feel judged. Here, I feel welcome - it's laid back, you can say what you want and no one will be disgusted.One Saturday night a few months ago, Fletcher was having a drink at Dunnigan's when a stranger approached and asked to talk. She shared some personal problems and as Fletcher lent a sympathetic ear, and an idea was born. Six months later, Sunday attendance at what Fletcher calls Bar Church (For those who are thirsty reads a poster on the wall in Dunnigan's) has grown to as many as 25 people.Lately, Fletcher said, strangers have regularly been approaching him around town in search of guidance, or just someone who will listen. They'll say, you're that bar pastor,Fletcher said.Fletcher wasn't the first student of the emerging church to hold a weekly service in a tavern, nightclub or other such establishment. Such gatherings have popped up around the country in recent years, as well as home churches that serve much the same purpose. While it might seem perverse, Fletcher said he likes the message it sends to worship Jesus in a place where alcohol is served.

I often find the people in the bar are a lot more authentic than people in the church, Fletcher said. If Jesus was in Two Harbors, he'd want to be with the people in the bar. He'd probably get kicked out of the church.The Rev. Scott Nelson, pastor at First Baptist Church Two Harbors - which Fletcher himself attended before his new venture - is happy to see Fletcher reach people unlikely to set foot in a traditional church. But he's concerned by the linking of Christian worship and alcohol.For me personally, I have seen so many marriages and families fractured by alcohol, Nelson said. In moderation, there's nothing wrong with wine with dinner or a beer at a football game. But it's such a problem for so many, and that's a line I don't know if I want to see blurred.Fletcher himself is no teetotaler, but he doesn't drink during the Sunday morning service. Most of the participants usually choose coffee, but alcohol isn't forbidden: at this particular gathering, Anderson - a local resort employee and a musician - downed a couple brews as Fletcher preached.

It's kind of nice to go to church and have a couple,said Anderson, attending for the first time. I'm not exactly a churchgoer. Anderson, who grew up Roman Catholic, said he realized the church wasn't for him the day he wore a Ted Nugent T-shirt to Mass and was reprimanded by the priest.This ain't bad compared to that, Anderson said.Fletcher isn't sure how long he'll continue the Sunday gatherings.There's no five-year plan, there's not even a five-minute plan, he said.As the service on this Sunday wrapped up, he solicited prayers from the group - for sick relatives, suffering friends, and from Anderson, a prayer for the Minnesota Vikings. Then Fletcher wrapped it up.Let's pray,he said. Then we can eat.