Author Archives: Marsha West

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

Documents Show DOJ Was in Panic Mode After Loretta Lynch’s Secret Meeting With Bill Clinton Was Exposed

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According to Katie Pavlich of Townhall, hundreds of documents related to the Clinton/Lynch secret meeting do exist and show beyond a doubt the DOJ was in panic mode. Not surprisingly, one Washington Post reporter tried to make the story go away. Pavlich writes a fascinating report and includes some of the documents:

When former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and President Bill Clinton were busted secretly meeting aboard Lynch’s private plane last summer by a local television reporter, a number of government watchdog groups filed lawsuits for documents surrounding the meeting. After all the FBI, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, was actively investigating Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information at the time. In response to information requests, the FBI and DOJ said documents didn’t exist.

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We Ignored Our Nuclear Arsenal While North Korea Developed Theirs

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Breitbart reports:

Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis.

“There’s a lot of history here, and most of it’s pretty ugly,” Gaffney responded when Kassam asked him to trace the origins of the nuclear standoff.

“I think, basically, since the end of the Korean War, we’ve had a succession of administrations – Republican and Democratic – who have faced a very unhappy reality, Raheem,” Gaffney said. “And that is the massive, if uneven, shall we say, North Korean military … so closely positioned at the Demilitarized Zone to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, that at will, from a standing start, they could essentially devastate the 24 or so million people who live in and around that capital city.”

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The Changing of the Apostolic Guard: 13 Names to Watch

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Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error penned this piece in 2013. She lists 13 self-professed apostles, prophets and teachers that we should keep an eye on; likewise, she reveals the reasons these people are influential in the NAR cult. Pivec mentions the Grand Poobah of the NAR, C. Peter Wagner who passed away in October 2016. Number 1 on the list is “Super Apostle” Bill Johnson, senior co-pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA.

I think we are witnessing a time of leadership transition in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. The first-generation NAR leaders–those who formulated the major teachings of the NAR movement–have begun stepping aside and a new generation of apostles and prophets have risen to take their places.

The first-generation leaders–and particularly apostle C. Peter Wagner and prophet Bill Hamon –developed much of the theological framework for the NAR movement, including teachings about the restored church offices of apostles and prophet and dominionism. But these first-generation leaders are aging–both Wagner and Hamon are in their 80s.  Thus, the torch is being passed to the next generation of NAR leaders.

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Transgender camp offers programs for children as young as 4

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This is the world in which we now live. Fox News has the story:

A summer camp for transgender and “gender fluid” children is taking in children as young as 4.

The camp seems like any other. Children arrive with a packed lunch, make friendship bracelets, sing songs and get silly. But each day at check-in, campers make a name tag with their pronoun of choice. Some opt for “she” or “he” while others choose “they” or something else.

And enrollment at the camp is booming. The number of children at the San Francisco Bay area camp has tripled to about 60 youngsters, from age 4 to 12, since it opened three summers ago, with kids coming from as far away as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and even Africa. There is talk of opening branches of the camp across the country.

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Fido And Fluffy Are Ruining The Environment, UCLA Study Says

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According to Hollywood Patch: 

When it comes to global warming, Fido and Fluffy are part of the problem, a new study by UCLA indicates.

Most cat or dog lovers would say they can’t imagine living in a world without pets, but as the threat of global warming increases, environmentally conscious pet lovers may need to make some tough choices, according to the study.

Pet ownership in the United States creates about 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, UCLA researchers found. That’s the equivalent of driving 13.6 million cars for a year. The problem lies with the meat-filled diets of kitties and pooches, according to the study by UCLA geography professor Gregory Okin.

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Lutheran ‘Pastor’ Allows Son Who Likes Pink, Female Fashion to ‘Transition’ to Girl

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Christian News reports:

A pastor of a Lutheran church in New Jersey was recently featured in an online video in which he and his wife told the story of their 10-year-old son, who they have allowed to present as female for the past two years.

Christopher Bruesehoff of Holy Counselor Lutheran Church in Vernon and his wife Jamie state that their son Benjamin, who now goes by the name Rebekah, began showing an interest in pink and sparkles at a young age, and became more discontent with being grouped with the boys.

“Rebekah has always been gender non-conforming,” Jamie states in the video released by Barcroft TV. “As young as two or three she gravitated to typically feminine things. She loved pink and sparkles and all things girly. And that was fine with us.”

