Ancient Rome and the US now

Ancient Rome and the US now

When I was 12 years old, my mother and I went to Rome and I fell in love with it. I was so in love with it that I immediately began to teach myself Italian and didn't stop until I was fully fluent in it. When we got back from Rome, I got the book, "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and read it from cover to cover. I was even then struck by the similarities between the US and ancient Rome and have continued to study that for the rest of my life. So it was quite natural for me when I was saved to notice how the fall of Rome came about as they moved further and further away from God. One of the area's that caused their fall and ultimately will cause ours, was the degeneration of the family which came about believe it or not, through an ancient version of "women's lib" and then "homosexual rights". Sound familiar? It's true though, and there are places in the NT that were written to people because they were getting confused because of that ancient women's lib movement and the gay rights movement. I talked about that in the study I did on What God says for women.

Obviously since I just recently did that study, that's the area I was concentrating on in scripture. I had also just finished reading a fiction book and asked the Lord what I should read next for pleasure. He brought to my mind one of my favorite series that I haven't read for ages so I couldn't wait to get started on it again. When I did though, I burst out laughing because that series talks about these very same things! LOL God is just so awesome in the ways He helps us to understand what he's saying to us!

Last night as I was reading that book, (which by the way is called, A Voice in The Wind (Mark of the Lion series) by Francine Rivers) I came to a passage that I just have to share with you all. I even read it to Bruce last night lol This book came out almost 20 years ago and it amazes me how much the US has changed to be just like the passage I want to quote you about Rome.

In this passage, a father and mother who's children are now adults, were walking in a park and saw a homosexual couple sitting on a bench kissing which was just totally disgusting to them. Now these people aren't saved, (yet lol) but seeing that upset the father so much he just had to vent and this is what he said to his wife: (any comments I make will be in parentheses)

"Marcus (their son) believes nothing is true and anything is permitted. Julie (their daughter) thinks the only thing that matters is her own pleasure. I've worked my entire life in order to give my children everything I never had at their age--wealth, education, position. And now I look at them and wonder if my life is simple vanity. They are selfish, without the least restraint upon their appetites. They haven't the smallest fiber of moral character."....
...Rome tolerated every abominable practice, embraced every foul idea in the name of freedom and the rights of the common man. Citizens no longer carried on deviant behavior in private, but pridefully displayed it in public. It was those with moral values who could no longer freely walk in a public park without having to witness a revolting display. What had happened to the public censors who protected the majority of citizenry from moral decadence? Did freedom have to mean abolishing common decency? Did freedom mean anyone could do anything they wanted anytime they wanted, without consequences?

How sad...and how sad that's exactly where the US and many other countries are now too. Even if I didn't know anything about the Bible or God, just understanding history would cause me to believe that the US will soon fall. It has undermined the very things that held it together and made it what it was, just as Rome did. Things that are good are now called evil and those things that are evil are not only called good, they are proudly and smugly flaunted everywhere we go. After my salvation when I began studying God's Word it became quite obvious to me that the end times were ancient Rome all over again.

I've talked to the Lord many times about how bad it's gotten... how I can't even go on "family friendly" sites to look for a nice graphic without having to view dozens of vulgar ones, no matter what subject I'm looking up. How if we go out for coffee or to eat that we're forced to see homosexuals flaunting their decadence, etc.

What I've also wondered is if the US would fall before or after the rapture. It could happen either way of course since nothing has to happen before the rapture. At first I was thinking it was so bad now that the US would have to fall first, unless Jesus came this very very soon, but then I realized that although we think it's very bad, it's not quite there yet... almost...but not quite. Once we're removed though (by the rapture) there will be no (or very very few) dissenting voices to let even worse things happen here. So now I tend to think that the rapture will happen first and be a kind of catalyst bringing out the worst in those left behind. I'm just profoundly glad that I won't be here to witness it!

Sometimes I hate it when my mind starts thinking of the similarities between the US and ancient Rome cause it seems like everything I see and hear is just like how it was then: women's lib, abortion, divorce, homosexuality, increase in crime, increase in disease, increase in both "natural" disasters and man made ones, corruption of politics, and the teachings about "self" and that people should put themselves first etc.

Rome actually got it's "new morality" from Greece. Well, we know it came from Satan in reality, but it was the Greek influence that brought it to Rome after they conquered it. Rome was a lot like the US is now. In the past, when people immigrated to the US (legally) they came and loved this country and learned our language and our faith and became upright citizens. All of that's changed now. Now instead of immigrating here to become American's, they come expecting and wanting to stay what they already are, Mexican, or whatever, and keep their old ways and old beliefs. They have no desire to become an American. And now instead of rejecting those "old ways" the US has decided to embrace them and insist that the rest of us embrace them as well. So those of us who are American's are supposed to now be ashamed of the heritage of our country and put off our ways and accept the ways of these other countries. Just like Rome did. And just like Rome, because we're doing that, we'll fall.

 (Originally posted on  June 18th, 2011)

Male, Female, or Other

Historically, there have been only two gender options: male and female. But popular culture is trying to change that. Facebook users can now identify themselves as a-gender, androgynous, bi-gender, gender variant, or a host of other alternatives. This comes on the heels of a feminist movement that insists that a woman's sex should not impact her role or function: Biology should not equal destiny, every woman has a right to dictate the terms of her own life, and she can decide for herself what her womanhood means.

The Bible counters these modern trends. It says that God created two sexes and wants this binary to serve a specific purpose: Gender, sex, and marriage were created to illustrate the marvelous story of the covenant relationship between Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. Male and female exist to bear witness to an eternal, cosmic reality. The greatest display of God's glory and the greatest joy of human relationships come about when the deep, God-ordained differences between men and women are not rejected, but are embraced and celebrated.

Given the extent of gender confusion in our culture, it's more important than ever that the church uphold the beauty of God's plan for male and female and help men and women experience the joy and fulfillment of being exactly who He created them to be. 

Taken from email from Moody Publishers

Magic Charms Enchant Apostolic-Prophetic Movement

Magic Charms Enchant Apostolic-Prophetic Movement

Holly Pivec

Kits to remove curses, cards to interpret dreams, and music to heal people have become popular products in the apostolic‐prophetic movement, also called the “New Apostolic Reformation.” The movement, which is fast growing in charismatic churches, has long been criticized for its promotion of modern “apostles” and “prophets” who claim to have great authority and to speak for God. It is now being criticized for selling products that—many Christians believe—have more in common with the magic charms used in occult practices than with Christianity.

Property Dedication Kit. One organization that sells these products is the Elijah List, based in Albany, Oregon, which is founded and run by “prophet” Steve Shultz. The Elijah List e‐mails daily newsletters that feature prophecies—and advertisements for products like these—to more than 130,000 subscribers, according to its Web site(www.elijahlist.com).

One of the Elijah List’s top‐selling products is the “Portals to Cleansing Property Dedication Kit”—sold for $12—which is supposed to remove curses from houses and properties. Created by Henry Malone, a professional “house cleanser” and founder of Vision Life Ministries in Irving, Texas, the kit contains anointing oil and wood stakes, with Scripture verses on them, to drive into the borders of a property.

“Use it and make the enemy flee!” Shultz promised his Elijah List readers in an advertisement for the kit, sent on October 16, 2006. Shultz personally vouched for the kit, saying he’s cleansed his own 20 acres of land three or four times and, each time, has seen “a noticeable change in the atmosphere and circumstances.” He said curses are the only explanation for “certain sicknesses, diseases, and even death that comes upon very anointed and pure‐hearted people.”

A companion book written by Malone—titled Portals to Cleansing: Taking Back Your Land from the Hands of the Enemy (Vision Life Publications, 2002)—is sold separately from the kit. It promises to teach readers the “keys to reclaiming [their] land, home, possessions and animals from the power of Satan and his demonic forces.” (See the book and kit at: www.elijahshopper.com.) The book recommends holding a communion ceremony at the center of a property—where family and friends gather inside a circle drawn on the ground with anointing oil—then burying the unused bread and juice or wine.

