Many people that frequently posted in the old Charismamag phpBB forums or in the comments section of his “Fire in My Bones” columns have ‘called him out’ and called him a hypocrite throughout the years. If it wasn’t the argument that disagreeing with these word of faith leaders was ‘touching God’s anointed’; it was the observation of “How could Grady in good conscience continue working at Charisma Magazine when it appears that most of the ads were for mega conventions put on by the ‘pulpit pimps’ or for MLM products promising mega energy boosting?”

Now, I have to ask this question:

Critics (on both sides of the fence), Can You Cheer Now?

Why am I asking this question? Because over the weekend via Twitter, Grady in these two twitter posts

Rumors are swirling so let me clarify: Yes I stepped down as editor of Charisma but will keep writing as Contributing Editor.Will post more. 6:24 PM Dec 11th from mobile web

Here’s the full scoop on my career transition. Would appreciate your prayers. http://tinyurl.com/yeubr2t
5:36 PM Dec 12th from web

Has confirmed and linked to a statement on his own webpage that he is stepping down from being the editor of Charisma Magazine effective January 30, 2010 (to be replaced by Marcus Yoars) to take a lesser role of Contributing Editor still writing his famous and controversial column “Fire In My Bones” and also to become (in a part-time capacity), the editor of Experience Magazine (effective March 1, 2010), the official magazine of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church to the point where Grady is moving from Orlando back to his native Georgia.

Best wishes to you and your family in your future endeavors

And I mean that with sincerity, grace, and honesty; not in frivolous and trivial “corporate-speak” we are used to when an organization announces a staff change.

In a way, Grady will be leaving the building but in another way, Grady will not totally leave the magazine.

I have always appreciated many of the “Fire In My Bones” editorials (some I disagreed with) and hope that even though your role at Charisma is lessened, that you will still be able to speak with the same ‘outrage’ (and uncensored at that) when coming out and exposing many of the ‘abuses’ within the charismatic and pentecostal movement in future “Fire In My Bones” columns. Even though I have had disagreements in opinion over certain issues, I have a tremendous amount of respect for both what Grady has done in writing those columns and for also having to take the ‘undocumented heat’ he must have had to endure over the years in writing those columns.

To critics that ragged Grady for ‘touching God’s anointed’ wanting his exit from Charisma Magazine…

Can you cheer now since God must have moved ‘your enemy’ out of a major sphere of influence?

To critics that ragged Grady for continuing his employment years after beginning the exposing and asking the hard questions?

Can you cheer now since in your mindset, Grady has now ‘crossed the (your) line’ from being a ‘hypocrite’ to ’seeing the light’?

I’m not going to cheer. I’m going to pray to God to bless him even more to keep preaching the truth about the excesses and abuses that need to be exposed and sternly dealt with…

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Critics, Can You Cheer Now?

It was revealed earlier this past week that over at Todd Bentley’s web page, a twenty minute video was posted where Bentley, Joyner, and for the first time, Todd’s new wife Jessa, speak and try to compare their “mess” to the David and Bathsheba story of the Bible.

First of all, comparing yourselves to David and Bathsheba is unmerited simply because Todd and Jessa Bentley are not David and Bathsheba. Todd and Jessa Bently are simply Todd and Jessa Bentley.

1 Corinthians 10:1-11

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Where in this piece of scripture can the concept of “Charismatic Replacement Theology” (exchanging your name for some Bible character) be applied? It can’t. The word admonition means “reproof or warning”. Therefore, it does not mean that you can substitute your name in place of some Bible character’s name and expect the same exact results. However, it does mean that you can read these Old Testament stories and learn from them in order to not repeat the same mistakes but to live a life that is pleasing to God.

Second of all, when these famous televangelists use the David story, they always concentrate on the ‘man after God’s own heart’ aspects and seem to totally ignore the facts of the family chaos that haunted David for the rest of his life. They seem to have a “selective spirituality” when it comes down to that aspect of David’s life because it doesn’t fit the pre-planned scrip of their mega destiny.

This ‘revival’ should have never happened. It has now become documented that key leaders knew Todd’s marriage was already in trouble prior to the Lakeland Revival starting up. Todd should have been sent home to reconcile the marriage. However, in ministries ran on the ‘pentecostal pragmatic’, there is this mindset preached from within that…

Mr. Joyner, Jessa was never intended to be the ‘perfect’ girl for Todd. Shonnah was.

If you keep doing “God’s will” (even to the point of maintaining your family and walk with God), this will all ‘work out’ in the end

Doesn’t work that way….

This ‘revival’ started out with a dark agenda of trying to make the ‘prophetic’ as displayed on web pages like the Elijah List as being “mainstream’ within Charismatic circles that is viewed as being ‘fringe’ by many “mainstream” denominations. When the ‘revival’ grew, then the Revival groupie leaders got involved with the ‘accountability service’ staring “Stacey Shake-mmms” (Stacey Campbell), and we were getting ready to see the ushering in of the New Apostolic Reformation and eventually; their concept of the Seven Mountain Mandate.

