Friday, October 12, 2012

‘Christian’ Television in Light of Bible Prophecy


“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” – Romans 16:17-18

The Apostle Paul says to avoid those who serve themselves, use smooth words, and deceive the hearts of those who are not grounded in God’s word and promote false doctrine and are offensive. They bring division in the church because error divides. Those who do not want to join in with false teachers or who warn others not to support them are labeled by the majority as the divisive ones, but Scripture commands us to note them and avoid them. The division is caused by those who flatter to gain an advantage over others, not the voices of opposition to their pernicious ways.

Any Christian with spiritual eyes to see the signs of the times does not doubt that we are in the final minutes of the Armageddon Clock. The countdown actually began as soon as the Church was birthed. The Apostle John in his second epistle said “it is the final hour” and that was almost 2,000 years ago. In Romans, Paul tells us “that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.”

We’re fast approaching the perilous times the apostles said would happen before the rapture of the bride and the judgment of the planet. There are perils increasing on every front: political, social, moral, economical, technological. Wars and rumors of war, earthquakes, famine, pestilence – you name it, we’re seeing it. These birth pangs are increasing and there’s no turning back until they run their course.

But as the church in the last days, we’re in collective denial of the dangers on the spiritual landscape. The ten virgins in the parable of the coming of the Bridegroom were all asleep when He came – reminiscent of how the apostles slept while Jesus sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even enthusiasts of eschatology can see clearly the signs of the times all around us, but when it comes to the prophesied condition of Christendom before the Parousia, many cannot connect the dots. Those who do not believe in a Premillennial view of Bible prophecy and deny we’re in the end times, by virtue of their blindness to the fact, are sitting ducks for the deceptions the Bible warns us about regarding these perilous times.

Reality Check

"Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth,
 but how is it you do not discern this time?” – Luke 12:56

Therefore, if we believe that we are living in the time of the end, then we have to accept certain prophetic pronouncements and apply them to real life. Many Christians have their own systematic theology and creeds, but don’t make the connection to the world they live in. They pay lip service to their beliefs, but can’t seem to see the world through the prism of Bible prophecy. God gave us His prophetic Word so that the generation who sees all things coming together can be inoculated against deception. So if the Lord’s return is near, then these things must also be a fact:

  • ·         Many false teachers and doers of lying signs and wonders are leading many people astray. [Matt 24:11; Matt 24:24; Mk 13:22; 2Pet 2:1; 1Jn 4:1]
  • ·         A great apostasy of professing Christians is underway in which the object of our faith – the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ – has been replaced with a man-centered devotion. [Lk 18:8; 2Thes 2:3; 2Tim 3:1-5; Acts 20:29-31; 1Tim 4:1-2; Rev 3:14-18]
  • ·         Bible-believing Christians are being persecuted by those claiming to be believers. [2Pet 3:3; Jn 16:2]
  • ·         A false church is being built that is in spiritual adultery to Almighty God and is therefore branded by God as the Great Whore. [Rev 17; Rev 19:2]
  • ·         Believers who aid and abet the false teachers are displeasing to God and in disobedience to His Word. [Rev 18:4; Eph 5:11; Rom 16:17; 2Thes 2:9-12; 1Cor 5:11-13; Gal 5:9; Rom 11:21]
  • ·         The forerunner to the antichrist is at work, preparing the minds of the people to condition them to be in awe of him when he arrives on the scene.
The Bible tells us as Christians that we are not to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes. By studying eschatology we can see the end result of the god of this world’s agenda against the professing church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just read the 7th chapter of the book of Revelation for a sneak preview of the devil’s vision of a mutant bride. To accomplish his agenda he first has to eradicate any clear witness of the true church. He has done a pretty thorough job of that by replacing faith in the Triune God of the Bible with a false faith in a god of forces or universal laws (Daniel 11:38).