After following the book’s advice, Matthew Spencer posted a review on Amazon.com saying that his home had a new “peace” and “lightness of spirit.” Spencer said, “I no longer feel uneasy walking through the house in the dark. Honestly, it is a night and day difference.”

Marcia Montenegro, author of the book Spellbound: The Paranormal Seduction of Today’s Kids (Cook/Life Journey, 2006) and founder of the Web site “Christian Answers for the New Age,” however, said Christians don’t need to worry about curses since they aren’t emphasized in the Bible. Even if curses were a threat, though, she thinks the kit would be powerless against them.

“How is that going to remove curses?” said Montenegro, a former professional astrologer and occult practitioner who converted to Christianity. She told the Journal that the kit has more in common with an occult worldview, comparing the anointing oil and wood stakes to “amulets”—objects that occultists believe have powers to protect them from evil, disease, or other harm.

“[With the kit,] it’s like you’re engaging in the occult to protect yourself from [the occult],” Montenegro said, adding that occult practices are banned by the Bible in Deuteronomy 18:10–12. She believes that a biblical response to threats is prayer to God—which goes straight to the source of divine power—rather than relying on magic charms. “What happened to regular prayer?” she asked.

Amulets have a long history, according to Dr. Ron Rhodes, founder and president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries in Frisco, Texas, and author of New Age Movement (Zondervan, 1995). The ancient Babylonians, for example, wore cylinders that were supposed to ward off evil spirits, Rhodes told the JOURNAL. Today, New Agers wear crystals to ward off negative energies. The purpose of amulets—like all occult charms—is to harness and manipulate the power of a deity or the forces of nature, according to Rhodes. He sees this as the purpose behind the property dedication kit.

“It is definitely an example of paganism making its way into the church,” he said.

Third Heaven Vision Anointing Oil. Another top‐selling product for the Elijah List is “Third Heaven Vision Anointing Oil,” which is supposed to give visions of the heavenly realm. Sold by Tom Panich of Vancouver, Washington, it’s made with a base of virgin olive oil and six fragrances that are mentioned in the Bible: calamus, cassia, frankincense, myrrh, Rose of Sharon, and spikenard. A half‐ounce sells for $12.

Anointing oil often has been used by Christians on sick people—along with prayer—in accordance with a Scripture passage, James 5:14–15. Christians historically did not view the oil as having any special power, however; they saw its use simply as an act of faith in God. They also did not use the oil to induce visions or cleanse homes from evil, as it is used in the apostolic‐prophetic movement.

In this movement, different brands of oil are depicted as “anointed” and, therefore, as more powerful than other “non‐anointed” oils. For example, in the Elijah List’s first advertisement for Third Heaven Vision Anointing Oil, sent on March 22, 2004, Shultz said, “We’ve carried different anointing oils in the past. But I always try to carry anointing oil with true anointing on it. This oil fulfills that anointing ‘standard.’”

Panich—a graduate of Norvel Haye’s New Life Bible College in Cleveland, Tennessee—claims that, in 2003, God told him to make the oil. Panich said, later, he was in the shower one day when he was hit with “a lightning bolt of God’s Glory,” and the Holy Spirit gave him the name, “Third Heaven Vision.” Panich said, “Every time I mix up a batch [of the oil], a strong anointing hits me and I shake vigorously…Also, on the occasions that I have put a full box (144 bottles) of the anointing oil in the hands of two separate strong intercessors, they have been hit by the power and anointing of the Lord, almost to the point of falling to the ground.”

Panich also recommends that the anointing oil be poured over the wood stakes from Malone’s property dedication kit, something Panich said he has tried. “After I drove the first stake into the ground, I felt the Presence of the Lord come across the yard, hit me, and then I almost fell over,” he wrote on the Elijah List (Oct. 16, 2006).

Such descriptions of anointing oil (as having magical power) concern Montenegro. She said that it’s one thing for Christians to use the oil symbolically, “but it’s another thing if you think that the oil itself is somehow going to magically protect you,” she said. “To think that an object in and of itself has power is [to think according to] an occult worldview.” Such a use of anointing oil reminds Montenegro of the New Age practice of burning sage to cleanse and bless houses, she said.

Dream Cards. The Elijah List also sells “Dream Cards,” created by Barbie Breathitt of “Breath of the Spirit Ministries,” based in North Richland Hills, Texas. The laminated cards contain common dream symbols—such as numbers, colors, and animals—and their interpretations. They are sold for $10 each or in sets of 6 and 12—for $50 and $96, respectively.

Breathitt’s Dream Cards are endorsed by Patricia King, the founder of Extreme Prophetic Television with Patricia King—a half‐hour program featuring well‐known “prophets” that airs on Canada’s Miracle Channel.

“So many believers are having significant dreams but do not always understand the significance of the symbols within them,” King said. “Barbie Breathitt has done a marvelous job of preparing dream cards as a tremendous tool to help this process.”

Besides dream interpretations, one of the cards lists colors and musical keys that are supposed to bring healing to specific body parts. The use of music and colors for healing is also promoted in occult circles, as on New York psychic Ellie Crystal’s Web site (http://www.crystalinks.com/colors.html).

Rhodes said that dream cards that are similar to Breathitt’s are common in New Age stores: “The idea that it [dream interpretation] is penetrating the Christian church is kind of scary,” he said, adding that this represents a growing acceptance of mysticism among Christians.

Rhodes admits that the Bible records times when God’s people, like Daniel, interpreted dreams. He says that in those cases, however, they always made it clear that God gave them the interpretations, not dream cards.

Montenegro, who knew dream interpreters before she became a Christian, said that the assignment of meanings to symbols is subjective. “Who’s going to say what represents what? You can make anything be a symbol for anything,” she said, adding that the people she knew couldn’t agree on the meanings of symbols.

Besides being a waste of time, dream interpretation can encourage egotism, according to Montenegro. “If you start focusing so heavily on your dreams and think everything has a meaning, it leads to selfabsorption,” she said.

Prophetic Worship CDs. Another growing industry is “prophetic” worship CDs—combinations of music, teachings, and prophecies that are supposed to bring healing, visions, and supernatural encounters just by listening to them. Many of the CDs are recorded in live settings, where the musicians and “prophets” perform spontaneously, without preparation. They, allegedly, are taken over by the Holy Spirit—composing music and lyrics that come from the “throne room of God.”

One of these CDs, sold by the Elijah List for $15, is called Invitation to Intimacy. It was recorded by James W. Goll, the cofounder of Encounters Network in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while he was “caught up into another realm,” according to the advertisement. The CD contains over an hour of “prophetic, spontaneous worship and teaching with keyboard and instrumentation in the background.”

Divine encounters are offered by Ryan Wyatt’s CD, titled The Overshadowing. Wyatt—founder of Abiding Glory Ministries in Seymour, Tennessee—urges his listeners to “sit back and relax as you are taken into the Open Heavens and experience Visions of God! Rest under the wing of God as He overshadows and saturates you with His thick, weighty, intoxicating presence!”

CDs that offer physical healing include one by “prophetic revivalist” Matt Sorger of Seldon, New York, titled Healing in His Wings. The advertisement says the CD combines instrumental music and many other “heavenly sounds, healing scriptures, spontaneous healing prayers and prophetic song.” It claims to be a “powerful combination of both the biblical healing word and the manifest healing presence of Christ.” Another CD by Canadian “prophet” Todd Bentley, titled The Voice of Healing, promises to “bring the transferable, tangible healing anointing and atmosphere to your home, hospital room, or healing service.”