This was a man made revival from the start that was ended by God exposing out a deep seated sin.

In reality, nothing much as changed, Todd’s fall from grace is only viewed as a minor setback from implementing the NAR / Seven Mountain agenda and when the novelty of Todd wears off, someone else with a gorier testimony and a freakier show will be pushed to the limelight in order to push the agenda disguised as apostolic because the show must go on and the money must be made.

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 14

Where is the “reset button” in the Bible? It sounds too much like charismatic imaginations gone wild inventing something “new” in order to sound relevant, modern, hip, and the favorite term “cutting edge”. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not a “reset button” or a “reboot” we Christians need to do / push….

We need to repent and turn 180° and go back to the Biblical ways of the Lord! Repentance is not a button to push to instantly initialize us back to square one. Repentance is a renewing of the mind and a realization of what we were doing was wrong to the point where we turn around and walk back to where we got off track and continue to walk the straight and narrow road and as Jesus told the adulteress who was about to get stoned (rocks)

“(you understood) Go and sin no more”.

Repentance is not a “new thing”. Repentance is going back to the Ancient Paths that never changed (and never will change) and do the prescribed will of God as laid out in the Scriptures.

And this is hard to do when the Spirit rages war with the flesh.

This is hard to do when we value Nostalgia And Nehusthan over the real sovereign presence of God

This is hard to do when we have an influence, investment, and inventory in a “move / revival” we thought was God but in reality was not and we feel like we need a return on the investment with interest.

Lee, not only has the “charismatic movement as we know it” ended. So has all the previous “moves” and a concept that was never designed to exist has ended

Revival

The word “Revival” when broken down literally means “to live again”. It implies that whatever that was revived was at one time actually dead. We use the term “dead” in a literal and figurative sense when discussing church matters but the real truth is that the true church never died…..

It went unconscious for a long period of time.

There is a huge difference between dead and unconscious. Dead implies no heartbeat and no sense of awareness. Unconsciousness implies heartbeat but only no sense of awareness. The church was mistakenly pronounced dead but instead was unconscious. The church did not need “revival” which turned out to mean the weekend retreat where we flesh out and call it “God”.

The church needed to be resuscitated instead. It needed the breath of life from God to restore the natural function of the body

If you look at Webster”’’s Dictionary, the word “resuscitate” is from the Latin word “resuscitatus” and means…

past participle of “resuscitare” to reawaken, from re- + suscitare to rouse, from sub-, sus- up + citare to put in motion, stir

The church is not dead. It is asleep and in a state of slumber (Romans 13:11-14). In fact, the church is very similar to the little girl who was to the point of dying in Mark 5:21-40

Her father (verses 22-24) noticed that she was about to die and went to Jesus for help in healing her.

Someone (verse 35) announced that the little girl was dead, so why bother Jesus anymore

Jesus went to the home (verses 36-39) and made the announcement that “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

The people laughed (verse 40 ) but Jesus ordered them to leave.

Jesus told the girl to arise (verse 41), the girl arose and walked (verse 42)

Jesus ordered someone to give her something to eat (verse 43)

We have people who see the signs of sickness and have searched for Jesus to heal his church. We have people from within the church announce to the world that the church is dead so why should we bother Jesus anymore? We have Jesus still caring enough to go to our churches and pronounce the good news that the church is not dead, it’’s sleeping. We have congregations that laugh because they either believe that the church is dead or they can not accept any other answer but the church is dead because it does not fit their script that they role play in for a bloody and victorious Jesus that kills off the disagreers.

Jesus gets all the scoffers and doubters away and speaks to the unconscious church and tells the unconscious church to arise. However, the church is like that little girl and does one better….

The church not only rises up from it’’s unconscious slumber, but it chooses to walk. But the most important part of the Scripture is the last thing Jesus commanded

something should be given her to eat…

The church is weak. It needs to be strengthened and properly nourished in order to go out and live a healthy and functional existence to rise up every day and walk out into the cold dog-eat-dog world and proclaim the Good News that Jesus is Lord.

It needs the Word of God. It needs to be weaned from the milk to the meat. It does not need another church growth program. It does not need another movie clip sermon. It does not need another 40 days of something. It does not need another revival, mega-fast, repent-a-thon, 24/7 prayer service, or another 2 Chronicles 7:14 rally.

The church needs the meat of the Word. It needs to eat of the flesh of Jesus and drink of the blood of Jesus (communion and not some vampire state). When Jesus restored Peter (John 21:15-19) why did Jesus emphasize two out of three commands to “Feed….”?

Because the church needs nourishment for the battles ahead.

Mr Grady was correct when he stated in his article

..we cannot pitch our tents around the revivals of the past. While we embrace the eternal things He gave us in those days, we must discard the styles and methods that are no longer fruitful so we can advance.

We must discard nostalgia and Nehusthan. We must chop down the totem / asherah pole that has become the idol of our soul and replace it with a body that will be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Mr. Grady was correct when he stated

No one has coined a term for this movement yet, but it is growing—and it represents the future of Christianity in our country.

