About Marsha West

Marsha West is the owner and managing editor of Christian Research Network, Apprising Ministries (the late Ken Silva’s blog) and On Solid Rock Resources. She is also co-founder of Berean Research. For two decades Marsha was the owner and managing editor of Email Brigade website as well as the EMB News Report, a bi-weekly email report for conservative people of faith. For many years Marsha was a regular contributor to several blogs including CRN, RenewAmerica, News With Views and Web Commantary as well as popular websites she no longer endorses: American Family Association, Worldview Weekend, Stand Up For The Truth, The Christian Post and Christian Headlines. Although Marsha still blogs, her primary focus is CRN. Marsha also writes Research Papers (White Papers) on various topics that are published on CRN, Berean Research and On Solid Rock Resources. Visit Marsha’s other sites: On Solid Rock Resources https://www.onsolidrockresources.com/ Apprising Ministries http://apprising.org Marsha’s RenewAmerica Column http://renewamerica.com/columns/mwest Marsha’s Facebook Page http://facebook.com/marsha.west.77

Christianity is in a serious crisis

Pelagianism? What is it and why should believers be concerned that it has become pervasive in the visible Church? Listen to Michael Horton and the White Horse Inn panel examine the “Heresy of American Pelagianism.” Following is Mike Horton’s intro:

The fact that recent polls indicate that 77% of the evangelicals today believe that human beings are basically good and 84% of these conservative Protestants believe that in salvation “God helps those who help themselves” demonstrates incontrovertibly that contemporary Christianity is in a serious crisis. No longer can conservative, “Bible-believing” evangelicals smugly hurl insults at mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics for doctrinal treason. It is evangelicals today, every bit as much as anyone else, who have embraced the assumptions of the Pelagian heresy. It is this heresy that lies at the bottom of much of popular psychology (human nature, basically good, is warped by its environment), political crusades (we are going to bring about salvation and revival through this campaign), and evangelism and church growth (seeing conversion as a natural process, just like changing from one brand of soap to another, and seeing the evangelist or entrepreneurial pastor as the one who actually adds to the church those to be saved).

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Two Men Who Identify as Women Elected to Government Offices as Days Grow Darker

Christian News reports:

Democrat Daniel “Danica” Roem was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates

Two men who identify as women were elected by voters on Tuesday, one running for city council in Minnesota and another seeking to serve in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Andrea Jenkins, whose birth name has not been cited in reports, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council with 73 percent of the vote. Jenkins began presenting as a female 26 years ago at age 30, and has been working as the senior policy aide for Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden for the past 12 years.

He also is active as a poet and a transgender activist, working with the Transgender Oral History Project (TOHP) at the University of Minnesota.

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Most Charismatics Are Closet Cessationists

According to Eternity Matters (EM), charismatics have redefined healings, tongues and fallability of prophets from the original biblical definitions and even the nature of what a gift is. Adding to the problem, says EM, we have evangelical leaders like Dr. John Piper allow the charismatics’ redefinition of a prophet to stand; thus, “they can’t be dismissed even when they get loads of prophesies wrong.”

EM contends that both sides are cessationists…with one side being less so than the other. Here’s how they reached this conclusion:

Until recently I was a fence-sitter on the continuation/cessation of spiritual gifts debate topic, never really researching it enough to pick a side.  My position was that while the gifts could continue, I’d never seen them done properly (e.g., those enamored with the gift of tongues never obeyed the handful of verses governing their use).  Other than some “sloppy God talk” that I’ve addressed many times, I never went to a church where leaders took things too far (e.g., the Benny Hinn / Bill Johnson – Bethel / etc. nonsense).

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Believers Are Not Out On Bail

Dr. R. Scott Clark explains the rudiments of the justice system “in order to appreciate what God’s Word means when it says that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have been ‘justified.’” Dr. Clark’s piece is published on The Heidelblog:

In the American criminal justice system, for many charges, after one has been arrested and booked (photographed for a “mug shot,” fingerprinted, and paperwork completed) one goes to jail to await a preliminary hearing and after that a trial of the charge. The only way to be released from jail is to “post bond.” That is the process of paying a percentage of a substantial sum of money to the court as a guarantee that the person charged will appear as needed for hearings and especially for the trial.

A person out of jail on bail, who has been charged with a crime, is in a legal limbo. Legall is still innocent but a cloud hangs over his head. He has been charged but he has not been either convicted or cleared. He is waiting for a future adjudication of his case. He is still subject to criminal penalties (e.g., fines) and punishment e.g., prison or even death).

