Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. -- 1Peter 2: 11 (ESV)
Beloved, there are many diseases right now infecting the Church. There is a reason why the Bible says narrow is the gate that lead to eternal life and few are those who find it. Everyone wants their ears tickled with stories of 800,000 plus people saved in one day at a Reinhard Bonnke sermon but those with discernment realize no one gets saved where the Gospel is not preached. The elephant in the church no one wants to talk about is the plethora of false conversions. The purpose driven church model has saved zero people beloved. Neither have the seeker friendly schemes of church growth. According to Romans, only the Gospel has the power of God unto the salvation of man. According to Acts, if a preacher does not preach the entire Gospel, then the blood of his listeners is upon his head. The Bible is actually pretty straightforward if we are willing to deal with some hard truths about where we are in the great apostasy. The real Gospel has been replaced by many counterfeits. Feel good, sugared up, watered down, prosperity, word faith and experiential gospels just to name a few. Then there are idols running through many of these false gospels. Just as sure as there were carved statues to bow down to in the Old Testament times, there are spiritual statues we bow down to today all in the name of the Jesus we do not know. One of the most cancerous idols eroding the body of Christ is jingoism.
Relax; jingoism is just a fancy word for extreme patriotism even to the point of desirous military dominance. Starting to sound familiar? Every other story on Charisma News is another prop piece for the president or how God has only blessed this country. There is a constant blending of social wedge issues with Biblical imperatives. As if when we stand before Christ He is going to review how many political rallies we attended and what our voting record looked like (He will not). It is an obsession with America that can only be rightly described as idol worship. The spirit behind it is a love for this world and the sin it offers. Many in church leadership in this country like their mansions. They like their sports cars and book deals. They like their positions of power and prestige -- just as the Pharisees did when Jesus walked the earth. So not surprisingly, they are enamored with revival, which the Bible does not promise in these end times. They believe if they could just get the goats in this country to behave better, then God will decide to not judge this country when He judges the nations. So to expose how this works we will review two "prophecies" from two different false prophets. One is taken from yesterday and the other from 2015, showing this has passed from trending to becoming an accepted part of Christian culture. It is why people as blatantly false as Paula White, Franklin Graham, and Jerry Falwell Jr. are celebrated for being so close to the least Christian president we have ever had. It is part of the move away from doctrine and biblical truth as we get closer to the return of Jesus Christ.
Let us start today with the key verse and realize what our relationship with this world is supposed to be. A sojourner is a temporary resident. An exile means that we are not in our rightful home. Another translation uses the word "pilgrim"; indicating someone on a journey. Are we sensing a theme? We are not of this world beloved. The Bible says our citizenship is in heaven and God never says we are to seek dual citizenship with this world. If the world had its way we would end up in eternal suffering. We owe it nothing. We are charged however with bringing the true Gospel to the lost so that they too may step out of the darkness of this world into His marvelous light. Let us start today with a 2015 "Declaration of Unity" from false prophet Mark Taylor. Mark is somewhat of a darling in the false prophecy circles of today because they claim he successfully prophesied that Donald Trump would become president. What they neglect is that his "prophecy" was in 2011 and was intended for the 2012 presidential election. So yes, this was a successful prediction if you accept that God missed by five years. Still with the gullible church seeking any reason to bow down to Sodom, Taylor has parlayed this missed prophecy into a book deal where he calls himself the "man who saw tomorrow!" Since then nearly every word uttered from his mouth is about Donald Trump and he has already predicted he will be reelected and why wouldn't he? Trump has been an enormous cash cow for him and he has a 50-50 shot! So let us reason together through reviewing a "Declaration of Unity" Taylor "prophesied" just three years ago:
"I _______ in the name of Jesus, decree and declare, according to Matthew 18:19, that I will be in unity with my brothers and sisters in the Army of God and all the forces of Heaven. That I will support and defend the Word of God and His Army, with all of Heaven, against all enemies from the Kingdom of Darkness, even unto supreme sacrifice." -- Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor believes in the word faith gospel here as he is teaching people to usurp the power of God. We have zero power to decree and declare anything of our own. Matthew 18:19 certainly does not give us any authority to claim the power of creation through our voice. It provides the power of unified prayer according to the will of God alone. The second point here is the call for false unity. According to Romans, it is false teaching that divides the Body of Christ. Take this absurd declaration for example. It divides because those weak in the faith and discernment will fall for it and those who are not will not thus creating a divide. We are also not in an "army of God." Any references to the Lord's army are Old Testament references. The New Testament declares that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal:
