Thinking about part one of this post hours after writing it, I came to the realization that I could have added the words “…And The Mainline Churches” to the title.

Because in retrospect, the same principles were also applied against the mainline (Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran) churches (compromising, easy-believism, liberal, got a gym but do not have Jesus, etc…). However, the reason why I used “Baptist” only in the title was because when I was in pentecostalism, it was the Baptist churches in my area that were growing by leaps and bounds, ushering in building plans for a new sanctuary and multi-purpose gymnasium, getting paved parking lots, etc. and the only explanation that was ushered forth for the boom in growth was….

they sold out the gospel and therefore their souls in the name of fame, fortune, influence, affluence….

aka (implied but NEVER verbally expressed externally but verbally expressed internally some Sunday mornings especially when no visitors were present.)

“We” are the real Christians… “You” are the wolves in sheep’s clothing and the lukewarm Laodiceans that God one day God would spit out when you miss the rapture.

“You” love your ‘liturgical order’ that puts God in a box while our confusion and chaos allows ‘God to move’.

“You” people never see miracles and healings while “we” do.

“You” people have missions but ‘we’ go to the voodoo tribes and see them all saved and delivered from witchcraft.

“You” love to go to disaster stricken areas to provide ‘relief’ and get interviewed on television for your glory even though it was these people’s own sin that caused God to judge them by allowing the disaster to happen as a wake-up call for repentance. “You” provide ‘relief’… “We bring the message of repentance that provides real relief from their eternal torment that gives God the glory.

“You” have men with PhD’s that preach in your pulpits. “We” have anointed men and women of God who preach from our pulpits.

I remember the few families that left for these up and coming ‘mini-mega’ churches and they got the typical ‘bless you’ to their faces (I was the exception, I got the curses in my face when I left) and later on ‘curses’ of once you leave, bad things would happen to you because you have left “God’s covering”….

And when they did leave…. they became future sermon material as to what happens to you and your family when you do leave and get out of God’s ‘covering’ especially when the bad things started to happen….

You know the stories of where eventually dad loses his job and never financially recovers, mom sees the tragedies take place and when her healthy dad suddenly and unexpectedly drops dead of a heart attack becomes convinced that the church was right and they should have never left, blames her husband and divorces him and goes back to the church where her fortunes ‘turn around’, the daughter becomes a cheerleader (short skirt sex-object pentecostal no-no) to then turn off the straight and narrow path and eventually becomes the class slut turned pregnant crack whore on welfare, and straight A student son becomes dope dealer who ends up in prison, and fido breaks his leash to escape the back yard and gets run over by ‘ricky redneck’ in his super-fast bondo/primer colored Camaro with the loud stereo, ripped interior, chrome valve covers, and the nice and shiny Cragar wheels (wasn’t he supposed to have died by wrapping the car around the oak tree when he laughed at the youth evangelist at the annual youth rally?)

The businesspeople, politicians, educators, judges, and ’secret’ Christians of the local news/radio media never attended the pentecostal churches. They attended the big Baptist or mainline churches and therefore it was implied that those churches sold out the Gospel and gave those people special ‘perks, privileges, and positions of leadership’ in exchange for influence and affluence in the media and easy property zoning passages (while ‘conspiring’ to vote against the pentecostal churches wishes for rezoning of property to build their expansion plan) or favorable news coverage (and make sure you ‘conspire against’ and negatively paint pentecostal churches in a bad light) when needed.

Worse is their disdain for Habitat For Humanity because (1): It was founded by a “DEMONcrat”. (2): The Christians who attended the mainline churches (and usually held a more moderate or liberal political viewpoint) were dominant in their control by being committee officers within the local chapter and therefore, the ‘real gospel’ would never get preached. (3): How could you explain rebuilding a house for someone in need when it was ’secret sin’ or some ‘vice’ (alcohol, drugs, premarital sex / prostitution) that cause the depletion of resources and also cause those people to lose their house and that all they will do after the house is finished is to play Christian for six months to only go back to those secret sins and vices after the ‘publicity’ wore off.

Also, the pentecostal / charismatic pastors usually never were invited to lead the opening prayer at the city council, county government, or board of education meetings.