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The difference between apostolic gift vs apostolic office and how to recognize NAR apostles

From Churchwatch Central:

When starting to examine cults, one quickly realizes that their nature is to mainstream their teachings and leaders. Most importantly, their drive is to be accepted and affirmed as a legitimate Christian group.

This quest for affirmation can be seen in the New Order of the Latter Rain cult.

The NOLR were thrilled to be embraced as a legitimate group through their Charismatic Movement in the early 1960s. In 1967 and later again in 1977, they were also happy to be affirmed by Roman Catholics .

C. Peter Wagner has often written about the rise of the New Apostolic Reformation that was emerging from the Charismatic Movement, he himself acknowledging the roots stemming back to the NOLR. Below, we have a quote from a section of his book ‘Apostles Today’ that has him teaching on the difference between the ‘apostolic gift and the apostolic office’ then proceeds to teach people how to recognize NAR apostles.

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Check out Berean Research’s White Paper on the New Apostolic Reformation/NAR

Does Jesus love you more if you send your pastor a thousand bucks?

In an interview on CNN, Costi Hinn, nephew of televangelist Benny Hinn, explains what changed his mind about heretical Word of Faith/prosperity/health & wealth teaching and why he now believes that, as a child, he was introduced to false teaching. Costi is now an outspoken critic of the prosperity gospel and speaks out against it. As a result, he is estranged from his family. The video is followed by an exposé on the Hinn family empire written by liberal CNN news anchor Carol Costello who also conducted the interview:

Head of the Hinn Family Empire, Benny Hinn

We use Jesus’s name in twisted — and often awful — ways to make points that are more about us and less about Jesus and his teachings. Pro-life and want to pack heat? Numerous articles are dedicated to which gun Jesus would carry to protect the “weak and defenseless.”

Certain leaders, who claim to be religious, are dedicated to a greedy notion of Jesus who just wants one thing for his loyal followers: money, money and more money.
My interest in this exploitation of Jesus deepened after I met Costi Hinn. His uncle, Pastor Benny Hinn, claims God uses him as a conduit to cure disease: He simply “lays hands,” Jesus-like, on a chronically ill person, pushes them to the ground and — bam! — the person bounces back to health.

Christians, We Need To Talk About Hollywood

From Berean Research:

Tim Challies addresses the Hollywood crisis. He reminds us that there is a lack of godly character in the entertainment industry. In light of the serious allegations, Christians must consider our relationship to Tinseltown, says Challies. “I think we as believers need to think seriously at this juncture about our participation in this world, this world which is proving itself to be absolutely vile, absolutely full of the worst kind of sin and depravity.”  Tim has done a short video and includes a transcript. So you can watch or read — or both!

These have been some dark days for Hollywood. I’m not talking about box office receipts. I’m not talking about Rotten Tomatoes reviews. I’m talking about scandal. A few weeks ago, a scandal erupted in Hollywood. Since then, it’s risen, it’s grown, and it’s threatened to become a full-blown crisis that might disrupt the whole industry there in Hollywood. I think it’s important that we as Christian at a place like this start to think about our relationship to Hollywood. Christians, I think we need to talk about Tinseltown.

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Who Will Go Into the ‘Furnace of Fire’ Jesus warned about? – Part 2

Following is part 2 of a series we published entitled “Hell Interrupted” by Tim Barnett and Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason. Barnett and Koukl go to the scriptures to answer the burning question: Is the future punishment of the wicked a place of eternal fire?

Hell is not a pleasant topic. It’s an ugly, unsettling, dangerous reality—expedient to dismiss, easy to avoid serious discussion about, convenient to disregard by joking about in a way that trivializes it.

This will not do, though, because the sobering certainty about Hell is this: One day every person who has ever lived will stand in judgment for their conduct in this life. For multitudes, that will not go well because for them, when the final gavel falls, Hell will be their sentence.

The nature of that sentence is our concern here. However, regardless of how one construes what happens in Hell, one point is clear: Hell is the end of the line. It is the final state. It is the ultimate destination for the damned. Hell’s door is shut forever, and its sentence can never be undone, revoked, or reversed. Ever.