Because there will not be a name for this move of God. The one thing I disagree with is that it is not going to be the churches that are going to usher forth what God is going to pour out. In fact, it was never designed to be poured out on churches or corporate entities called churches. It was designed to be given to people who God called his sons and daughters.

The touch of God will bring forth repentance, evangelism, salvation, discipleship, social justice, local / world missions, relationships, and character. However, these things will be a by-product of what will manifest when a certain peculiar people of God (starting early summer 2009) will continue their repentance and experience the sovereignty, providence, omnipotence, and omnipresence of God. It will be very common to be in a church of hundreds of people but only a handful of people will receive this sovereignty, providence, omnipotence, and omnipresence of God. They will experience a supernatural anointing but will display it in a natural sense of appearing like an everyday normal person instead of “aura acting” like they are above everyone else with their head in the clouds.

They will life up holy hands in praise to the Lord and not lift up blow up globes or Winnie The Pooh stuffed animals. Their true humility (not humiliation) will show forth as they truly repent and true 180° change will be noticed. The personal call to true genuine repentance on behalf of the heart of the individual for real sins committed by them only
(not “invent-a-sin”, not “national sin”, or something your great-great-great-great granddad possibly did) and not through repent-a-thons, mega fasts, IHOP 24/7 prayer / praise rooms, Joel’’s Army, Gideon’’s Army, Ezra’’s Templebuilders, Nehemiah’’s wall builders, Joshua’’s generation, spiritual mapping seminars, and 2 Chronicles 7:14 rallies. Not only will we see true genuine repentance start manifesting upon God’’s people, we will see unsaved souls individually touched and saved and brought to repentance.

It IS NOT to be labeled as a “revival” (or the spiritually correct terms of Renewal and Outpouring). In fact, I really feel deep down within me that

The person or group that deems this as “revival”…

The person who deems himself the official book-writer of this move…

The church(es) who deems itself as the “official church(es)” of this move and hosts “services” and “conferences” trying to fabricate this move of God in a corporate mass-produced widget mode….

The person who tries to network these people to try to form another denomination based on the move…

The worship leader who deems songs written by them as the “official worship songs / official theme song” of this move…

The pastor who deems himself as the “official pastor / leader / spokesperson” of this move…

The person / church / media outlet (tv, radio, Internet, etc.) that tries to “market” this move….

Anyone that attempts to receive any fame, glory, financial gain, or “kickbacks” from this move….

will face a very stern and serious wrath of judgment from God

This is not gonna be a “pray-per-view” called “Florida Freakshow 2009″ where the main event is someone getting kneed in the three ring trinitarian circus ring and calling it “healing” at the three count. This is not going to be led by some pro wrestler wannabe who “worked” Christianity over stating he talks to an angel named Emma or bi-locates, or claims to go to heaven to find out who really wrote Hebrews. In fact, God is still so furious at what happened at Lakeland to the point where the die-hard supporters of the Lakeland revival, (such as Elijah List, Third Wave, modern prophetic, dominionalists, Kingdom Now, soaking, Latter Reign, New Apostolic Reformation, Revival Alliance, and others) will definitely be on the “outside looking in” but if they really come to repentance, God will have mercy on them but they will still miss out.

However, time is running out for those people to repent because while a peculiar people are going to experience the sovereignty, providence, omnipotence, and omnipresence of God, the spiritually correct “revival addicts” who do not turn around and do a 180° are about to experience His wrath over what happened last spring and summer.

To the heart of the peculiar people

Doctrine replaces Dominionism

Holiness replaces Heresy

Healing replaces Heterodoxy

Hermeneutics replaces “holy heebie-jeebies”

Repentance replaces randomized guesses to unlock the blessing

Private prayers and repentance replaces public posturing and power brokering

True Worship replaces Wanton Whoredom

Sanctification replaces spiritualized salivation

It will not be about angels, healings, manifestations, signs, new things, cutting edge fresh revelations, wonders, and “talk”. It will be about placing Jesus first and foremost in our lives and realizing that God still sits on the throne and is still in control of things to where He doesn”t need our votes for the right candidates, our garments, our mega-fasts, our repent-a-thons, and our all night rallies to change his mind.

He never promised a change in government. He never promised some goofy signs and wonders. He never promised some Psalms 119:99 blessing if you gave 119 dollars a month for 99 months. God wants our repentant hearts because God promised the New Testament believer was that they will be empowered, victorious, and overcomers that would never be forsaken.

And that will never come by pushing the reset button. It comes by walking the narrow road to repentance at the Cross of Jesus Christ.

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Reset Button In The Spirit

Episode 12 – “Behind The Scenes Footage – 4-16-09 – 9:19″

Episode 13 – “Buy Low, Sell High – 4-16-09 – 11:01″

I have watched all these videos and due to the “pressing family needs”, I decided to link to the reviews over at Miriam’s blog. She has said pretty much what I wanted to say.

Episode 12

Episode 13

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episodes 12-13

Even though Joyner mentioned his long marriage to his only wife and the fact that he has never touched anyone inappropriately (I say from the bottom of my heart that I am very happy for you Rick)

I felt like I was watching a rerun….