The concept of music or teaching that is composed directly by the Holy Spirit alarms Rhodes. “That whole idea assumes a direct pipeline to God,” he said, adding that if someone claims to receive revelation from God, then it needs to be perfectly consistent with the Bible. “But oftentimes it’s not,” he said. Rhodes also objects to the idea that an anointing can be transferred through a CD, saying, “There is definitely a pagan connection there—a transference of anointing or power or energy.”

Rhodes said that New Agers also have released music they claimed was inspired by the Holy Spirit, but they redefined the Holy Spirit in non‐Christians terms—as a nonpersonal force rather than as one of the three Persons of the Godhead. In the same way, people in the church sometimes redefine the Holy Spirit, Rhodes added. “Just because someone is talking about the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean it’s the Holy Spirit you and I know from the Bible,” he said.

Hocus Focus. Rhodes suspects that many of the people who sell dream cards, prophetic music, and similar products are motivated by a love of money—something the Bible warns against in places such as 1 Timothy 6:10. “People are capitalizing on, and ripping off, gullible people,” he said. Rhodes believes the biggest danger for Christians, however, is not being conned out of cash, but being deceived by a magical worldview that diverts their focus. “Their attention is being taken off of God and put onto objects and potions,” he said.

posted with permission

http://journal.equip.org/articles/magic-charms-enchant-apostolic-prophetic-movement

 

See also: False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church became pagan...

Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?

Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?

"Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?"

“Pleading the blood of Jesus” in prayer is a teaching that can be traced to some of the early leaders of the Word of Faith movement. When people speak of “pleading the blood of Jesus in prayer” they are referring to the practice of “claiming” the power of Christ over any and every problem by using the phrase “I plead the blood of Jesus over _______.”

“Pleading the blood of Jesus” has no basis whatsoever in Scripture. No one in the Bible ever “pleads the blood” of Christ. Those who “plead the blood” do so as if there was something magical in those words or as if by using them their prayer is somehow more powerful. This teaching is born from the misguided and heretical view of prayer that prayer is really nothing more than a way of manipulating God to get what we want rather than praying for His will to be done. The whole Word of Faith movement is founded on the false teaching that faith is a force and if we pray with enough faith, then God guarantees us health, wealth, and happiness and will deliver us from every problem and every situation. In this view, God is simply a way to get what we want instead of being the holy, sovereign, perfect and righteous Creator that the Bible reveals Him to be.

Those who teach this Word-Faith falsehood have an exalted view of man and our “rights” to plead what we want and get God to respond the way we want. This is in opposition to true biblical faith exemplified by Paul’s life and his approach to suffering and trials. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). But Word of Faith teaches that if we suffer or are sick or struggle with sin, it is because we do not have enough faith or that we are not pleading the blood of Jesus to claim what is rightfully ours. But we do not see Paul pleading the blood of Christ or claiming what is “rightfully his” when he was faced with trials and persecution. Instead we see his unwavering faith in Christ no matter what the situation: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 2:12).

Paul had “learned in whatever state I am in to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13). Paul’s faith was in Christ alone, and he could say with conviction “the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen!” (2 Timothy 4:18).

“Pleading the blood” as it is commonly practiced has more in common with mysticism—reciting a magical formula and hoping it works—than it does with biblical prayer. Saying certain words does not make our prayers magically more powerful. Furthermore, “pleading the blood” of Christ is not needed to defeat Satan. He has already been defeated, and if we are truly born-again, Satan has no power over us other than what God allows for His purpose and glory. Colossians 1:13 makes this perfectly clear: “For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins.”

Rather than “pleading the blood” of Christ for protection or power, Christians should obey the command in James 4:7 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Rather than practicing an unbiblical model of prayer, we are to follow the simple precepts of Scripture—leading a pure life before God, taking captive all our thoughts to avoid giving sin a place, confessing our sins when we fail those first two precepts and putting on the full armor of God as outlined in Ephesians 6:13-17.

The Bible gives us numerous instructions in victorious living in Christ, and pleading “the blood of Jesus” is not one of them. We have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and He is our High Priest and mediator who “always lives to make intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25). As His sheep we are already under His protection, we simply need to live day by day trusting in Him for what He has already promised and provided.

posted with permission
http://www.gotquestions.org/pleading-the-blood.html

See also: False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church became pagan...
Magic Charms Enchant Apostolic-Prophetic Movement

False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church Becomes Pagan

False Spiritual Warfare Teachings: How the Church Becomes Pagan 

by Bob DeWaay

A pagan is anyone who lacks special revelation from God. And had God not spoken in the manner described in Hebrews 1:1, 2, everyone in the world would be a pagan. This is to say that each of us would have to guess about the nature of the spiritual world we live in and develop techniques in order to contact or manipulate our world. We would wonder how we could manipulate the "gods" to better our situation. We would create a class of shamans with special abilities to contact and manipulate the spirits. That is what every pagan culture looks like.

Sadly, that is what the church looks like when teachers of the warfare worldview proceed as though they were pagans with no special revelation (i.e., Scripture) to guide them. They are trafficking in forbidden information—and that is pagan (we will show how later). Since the pagan temptation is all around us, we must be discerning about its many inroads into the church. We have discussed many of these in past CIC issues: In this issue we will explore spiritual warfare teachings and show the alarming manner in which they introduce Christians to a pagan worldview.

The Bible is our "firewall" against paganism. When we believe and practice scripture alone, we are sure to develop a Christian worldview—if we interpret the Bible according to the meaning of its Spirit-inspired authors. Scripture "alone" implies that using extra-Biblical sources for spiritual information is forbidden. It also implies that God has revealed everything we need to know and that it is sinful to think or act otherwise. God has limited our access to spiritual information for our own good. He wants us to think like true Christians; not like pagans.

The Warfare Worldview

 

Dr. Greg Boyd describes the warfare worldview as that being held by pagans, but simultaneously claims it to be the view the Biblical authors held. I find his perspective amazing. He discusses the view of a particular pagan society: "The Shuar Indians of eastern Ecuador believe that there are two levels of reality: the ‘ordinary' physical world, which we experience with our senses, and the ‘real' one, which is experienced occasionally, and mostly in dreams or in shamanic journeys."¹ In this view the "real" world is the world of the spirits which is not that accessible. But it is considered the cause of things in the "unreal" physical world. Boyd explains, "This invisible society of spirits is behind everything that occurs in the physical world—though one has to see past ‘the lie' to discern this society." ²

Pagan societies, whatever their terminology, create a class of shamans, as mentioned above. Boyd explains how that works for the Shuar:

The primary business of shamans (medicine men) within the Shuar culture, as in many other primitive cultures, is to engage in warfare with these spirits on behalf of the members of his tribe. There is no "natural" evil here; there are only victims of supernatural evil. The shaman's business, therefore, is to enter into the "real" nonordinary world and fight against such supernatural attacks.³

Spiritual warfare is the business of shamans. Boyd accurately describes the pagan "warfare worldview."

What shocks me is that he claims it is the Biblical worldview. Boyd writes, "This central thesis of this work is that this warfare worldview is in one form or another the basic worldview of biblical authors, both in the Old Testament and even more so in the New."⁴ He offers this definition: "Stated most broadly, this worldview is that perspective on reality which centers on the conviction that the good and evil, fortunate or unfortunate, aspects of life are to be interpreted largely as the result of good and evil, friendly or hostile, spirits warring against each other and against us."⁵ This means that our welfare is in the hands of wicked spirits and if we cannot come up with a means of dealing with those spirits we shall become victims. 

My disagreement with Boyd is not about the existence of spirits, principalities or powers, nor of Satan or of other spirit beings—or even that the Bible does portray a world influenced by such beings. My disagreement has to do with his conclusion that God is not fully in charge of His own universe. Boyd wishes to absolve God from any possible association with evil by limiting His providential rule of the universe.