Even though I stated in part one of my article that

“You” showed class. “We” turned this into the ‘Christian class war’.

The real truth was that within the internal ranks of the pentecostal hierarchy, it was always viewed as

“They” (Baptists and other mainline denominations) ‘conspired against us’ and started the ‘Christian Class War’ by trying to promote the “Evangelical Exploitation” of us in the workplace (persecution) to eventually lead to the “Evangelical Extermination” of pentecostals because most of their members in the early 1900s left their denominations and became pentecostal and they have resented us and wanted to ‘eliminate’ us from the “American Christian scene’ ever since.

And you thought the modern-day evangelicals invented this type of thinking, the day prayer was removed from the public schools, called ‘the culture war’ when it was viewed as:

“They” (liberals, gays, and secular humanists) ‘conspired against us’ and started the ‘Culture War’ by trying to promote the “Ecumenical Exploitation” of us in the workplace (persecution) to eventually lead to the “Ecumenical Extermination” of conservative religious-right evangelicals and Christianity altogether because they resent our ’stand for God’ and they have resented us and wanted to ‘eliminate’ us from the “American Culture’ ever since.

It was always carried on ‘business as usual’ with the mentality of

“They” started the war, “We” (in God’s might) will finish the war, win the war, and reap your spoils of your big buildings, paved parking lots, and gymnasiums that got foreclosed when you succumb to the adulteress that your pastors will eventually sleep with (but it’s the pentecostal / charismatic churches that have the highest amount of pastoral adultery go figure…) that will destroy your church.

Hey, if you saw it our way (aka ‘God’s way’), this would have never happened and God’s protection would have been on your life.

Because:

(1): “Your” Liberal theology caused God to either have never been in your midst and you are really a ‘Ichabod’ in the Spirit.

or

(2): “You” touched ‘us’ (the “Davids”) and therefore ‘touched God’s anointed’ via your plots of ‘pentecostal persecution’ and ‘esoterical extermination’. “You” mainline churches and Baptists are really the “Spiritual Sauls” who wanted a King of a public leader who consulted the witchcraft of the world to run your churches and that God has left you.

I remember hearing the stories about the ‘prayer covering’ needed because the ‘atheist’ co-worker was ‘persecuting’ them and the ‘non-spiritual Baptist boss’ warned them about ‘over-proselytizing’ (seen as the ‘non-spiritual Baptist boss’ fearing that the unsaved people in their workplace would end up going to the pentecostal church instead of the Baptist church) ….

and if they got fired or had to resign…. It was due to the devil working through the persecuting atheist and the Baptist / mainline ‘wolf’ (aka ‘agents of Satan’). But that’s okay, God will give them a better job and send the persecuting atheist and the Baptist / mainline ‘wolf’ into poverty as punishment for ‘touching God’s anointed’ and somehow force the ex-employer into bankruptcy because the owners ‘touched God’s anointed’ by choosing the ‘devil’ Baptist wolf over the ’special pentecostal child of God’.

“You” and “Us” against ‘them” (and the ‘Us’ people who disagreed with you). “Everyone” (secular humanists, other ‘Christians’, etc.) were out to ‘get us’. “They” have it out for us. “They” will help usher in the antichrist via their lukewarm religion in order to extinguish evangelism and get rid of the ‘real christians’

‘ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh’

what a paranoid way to live…… and I apologize, rpent, and ask for forgiveness for my part in promoting the paranoia and fervor.

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An Apology to The Baptists Part II

I apologize, repent, and ask for your forgiveness

(1): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that the time was after 12:00 noon (and that the Baptists had already shut and locked the doors), that God was going to start ‘moving’ within our midst. It was commonly told at how the Baptists used to have

9:00 AM Bus ministry
10:00 AM Sunday School
11:00 AM Sunday Service
12:00 PM locking of the doors

with precision-like clockwork that this was ‘putting God in a box and tying His hands up and holding him hostage to our desires.’ Therefore, because we stayed until 12:30 PM / 1:00 PM we were ‘God’s special ones’ because we refused to ‘confine God like those Baptists did’ (there was no ‘allegations, it was assumed that it was already true). Oh yes, we got more emotional. Oh Yes, we sung the third verse and the chorus of ‘Nothing But The Blood…’ over and over again to drag out the time.