That’s all I have to say

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 11

This episode is really a continuation and reinforcement of episode 9

We see the same thoughts repeated again from “other Bible characters did worse and see how they came out” to Joyner’s incorrect translation of Galatians 6:1.

Todd talks about losing his connection with God and his carnality

One thing in particular that was discussed was how Peter denied the Lord but weeks later preached the famous Pentecost sermon leading into a statement of ‘limit the restoration, limit the cross’. The first thing I wondered when I heard this was

Are we being ‘primed’ for a extremely soon return of Bentley even though there was no ‘established timeline’?

It makes me wonder.

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 10

Basically, this is a ‘primer’ episode that is trying to reveal what is coming ahead in future episodes. One of the points that is being emphasized here is

There is too much stuff that can not be discussed due to time constraints of a ten minute video

Is this the ‘loophole’ that is going to be used to not talk about the main issues in public?

There is talk about Todd’s statement from the last episode where Todd stated that he didn’t have a doctrine on marriage and divorce and how through these videos, Todd would eventually have a doctrine on this subject matter. This flows into the subject of ‘does God hate divorce’ and ‘keeping our vows’.

One thing that was interesting about this video was the point where Joyner compared Todd to Jacob in reference to Jacob’s conniving nature. I saw some light finally being shined down for Joyner hit the bullseye on that analysis. What came next was a quazi-form of Charismatic replacement theology’ where the comparison of Todd to Bible characters who did far worse deeds and they turned out great so therefore, this meant that Todd is automatically going to turn out great.

Because this episode was dealing more with generalities, it will be interesting to see what takes place in the future episodes.

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 9

—–

All past, current, and future Christian Celebrity Repentance Episodes are / will be additionally indexed under their own category “CCR Episodes” available at this link or through the “CCR Episodes” link in the sidebar under the “Categories” section.

I had promised my buddy ‘Triple-P’ for a long time that I would better index and categorize them much better and to be more logically accessible. After seeing Miriam over at End Times Prophetic Words write a post with a synopsis of all her articles, I remembered my conversation with ‘Triple-P’ and went ahead and categorized my posts.

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Christian Celebrity Repentance Episodes

I left my comment and afterwards, started to think again about a certain potion of that comment

What many people tend to forget is that the movie was filmed way before the exposing of Ted Haggard. Ted Haggard was a dualistic personality within Christianity in many ways. He was widely respected by the Religious Right types for his ‘conservative ways’ and was seen by many within Christianity as being the ‘middle ground’ and more articulate and mannerly with appeal to the secular media than crass folks like Dobson, Wildmon, D. James Kennedy, Falwell, and Robertson. Secondly, because he lived in Colorado Springs, Haggard was deeply affiliated with the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (Wagner, Sheets, Jacobs, Pierce) and was seen in the same way that the religious right saw him because those leaders were also crass ad brash in the public eye.

Haggard was the bridge between these two separate agendas that on the outside appeared not to like each other (religious right was more mainline in Christian thought while the NAR was more pentecostal / charismatic in thought) but on the inside worked together in secret because without the other, neither group’s individual agendas would never come to existence. It would have taken the votes for the creation of the religious right utopia in America by the mainline Christians to eventually lead to the empowering of the New Apostolic Reformation as the official ‘global church authority’.

And why is Haggard now despised by both of these groups after his sins were exposed? Because he set their movements and agendas back another hundred years and/or permanently damaged their chances of ever obtaining their agendas. The religious right then looked to Sarah Palin (similar beliefs as Becky Fischer) and the NAR then looked to Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival where Bismarck, ND (Fischer’s birthplace) was ‘prophecied’ as one of the 100 Global Revival training and outpouring centers’.

History tells us how that worked out…..

and I began to realize more and more…..

The American Religious Right and the New Apostolic Reformation are Christianity’s version of classic television show “The Odd Couple”

The American Religious Right reminds me of the Felix Ungar character played by Tony Randall (and ‘played’ today by such people as Dobson, Wildmon, and Robertson but was ‘played’ in the past by Rushdoony, Falwell, and D. James Kennedy. The American Religious Right, like Felix Ungar is portrayed as the neat, clean, and orderly individual with an upper middle class white-collar job. And like Ungar, who was thrown out of his house by his wife, the American Religious Right strongly feels as if it was thrown out of it’s house of power by the ‘liberals’ and divorced from it’s place in American History.

The New Apostolic Reformation reminds me of the Oscar Madison character played by Jack Klugman (and played today by such people as C. Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner, Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs, and Chuck Pierce). The New Apostolic Reformation, like Oscar Madison, is portrayed as the sloppy, disorderly, and casual individual with the lower middle class white collar job. And like Madison, who was thrown out of his house by his wife, the New Apostolic Reformation strongly feels as if it was thrown out of it’s house by the Vineyard Churches and divorced from it’s place in what they wish to be contemporary American Christianity. And like Oscar, who complained about paying alimony to the ex-wife, there seems to be a part of the New Apostolic Reformation that begrudges paying the alimony of history recognition back to the Vineyard church.