The providential view claims that though God allows evil, He nevertheless remains fully in control of His own universe and brings history forward according to His good purposes. Those of us who believe it take passages like this to be literal: "also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11). There are many other passages that assert that God providentially rules His own universe. The Bible says that He draws the boundaries of the nations (Acts 17:26), ordains the human authorities (Romans 13:1), determines what Satan is allowed to do (Job 1:7-12), that through Christ he created the "ages" (Hebrews 1:2) and "upholds all things by the word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3). The Psalmist wrote: "Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands. They stand this day according to Your ordinances, For all things are Your servants." (Psalm 119:90, 91).⁶

The warfare worldview is Boyd's way of rejecting the providential worldview that I claim to be Biblical. He labels the view I defend the "providential blueprint worldview."⁷ I cite Boyd because his is the most scholarly articulation of the warfare worldview—and he admits it is pagan. But other spiritual warfare teachers take this even further by seeking information and technology from the world of the spirits ostensibly to use for the purpose of warfare.

Victims of a Spiritual Legal System

 

The problem for those who adapt the pagan, warfare worldview is that they are dealing with an unseen world and they are doing it using an illegal tool chest. The spirits have been doing their wicked dealings in that realm for many millennia and they know their way around it. Pagans fear these beings because they know that the spirits exist, and they know spirits can bring much harm. That is why pagans develop a class of shamans whose job it is to understand the unseen world. Shamans claim pragmatic results. But how do they know that the shamans themselves are not being used by spirits? Pagans believe that good and bad spirits exist, and that the good ones can be used to their benefit—a "benefit" determined on the basis of a pragmatic outcome.

For example, Jose Silva taught people how to contact spirit guides by using his Silva Mind Control program. When Christians asked how he knew these spirits are "good" ones, he answered "They solve problems."⁸ (Of course he never considered that the spirits might solve temporal problems to keep people listening to them and not the gospel.) Deception is the spirits stock in trade. The shamans are as deceived by them as their clients are. And both are on a path to hell.

Nevertheless, those who adopt the warfare worldview are convinced they must find a means to do battle in the spirit world. Christians who claim such abilities assert that learning the "legal system" or "rules of engagement" of the spirit world is the key to having success in that realm. Since God is not sovereignly in charge of His own universe in that worldview, they instead suppose that God has set up a legal system that the spirits have to follow. Humans who learn the secrets of that legal system (they reason) have some hope of using it to control the spirits.

Famous exorcist Bob Larson explains, "Curses are exacting, legal arrangements of the spirit world. Just like human contracts contain fine print and carefully crafted language, satanic curses are often filled with minutia that required detailed voiding."⁹ Do we know the details of this "legal" system? No! God has not taught us the details of such a system. This is how the warfare worldview takes us away from sola scriptura into the pagan world of the shamans. A special class of people is created (in this case deliverance counselors) who perform for the church what the shaman does for the pagans. Think of the burden these people have: if they miss something in the "fine print," this error could derail the process. Bob Larson admits, "In some cases, I've discovered that leaving out one phrase or one word can make all the difference. Satan will exploit the smallest thing to keep the curse in effect." ¹⁰ Fine print is problematic in legal documents in the real world, but how hopeless is it in a world that we cannot even see and in which there is no documentation?

C. Peter Wagner agrees with the idea of legalities in the spirit world:

One of the more curious aspects of my pilgrimage into the field of spiritual warfare during the past few years has been the discovery that those who had been talking about it did not agree among themselves about the nature of strongholds. They agreed that strongholds provide the forces of darkness as a legal basis for doing their evil deeds both in individual people on the ground level and in cities or nations on the strategic level. Almost all of them, however, had their own opinions about the nature or identity of these strongholds.¹¹

Of course they cannot agree because they cannot know! They are dealing in the realm of spiritual information that God has not revealed. Unless God speaks, we are left to guess at the causes, effects and workings of the spiritual world. This "disagreement" by those lacking special revelation is the basis for the arguments, such as what occurred between Job and his friends as they vainly sought for answers. Until God spoke, each had to guess as to the cause and nature of his afflictions—and they guessed wrong. These things are in the realm of "secret things" that belong only to God (Deuteronomy 29:29 which we will turn to later). To try to understand unrevealed, spiritual, legal systems is to put us back into the realm of the pagans who have been doing the same for millennia. The "Christian" curse breaker is hardly different than the pagan one.

Watchman Nee, an early innovator in this "Christian paganism," also asserted an unrevealed, spiritual legal system that if not discovered, will give evil spirits access to Christians:

For each and every thing God has created there is a law. . . . Hence evil spirits also operate according to definite laws, one of which is that certain causes will produce certain effects. Now should anyone fulfill the conditions for the working of evil spirits (whether he fulfills them willingly, such as the witch, the medium or the sorcerer—or unwillingly, such as the Christian), then he has definitely given ground to them to work on him.¹²

One thing these teachers have in common is that they deny that Christians have escaped from the wicked powers of the universe.¹³ The means of escape that they propose are knowledge and techniques that the Bible does not reveal.

These teachers often select phrases in the Bible and extrapolate them to create a system whose inner workings must be discovered through some extrabiblical means. For example, Nee uses the term "place" from Ephesians 4:27 to prove the existence of this legal system and the need to learn it.¹⁴ Nee says, "It pays no heed to whether one is a Christian or not; once the conditions are met, the evil spirits do not fail to act."¹⁵ One of these conditions that Nee has in mind is "passivity of the will."¹⁶ According to this thinking, any person who lacks strong willpower will become a prey of evil spirits. Any known or unknown sin of activity or omission also turns the spirits loose on the Christian.¹⁷ It is hard to imagine that any Christian who believes this teaching could think himself to be free from curses and spirits. 

While Nee is concerned with personal sin and spirits, Wagner is interested in territorial spirits that afflict large groups of people:

One of the reasons evil spirits succeed in returning is that strongholds on which they had based their legal rights to control that area and its people have not been thoroughly removed. We know a great deal more about this than we did previously, largely through our understanding that a crucial part of much strategic-level spiritual warfare should be through identificational repentance. Through accurate and sensitive spiritual mapping we can identify strongholds rooted in unremitted sins of past generations and we now understand the ways and means of dealing with those sins of the past in our own generation.¹⁸

Notice that Wagner claims spirits have "legal rights" conferred upon them by human actions in past generations. This is in keeping with the warfare worldview asserting that people are in bad situations because demons and other spirit beings have gained legal access to them by the actions of humans—some of whom no longer are alive—in a hidden cause/effect. But notice also that we consistently end up with the need for secret information. How else can we do "spiritual mapping." The Bible provides no such map and doesn't describe how to build a system of spiritual guidance.
For instance, a demon commended Bob Larson for his knowledge of the secret rules of the spirit world.

Demon: "Who taught you the rules?"
Larson: "What do you mean by that?"
Demon: "The spiritual rules that determine what we can and can't do. Someone from our side must have taught you."¹⁹

This underscores a major problem with the warfare worldview. The hidden "rules of engagement" for spiritual battles are seen as the key to victory; even if this were true the evil spirits live in this reality and we have to fish around with various means, guessing to gain even a partial, possibly wrong knowledge of them. In fact, we are forced to become like pagans and create a class of shamans who are better than most at gaining secret information. The church becomes dependent on unrevealed, forbidden, spiritual knowledge and the class of people that reveals it. Once that happens, the church has been paganized.