“We” tarried….. “You” didn’t
“We” listen to God for direction…. “You” follow tradition and ritual’
“We” have dinner on the grounds…. “You” go to restaurants
“We” are the church…. “You” play church…
“We” are not of this world…”You” are the world and the children….

(2):In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that we were both ‘the poorer the purer’ and also ‘the fewer the purer’ while the rich business owner who called himself ‘Christian’ but ‘oppressed’ us in the workplace Monday through Fridays would go to that ‘liberal hypocritical’ Baptist church down the street.

“We” had the ‘Spirit’….. “You” had the money
“We” travel down the Straight and Narrow… “You” use the wide path.

(3): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that when the Baptists built the gymnasium, the mid-week services for the youth group were:

7:00 PM Pre-planned sermon of ‘milk and pablum’
7:10 PM Basketball (aka ‘Baptistball’ where slam dunking is a technical
foul – called pride and taunting)
8:10 PM Locking of the doors

…while we had two hours of teaching called ‘meat’ .

“We had the ‘Spirit’….. “You” had a gym, softball field, and playland.

(4): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that we had a ‘hard not-so-easy Christianity because ‘Great Satan’ was constantly after us because we were ‘God’s end-times remnant’ (and out of the other side of their mouths proclaiming your hard life was due to secret sin, lacking faith, and disagreeing with the pastor) while ‘that Baptist church down the street had an easier Christianity of ‘easy-believism’ and therefore was already deceived by Satan and not doing God’s will to where Satan really did not have to attack them.

“We had the ‘Spirit’ and ‘Knowledge’….. “You” had the money and God already figured out in your head

(5): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that since we had the Holy Spirit and evidence of ’speaking in tongues’ and ‘that Baptist church down the street’ would ‘pride themselves’ on their knowledge of the Word and emotionless reverence (and as I grew older and left pentecostalism, I appreciate and embrace the Baptist straightforward knowledge of the Word a whole lot more thanks to my buddy Triple-P and Charles Stanley), that God blessed us with more anointing and looked upon us with more favor than those Baptists who put God in the box.

“We” had the ‘Spirit’, discernment, prophetic words of extra-Biblical knowledge and ‘Spiritual Gifts’….. “You” had your King James Bible.

“We” hear and speak to God everyday… “You” last heard from God a century ago and are going by tradition ever since.

“We” move when God tells us to… “You” have your ‘committees’ to go through

“We” built mega remnants…. “You” built mega churches

“We” get drunk ‘in the Spirit’… “You” drink ’spirits’ late at night when the kids are asleep thinking they don’t know.

(6): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that when those Baptists died and went to heaven (and they would barely get in with that ‘once saved always saved’ message because when they knew they were dying, then they really start confessing and repenting), that they would be in the ‘Christian culture-shock’ of their life. Heaven was not going to be like a public library atmosphere with boring stale preaching mixed with orchestra music, fundy trumpets, a well rehearsed choir, no drums, and a kiddie handbell choir.

OH NO

Heaven was going to be like a ole-fashioned sawdust tent-revival service with loud noises and hyper-emotionalism with a “Hallelujah Hoedown’ of Southern Gospel singing music with the country twang and men dressed in their like suits and women dressed in their like dresses made from the Simplicity patterns and materials sold in the cloth department at Wal-Mart and those Baptists better learn the words to ‘the blood songs’ (Nothing But The Blood, When I See The Blood, Are You Washed In The Blood, There’s Pow’r In The Blood…) because that’s all we’re singing in heaven, not “Just As I Am, How Great Thou Art, and At The Cross” while we’re running around the place. They better learn how to run also….

“We had the ‘Spirit’ and the music that everyone needs. “You” offer a lot that no one really wants (but if that was so, how come more people attended?)

—-

Once again (in tears, in shakes, and in trembling)

I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness.

They really believed that ‘we’ were ‘better’ than ‘you’. We actually were arrogant and with pride believing and thinking that heaven was gong to be an eternal form of a pentecostal church service and every other Christian denomination better get used to it, adjust, and get with the program or else….

They really believed that ‘all of us’ were going to get raptured at the Second Coming while ‘a very few of you’ were coming with us.