Where we see Felix Ungar try to win back, reconcile and eventually remarry his ex-wife, we see the American Religious Right try via politics, to ‘win back America’, forcibly reconcile (without ‘compromise’), and eventually remarry back into American culture it divorced years ago when they ran to the bunker trying to fight the culture war.

On the other hand, we see Oscar Madison verbally demean his wife and happy for his divorce feeling that he is better off. In the same manner, we have seen the New Apostolic Reformation come out against in sardonic means the Vineyard Churches and classical streams of the pentecostal and charismatic movement while at the same time, believe that they are thankful for their divorce feeling that they really are better off separated.

Throughout the entire run of television episodes, we see conflict arise between Madison and Ungar that threatens to end their friendship alliance, but the influences at their individual workplaces and their outside friends keep Madison and Ungar balanced. Even though both Madison and Ungar disdain publicly the other’s way of living, they realize that in order to survive the harsh reality of the big city, they really need each other for financial support to keep renting an apartment. Even though both the American Religious Right and the New Apostolic Reformation privately disdain the other’s way of life, they realize that in order to survive the bitter reality of the ‘once glorious’ nation, they need each other for votes / political support to keep the hope that one day, their separate end-result agendas will one day come to pass.

But there was one person that held the cohesive glue to making the friendship and alliance work. In the television show, it was Murray the Cop. In the Christian version, it was…..

Ted Haggard

for those reasons I mentioned in my original response to Spencer’s article about the Jesus Camp. Haggard was at that time, one of the very few people who had mutual respect and influence/affluence within both the American Religious Right and the New Apostolic Reformation. Haggard would have signs on the property of his church telling people who and what propositions to vote for/against. Haggard was very instrumental in helping out C Peter Wagner (who once attended Haggard’s church) in creating the World Prayer Center as well as the World Prayer Team.

And we saw what happened to Haggard… And we saw how The Odd Couple severed their ties with Haggard… And we saw how The Odd Couple tried their separate things (Religious Right with Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate and NAR with Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival).

On the last episode of the television show, Felix eventually remarries his ex-wife and goes back to his house and moves in while Oscar goes back to living alone once again. In many ways, the American Religious Right is trying their best to eventually win the heart of the ex-wife they call America back in order to be able to remarry her and move back into the mainstream influence of American society and culture war. Really, the culture war was nothing more than the grand divorce of the Christian Religious Right from Americana. And as the apartment that Felix and Oscar shared was the haven from life, the bunker mentality called the church building and it’s imitation of culture was the haven from real life. Instead of trying to work things out (like they tell marriages in trouble to do), the American Religious right settled for refuge with the New Apostolic Reformation and their sloppy Christianity and enjoyed the ‘pentecostal poker games’ Oscar had with his buddies.

In the end, I want to leave with you the final scene from the final show

Felix: Your dinner’s in the oven; turn it off in twenty minutes. [pause] Oscar … what can I say? Five years ago you took me in: a broken man on the verge of … mental collapse. I leave here a cured human being. I owe it all to you. [gesturing toward apartment] It’s all yours buddy. I salute you. [empties waste basket onto floor]

Oscar: Felix, you know how I’m gonna salute you? I’m gonna clean that up.

Felix: It has not been in vain. [They shake hands and Felix exits stage right through front door. After door closes …]

Oscar: [swings his hand through the air] I’m not gonna clean that up! [exits stage left to bedroom to audience laughter]

[Felix sneaks back in stage right and looks at floor]

Felix: [disgustedly] I knew he wouldn’t clean it up! [proceeds to pick up trash to audience applause] (fade out)

And I believe that one day, if the remarriage of the Religious right to American society and culture does take place, we will see this same scene take place. Because both the American Religious Right and the New Apostolic Reformation did the exact same thing that Felix and Oscar did…

They created a mess.

The American Religious Right with a utopia dream of no more gays, outlaw abortion, high unemployment, S&L scandals, and the lunch buffet ‘pick and choose’ theologies of Sarah Palin left a mess called an ‘image’. The NAR, with their splits from the Vineyard, their esoteric eisegesis, and the mockery called Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival left a colossal mess called a ‘temporary setback’ (really, its called ’sin’). As Felix Ungar went to start his new life to re-identify himself in that last episode, he eventually cleaned up the mess before leaving. The American Religious right, with the deaths of many of it’s controversial leaders and the Sarah Palin fiasco, are trying to clean up it’s mess and re-identify itself with a ‘new image’ of the mainline, clean, and moral individual as caring and compassionate.

The NAR, on the other hand, contributed to this mess over time (Kansas City Prophets, spiritual mapping, revival/renewal, Toronto Blessing, identificational repentance, and Todd Bentley / Lakeland) but like Oscar, refuses to clean the mess up because they really do not feel that it’s a mess and belongs in the society of the “Apostolic Apartment” that they now live in outright. It’s not a mess, it’s a setback to greatness as Oscar went to the bedroom to go back being a sports writer, they really believe that Galatians 6:1 means that Todd Bentley will go back as a high-powered revivalist.