Gaining Secret, Spiritual Information

 

I find it truly shocking that highly educated Christians fail to see the implications of their own teachings. For example, C. Peter Wagner devotes an entire chapter (the second) of his book to allege that extrabiblical spiritual knowledge is available and valid. He uses the same tactic that others have used, claiming that the "logos" word is the Bible and "rhema" words are direct sources of spiritual revelation.²⁰ Having opened the door to extrabiblical knowledge of the spirit world, he follows it to amazing places:

In it [chapter 2] I suggest that it may be possible to receive selected, but valid, information from the world of darkness itself. I am careful to stress strongly that discernment is needed while attempting to do this because evil spirits are by nature deceivers and they must be treated as hostile witnesses. Nevertheless, certain people such as shamans, witch doctors, practitioners of Eastern religions, New Age gurus or professors of the occult on university faculties are examples of the kind of people who may have much more extensive knowledge of the spirit world than most Christian have. Some of the information they furnish is accurate.²¹

He tells us to use discernment when gaining information from the world of darkness. But discernment is impossible when going into an unseen world. The discernment the Bible gives us is objective and concerns the confession of Jesus Christ (1John 4:1-5). These shamans are disqualified on that ground. Wagner encourages Christians to seek truth from the very people God condemns in Deuteronomy 18.

Even if some of this information is accurate, it is nevertheless forbidden in the strongest terms possible. God forbids us access to secret knowledge for our own spiritual good, not because some of it might be inaccurate. It is forbidden because it is destructive—regardless of whether or not it is true!

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

This issue of accuracy is not mentioned; these are "detestable" persons and practices. Yet it is through these forbidden practices that pagans gain their spiritual information. Wagner has opened the floodgate for paganism to swamp the church. 

The only One with exhaustive knowledge of the spirit world who could provide a spiritual "map" for us is God Himself. Why would we assume that He purposely withheld the knowledge we would need in order to evangelize cities, free people from Satan, remove curses, and bring forth His kingdom on earth only to have us glean it from shamans? God has given us exactly what we nee—the clear revelation we find in scripture. The rest belongs to Him: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29). The rejection of sola scriptura is the reason these pagan teachings penetrate so deeply into the evangelical movement and the practices appeal to people who are not satisfied with what God has chosen to reveal.
Wagner makes the mistake of assuming that because the spirit world where shamans practice their trade is real, the information gleaned from it might be accurate and useful:

[S]ome non-Christians, whether animist shamans, gurus, lamas, philosophers or whatever, may be able to communicate to us some information about the reality of the spirit world in which they have gained considerable expertise. These non-Christian sources, of course, must be evaluated with much prayerful scrutiny and caution. Still, we must keep in mind that the spirit world to which they are dedicated is a real world, not the figment of their "heathen" imaginations. Therefore, some things about it can be accurately known.²²

But the issues are neither the reality of the spirit world nor whether information about it may be accurate. Even we ourselves would concede that some shamans have effective processes that work for their clients. But the world of the occult is forbidden to the Christian. Prescribing "prayerful scrutiny" of a type of knowledge that is categorically forbidden in the Bible is absurd. The result of such a process would be "Christian" paganism—an oxymoron. 

Wagner points out that when the words of demons are recorded in the New Testament, "they speak the truth!"²³ In his mind, that (which Wagner cannot know to be the case) makes seeking such information valid. Larson does too:

Someone should be designated to keep a log of the information received while interrogating the demons. As the internal structure of the victim's demonic system is revealed, list the spirits according to their ranking, cite their right and occasion of entry, and note their legal ground for remaining.²⁴

This approach errs by asserting that simply because some demons spoke in Jesus' presence, therefore it is a good thing for them to speak and that we should seek to speak to them in order to glean information. The gospels objective was to show that Jesus was who He claimed to be (God Incarnate), and that all things, including the spirit world, are under His authority. In addition, Jesus often told the demons to be silent. He was not gleaning information about the world of the spirits.

Spiritual Technology

 

My claim is that God has limited us to what He has chosen to reveal to us concerning the reality of the spiritual world (i.e., in the Scripture). He gives us the freedom to use our five senses and rational minds to engage the world of general revelation so we can survive as humans created in His image. But He blocks access to unrevealed spiritual information for our own good. He does not want His people to be like the pagans.

We see this in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve access to all the trees of the garden except one. Adam was given the authority to name the animals. Eating from the trees, tilling the ground, and naming animals are valid uses of general revelation. They had special revelation as well: "You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:17). The Serpent claimed that there was other knowledge that would be beneficial that God withheld from them. He was right that God withheld it, but he lied by implying it would be beneficial. 

God has the right to withhold knowledge at His discretion. Their subsequent rebellion plunged them and their descendants into bondage to sin and death. So God allowed knowledge gleaned through ordinary means and spiritual knowledge given directly to them by God. But the "knowledge" obtained through forbidden means (listening to the serpent and disobeying God's commands) is destructive and, if followed, leads to judgment. In the section of Deuteronomy where divination is forbidden it says this: "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations" (Deuteronomy 18:9). It is never God's will that His covenant people gain their spirituality from pagans or pagan practices! But today that is precisely where many people in the church are looking. Paul speaks this same message in 1 Corinthians 12:2, "You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led."

Wagner suggests that we can gain direct access to unrevealed spiritual information from both Christian and non-Christian sources:

It is important also to recognize that spiritual insight, which receives information directly from the spirit world, is not an exclusive faculty of those who have been born again. Spiritual discernment certainly constitutes at least some dimension of the image of God in which all human beings, Christian or non-Christian, have been created. If this is correct, then human beings, whether Indo-Europeans, Melanesians, Amerindians, or whatever they may be, can and often do possess valid information about the spirit world.²⁵

These ideas expressed by Wagner are patently unbiblical. God speaks with certainty, through His ordained spokespersons, words which must be obeyed. The knowledge God gives to His people is mediated through specific humans, chosen by God and identifiable by God's people. The essence of occultism is seeking direct, unmediated knowledge of the spirit world that God has not chosen to reveal. The only difference between us and the pagans is that we have God's Word (special revelation) spoken to us by chosen men who spoke with and touched "God come in the flesh" (1John 1:1). To depart from sola scriptura by thinking that God gave all humans special faculties for gaining spiritual information is to reject Christian theism and embrace paganism. Wagner is right about one thing—there is not much difference between Christians and non-Christians directly accessing the spirit world for information. In fact there is a word that describes both categories: deceived. 

Wagner goes further and prescribes developing and testing new, spiritual technology:

In this book, I am not claiming biblical proof of strategic-level spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping or identificational repentance. I will, however, claim that we do have sufficient biblical evidence to warrant at the least a working hypothesis we can field test, evaluate, modify and refine; At the most a significant, relatively new spiritual technology God has given us . . . If this is the case, refusing to use it on the part of some might be to run the risk of unfaithfulness to the Master.²⁶

Here we find grave category errors. How does one "field test" unbiblical spiritual "technology?" The world of the spirits does not lend itself to such testing. In general revelation, technology can be developed and tested because of our ability to create a system of controls, to demonstrate repeatability, and to objectively test output. But how can one do this with unseen spirits who have sinister intentions and wills of their own; who also are unseen to us and are likely to manipulate the output to their advantage and our disadvantage? 

Furthermore, the "testing" process is impossible to evaluate. Some have tried to use crime statistics to prove their spiritual warfare "worked." But having no control over the variables, they have no valid data. Crime goes up and down in various cities for various reasons, far too numerous to control. Groups going on "prayer walks" performing rites of "identificational repentance" cannot watch future crime statistics to see if their experiment "worked." In their minds they are living a pagan worldview that uses the "real" spirit world to control the less "real" visible world. But the visible world is filled with its own complex system of causes and effects; e.g. as economic conditions, family conditions, police policies, court systems, and political decisions. If the crime rate goes down after someone conducts a spiritual "experiment" does he take the credit? And if it goes up does he blame these other factors? The entire approach is fatally flawed.