They really believed that more members and more money automatically meant ’sellout’.

I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness for my ‘pentecostal pride’, my ‘apostolic arrogance’, my ‘ecclesiastical elitism’.

In retrospect, “we” and “you” are true Christian followers of Jesus Christ. Off and on the past fifteen years, I had privately in my prayers to God apologized to him portions of what I wrote down (I didn’t remember the rest until I started typing and the memory started coming back to me. Foot, I still may have forgotten something to apologize for). It was the fuel of pride back then because ‘we’ thought that we were repairing the breach, raising up Joel’s Army, building Nehemiah’s walls, building Ezra’s temple, purging the remnant, and eliminating Achan’s sin …….

and ‘they’ weren’t……..

Now, it’s the stigma and lead weight of a shame when you realize that really, ‘we’ and ‘you’ really wanted the same core desires

…to see our city reached for Jesus
…to see the crime rate drop
…to see our kids and future grandkids grow up safe and Christian
…to see ourselves as sinners saved by Grace growing in Christ
…to see repentance and rehabilitation at work

“You” showed character. “We” became characters.
“You” showed humility. “We” mistook it for ‘humiliation’
“You” showed dignity. We quoted 2 Samuel 6:14-20 for our indignity

“We” complained about how everybody from our employers, the clerk at K-Mart, our classmates, ‘that devil police officer who gave me the speeding ticket’ and not that heathen Baptist, and public officials always ‘looked down’ on us and were ’specifically out to get us’ because we were the chosen ones who ‘looked different than you’. While on Sunday mornings, we looked down at you in the name of ‘role reversal revenge’ because you “sold out” and therefore could never be as pure as ‘we’ are and a member of the last-days end-time remnant.

“You” showed class. “We” turned this into the ‘Christian class war’.

In many ways, what really took place was a derivative form of what is known as black liberation theology. Where black liberation theology promotes a mentality of the African American Christian being freed from the social, political, and economic bondages and oppressions caused by ‘the man’, pentecostal liberation theology promotes a mentality where one day, the pentecostal (this belief expounded further in dominionalism, new apostolic reformation, and word of faith teachings) will one day be freed from the social, political, and economic bondages and oppressions caused by Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ (aka ‘the man’ because pentecostals think that they are so much ‘like’ the world pentecostals claim they are not of).

Where traditional and conservative black liberation theology claims to not desire special treatment or a payback; but an equal opportunity for freedom and justice, the pentecostal liberation theology believes that freedom and justice can only come when the pentecostal can finally identify that Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ that ‘oppress’ them are the real ‘enemies of God’ (and therefore unequal to them thereby eliminating the need for an equal opportunity for freedom and justice) that need to be conquered, defeated, and placed under their subjection in order to receive a ‘promised land’ (Charismatic Caanan) and a ‘wealth (pentecostal payback) of the wicked’ (Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ that ‘oppress’ them) laid up for the ‘just’ (the pentecostal) as compensation for all the ‘oppression’ Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ placed on their lives.

In other words, an ‘Ecclesiastical Exodus’ must take place (and one day they believe will eventually take place) where Satan, ‘the Baptists’, public officials, and ‘the mainline denominations’ must be viewed as ‘Pharoah’ who rules in the ‘worldly Egypt’ (because they see Satan, ‘the Baptists’, public officials, and ‘the mainline denominations’ as ’sellouts in the Spirit’) and the pentecostals view themselves as “Moses” to part the Red Sea (and flood Pharoah to death by drowning), and their children as ‘Joshua Generation’ in order to see the social, economic, and political justice for those (pentecostals) who are ‘outcast and unwanted’ in the normal scope defined as Christianity.

“We” failed to see ‘you’ as ‘brother in Christ. Instead, we saw you as ‘Christian public enemy number one’ who ‘we’ would one day see God ‘defeat’ and take control of your theology, gymnasiums, music, teachings, softball fields, etc. and give them to us start using them for ‘God’s glory’ to break the ’spirits’ that held people back from being free from sin and addiction because those Baptists and mainline Christians drank alcohol or dressed, acted, and talked like the world did..

