WOLVES

There are wolves in our midst. They're on TV, in the bookstores, and on the radio. They are pretty, and well admired. They claim to be shepherds of the people.
But are they good shepherds?

Sure, they make you feel good. Focus on the positive! Turn that frown upside down! And while that's fine if you're a motivational speaker, it's not fine if you're a Bible teacher or a pastor.

Pastors are supposed to feed the flock, feed them real food, not Fruit Loops. Joel here doesn't tell people that their sin separates them from God, feeling that most folk already feel beat up. So he skirts the whole issue and instead wants to make you feel good. That's okay for a self-help guru, but not if you're a pastor!

I think Joel's problem is he's too nice. He can't say what needs to be said. Is that a carefully coordinated plan? A plan to make a big happy church and get rich from selling millions of books? Or is he really just a nice guy who doesn't want to ruffle any fathers?

Be careful, Mr. Osteen. God knows why you do the things you do!

Now here's a wolf! The beloved Joyce Meyer. Looking like an angry Joker these days, she is a Bible teacher and conference speaker. Why anyone would bother to listen to her after she spent $23,000 on a toilet is beyond me. You go to her conference, pay good money to learn about the Bible and it's life application, and she buys a gold toilet with the money.
Something wrong there.
Anyway, aside from her spending habits, she tells people this:

"There is no hope of anyone going to Heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting. You cannot go to Heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in Hell."

Say what? Where's that in the Bible? She just altered the gospel, folks. She changed Jesus. She's presenting a subtly different Christ to her listeners.

In other words, she's a wolf. A false teacher. You can't change the fundamental work of Christ without becoming a heretic! Jesus died on the cross and made atonement for our sins there. He did not suffer in Hell! Joyce made it up. When Jesus said 'It is finished', that meant His sacrifice was accomplished. Joyce teaches that He then went to Hell and was tormented by demons there, until God said 'that's enough'. And she teaches that you have to believe that in order to go to Heaven.

But Jesus said to believe in Him. He's the answer, not Joyce's fiction.
So much for being a Bible teacher...

People love Joel and Joyce for their practical help. And like I said, that's great if they were motivational speakers. But they are not. Anything that changes what Jesus did or who He was is heresy. It says Jesus lied. Jesus is the Son of God, He died on the cross to remove the eternal penalty for our sin, and He rose again. That's it. And if you believe and follow Him, you will be saved.

T.D. Jakes used to teach a heretical doctrine called "modalism", which says that God was the Father, then became the Son, then became The Holy Spirit. One person, three manifestations. The gospels, however, say the opposite. When Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke from heaven and the Spirit descended on Jesus.
That ends the modalism discussion as far as I'm concerned. And apparently it was good enough for Jakes, who has a more Trinitarian belief now.

As far as his other teachings, that's another story...

These days, people want their ears tickled. They want "Christian" teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. They don't want to be told how to live or what to believe. So they go to the nice guys, and the prosperity teachers. Thus, they have huge churches and a wide reach.
And the lies continue, leading to a false Jesus and a lot of doomed souls.

"Therefore we must give all the more careful attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away."

Watch out for the wolves.

 

Where the Hell is Satan?

A common belief is that Satan lives in Hell. Where this idea originates, I don't know. Not from the Bible, but maybe from Milton. In the Bible, the Devil walks among us causing trouble. He's not in jail yet! That's what Hell is: jail. An eternal prison with no warden.
But that's another post.

So if he's not in Hell, where is he? New York maybe. Or London. South Florida. Moscow. Groom Lake. He could be next to you. Nobody knows! What the Bible tells us is that he walks to and fro in the earth. Read Job chapter 1. He's also called "the prince of the power of the air", so maybe he has a sky fortress. The point is, he's free to act in our world!

(A little Viggo for you. Satan isn't always ugly.) I'm sure Satan doesn't waste time with peons like you and I. That's what he has an army of demons for. He's working on the big stuff, like bringing down governments and enticing people through television. Big lies, mass delusions, pervasive mind control. All that good stuff. Every once and awhile I bet he makes a personal appearance to someone who loves their Lord more than anything else in the world. Someone who pushes back the darkness through prayer and declaring God's truths.
A true servant of God.

Yes, she looks a little out of place in this blog. But that's where the brightest lights are; in the deepest night. In other words, true servants are a target for Satan and his hordes. He hates children, Christians, and Jews. And everyone else, too. His aim is to turn every heart away from God.
Haven't you noticed? The West is abandoning its faith at an alarming rate, playing right into the Enemy's hands. He's not in Hell, planning the downfall of humanity. He's at church, on Main Street, at the theater, in the schools, the prisons, the government, your heart. "The prince of the power of the air" is allowed to rule this world invisibly for the time being. He's looking for people to devour.