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The felt-needs gospel is no Gospel at all

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From Berean Research:

Have you ever fallen for a feel-good gospel that ministers to your ache for feeling special, or longing for admiration from a god who dances over you and thinks you’re the apple of his eye? What about sermon messages or books that help you look deeply into your past pains, or prayers that ask God for visions of His dream for your future?

Unfortunately, many churches, conferences and Christian program materials are designed to meet the felt needs of the sheep, ultimately focusing on themselves rather than a risen Savior, or using Him as a means to an end. Today we feature our guest blogger Grace Scott, who has researched the dangers of a so-called Felt-Needs Gospel, which is really no gospel at all:

The “Felt Needs” Gospel                                                        Guest post by Grace Scott

We must be aware of men (and women) who are influencing the next generation to have a low view of sin. We as moms, dads, pastors, grandparents, and youth leaders, need to protect them from the subtle but false teaching that pervades much of American Christianity in the form of a “felt needs” Gospel. The premise is that ministering to “felt needs” will predispose seekers to the gospel message. However, having “felt” needs met promotes a low view of God, an erroneous view of sin, and can actually hinder understanding of the Gospel message.

Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, Brian Houston, Joyce Meyer, and Christine Caine are very well-known and written about as examples of false teachers with a global platform.

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Male cosmetics counters could hit department stores in five years, L’Oreal boss says

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According to The Telegraph:

Male make-up counters could become a reality within five years, the UK boss of L’Oreal has said, as it is no longer a taboo for the “selfie generation”.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Vismay Sharma, the cosmetics giant’s UK managing director, said that demand for make-up among men was growing fast.

Speaking about the industry as a whole, he said male-targeted counters in department stores and drug stores could be a reality in “five to seven years”.

According to Mr Sharma taboos are changing and make-up is becoming more accepted for men among what he describes as the “selfie generation”.

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How Trump’s Transgender Military Ban May Help America Preserve Natural Law

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Alex McFarland tackles what great thinkers throughout history have called self evident truth or “natural law.” He points out that, “The framers of the Constitution understood that if we recognize God’s weaving of natural law and objective morality into the fabric of life, we could experience a blessed ‘manifest destiny.'” However, if these things are not recovered, McFarlad warns that “we will continue to head toward inevitable tragedy.” He believes there’s hope for the reason that in decreeing that the US armed services “not capitulate to the transgender lobby, the president actually scored a point for the defense of natural law.”

Here’s Alex McFarland’s piece over at LifeZette:

After centuries of its banning by Rome, the edict of Milan made Christianity legal in A.D. 323. Emperor Constantine not only deemed that Christianity was not a threat to the nation and culture, but two years later, he made it the official state religion.

Countless writers have speculated whether Constantine embraced Christianity out of sincere conversion, or of mere political opportunism.

A case can be made either way, and it’s doubtful we will know definitively in this life. Though he certainly couldn’t have known the ramifications of his decisions, Constantine’s support for Christianity would benefit the entire world and immeasurably change history.

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Standing Up To The Enemy

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The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it (Nehemiah 2:20).

The men who opposed the rebuilding of the wall stood outside the covenant of promise. None of the three had any claim to the promise of God to inherit the land. That is why Nehemiah took this stand.

The form their opposition took is also prophetic of our struggles. They first mocked and ridiculed. This is usually the first weapon the enemy employs. You may have felt it when you began to recover from your ruin. Your friends laughed at your desires to change. They may have ridiculed your religious convictions and resented with scorn your implied criticisms of their conduct.

Also, Nehemiah’s enemies began to threaten and slander him with charges of rebellion and disloyalty. If ridicule does not work, then the opposition stiffens and becomes openly unfriendly and threatening. It is the next level of resistance that those who seek to rebuild will encounter. View article →

Kris Vallotton – Conviction is the Holy Spirit Reminding You How Awesome You Are

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Kris Vallotton is the number two man at NAR cesspool Bethel Church in Redding CA. Anthony Wade examines Vallotton’s teaching that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is simply when He reminds us how awesome we are.  But is this teaching even remotely biblical? In this piece over at 8:28 Ministries, Wade explains what the Bible actually does teach about the conviction of the Holy Spirit: He writes:

Photo credit Christian Research Service

We have long documented the absurdly heretical teachings emanating from Bethel Church in Redding California. A literal cesspool of false doctrines, Bill Johnson has built an empire on teaching wildly unbiblical doctrine. They are the heart of the NAR, false signs and lying wonders, and experiential Christianity heresies. They operate a heretical school of the supernatural where they claim to teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit even though the Bible says that is solely at the discretion of the Spirit. Besides this usurpation of God, Bethel promotes gold dust, gemstones, angel feathers and glory cloud false manifestations. As Johnson has gotten older we have seen more and more leaders emerge from Bethel fueled by his poor teaching. Jesus Culture comes from Bethel and they teach kids to run through “fire tunnels” and try to perform false healings wherever they go. False Prophet Shawn Bolz comes from Bethel. He specializes in fake words of knowledge that he seems to glean from his smart phone. Then there is the number two man at Bethel, Kris Vallotton. Co-founder of the aforementioned heresy school, Vallotton is also a shameless prosperity pimp and is far more active in his social media than Johnson, providing us with a continual glimpse into the mind of someone who abuses the Bible for a living. This week’s example can be found at the above link and reveals that Vallotton not only shares the heretical beliefs of the word-faith crowd but does so at a breathtakingly arrogant level. Let us reason together so that we can more easily spot wolves with similar tendencies.

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Disney Accused Of Illegally Tracking Children Via Apps

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According to Hollywood Reporter:

A San Francisco mom says her child was illegally tracked while using the Disney Princess Palace Pets app.

Amanda Rushing, on behalf of her child referred to as “L.L.,” is suing The Walt Disney Company, Disney Electronic Content and others in a proposed class action filed Thursday in California federal court.

Rushing claims an advertising-specific software development kit is surreptitiously embedded in the code for the app, and that’s how Disney is collecting personal information and tracking online behavior.

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The ‘Prophets’ and ‘Apostles’ Leading the Quiet Revolution in American Religion

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This article is for informational and research purposes and is not intended as an endorsement of Christianity Today.

A Christian movement characterized by multi-level marketing, Pentecostal signs and wonders, and post-millennial optimism.

Bob Smietana interviewed authors Brad Christerson and Richard Flory wrote on the rise of  “Network Christianity.” As you will see, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a term coined by the late C. Peter Wagner, has yet another name to add to the ever growing list, “INC.” According to Orrel Steincamp, “The current Latter Rain leaders have so purposefully muddied the waters that only those who are dedicated history buffs can discern the historical essentials behind the current teaching on a Second Pentecost eschatology. ACTUALLY, only insiders know the Latter Rain playbook, and they cover it up and pawn if off as a new revelation with a new name. No! the Latter Rain has been around since the early days of 20th century.” (source)

It was revealed in Smietana’s interview with Christerson and Flory that people involved in this theological cult are convinced that God is behind it all and that He’s appointing people into high level positions such as modern-day apostles and prophets–and even government cabinet members–and that these people will “know what to do when they get there.” Moreover, they’ll be listening to God (presumably His voice), and the Holy Spirit will use them to “supernaturally make America or the world into the kingdom of God.”  They claim that some of these people that are in these high-level positions are part of the Trump administration. “But they are not Pentecostals, and they have nothing to do with these groups. The movement just latches on to them and claims God is using Trump to bring in the kingdom.”

So with this in mind, on to Bob Smietana’s interview:

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Dawn of the bionic age: Body hackers let chips get under their skin

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McClatchy reports:

If you’re prone to forgetting your card key for the office or your computer password, here’s a solution: Get a microchip implanted in your hand.

That’s what Brian McEvoy has done multiple times. He’s got five implants, mostly for functional reasons but one just for fun.

“There’s a glow-in-the-dark implant on the back of my right hand,” said McEvoy, a 36-year-old electrical engineer from St. Paul, Minnesota.

For years, owners have implanted microchips in their pets to recover them if they go astray. Farmers use them in cattle. Now, humans are experimenting with subdermal microchips, which are the size of a large grain of rice, to make modern life easier.

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Genesis: Paradise Lost Coming to Theaters November 13

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Mark November 13, 2017 on your calendars,” urges Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis. “it’s a day you won’t want to miss.” Why? It’s the day the powerful film Genesis: Paradise Lost hits theaters.  Here’s more of the exciting news from Ken Ham, plus a trailer of the movie:

Genesis: Paradise Lost (formerly known as Genesis 3D) is a visually stunning film that animates the first chapter of Genesis, as God creates the world from nothing. Narrated by my friend Voddie Baucham, Genesis comes to life before your eyes as plants spring forth from the earth, planets are formed, the earth responds to God’s command to bring forth the animals—including what we today call dinosaurs (there are lots of dinosaurs in this film!), and Adam and Eve explore the beautiful world God created.

