Part 6 - Apocalyptic Millennialists


Sandra D I begin by recommending that all who read these messages keep a dictionary beside them. Don't skip over words you don't know or understand. It is important to understand the words in order to really know what is being said.



Faith Undone by Roger Oakland, page 200:



...anti-Christian sentiment is growing toward those who believe in a biblical last days/Book of Revelation scenario prior to Christ's return. Here are some words that tells of this:



'The leader of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination has called for a global Christian council to address an "identity crisis" on how churches interpret and understand the Bible. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelial Lutheran Church in America.... called for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Angelican and Lutheran churches to come together to combat a fundamentalist millenialist apocalypticist reading of Scripture.'



(From me:) This makes me believe that our beliefs about the last days are correct. If Satan was not afraid of this, he would not cause these people to come against it. If the belief about the last days that we have held for so long didn't threaten Satan's plan to make himself like god, there would be no one to come against it.



"Hanson made a request for a group to monitor and expose anti-ecumenist who take the bible literally (Remember that ecumenialism is to combine all into one). He is really calling for people to expose those who believe in the Bible literally so that they can be destroyed. Hanson says that those who believe in a biblical end times and a literal Bible interpretation are counterproductive to and holding back the cause of Christ, which he suggests is to unite all of creation and produce a panetary utopia.



Remember that I told you in the first message that the teachers of these false religions emphasize kingdom now

thinking. They don't believe in an after life. They think they can establish the perfect world here on this planet as it is. We who have read the Bible know this will never happen. But these foolish people think it can be done. How blind they are. God has really given them over to strong delusions.



Brian McLaren has written on a website called Planet Preterist where he discussed his dilemma over eschatological-thinking believers. (I put the definition of eschatology in the article for definitions.) McLaren also says that such Christians are relly going to hurt our world. He says, referring to the "Left Behind" theory, that any project geared toward improving the world long term is seen as unfaithful, since we're supposed to assume that the world is getting worse and worse.. McLaren also says that if you believe the Book of Revelation and Matthew 24 are yet to take place, you are a dangerou psychological misfit and are assumed to have no compassion for the suffering, no concern for the environment or the world with "weapons of mass destruction." If McLaren was talking about big governments and political parties, that would be one thing, but he is clear --- he is referring to Christians who believe what the Bible says about the last days.



Rick Warren, in one of his articles, talks about churches that have hit a plateau, they aren't growing. He says that the changes are slow to happen because of what he calls "resisters". He said it would take these resisters either leaving the church or simply dying. "I'm saying some people are going to have to die or leave. Moses had to wander around the deserts for 40 years while God killed off a million people before He let them go into the Promised Land. That may be brutally blunt, but it's true. There may be people in your church who love God sincerely, but who will never, ever change." While Warren doesn't say that people should kill them, he does say that God may have to end their lives, just like when "God killed off a million people" in the desert.



Warren is saying that those who believe in the truth of the Bible are "resisters" and must leave or die. What will be left are those who have been brainwashed into thinking like he does or like the emerging church teachers. One of the tools Rick Warren uses to help chruches make the transformation into the new paradigm is a book called Transitioning: Leading Your Church Through Change. This book was written by Dan Southerland, a Saddleback pastor and the director of Church Transitions Inc. (Saddleback is Warren's church)



Southerland states in a chapter titled "Dealing with Opposition":



"We have experienced two major sources of criticism durin our transitions. The first is Christians from more traditional backgrounds ..... Not all of our traditional backgrounded Christians have been critical --- just the ornery ones. (emphasis mine) Our second source of criticism is traditional church pastors. Again, not all traditional church pastors -- just the meaner ones.



Southerland tells readers that "some folks are going to get very angry." He likens these opposers to "leader[s] from hell".



The concept of get with it or die is very common in New Age and emerging circles as well -- those who don't get on board will have to die. This sounds like Leonard Sweet when he says "Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die."

Some would rather die than change.



As I look through the last chapters of this book, there is so very much that I could write. But I just can't quote the whole book. That would be very illegal and would not set well with the author. I can't recommend this book strongly enough. As I've told you before, it costs just about $18 including tax and shipping. You get it from Lighthouse Publishers online. If you want it, but just do not have the money for it, ask the people at LighthouseTrails Research if they will send you a copy. They might do this. But I recommend you purchase it.



I will include some of what is in the last chapters in further messages. But I also want to talk about the Catholic church and what she is doing to bring parishioners back to the church and the Eucharist. It will be an eye-opener, and I think it will give you some insight into the predictions of the end times.



Sandra