However, Felix cleaned up the mess…. And if by chance one day, if the American Religious Right gets back into power (with the help of the votes from the seven mountains and the supporters of the NAR), you may find out that the cleancut, mainline, and orderly neat freak will no longer tolerate the messy, lunatic fringe, and disorderly slob and come up with legal ways to stop the theologies of the NAR / Third Wave and establish the mainline Christian religion as the official law of the land and official state religion…..

Which was part of what the American Religious Right wanted all along…

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The Odd Couple

I watched it early yesterday evening and after watching the episode, the first impression was

He said many things, but said absolutely nothing at all

I ended up getting distorted at the convolution that I heard, called it a night and went to ‘the planet’ for a workout and had a good workout at that.

So I came back tonight and decided to watch the video again to collect my comments and I had an epiphany…

They didn’t say much, but the semantics said many things

The video started off mentioning how that the videos are a ‘little shot’ of the big picture of what was going on in the repentance sessions. After hearing that statement, the first thing I thought about was

This series of videos may be turning into a complete video series with more videos behind the scenes that was going to be sold in the near future with a little more revealed detail in the sold version, but with the core issues and ‘essential’ details never addressed / publicized.

In fact, when I heard Joyner’s statement later on when he discussed ‘formulating a doctrine on marriage and re-marriage’. I felt that my intuitions and ‘hunches’ are probably going to become true one day. I really wonder if this is actually the formation of a book / teaching series on marriage and re-marriage (from the MorningStar perspective) along with an entire new book / teaching series of restoring fallen leaders (from the MorningStar perspective and their flawed interpretation of Galatians 6:1) ?

Look at it, there really is not too many books from a Christian perspective on these two topics and this could be a very intriguing way to enter into the Christian book market with a unique and rarely discussed ‘niche-market’ topic viewed as being ‘groundbreaking’ (or in the prophetic sense ‘revelatory’) in order to ’shape’ the ‘official teachings’ (from MorningStar’s perspective of course) on how ‘real Christians’ are supposed to restore fallen leaders and divorce / re-marriage.

Why does Joyner need to be ‘formulating a doctrine on marriage and re-marriage’? Doesn’t the Bible answer the question already? I think so…

We hear the same thing on this episode as the previous episodes

Lakeland was a genuine move of God

Todd will be restored back to public ministry because Galatians 6:1 means to restore back to the exact same place

Todd discussed the “mammoth size and method and machine of ministry” but it seems that the failure to realize that ministry is never supposed to become “mammoth”, “methodical”, and ‘machinery”. Ministry is supposed to be moving, ministering, medicating, and many days motionless (be still and know I am God). Why do I say this, because Todd talks about being restored back to the “mammoth machine” and his belief that it will happen again. Does he still see ministry as just another ‘machine’ of messianic money-making mass-production?

Then we hear the shocking statement from Todd

I don’t have a doctrine on divorce and remarriage

That’s evident already. That should have been established in Todd years before the first ‘encounter’ ever took place. Because Todd never had a doctrine and it’s apparent he was never taught about what the Bible says about divorce, adultery, and re-marriage; one can easily see why Todd did some of the things he did.

Then it was re-hashed again that there was more beyond the short video sessions that we’ll ever see. And I am beginning to wonder if all we’ll see from this point on in future videos is the constant repetition of the flawed interpretation of Galatians 6:1, the flawed mindset that Lakeland was actually from God, and Todd going back into ‘ministry’ exactly where he left off?

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 8

Episode 7 is now up at this link entitled “The Apology to The Revival Alliance and The Church 4-3-09 10:22

What’s so ’special’ about these ’special bulletins’? The term ’special bulletins’ used to be a catchphrase that networks used to use when they interrupted regularly scheduled programming

The first thing we learn is that….

Todd has an office at the MorningStar Ministries complex…

But, he is not in ministry at this time…

It seems that Joyner is still bent on his interpretation of Galatians 6:1 is correct where it appears that Joyner believes that the term ‘restore’ means to put Todd back exactly where he was previously at. Why does Todd need an office when 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 clearly state that Todd is disqualified from being restored to ministry but can still be restored back into right standing with God and the church if he truly repents.

Also, based on Joyner’s own proclamation that there is no timeline to the restoration process back into ministry (based on Joyner’s incorrect interpretation of Galatians 6:1), why invest time, money and resources into something right now that is not fully completed yet? Todd could still walk away at any time or if after the restoration is ‘completed’, could walk away and leave and start all over again.

Then Joyner starts talking about the purpose of the Revival Alliance in the Lakeland Revival. He claims that the Revival Alliance came to support, come alongside, and encourage and not to take over, not taking responsibility.

Watch the video of the commissioning service, the speakers speak of ‘alignment’ as in joining side by side, but when you watch the video, you and look at the name ‘Revival Alliance’, someone within that group had to determine that Todd could be ‘commissioned’ by them. When denominations ‘commission’ and ‘ordain’ new pastors, it means that

(1): They come into alignment and agreement

(2): They submit to the authority structure of the organization.