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Read part 1 here

The Spirit of God Provides Assurance of Salvation

Josh Buice of Delivered by Grace examines 1 John. Find out how a person can know if they are a true Christian:

Yesterday I had the opportunity of preaching from 1 John 4:13-21 in our series through the epistle of 1 John.   As we’ve pointed out all through the series, John has a desire for his readers to know some things about God, about themselves, and to have assurance of their salvation.   We have purposely titled the series, “Know” for that reason.

Millions of professing Christians wake up everyday and approach life without concrete assurance of their salvation.  They ask themselves often if their faith is real, if their religion is genuine, and if they have truly pleased God.  However, they continue to fall back into ongoing patterns of sin and seem to have very little if any love for God’s Word and their local church.  How can a person know they are indeed a true Christian?

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How Should We Respond to the Horrific Church Shooting in Texas?

The First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs Texas

By Pulpit & Pen News Division, Nov 5, 2017

…Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2).

What We Know

Today, a mad gunman burst into the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, and killed (at least) 26 people and shot approximately 20 more. Average attendance for the church is in the fifties, meaning that almost everyone was shot. The youngest victim was reportedly two and the oldest is in their 70s. The pastor’s 14-year-old daughter was murdered. The gunman was Devin Kelley, a 26 year-old with a dishonorable discharge from the military. Reportedly, he was a registered Democrat, former VBS instructor, and by some reporting, involved with Antifa (no one knows at this point how valid the reporting has been in its earliest of stages). Also, Kelley had posted a photograph of his AR-15 rifle on Facebook in late October. It is unknown what his connection is with the church, but it is not believed he had one. One Citizen grabbed his rifle when seeing the shooting, and took up pursuit with another Citizen who stopped and let him in his vehicle. They pursued Kelley until he ran off the road, and they kept point until police arrived. It is unclear if Kelley was shot by the Citizen or by his own hand.

What Else We Know, and What We Expect

We know that this little town near San Antonio is reeling in agony. For them, this tragedy is Apocalyptic in scale. An entire church was wiped off the face of the Earth, entire families were decimated, an entire community for the rest of time will be remembered as the place where it happened. No doubt, this little hamlet of civilization has been flooded with news agencies from around the world, agents with the FBI and ATF, ambulance-chasing opportunists of the worst varieties, and well-meaning helping hands (who often get in the way).

Whenever schools resume, they will need an army of people trained in crisis therapy. Life will not get back to “normal” in this town for a long, long time – if ever. Likewise, we can expect for liberals to call for gun control (in fact, they already have started) and conspiracy theorists will find reasons to explain that this is a “false flag” designed to confiscate firearms. If Kelley is indeed an activist with Antifa or a registered Democrat, conservatives will claim this is the fruit of an increasingly anti-Christian culture. If Kelley was on psychotropic prescription drugs, it will be used as further evidence that we are medicating people into sociopaths. Anti-military activists will claim that the army is creating killers. If Kelley was a conservative, liberals will seek to draw him to some kind of militia movement and perpetuate the stereotype of dangerous white men. All of those conversations will be had in coming days.

It will be easy to get sucked into the political volleying back and forth between conservatives and Marxist fascists who want to disarm America. It will be easy to make that the substance of our concern. We can expect political opportunists to take as much advantage of this situation as ambulance-chasing lawyers at a horrific crash scene.

What We Should Do

Find out here  View article →

‘Should we take our kids to see “The Star” film?’

Berean Research reviews the Sony Pictures animated film that’s “for the whole family.”:

I recently received a letter from a woman whose church’s children’s ministry was wondering if the new Christmas film, “The Star,” is worth seeing.

There are no reviews yet, but there is a considerable amount of promotion. What most see when Googling this movie is a Shrek-like retelling of “the Christmas story” through the eyes of the animals. But it is only loosely based on the real biblical account of Christ’s birth, with a whole lot of made-up fantasy backstory.

From the trailer and press release, I caught a couple of details that you might want to consider. First, the soundtrack by Mariah Carey plays in the background with the lyrics, “that’s what Christmas means to me,” which is subtly pushing the idea of relativism – instead of truth, it’s whatever truth is true in your own heart.

Perry Noble Announces That He and His Wife Are Divorcing

Last year we learned that Perry Noble was removed as senior pastor of the church he founded. The NewSpring Board of Directors announced that it was “a difficult and painful decision” to remove Noble, adding that he was “no longer qualified to serve as pastor.” Shane Duffy announced to the church that Noble “had made unfortunate choices and decisions that have caused much concern.” Duffy said the directors had confronted Noble about his alcohol use and his “posture toward marriage.” Founder or not, the board felt they had no choice but to fire him.