It really was pentecostal liberation theology mixed with the world history of the crusades mixed with Frank Peretti’s book This Present Darkness combined with a form of a ‘Christian class war’ (Messianic Marxism) being blurred into a ‘Christian Caste system’ where pentecostals are viewed as the ‘untouchables’ thinking that either a ‘Charismatic “Charma”‘ (the force generated by a person’s actions by sending a televangelist tons of money or holding a mega-fast repentance service on 9-9-09 that will determine the nature of the person’s next phase of life) or the ‘holy war’ of the ‘pentecostal proletariat’ one day overcoming and conquering the “Baptist bourgeoisie” who practiced ‘evangelical exploitation’ over the pentecostal proletariat.

Once again, I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness for my ‘pentecostal pride’, my ‘apostolic arrogance’, my ‘ecclesiastical elitism’, and for my part in the ‘Charismatic class war.

…..what a gullible and naive idiot i used to be………

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An Apology to The Baptists

Another flawed formula, another failed promise

This, combined with the Pulpit Freedom Sunday to take place September 28, 2008 shows us that the American church is deeply flawed and too busy fighting wars the Don Quixote way instead of the Bible way. Instead of reading from the book of Acts, it holds the U.S. Constitution in higher esteem where Christian Reconstructionalism is more important than the Christian Great Commission. I have always found it interesting that the leaders of this movement would adamantly denounce charismatic dominionalism but literally disguise it and reword it as theocratic christian reconstructionalism and get the charismatics on board with them.

You made a vow to the government by accepting 501c3 status that you would not talk politics. So, are you going to break the laws that the God you worship tells you to obey in order to ‘politic in God’s name’?

Let me tell you something here, if American Christians from all denominations unite to create the Christian Theocracy instead of living out the Bible, we will then see after the ‘victory’ the Christians start warring from within and deeming ‘weaker’ and ‘less affluent’ denominations as ‘liberal and compromising’ and go out to ‘kill them in the name of God’.

It is what happened in Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion. The Taliban got funding and weapons and therefore was seen as ‘anointed in the eyes of Allah to lead the fight’, was able to convince the people victory in the name of Allah if all the religious factions united, and late in the conflict / after the Soviets pulled out, began singling out the ‘weaker’ and ‘less Islamic’ factions and started killing those people.

We had eight years of “God’s Man”. Is abortion outlawed? Is prayer back in the public schools? Is the land flowing with milk and honey? Are there no more gay people in America? Has the powerball lottery been eliminated? What we have here didn’t just come into existence and became ‘invented’ on June 17, 1963 as every right-wing Christian tries to convince us. It has been around for centuries and spoken about in the Bible and plainly identified as sin.

However, unlike Islam and the religious right who think you conquer and overcome temptation by extincting and outlawing it, the Bible teaches us that we conquer and overcome temptation by choosing to say no to it, walking through it and coming out on the other side in victory and free from the snares. The Bible tells us in II Timothy 2:22 to:

Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Analyze this for a moment. If the Bible tells you to flee it, that means that the temptation of lust is present and can exist again and again. In fact, the Bible telling us to flee the temptation instead of trying to permanently eliminate it should raise up the red flag to say that the focus and the fight is wrongly misguided and that walking through temptation not eradicating it is the correct Biblical way to approach temptation. In fact, it should even tell us that temptation in and of itself can not be eliminated but can be overcame.

What is more interesting is that the way of walking through the temptation and fleeing youthful lust is in the same verse by pursuing righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

We can try all the formulas all we want to… We can do a 40 day prayer rally… We can give you ‘unbiased news coverage’ (and be biased when telling you so and biased by saying we are unbiased)… We can do a republican rebellion from the pulpit all we want to…. We can hold ‘The Call Rallies’ and blow all the shofars all we want to…. We can mega-repent for invented sins, shout at the sky in divine delirium in the name of strategic-level spiritual warfare, and hold ‘fast-a-thons’ until we are skinny and emaciated……

However, if we fail to obey the Scriptures and not learn how to overcome temptation instead trying to eliminate temptation, we will fail as individual people who will one day have to give an individual account for our life because we wanted dominion instead of discipleship, domain instead of divinity, and domination on Earth instead of a domicile in heaven’s unearthly estate.

Faith…….. Not Formula

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Flawed Formula, Failed Promise