I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. -- 2Corinthians 10: 2-6 (ESV)
You see when a false prophet raises up a lofty opinion such as Mark Taylor does here; we are to take captive the thought set up against the Word of God and destroy such arguments. If he truly supported and defended the Word of God -- then he would stop pretending he is hearing form Him. You see, we must understand that the jingoistic Christian only applies the Word to other people. It is used to dissect the country, the unsaved, and political enemies. It is never used like sword to separate those who believe from those who do not but rather as a butcher's cleaver to slaughter any and all dissent. Taylor continues:
"I will not fire upon those in the Army of God, but will direct my fire upon the enemy, and the enemy alone. I will protect my brothers and sisters in God's army, from any assault that the enemy may launch. I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, on and off the battlefield." -- Mark Taylor
This is the same Kumbaya Christianity of Dr. Michael Brown. If someone can spell Jesus correctly they must be a brother or sister in Christ. Nonsense! In the early days of the church there was a group of Jewish converts who had a hard time letting go of circumcision. So they began to teach salvation through faith in Christ AND circumcision. They were called the Judaizers and may have been well intended. It matters not because Paul said let them be accursed! Let anyone who preaches a different gospel be accursed! Mark Taylor routinely is on Charisma News, which is a virtual cesspool of false prophecy and teaching. What he is saying here is do not fire upon my sister Jennifer Leclaire when she prophesies about a sneaky squid spirit or when Michael Brown defends the indefensible for the 100th time. Beloved, our true faith and allegiance must be to the Gospel and not those who share the stage with us. Taylor concludes:
"I will obey the orders of the Supreme Commander of the Army of God, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to Ephesians 4:11, the Government of God and the uniform regulations founded on God's throne of righteousness and justice. I decree it and declare it on earth as it is in heaven. So be it. Amen!" -- Mark Taylor
This appears to be reinforcing the false authority paradigm that many false gospels follow. Do not question people who claim to be above you! You must have a covering. Again -- NONSENSE. Ephesians 4:11 lays out the various offices that God uses to build His kingdom. The government, Mark forgets is a Monarchy! Jesus Christ is our King, not our president. Lastly, the verse Taylor lifts here at the end speaks to things on earth being as they are in heaven when Christ returns! It is nothing he can decree or declare now. That ends his declaration of false unity. Notice the constant references to war and army? This is the jingoism we were discussing earlier and now let us turn to a more recent example from the false prophet from Bethel Church -- Shawn Bolz. Mr. Bolz specializes in cold readings, psychic tricks, and manifesting false words of knowledge through his smart phone. It seems God called him after the Super Bowl this week and gave him a fresh download"oh wait that was Satan:
"Super Bowl prophetic perspective by Shawn Bolz. Not to over spiritualized it but I think the eagles winning over the Patriots in the Super Bowl is prophetic. I like eagles, I always have. Biblically Eagles represent spiritual authority, prophetic significance, and big God-like vision. I feel like there are four messages to four types of eagles being raised up." -- Shawn Bolz
Let me see if I have this right. Because the name of the winning team was Eagles, you think God was secretly trying to say something to His people? Beloved, you must realize that is what this absurd statement is really saying. Prophetic significance means God is saying something. So instead of making it abundantly clear, He hid it within the winner of the Super Bowl for Shawn Bolz to discover? I might add here that there are zero Bible verses that support the notion that eagles represent spiritual authority, prophetic significance or a big God-like vision. That is just more false prophecy spiritual gobbledygook designed to make people go ooh and ahh but signifies nothing in reality. Good thing the Steelers did not win or Bolz would have been talking about the spiritual significance of having our purpose stolen. Or the Vikings and our shipwrecked faith. Or the Giants and how we can't let the giants in our lives win. Ugh. I can do this all day too but that does not make it prophetic.
"There are the spiritual colonels of God's Air Force being appointed (eagle is the emblem used in the air force for a Colonel). They are the king of the airways, the sky and dominate the territories. Eagles often represent those called to the Media and Entertainment Mountain and God is releasing some who will dominate some of the entertainment and media space claiming territory for His purpose." -- Shawn Bolz