The only question that matters is whether or not God has commanded us to perform prayer walks, bind territorial spirits, practice identificational repentance, or any of the other new spiritual technologies that Wagner and others propose with which to control the spirit world. Clearly God has not commanded these or there would be no need to "experiment." Prayer, as understood biblically, is practiced on the grounds of God's commands and promises. We cannot try it and quit if we do not like the outcome. In contrast to this, Wagner claims he does not have Biblical proof for his technologies; but rather he "experiments." As I have shown, these experiments cannot be tested either. The whole process is a fool's mission.

Given this, how can Wagner claim that we risk "unfaithfulness to God" by failing to do what God never told us to do? He has jettisoned sola scriptura and "bound" his readers to processes he admits are taught nowhere in the Bible. Wagner threatens Christians with disobedience and sin if they fail to embrace his unbiblical experiments. This is totally unacceptable and should be forthrightly rejected.

Blessing and Cursing

 

Pagans live under unremitting fear of curses and threats from unseen and malicious spiritual causes and effects. They have techniques for creating curses and others for breaking them. They have practitioners of cursing and curse-breaking. In addition they have the greater fear that the sinister spirit beings have their own processes for handing down afflictions to their human victims. This thinking is the result of having a pagan worldview.

As with other teachings we have examined, there is a "Christian" version of pagan curse breaking. One of these is based on the idea of "generational" curses that are lifted out of Biblical context and used to explain various maladies and difficulties that Christians may experience.²⁷ The faulty logic behind it suggests that since God warned Old Testament Israel that He would "visit the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth generation," and that Deuteronomy chapter 28 lists the sort of bad outcomes that would be visited upon Israel for being unfaithful to the covenant, therefore one can examine symptoms and outcomes and assume that he is cursed because of the unknown sins of unknown ancestors.

Logically, this creates a belief system in which everyone would be convinced they must be cursed. Derek Prince, whose book teaches that Christians are under curses they must discover, explains:

Conversely, any one of the four generations preceding us, by having committed these sins, could be the cause of a curse over us in our generation. Each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and sixteen great-great-grandparents. This makes a total of thirty persons, any one of whom might be the cause of a curse over our lives. How many of us would be in a position to guarantee that none of our thirty immediate ancestors was ever involved in any form of idolatry or the occult?²⁸

The answer, of course, is no one. This belief creates a need for a class of people capable of gaining secret information (about which ancestral sin is causing which curse) and devising a process to break the curse. Once again, pagan thinking has come into the church and created the perceived need for a class of shamans and associated shaman training. For them, the contents of the Bible cannot directly provide the necessary information (which sins and curses) and neither can general revelation. So they are back fishing for answers in the sea of the spirits like their pagan ancestors.
What is missed by these teachings and teachers is that in the Bible, blessing and cursing are relational, not symptomatic. A person who is in right, covenant relationship with God is blessed, even if he finds himself in unpleasant circumstances. A person in rebellion to God is cursed even if life is going very well for him. For example, included in the list of persons who "gained approval through their faith" are ones who were mocked, beaten, sawn in two, destitute, afflicted and had other horrible things happen to them (Hebrews 11:35-39). But popular books on the topic of blessing and cursing have Christians looking at the symptoms of their own lives to determine if they are cursed.

Derek Prince lists the following as symptoms of curses: "mental and/or emotional breakdown, repeated or chronic sickness (especially if hereditary), barrenness, a tendency to miscarry . . . breakdown of marriage and family alienation, continuing financial insufficiency, being accident prone, and a history of suicides and unnatural or untimely deaths."²⁹ If any of these things existed in the four generations of your ancestors or in your life, Prince suggests that you are cursed, even if you are a Christian. Obviously everyone would have to consider themselves cursed.
This teaching is clearly unbiblical. For example, Prince claims that people who have "financial insufficiency" are cursed. But here is what Jesus said: "And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God'" (Luke 6:20). Citizens of the kingdom are blessed even if they are poor. 

Prince gets his ideas from applying the curses of Deuteronomy 28 to Christians, suggesting they first determine whether or not they have any of those negative outcomes. If so, they may be under a curse. He says that the presence of one or two of those is not conclusive that a curse is at work. Each person must seek supernatural information in order to determine if they are cursed.³⁰ But that puts us back into the need for extra-biblical revelations which makes us have to again behave like pagans.

There is a logical fallacy going on here as well. It goes like this: If a creature is a normal cat, it has four legs. Fido has four legs; therefore Fido is a cat. But that is a fallacy called "asserting the consequent" in an "if/then" logical formulation. There is more than one possible cause for having four legs. To apply this to curses found in Deuteronomy 28: If Israelites in covenant with God break that covenant and go after other gods, then these curses will come upon them (Deuteronomy 28:16-68). Suzie exhibits several of the symptoms listed in those 52 verses, therefore Suzie us under a curse. That reasoning contains two fallacies: 1) Suzie is not an Israelite under the old covenant; 2) the fallacy of asserting the consequent has been committed. There could be other reasons for her being in one of the many conditions listed in those verses besides being cursed for breaking covenant. 

So objectively examining symptoms is not sufficient for diagnosing curses. That means we cannot know by either special revelation (the words of the Bible) or general revelation (examining physical symptoms) whether or not a curse is in operation. That means we are back to a need for a shaman. Again we have invited paganism into the church and believe that what is clearly revealed in scripture is not sufficient to deliver us from curses. 

Blessing and Cursing from a Biblical Perspective

 

The truth is much simpler than the confusing false teachings that are so prevalent. It goes like this: "Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord'" (Jeremiah 17:5); "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord" (Jeremiah 17:7). With a Biblical worldview, as we have claimed, blessing and cursing are relational; not symptomatic. That message is very clear in many places, such as the book of Job and the beatitudes. Some people who are blessed by God have negative symptoms from a human perspective, and some people who are cursed because they do not know God are happy and healthy.

Here is another example: "For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them'" (Galatians 3:10). Paul's conclusion is that it is impossible to be anything but cursed if one tries to be justified by works of the Law. One transgression and you are cursed. One cannot be in right relationship with God by works. Here is the alternative:

Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (Galatians 3:7-9)

Blessing is relational—those who are "sons of Abraham" are blessed because they have the type of justifying faith Abraham had. There is no need to look for symptoms other than for signs of saving faith.

Let us take this even deeper. Consider this passage: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1Corinthians 15:22). Everyone born is born "in Adam" and therefore under the curse of sin and death. Our relationship with Adam curses us. But everyone in Christ is blessed with the promise of eternal life. We are "in Adam" by natural generation and can only be "in Christ" by supernatural regeneration—being born again. That is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only means of escaping the curse. (See Romans 5:12-21 for Paul's teaching on the Adam/Christ analogy.)

Being in a right relationship with God means that one cannot be cursed by any lesser being—be it spiritual or human. Balaam, a famous curse maker, tried to earn money to curse God's blessed people Israel. Here is Balaam's conclusion about that attempt: "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it" (Numbers 23:19, 20). But Balaam did not give up. He knew that the only way to get Israel cursed was to tempt them with paganism to disobey God's Word and then God would curse them: "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality" (Revelation 2:14; see Numbers 31:16). If God's people apostatize, they put themselves out of a right relationship with God and that is the only thing that will curse them. Embracing a pagan worldview is a path to apostasy. I believe God will preserve us from that. But we would be utter fools to ignore the warnings against apostasy on the grounds that we deem ourselves secure. 

Believing Like Pagans

 

Pagans are perpetually insecure because they have no way of knowing that they are safe in the hands of their gods. That is, they have no certain, special revelation about God or from God concerning the nature of the spiritual world they live in. To the degree that Christians are influenced by pagan thinking, they also become more insecure. They are never sure when they might be cursed. They are never sure when a demon may invade them. They imagine they need some spiritual technology gleaned from the spirit world in order to insure a successful outcome for their endeavors. They need a "Christian" version of a shaman to mediate between them and the spirit world (usually called "prophets" or "deliverance counselors"). In short, they are like pagans in most respects.