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Trump Says US ‘Losing’ War in Afghanistan, Wants to Fire Top General

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Newsmax reports:

President Donald Trump is reportedly impatient with military advisers and declared in a recent meeting the United States is “losing” the war in Afghanistan, NBC News reports.

He also suggested firing Gen. John Nicholson as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in hopes of reversing course, according to senior administration official who talked to NBC.

In a two-hour meeting on July 19 in the White House situation room, Trump complained about NATO allies, asked whether the United States could get part of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and compared the advice of his top generals to that of a consult to New York’s 21 Club, which lost profits in the 1980s based on bad advice.

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Commandant: ‘I Will Not Break Faith’ With Transgender Coast Guardsmen

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Military.com has the story:

As military services await guidance following President Donald Trump’s announcement last week via Twitter of a ban on transgender service members, the commandant of the Coast Guard is speaking out, saying he has no intention of leaving transgender Coast Guardsmen out in the cold.

Speaking on the topic for the first time at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday morning, Adm. Paul Zukunft said his first action upon becoming aware of Trump’s tweets was to have his office reach out to all 13 members of the Coast Guard who have self-identified as transgender.

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Daughter of CRI Founder Defends Hank Hanegraaff Amid ‘Fake News’ Charges That He Stole CRI Presidency

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The following news story from Christian Post is posted for informational purposes and not intended as an endorsement of CP or the content.

In this piece over at Christian Post (CP), Cindee Martin Morgan and her husband Rick state that, “no matter what people think of Hanegraaff’s conversion to Orthodoxy, it is wrong to slander him regarding his CRI leadership post that he has held for nearly 30 years…”

In their view, “Dr. Martin should be given the credit and the respect of making preparations for CRI in the aftermath of learning he would not have long to live.”

Now to CP’s story:

Dr. Walter Martin, founder of Christian Research Institute

The daughter and son-in-law of Walter Martin, founder of the Christian Research Institute, claims it is “fake news” that Hank Hanegraaff stole the CRI presidency, a charge now being inferred by Martin’s eldest daughter, Jill Martin Rische.

In a statement posted last week on their ministry page on Facebook, Rick and Cindee Martin Morgan wrote of the ongoing controversy surrounding Hanegraaff who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy a few months ago, rising to his defense.

They responded to a 26-second video titled “Why Walter Martin Did Not Choose Hank Hanegraaff,” which was posted on YouTube by Rische on July 24. It features the late Walter Martin speaking generally about the church being “overridden” with Christians who desire to be teachers but have no qualifications or education when it comes to the Bible. Hanegraaff does not have a formal theological education or any credentials.

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Leaked George Soros Plan to Turn Ireland into a Pro-Abortion Country

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Breitbart reports:

DC Leaks.com revealed last year that billionaire investor George Soros has been using his Open Society Foundation (OSF) to turn Ireland – what Planned Parenthood refers to as the “jewel in the crown of the pro-life movement” – into a pro-abortion country.

Catholic News Agency (CNA) broke the news last August of Soros’s leaked strategy to use Ireland as a prototype to upend anti-abortion laws in Catholic countries around the world.

CNA reported:

“With one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, a win there could impact other strongly Catholic countries in Europe, such as Poland, and provide much needed proof that change is possible, even in highly conservative places,” the document says.

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One to Watch: Torben Sondergaard

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Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error has sent up a warning flag about a popular European teacher who is up to his earlobes in New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) heresy. Pivec reveals that Torben Sondergaard promotes a core teaching of the NAR — God is restoring the lost offices of church governance, namely the offices of apostle and prophet. Discover what else this wolf teaches:

Many people have asked me what I know about Danish evangelist Torben Sondergaard, the founder of the Last Reformation movement, and whether he’s part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

In short, he is part of NAR. Although my area of focus has been on American leaders of NAR, I do want to draw people’s attention to this European teacher as someone to watch. Three things are clear about Sondergaard, based on a five-minute video clip from one of his teachings. This Youtube clip is titled “How to Remember the 5 Fold Church Ministry” and is part of a longer teaching by Sondergaard, titled “Reformation of the Church System.”

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Related: Does The Last Reformation Get Back to the Book of Acts? 