If this was not an commissioning and ordination service, then why use those terms? If this was not a commissioning and ordination into submission, then how can the Revival Alliance leaders now say that Todd is no longer in right standing with the Revival Alliance?

This was a ordination to place Todd under Wagner and the remaining apostles and a way that the non-mainstream leaders were going to try their best to legitimize their non-mainstream movement as the new mainstream. Over time, Todd would have heeded and received their advice to the point where Todd would have been expected to follow them or risk getting kicked out of the group.

Maybe they should have called it a ‘unity’ service.

I still believe that there was foreknowledge of Todd’s issues to the point of if Todd didn’t submit to the Revival Alliance, the affair with Jessa would have been leaked by them. What would have happened if God hadn’t decided that ‘enough was enough’ would have been Todd comes under the Revival Alliance, the Revival Alliance would have forced Todd into a long ’sabbatical’ (secret restoration like the incident with the first intern) as the revival continued with their speakers establishing the NAR papacy system and ’seven mountain mentality’. Todd would have wanted to come back while the Alliance would have stated that Todd was not ‘ready’ yet (and never would be in their eyes since they took control) and we would have seen a blowup between Todd and the Alliance.

Todd talks about how Lakeland was a genuine move of God and that his personal problems should be seen apart from what God actually did there at Lakeland. The problem was that his personal problems, theologies, mannerisms, and actions was Lakeland. The kneeing of the colon cancer patient. They guy going out holding the laptop, the ‘warfare’ dance, Todd’s stories about Emma, and Paul’s revelations about Hebrews…..

Plus, none of those healings that Nightline asked about were never documented and proven out.

Todd apologizes for his poor choices soon after Lakeland.. What about his poor choices before and during Lakeland? One apostle had stated that the affair between Todd and Jessa had been going on before the revival began. What about Todd’s excessive drinking during the revival?

Todd then mentions Shonnah and the reason why Shonnah and Todd got prayed for together at the commissioning was because they really believed that they could ‘work out’ the problems of their marriage even though it was stated in the e-mail update that the marriage was apparently over with after the incident with the first intern.

The revival alliance shares in some of the root fault over the Lakeland Revival. They saw the ‘hot thing going’ and thought that they would use this to promote the agendas of the NAR and establish themselves as the self-appointed leaders of ‘the church’.

They are not ‘heroes’, they are co-conspirators!

Stephen Strader shares some of the fault for his role especially in the beginning of the Revival. Strader’s denomination, the Assembly of God needs to take their share of the blame for (1); their ‘wait and see’ answer when it was so obvious that Lakeland was not of God from the start (2): for their refusal to take control of their church that promoted the revival and establish proper order in the church and (3): for thinking that the name “Strader” is beyond reproach, rebuke, and correction because of the past history.

At least Todd has given us an apology that I hope is genuine. Let’s see if the Revival Alliance, all the super-apostles and mega-prophets, the Assemblies of God, Stephen Strader, and others influential in Lakeland apologize….

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Christian Celebrity Repentance, Episode 7

The vast majority of this “Special Bulletin” has already been seen over the course of all the “Christian Celebrity Repentance” episodes (especially the part about the belief that Todd is to be restored back into ministry when there is no mention of being restored back to the body). However, there are some things that I saw right off the bat.

That’s one reason why I think Todd has the gift of being so controversial.

Controversy a ‘gift’? Where is that in the Scriptures?….. I have never seen it alongside the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians.

but there was also a vitriolic response from some

Vitriolic, defined by Webster’s dictionary as “something felt to resemble vitriol (sulfated) especially in caustic (destroying or eating away by chemical action) quality.

So those who disagree with Joyner, Johnson, Deere, and Bentley are now being compared to a corrosive but concentrated sulfuric acid…

The more I see this charismatic name calling, the more I need an ‘antacid’ for the nausea I get in my stomach when I read this stuff.

I have asked Todd several times what he thinks caused his divorce, and he has given the same reply each time, referring back to how he got married when he was nineteen, entered full-time ministry, and became married more to the ministry than to his wife. This can happen in ministry, or with any profession, job, hobby, or anything else that becomes an affection that eclipses our love for God, and one another. Ministry can actually be an idol that we start to worship in place of God. We need to understand how and why this happens if we are going to avoid it.

Didn’t Todd say in episode 6 that

The ministry became his mistress

and now they are saying three days later that he became married more to the ministry than to his wife? What a double-minded statement. Todd goes from being a ‘pentecostal player’ in episode 6 now to being a ‘pentecostal polygamist’ of having two wives (Shonnah and the ministry).

Do I need to call “bullhockey” again?

What did the ministry really become? A mistress, a marriage, a harlot of Babylon, an ‘esoteric escort service’ for the prostitution of an angel named Emma, or was it an idol with some very demonic manifestations called “a move of God”?

Todd still cannot understand why his former wife did not seem to appreciate his success in ministry…..At the same time, Todd obviously felt unappreciated for all that he was accomplishing, and this can be a dangerous open door to inappropriate affection from others who might seem to appreciate that kind of success more.