Some adherents, like Greg Boyd, who are more theologically sophisticated, have emotional or philosophical reasons to prefer the pagan worldview. Boyd cannot accept the implications of the doctrine of God's providence and willingly says so. The providential worldview is the Biblical worldview, though Boyd denies it, instead offering paganism as the alternative. The teaching of the Bible clearly claims that God is indeed in charge of His own universe and knows all things. That is what God told Job when Job found himself the victim of what Boyd calls "gratuitous evil."
But exchanging the Biblical doctrine of providence for the pagan belief in the warfare worldview creates the type of insecurities common for pagans. Boyd realizes this: "Whatever else may be said about the classical-philosophical blueprint model of God's providence [Boyd's way of discrediting the doctrine of providence], it does provide the believer with a certain kind of security that the warfare worldview seems to lack—so long as one steers clear of concrete atrocities."³¹ In other words, it may be more comforting to believe that God is providentially ruling over His own universe to bring history forward according to His saving purposes; but it is not emotionally satisfying to think of God allowing evil in His universe for His own good purposes. To think that evil happens outside of God's foreknowledge and providential control seems more satisfying to some (such as Boyd). The implication, of course, is that to avoid being victims of gratuitous evil that God did not foresee and chooses not to control, we must figure out how to battle the spirits and find shelter from their malicious power. If we fail to embrace the shamans and their teaching, the evil spirits may very well get the upper hand and destroy us.

Posted with permission: 
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue109.htm 


See also: 
Is pleading the blood of Jesus biblical?
Magic Charms Enchant Apostolic-Prophetic Movement

Parents: Watch for these red flags at school

by Linda Harvey / WND

As summer winds down, kids don their backpacks and jump on school buses once more. Yet few parents realize what’s about to descend on those innocent heads.
While your children frolicked at the lake, visited Grandma and sang songs at summer camp, the leaders of America’s education system prepared more essential “LGBT” lessons to infuse into the hearts of Chloe, Emma and James. Most will be packed with insidious, Christ-less lies that present great risk to every child’s medical, social and spiritual future.
Grassroots efforts by frustrated parents are trying to eject the leftist Common Core standards, but meanwhile, educators are being pressured to get that “gay” subject in front of as many kids as possible. Consulting the essential wisdom of the Huffington Post “Gay Voices”page, we learn that one high-school social studies teacher who just “came out” as homosexual last year is determined to weave homosexual themes into the classroom wherever possible. His method will be to assume a boy might not be heterosexual, for instance. So when chatting with a male student about dating, he will refer to his possible girlfriend or boyfriend, to make him feel more comfortable.
But what if he is straight, as most boys are (or should be)? This overheard conversation will cause speculation by other students about that student’s sexual proclivities. Good plan, teacher! Put our boys on the spot. Start rumors. Fuel adolescent insecurities. But it’s all for the greater cause of deceptively painting the “gay” identity with glorious rainbow colors, and not in the blackness of sin it deserves.
That same student may be forced to read literature that normalizes homosexuality. The National Education Association’s New Business Item 51,passed at its recent Denver annual meeting, directs the union to publish a list of books about what they term “LGBTQ and gender non-conforming themes.” This augments the trend toward lessons about actual or imagined homosexuals in social studies curricula, called “gay history.” The primary event on the timeline of an honest history of homosexuality would start with Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s not going to happen anytime soon.

It may be up to parents to prepare children ahead of time. No, Abraham Lincoln was not a homosexual and, yes, Oscar Wilde was and he even had relations with boys. And yes, that is still illegal. …..

…  One book recently published by a homosexual man “married” to “his husband” and sure to show up in school libraries is called “The Princes and the Treasure.”It promotes homosexual relationships and same-sex “marriage.” The ALA is surely ecstatic over this book but routinely bypasses conservative titles while still claiming to oppose book banning.

The lessons would have taught children as young as middle school, for instance, that the anus is a genital. The high risk of anal sex was also being concealed, a medical reality that would not come as a surprise to HIV-infected homosexual males and public health professionals.

So, this year if you really would rather your son or daughter not be taught that homosexuality is inborn, that it’s no big deal, and that the Bible’s instruction against homosexuality is wrong, hateful, or dismissible, watch for the presence of these “gay agenda” elements at your child’s school:

1) “Gay” history, which attempts to normalize, exalt and sometimes invent the homosexual preferences of famous historical figures. Whatever other talents these folks possessed, they would always have done better without any “gay” behavior.

2)“LGBT” advocacy disguised as “civil rights.” It’s not hateful, but constructive, to question homosexual behavior or gender confusion, and this vicious, deceitful movement is nothing like race relations.

3) Same-sex families being portrayed as a normal, uncontroversial variation in stories or lessons, even in math class. “Jenna and her dads bought milk. How many cups are in a gallon?”

4)“Health” education that smoothly advocates homosexuality but fails to note the 30,000 new HIV cases among male homosexuals each year in the U.S., and that the rate among the youth segment alone has more than doubled in the past decade. HIV is not “everyone’s” disease, condoms are unreliable and abstinence remains the best option.

5) “Gay”-straight alliances as legitimate school clubs, whose existence creates the false impression that homosexuality and gender change are acceptable. Educate your children that, while unkind behavior is off limits, none of these students should be engaging in these behaviors and these students are not a different category of human. True equality is that in God’s eyes; He expects the same avoidance of sin from them as He does from all of us.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/parents-watch-for-these-red-flags-at-school/#LYjDd7RDJ0H28iKd.99 

check out the link to that book they're stocking up on now!

I'm worried about this because I have grandchildren in public school and my grandkids love to read. I couldn't find the list they're talking about as it apparently hasn't been done yet. But I did find a list of LGBT children's authors so at least a parent can check any book against this list to see if the author is on it. I'm sure they don't have the name of every author, but it's a place to start anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_writers

I also found this:

Gay Author Wins Prestigious Children’s Literature Award

In all my excitement over the latest Rainbow Bibliography and Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, I neglected to mention that prolific children’s author and illustrator Tomie DePaola—who happens to be gay—won this year’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association. The award “honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.” With well over 200 books to his name, including Caldecott honor book Strega Nona and Newbery honor book 26 Fairmount Avenue, DePaola is certainly deserving of the award.
DePaola, although gay, has not written books with overt LGBT content. In fact, many (but not all) of his books have religious themes, including Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland and his latest, Let The Whole Earth Sing Praise. DePaola left the Catholic Church in the 1960′s, concerned that the Church was becoming more conservative—but he almost became a monk earlier in his life, according to a 2009 interview in the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. Personally, I love that a gay author is producing children’s books with religious content. It puts lie to the claim that there is a battle between the LGBT community and religion, or that one can’t identify with both.
While his books may not have clear LGBT content, it doesn’t take a big leap to see that his 1979 book, Oliver Button Is a Sissy, has definite resonance for the LGBT community.

more:
http://www.mombian.com/2011/02/10/gay-author-wins/

Watch out for his books because he's not on the list!

I also found another possible resource to check:

LGBT Childrens Literature (72 books) - Goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...ens_Literature

since it's only 72 books and has a picture of the book by each one, it should make it easy to check and see if your child/grandchild has one of these. And finally here's another similar list:
Amazon.com: LGBT Children's Books

http://www.amazon.com/LGBT-Childrens-Books/lm/R2RQKYZLJZ8VEQ

More to Beware Of! 