Sixteen months later Noble announced that he and his wife are divorcing. Since they’re both professing Christians we can only assume that the reason for the divorce is biblical. There are two clear grounds for divorce: (1) sexual immorality (Matthew 5:32; 19:9) and (2) abandonment by an unbeliever (1 Corinthians 7:15).  But Bible believing Christians must keep in mind that “I hate divorce, says the Lord God.” (Malachi 2:16)

Now to The Wartburg Watch’s story on the disgraced former pastor’s divorce announcement:

Perry Noble, former senior pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina, has announced via Faithwire that after 17 years of marriage, he and his wife Lucretia are calling it quits. See screen shot below.

“This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever communicated, and I understand it will be even more difficult for many of you to read. After being married for 17 years I have found myself in a place I never imagined I would be — as no one who has ever been married ever dreams in a million years that their marriage will one day end in divorce.

“However, that is where I find myself at this point in time.

“I am doing my best to walk through this deeply personal and painful process with as much grace as possible. I would ask for your prayers in this season as well as humbly ask for privacy for my family in this matter as we work through this deeply personal situation.”

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Related:

Perry Noble Files Paperwork for New Church: NewSpring Says He’s Not Qualified to Pastor

Perry Noble’s Ended Preaching Career Revived at Elevation Church 

Perry Noble Says Churches Are Businesses, Offers to Help The Grow

Alcoholic Pastor, Perry Noble, Says He Will Not Return to Ministry

Perry Noble Removed As Pastor At NewSpring for Personal Behavior Related to Alcohol

Voice of the Apostles: Deceiving Apostles Spirits and Demonic Transference

EmergentWatch reminds us that “there are multiple verses in the Gospels showing demons manifesting similar symptoms [that occur at the conference] – being seized by evil spirits, falling to the ground and convulsing (twitching and jerking, etc.).”

EW has produced a video of a Voice of The Apostles conference that was held Oct. 17-20 in Lancaster, PA. Watch the video and you will witness what happens when NAR wolves lay their hands on people. It’s not a pretty sight.

Is the Holy Spirit really responsible for this sort of bizarre behavior? No. Why? Because it doesn’t glorify God.

False teachers Benny Hinn, Randy Clark & Bill Johnson

This event is where top false prophets of the NAR ordain and “anoint” their disciples. The EmergentWatch documentary video is a composite of over 8 hours of video taken during the 3 day event. In this video one can witness the demonic transference from these false “apostles”, and the demonic spiritual effect this has on their followers. These effects have been compared to those seen in occultic Kundalini awakening and the uncontrollable movements known as “Kriyas”.

MUST WATCH video  View article →

Related: Angels, Demons & Spiritual Warfare

Pope to Allow Brazilian Priests to Marry

Pulpit & Pen News reports:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,  through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Timothy 4:1-3). 

Paul told Timothy that there was an apostasy coming to the church, and would be characterized by forbidding those things that God has made to be received with thanksgiving, including marriage. This prophecy is fulfilled in the Romish church. However, it seems that the longstanding practice of forbidding priests to marry – which has resulted in their natural sexual affections being oriented in ways not created by God to be received with thanksgiving – may change if Pope Francis has his way.

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See our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

‘God’s Dream’ – From the ‘Jesus’ of Jesus Calling – A Deceptive Scheme

“Sarah Young’s ‘Jesus’ plays right into this clever conditioning when he introduces the concept of God’s Dream in Jesus Calling and in no less than three of Sarah Young’s other books,” says Warren B. Smith. Young’s not alone. There are others such as Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and Richard Foster who proclaim the unbiblical notion that God has a dream for your life. Learn more about the blending of Christianity with New Age spirituality over at Lighthouse Trails:

Consistent with many other New Age implications contained in her channeled messages, Sarah Young’s “Jesus” introduces the New Age idea of “God’s Dream” in Jesus Calling when he states:

I may infuse within you a dream that seems far beyond your reach.

In Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids, the January 6th message/devotion is titled—and has “Jesus” telling the children—“Dare to Dream My Dream.”

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A Willing Spirit

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Psalm 51:12).

Several years ago, while I was preparing to preach a sermon on this psalm, I received an anonymous letter from someone in my congregation saying that he was a Christian but was involved in a very serious and continuing moral failure. The letter was an attempt to be honest and tell me the trouble in his life. I didn’t know if that person would be in the service the next Sunday or not, but I hoped he would be.