Shonnah did appreciate it. The money, the money, the money. If the marriage was already in trouble and doomed, why did she get on the stage in Lakeland the night Todd got ordained and received his revival decoder ring and played along with the ceremony already knowing that the marriage was already in shambles and that there may be another woman in the works? In my opinion, she’s partially responsible because she not only was a participant, but she reaped some of the financial rewards via Todd’s paycheck. She has some repenting to do in this also.

Todd seems to be blaming everyone but himself. He blames the external influences that encouraged the poor personal and internal choice instead of himself for making the poor personal and internal choices. He blamed the ministry, the devil, burnout, disconnection, and the lack of Sabbath rest for his sins, Now he’s trying to blame Shonnah because she wasn’t as ‘gung-ho’ about the ministry as Todd was?

After Todd hit the wall with burnout, he then fell to an emotional attachment to a staff member. There was no physical relationship, and the girl did not return even the emotional attraction. When Todd went to his leadership team about what he was feeling, they immediately sent the girl away. Todd, trying to be open, then went to his wife to confess this attraction. Todd was trying to be transparent, but he is convinced that this was what killed what was left of his relationship to his wife.

Todd often called this attraction “an affair,” but it was not one. There was no physical adultery or even physical contact with the girl. However, Todd said that he knows he would have entered into such a relationship if she had been willing, and therefore, he felt that he needed to repent of it as if it had been an affair. I can appreciate Todd feeling this way. Because of the way rumors spread and grow, many still think that Todd had an actual affair several years ago, when in fact he did not.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘emotional adultery’? It’s the latest thing in pastoral marriage counseling sessions. Even though there was no ’sexual attraction’, Todd is right on this one. It was an affair, an adultery of the heart and emotion to where the beginnings of a soul tie took place. If the girl wanted no part of it, why did the Fresh Fire leadership team immediately sent the girl away as their way of dealing with what happened instead of sternly dealing with Todd? Todd admits that the girl did not participate so therefore the Fresh Fire leadership team has wrongly and unjustly dealt with this other woman by the actions they did.

What the Fresh Fire leadership did by not sternly dealing with Todd then was to allow this deep root of the potential of Todd committing adultery to fester and burn within Todd to the point where it exploded at Lakeland with another intern named Jessa. There was a need for a soul tie outside of marriage and the first intern did not succumb but eventually Jessa did. Also, if this was “…what killed what was left of his relationship to his wife…”, then why didn’t Shonnah divorce Todd then and not years later?

How could Todd go through those bombastic services and claim to have gone into fighting the after-meeting depression that took place? Was the services Todd’s way of dealing with the depression? Is Todd afflicted by the demonic since talking about Emma? Or was the depression really ‘conviction’ of doing the bizarre stuff like kneeing the stage 4 colon cancer man or knowing he was not right with God, or knowing that there was already an affair since January? A conviction of needing to leave and get life right versus the fame and fortune he felt he was receiving for the first time.

Joyner tries to compare Bentley to Elijah’s Mt. Carmel experience but he is grossly mistaken. There is one major difference here. Bentley got depressed over factors such as the feeling of a lost marriage over his attempted emotional adultery with the first intern, and the wife not being as equally enthused about the ministry as Bentley was. It was not ‘an attack’ based on some outpouring of anointing. The depression was a by-product of the consequences of the poor personal and internal choice further encouraged by the external influences of extremism

Elijah got depressed not over the extraordinary anointing of the victory over Baal’s prophets at Mt. Carmel, but over Jezebel’s words afterwards relayed to Elijah via a messenger in 1 Kings 19:2

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

and later on in verse 10, Elijah reveals that…

So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Elijah was depressed over the fact that even though God had moved, there was no change to the society, no change in going back to the ways of the Lord, and no change in the evil political mindset still in power while at the same time dealing with a death threat.

I make no apology for the fact that we are seeking to restore Todd to ministry.

And I make no apology for saying once again that Todd is already disqualified from ministry because of his adultery, divorce, moral failures, and his heresies (Emma, meeting Paul in heaven, bi-location). In fact, along with being restored in right standing with God, Todd needs to also be restored in right standing with the church, and if possible restored in right standing to those who he hurt.

One common theme we also face a lot with Todd’s situation is the desire on the part of many for him to be punished for what he did. They would never call it that, but it is in fact what they want.

That statement is called putting words in people mouths here. We want to see Todd restored in right standing with God, in right standing within the Body of Christ, and in right standing (if possible) to those he hurt. Todd can’t be restored to the pulpit period. It’s not our ‘desire’, it’s the Bible that states (1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1) that Todd is no longer qualified to go back behind the pulpit. It’s not punishment, it is the consequences of Todd’s sin

A lot was posted that was parroted from the videos, but then again, nothing was said. I still get the feeling that Todd will go back into ministry again sooner than we are led to believe and because he is getting wrong counsel, Todd’s next ministry endeavors can turn out more disastrous than the Africa trip and Lakeland.

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