Despite Media Spin, Canaanite-Lebanese Study Doesn’t Disprove Bible

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Because of Christian outrage, Telegraph changed its misleading headline and revised its hit piece on the Bible.  According to one source: The revised headline no longer says “disprove,” and the article now correctly claims the opposite of what it originally did: “The Bible claims elsewhere that the purge was not successful, an account backed up now by a scientific study.”

Steve Byas of New American has the story:

Predictably, some secular media sources have taken a DNA study, and attempted to argue it somehow disproves or contradicts the biblical account. It doesn’t.

Dr. Marc Haber, a lead author of a recent study that compares some ancient genomes with modern-day people in Lebanon, concluded, “We found that the Canaanites were a mixture of local people who settled in farming villages during the Neolithic period and eastern migrants who arrived in the region about 5,000 years ago. The present-day Lebanese are likely to be direct descendants of the Canaanites, but they have in addition a small proportion of Eurasian ancestry that may have arrived via conquests by distant populations such as the Assyrians, Persians, or Macedonians.”

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College Students Who Lost Access to Marijuana Improved Their Grades

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This is from a new study that was conducted by Review of Economic Studies. Wintery Knight has the report:

This is from the radically leftist fake news site Washington Post, of all places. Thankfully, the study was done by scientists, not by journalists.

Excerpt:

The most rigorous study yet of the effects of marijuana legalization has identified a disturbing result: College students with access to recreational cannabis on average earn worse grades and fail classes at a higher rate.

Economists Olivier Marie and Ulf Zölitz took advantage of a decision by Maastricht, a city in the Netherlands, to change the rules for “cannabis cafes,” which legally sell recreational marijuana. Because Maastricht is very close to the border of multiple European countries (Belgium, France and Germany), drug tourism was posing difficulties for the city. Hoping to address this, the city barred noncitizens of the Netherlands from buying from the cafes.

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Jennifer LeClaire takes authority over demonic ‘timewarps’?

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Churchwatch Central has a must watch video (if you can stomach it) of Charisma Magazine editor Jennifer LeClaire, who’s clearly deluded, praying against the devil:

The most insidious thing about cults is how they imply they have the highest spiritual authority over the lives of others. Self-appointed ‘prophet’ Jennifer LeClaire, is a very good example of someone ‘speaking’ over people, as though she is an authority figure over their lives.

Jennifer LeClaire recently released a video on her Facebook wall that has her praying against the devil and his demons having influence over believers.

In the Christian faith, born-again believers can not be possessed by the devil. However, in the New Apostolic Reformation cult, its leaders reinforce the idea that Satan’s ‘base camp’ is hell and he and his minions have power, authority and spiritual possession over Christians. This is a cultic doctrine used to manipulate believers into putting their trust in their leaders, not Jesus Christ. And these scare-campaigns are not only very effective , they are also very lucrative.

In this case – Jennifer LeClaire wants her followers to put their faith, trust (and their money) in her. In fact she is quite prepared to make up any nonsense to gain that faith, trust (and money) from her supporters.

We draw your attention to the recent Facebook video she put up on… well… ‘demonic timewarps’. Here is the last six minutes of the video:

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‘The Shack’ and a Cat Named Judas

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From Berean Research: 

In a piece over at Lighthouse Trails, Warren B. Smith asks a really good question: Why on earth would anyone name a beloved pet Judas? In “The Shack” one of the characters, Missy, has a cat named Judas, which is strange because Judas was among those in Jesus’ inner circle and a trusted friend, yet he betrayed our Lord for 30 pieces of silver. Smith draws an interesting parallel between Judas the betrayer and Shack author William Paul Young.  He writes:

“Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?’” Luke 22:48 – Painting by Giotto

The name Judas has been described as the most hated name in all the world. Except for Shack author William Paul Young and maybe a few exceptional others, hardly anybody ever names anyone or anything Judas. It is one of those forbidden names like Jezebel or Lucifer that people would never dream of naming their child, their dog—or their cat. The very name denotes a sense of treachery and betrayal. After all, Judas was the one who openly betrayed Jesus and paved the way for His crucifixion. So what was William Paul Young thinking? Why does The Shack’s most endearing character—Missy—have a cat named Judas?1 And it seems especially odd to have a cat with that name in a family where the mother’s faith is described as “deep”2 and Missy is asking sincere questions about Jesus’ death.