I decided to refer to the letter in my sermon for two reasons: first, because it was anonymous, and I could do it without betraying a confidence; and second, because the problem was of such a serious nature that I wanted to help the person if I could.   View article →

 

The Boys Are Back In Town

They’re baaack!

Carl Trueman, Todd Pruitt and Aimee Byrd, hosts of Mortification of Spin, discuss why disgraced pastors Mark Driscoll and Tullian Tchividjian remain disqualified from ministry.

What does it take to disqualify a man from ministry? Adultery? Emotional and spiritual abuse? Manipulation? According to cultural Christianity, none of these!

If God’s Word is not the rule of faith and life, the moral compass is lost and anything goes! We’re talking about the “come-back” of Mark Driscoll and Tullian Tchividjian to the public life, and worse, to the pulpit after serious public scandals.

The gang opens up the issues and answers some of the questions that many of us are asking. What are the qualifications of an office bearer? How seriously should the church and the office bearer take the standards laid out in the pastoral epistles? Are there warning signs one should watch for? Does repentance mean full restoration to ministry?

Listen to the podcast  View article →

Basketball coaching hopeful was denied a job. She says it’s because she’s no longer gay

According to Rick Maese “Camille LeNoir was prepared to close her business in the Los Angeles area, where she trains young basketball players, in order to accept a coaching position at New Mexico State. But two days before boarding an airplane, the job offer was withdrawn.” Washington Post has the story:

Camille LeNoir thought she’d landed a dream job last year, an entryway into the competitive world of coaching college basketball.

She was a former player herself, having starred at the University of Southern California. The WNBA’s Washington Mystics made her a second-round draft pick and she played the game professionally overseas. But since her playing days ended, LeNoir had focused on working with young players. She was excited when her former college coach offered her an assistant position on his staff at New Mexico State University.

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‘God Is the Judge,’ Hillsong’s Carl Lentz Tells ‘The View’ When Asked Whether or Not Abortion Is Sin

We believe that God is good, that God loves everybody, that Jesus was here to set people free, and that’s still the good news of the gospel.” This may be the gospel according to Hillsong pastor Carl Lenz, but it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The Bible tells us what the gospel is in 1 Cor. 15:1-4:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

Christian News has the story:

Carl Lenz and pal Justin Bieber

Carl Lentz of Hillsong New York recently appeared on ABC’s “The View,” where he was asked whether or not abortion is considered a sin at his church. While the answer was unclear, Lentz said that “God is the judge” and that he would prefer to know a person’s name and beliefs before making a determination as to whether or not they have sinned.

“Hillsong is seen as this hip, progressive church that’s drawn huge millennial crowds, but it’s still evangelical,” co-host Sara Haines stated to Lentz during the Oct. 30 broadcast. “So, where do you stand on social issues that young people are particularly passionate about, like gay marriage [and] abortion? Like, how do you address those types of things?”

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Donna Brazile: I found ‘proof’ the DNC rigged the nomination for Hillary Clinton

According to interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, Hillary Clinton had total control of the DNC almost a year before the election. Before Brazile called Bernie Sanders to tell him that his suspicions were true, she lit a candle in her living room and put on some gospel music. In a column she wrote, Brazile accuses Mrs. Clinton, Barack Obama and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of running the Democrat party into the ground. She severely chastised Obama and Wasserman-Schultz for handing over control of the DNC to the Clinton campaign. Fox News has the story:

The fix was in after all.

Last year’s presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was rigged by the Democratic National Committee – just as Sanders’ supporters suspected – to hand the nomination to Clinton, according to a bombshell claim by Donna Brazile. The onetime Clinton confidante, CNN commentator and former interim party boss made the explosive claim Thursday while touting a new book that could sever her ties to Team Clinton for good.

“I had promised Bernie when I took the helm of the Democratic National Committee after the convention that I would get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process, as a cache of emails stolen by Russian hackers and posted online had suggested,” Brazile wrote in a piece for Politico Magazine.

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Alt-Left Insanity: The Resistance Is Satanic. No, We’re Not Kidding!