The solution? Repent and believe that Jesus is Lord, and never let Him go. Make Him your Master instead of Satan.
The Devil is going to lose in the end, and then go to Hell.
So why ally yourself with him?

 

Was Jesus Crazy?

Well, was He? Was he a lunatic? Aside from Christians, people generally see Jesus as a 'great moral teacher'. But would a great moral teacher walk around saying that He's the Son of God? No, a nutjob says that. Does a great moral teacher say to people that he is "the way, the truth, and the life, and none can come to the Father except by me?" I think only an egotistical maniac would say that.
So I guess Jesus was crazy.

Unless of course, He was telling the truth. If He was telling it straight up, then He really is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. Otherwise, He was a kook and not very moral. The Sermon on The Mount was absolutely worthless if He wasn't The Christ!  His words were pointless without Him being God's only Son. His whole message of forgiveness is based on Him being able to take away man's sin! If what He said was false, then He wasn't moral, He was crazy. And no one should listen to Him.

So drop the inaccurate tag of 'great moral teacher' and either say He was a fruitcake, or believe He actually was who He says He was. There is no middle ground.

Would a simple 'great teacher' do this:

Something to think about...


 

The Warhammer Drug

Warhammer is like crack. One hit and you're hooked. One fig and you are snagged. One little box of Citadel miniatures just isn't enough! If you buy one Rhino, then you need a Land Raider. A box of Savage Orcs leads to an Arachnarok, then a whole army. What starts out as a passing interest in Skaven turns into a need to own three different armies over two different games.
There's so much cool stuff it sucks you in and traps you like a hobbit in Mirkwood!

That's a Tyranid Trygon. It's beyond cool. Nobody makes stuff like GW. But... you buy one of these for 57 bucks and you're hooked. It's not enough. What starts as a $30 box of Empire Flagellant War Band becomes $300 of whatever floats your boat.

Like this:

The Glottkin. Nasty goodness, right there. Games Workshop has really improved their product over the years, not that they were ever bad. With great quality comes great prices, however. The above model is $109. See, these models aren't like buying a Tamiya tank kit, where you buy one, build it, paint it, and you're done. No, Games Workshop is a culture, and you're either in or you're not. There's almost no casual buyers here. I mean, how do you stop with just one Ogre Stonehorn?

You can't! Ha ha, that's just it. Warhammer envelopes you, seduces you, pulls you in...

For those of you who don't know what I'm babbling about, Games Workshop Is a company out of England that produces two miniature war games: Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Warhammer 40K (as in 40,000 or 41rst millennium). They also do The Hobbit, but who cares. Both Fantasy and 40K have role playing games, but GW doesn't make 'em. We'll stick with the war games.
They are the crack of which I speak.

Games Workshop has been around since the early 80's. They keep getting better and better. Now you could play other games, like War Machine, or Hordes, or Kings of War, Dropzone Commander, but why? They don't have Gutrot Spume, man.

Nurgle Chaos Lord. Full of disease and blight. The one thing GW has that nobody else has is fluff. That's right, fluff. That means story. GW puts out novels, and their rule books have stories and histories in them. Fluff! All the more to drag you in with.
Hey wait, cool art here:

Gutrot Spume, in a fluff piece. No, he's not holding that standard in his left hand. He doesn't have a left hand! Anyway, let's look at a comparison of ogres. First, Mantic Games ogre:

Now, GW:

Mantic's isn't bad. It just isn't as good as GW. See where I'm going? I'm going broke, that's where. These guys know what they're doing, that's for sure.
So, where should you start? High Elves? They're gay. Bretonnia? I like those peasants. Lizardmen? Go for it. Look at that detail! Ogres? Without question.
How 'bout 40K? Chaos? If you can handle it. Dark Eldar? Bunch of hedonistic, murderous pirates. Tau? Sure, why not? Space Wolves? Eldar? Tyranids?

Or whatever looks cool.

Khorne, Lord of Skulls. As you can tell, I lean towards fantasy. 40K is great, but Fantasy is more like home.

Now that you're contemplating buying a model, don't forget the paint. And the brushes! You are screwed now...

Here's one last picture to whet your unholy appetite. It's called a Necrosphinx, from the Tomb Kings faction. Can't you feel those curves under your fingertips? It's calling you...