The very foundation of the most prominent “Christian” television networks was built on the belief that believers can operate spiritual principles to create their own reality. God is not supreme on the earth, but according to the word/faith adherents, He has turned all power and authority of the earth over to them. God can do nothing without their permission. As they operate their force of faith, the power of the force itself kicks into action on their behalf. So many books have been written about the occult idea of the law of attraction as promoted by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, and all the mind-science cults, that there is no need to go over that again and again.

The seed-faith principle made popular by faith healer Oral Roberts is the seedbed utilized by these networks to raise money at their raise-a-thons. This idea of give-to-get has made the network owners rich and pushed many already financially stricken viewers further into debt and poverty. Thanks to the work of discernment ministries and the use of the Internet, the more educated Christians are finally catching on to the scam and holding back their support of this wholesale fraud upon the church. But sadly, the less educated, who are lured by the message that if they give to the networks they will reap a hundred-fold return, are still sending in their pledges, hoping the god of forces will be forced to operate on their behalf.

The prosperity deception is widely taught by TV preachers out of sheer necessity to keep the money rolling in since overhead is high in the satellite-television business.  They adopted the god of forces who can be controlled by the words of their mouth and what they decree since that puts the power to prosper into their own hands. No need to wait for a yes or no answer from the Sovereign Creator of the Universe. He might not see things their way and His will might conflict with their own. 

There’s power in numbers – both people and dollar signs. “Christian” broadcasters must therefore attract the widest audience possible in order to stay in business. This need plays right into the vision of the antichrist to eradicate the true Gospel and replace it with a man-centered, world-loving, power-hungry faith that believes it can change the world through unity. Oral Roberts used to host an annual ecumenical gathering in Tulsa with the banner over the platform that read, “Love and Unity Through Signs and Wonders.”

Paul Crouch Sr. has been a major player in unifying the professing church while playing his numbers game needed for expansion. From the start TBN has featured various Catholic priests both on their Praise the Lord program and in their line-up of broadcasting clients.  He has slammed the Protestant Reformation as a tool of Satan and proudly proclaimed, “I’m not protesting anything.” Those in disagreement, he labeled Pharisees. He even hosted the late Pope John Paul II’s visit to America, carrying the Catholic youth rallies live on TBN.

While the management of most “Christian” networks are word/faith heretics, their quest for unity of the professing church, both true and false, is a major money-raising success strategy they all use. They might not realize they are playing into the hands of Satan and the spirit of antichrist to blur the lines between the holy and the profane. However, the spirit of antichrist must bring apostasy to the church in advance of forming the Great Harlot.

For this reason, all the apostate networks welcome the involvement of sound doctrinal teachers, just so long as they don’t point out the condition of their fellow broadcasters or use their network to teach the distinction between true and false teaching seen on TV.

The Crouches and the Lambs and the Alecs see sound teachers as useful idiots who give the rest credibility. And the so-called solid ministries think they can be lights in a dark place by proclaiming truth where only error has been promoted. But by doing so they lead the many astray and do more harm than good. Here’s a verse that applies to this sin they are committing against those who trust them:

“For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple,
 will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat
 those things offered to idols? 
And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, 
for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren,
 and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.” 
- 1 Corinthians 8:10-12

The end certainly does not justify the means. They are playing right into the hands of the spirit of antichrist when there is no line of demarcation between the true Bride and the Bride of Frankenstein these networks are producing.

In these last days battle lines are being drawn. The separation of the sheep and goats is being seen. It’s time for every believer to take a stand against the encroaching evil and be faithful to the end. Those who compromise with evil will end up being defeated by the very evil they wink at. Those who buy airtime from so-called brothers and yoke themselves unevenly with them will be held to account for all the baby believers they feed to the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The mixture is creating a mutant church that is powerless to preach an untainted Gospel. It is looking more like the Laodicean luke-warm so-called church that Jesus promises to spew out of His mouth. Those who don’t separate from it now, will not be able to do so when Jesus comes for His faithful Bride. The word-faith leaven is leavening the entire lump with the assistance of well-meaning compromisers.

“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,
 just as you are in fact unleavened.
 For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
1 Corinthians 5:7