“Notice how quickly we have moved in American society?” observes Dan Gainor. “We’ve gone from being a Christian nation that the left resented but played along to a major alt-left site celebrating satanists.” Gainor really isn’t kidding around, just as the title indicates. In his piece over at News Busters he demonstrates how unhinged the far left has become. And then he deals with the LGBTQIA’s reaction when one of their own, disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, is accused of pedophilia. He writes:

Halloween might be over, but its impact is still being felt. I’m not talking about our added pounds from leftover candy. (In my case, every single piece as trick-or-treaters avoided my tiny cul de sac.) I’m talking about what the holiday revealed.

In the case of Ezra Klein’s Vox (Motto: We write boring think pieces liberals can then pretend to read.) showed just how correct I was with last week’s column showing the connection between the left and the occult. Just days later, Vox writes this, “Take religion. Remove God. Add #resistance. Meet the Satanic Temple.”

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Charismatics Desire to Replace Psychics in Mainstream Media

After reading this you will wonder, as Pulpit & Pen News does, if self-professed apostle and prophetess Jennifer LeClaire has an addiction to bath salts. Outrageous claims by charismatics are escalating. For example, a few months ago LeClaire wrote that a “squid spirit” attacked her friend. So she rushed to her home to help battle it. “The attack was severe, but when I laid hands on her and commanded the squid to be bound, the most violent symptoms would cease. Of course, when you stand in the gap, you often take a hit. That squid spirit started stalking me.”

So with this background in mind, here’s P&P’s piece:

Jennifer LeClaire describes herself as an Apostle and prophet, and writes for Charisma News. Additionally, the impastor is the leader of the Awakening House of Prayer. LeClaire is the chief opponent of such devilish fictitious monsters as the “Jezebel Spirit,” the “Sneaky Squid Spirit,” and the “Leviathan Spirit.” Her most recent article at Charisma News claims that charismatic prophets will soon be replacing psychics in mainstream media.

LeClaire prophesies…

There is coming a day when prophets sit behind the news desks as CNN, Fox and MSNBC to share what the Lord is saying, displacing psychics who have held positions on these media mountains. There is coming a showdown between the true and the false in various mountains of influence. It all starts with the true prophetic voices. Amen.

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That’s scary, Part 2: The spookier reason for the Passion Translation New Testament’s Oct. 31 release date

From Berean Research:

Many believers are unaware that the The Passion Translation (PT) is not a translation of Scripture at all. Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error points out that New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) “apostle” Brian Simmons’ “translation” is simply him “imposing his own fanciful interpretations on the text.” What Simmons does is change the original meaning of verses so that they appear to support NAR teachings. This is known as “Scripture twisting.”

In part one Pivec reveals that Simmons claims that Jesus visited him personally for the purpose of commissioning him to produce this new translation. She has warned that PT is one of the most dangerous developments in the NAR to date.

So now PT’s complete New Testament is available to purchase — but don’t waste your money.  Here’s why:

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Charismatics in Africa Abuse Church Members in the Name of the Holy Spirit

Pulpit & Pen News points out what many Christians are unaware of: charismatics have set up shop wherever superstition thrives and people are the most gullible.

For gullible evangelicals, Africa is the magic land of miracles where all the charismatic phenomenon is on display, miles away from video cameras, skepticism and critical minds. Every time doubt is cast upon charismatic claims, Africa will be referenced as a case-in-point.

Raising the dead today? Todd Bentley has done that…in Africa.

That one guy who got saved by smoking tobacco in Bible pages? Yeah….happened in Africa.

Somebody spoke in actual tongues? Yeah, we heard that from a missionary…in Africa.

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Hollywood Scandals Prove Celebs Are False Idols

In his piece over at LifeZette, Tom Joyce declares: “Eyes have been opened, and the public can now see the Hollywood industry for what it is — a flawed place, where predators have been protected for a very long time.”

Now that Tinseltown’s dirty laundry has been aired, will professing Christians continue supporting the industry with their hard earned money?

Joyce make it clear in his piece that Hellywood is not just a “flawed place.” He writes:

Moral grandstanding and political preaching from the glitterati are even more ludicrous in the face of sexual harassment cases, says Joyce.

Back in 2009, producer Harvey Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times that Hollywood had “the best moral compass,” citing fundraising efforts that celebrities had undertaken after national tragedies such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

It’s a quote that now looks completely ridiculous in light of the sexual assault and harassment allegations against the disgraced Weinstein and a growing number of other Hollywood players such as actors Jeremy Piven and Kevin Spacey.

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Related: Hollywood’s Plunge Into the Bottomless Pit