I’ve seen and heard of other really bad things happening in our children’s elementary schools and higher too.  Now many of the children are being brainwashed by the world in mandatory “Guidance classes” as early as kindergarten!  Some of what the children are told is harmless and most parents don’t have a problem with it.  But I saw this coming when my children were in school and now that it’s here, it’s worse then even I thought it would be!  In many schools they’re teaching the children New Age meditation techniques, only calling them by different names.  Why is that bad?  Because those techniques call for the person to “empty their minds” and that goes against God’s Word.  God says we’re to be in control of our thoughts at all times and that we’re to never empty our minds and just allow whatever wants to come in to do so! I’ve heard of them also teaching the children yoga and other similar things.  Again, many ask what’s wrong with that, let me simply say that again, it' goes against God’s Word.  Don’t take my word for it though, do some research on it yourself and find out.  It will be worth your while!  Of course another thing taught in these guidance classes is that homosexuality and bisexuality is normal and perfectly OK.  Anything said against them is consider bullying and hate speech. They also work against God by teaching your children something you yourself were taught, and that’s all about having a good self esteem, putting themselves first, taking care of themselves, etc. Again that’s against God’s Word.  He says we’re to put Him first, others second and ourselves last!  He says we’re to find our worth in Him and Him alone, not in ourselves because there’s nothing good in us except that which He gives us when we’re saved.

here are some links on some of these things to get you started:

Sola Sisters: Yoga Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Sola Sisters: "Christian" Yoga?

Sola Sisters: A Christian Woman and Her Frightening ...

Sola Sisters: Nondenominational Meditation?

Transcendental Meditation Promoted as Health Benefit

Sola Sisters: What Is Mysticism?

Sola Sisters: Monvee: Mysticism For The Masses

Women's Liberation or Bondage?

My mother wasn't a Christian in any sense of the word and was very much into woman's lib. So I was raised with all their thoughts and reasoning. After I was saved the Lord began to "deprogram" me from the various worldly points of view I held at the time, like evolution, the world's view of psychology,and finally of woman's lib too. I have to say that I was consistently shocked by how deeply the roots of all these things as well as some others were inside me and how much they affected my view of the world, other people and even of God. It took the Lord years to deprogram me from all these various world views and teach me what His way was. Anyway I wanted to share with others about the woman's lib movement because as I said it's way of thinking has deeply pervaded our thoughts and views mostly without us even being aware of it.

Now before anyone jumps all over me saying how wonderful woman's lib is, please read this information that I'll be posting and see what it says. Like most things people think up to go against God's Ways, it's going to have some "good" things in it, otherwise no one would ever fall for it. (at least I hope not) But as the bible tells us, Satan masquerades as an angel of light and so do his messengers. Nothing could be more true of this statement then the woman's lib movement.

Women's Liberation or Bondage?

The greatest single force of evil today is perpetuated under the guise of "women's rights," or the women's liberation movement as it is commonly known. Actually, those who really believe wholeheartedly in all the concepts of women's lib are a minority of women with very loud mouths. It is the silent majority who need to speak out quickly before women as a gender become lost in the unisex manifesto of the NOW gang.

There is a much older "bill of rights" for women, one that if followed provides for everything any real woman could ever want or need in her life. It's called the Bible - the true Word of God, and its precepts and statutes are timeless. If women would study the scriptures and listen to those who preach the true gospel they could not help but realize that God, in His magnificent love and mercy, has ordained a truly special place for women. Not as the doormats that the feminists would have you believe, but as a very necessary and important part of the Body of Christ. In creating Adam first and creating Eve out of Adam's rib, God removed a burden that no woman in her right mind would willingly want to bear, and in doing so, provided for her protection and security for her entire life.

Actually, the feminist movement is nothing new, for indeed the scriptures say there is nothing new under the sun. It began shortly after creation, in the Garden of Eden, when Eve determined in her heart to take control and disobey God. She had it all already but she could not be content. She had to have the "brass ring" too. All that was good, all that was pure, all that was necessary for a complete and perfect life, Eve was given by God, yet the one thing that would destroy it all, this she had to have. That single act of disobedience started a landslide of misery that would affect all women for the rest of time. Take a few minutes and really look at it. Before her forbidden fruit tasting she and Adam lived in Paradise!

They had everything they needed to live a blissful life with no pain, no bills to pay, and no misery. She gave it all up because she had to have the one thing God had said "no" to. And this He did out of love, knowing the results of such an act. Foolish woman! Ever since that fateful day women have proven their ability to do foolish, rebellious things constantly.

It is my belief that somewhere at the heart of it all is a thing called vanity - the need to be noticed, to be recognized, to be the center of attention. Vanity comes in many forms but all of them have their roots firmly entrenched in pride. Vanity is nothing new either. Since the creation of the world there have been those women who have never been content to take the role which God has given them. If they truly understood the gift the gracious Father had given them there would never have been this problem with vanity, with pride. But as a very wise man is fond of saying, "the Devil is evil, not stupid." He knew the one area of weakness that could and has brought down the whole female gender.

Now we must fight for what is rightfully ours in Christ, and in doing so, we are constantly persecuted by those women who are against all that Jesus died to give them. Rather than speak out against these feminists, of whom God says are of unnatural affection, we complain about them quietly. Rather than cry out loudly against what they would take away from us, we pray against them silently. But the Word of God says that faith without actions is dead. It is not enough to pray, not enough to complain. We must be as vocal, indeed more vocal than they are. We must demonstrate. We must resist their doctrines of demons and boldly bring forth the truth from the Word of God. What began as an innocent statement of what seemed to be so right, "equal pay for equal work," it has spiraled out of control into an entire movement against being feminine, against being a real woman.

As this article is the first of many (prayerfully), let us continue this line of thought by beginning with the cardinal sin of the feminist movement. What they consider to be the lowest form of life on earth, lower even than being a man (gasp!), is to be a housewife and mother. The champions of feminism, (not to be confused in any way whatsoever with femininity), those who would promote women's liberation as the only fulfilling lifestyle, have bullied and buffaloed the general public and insecure uninformed women in particular into believing that to simply settle for being a wife and mother is to degrade your sex and cheat yourself out of greatness.

The Bible tells us just the opposite. God says that to be a wife and mother is the highest, most noble position a woman can reach. It is a place of glory for her. She is to be commended and praised, not condemned and scorned. Ladies - wake up! Look into the Word of God. Study to show yourselves approved. Know and understand your place in Christ. Nothing that the NOW gang or any other so called woman's movement can offer you will even begin to compare with the wonderful, fulfilling, abundant life that the Lord has ordained for you.

People have been so assaulted with feminism propaganda that it has ceased to be a novelty and become the accepted norm. But at what cost? Men today no longer treat women with the gentle respect their mothers were treated with. They are afraid to open a door for a woman, or offer to carry her packages, or even to help an elderly woman across a busy street for fear of being called a sexist or of being slapped with a discrimination suit. Women no longer find any joy in doing the genteel, feminine things their mothers did, such as baking, sewing and raising their children. Instead they strive for careers, executive positions, seats on the board of directors, political appointments and offices. No longer are women content to enjoy the pleasures of being a wife and mother. Women have grown foolish and complacent and eventually will pay a terrible price for their willingness to be led into hell by a bunch of "wanna-be-men" feminists, who want every woman to lose her femininity, her gender and her very creation.

more:
http://www.intothelight.org/liberation-bondage.asp

The History of Feminism

By Wayne Wells

The "First Wave" of Feminism

The feminist movement of the nineteenth century effectively began July 19-20,1848, at a woman’s convention that was held in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. About 300 attended.

Elizabeth Stanton wrote the "Declaration on Women’s Rights," and it was signed by 68 women and 32 men. The Declaration began as a parody of the Declaration of Independence and said,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."

1. Two weeks later, a second convention was held in Rochester, New York, during which the movement began to be more formally organized.

2. The third meeting was in 1850 at Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the first to claim to be a national woman’s rights convention, having delegates from nine states.

3. Except for 1857, conventions were held each year up to 1860.

4. In 1852, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony joined forces. They remained a team for nearly fifty years, with Anthony managing the business affairs and Stanton doing most of the writing.

The Early Feminist Leaders and the Bible

The early feminists viewed the Bible to be degrading to women because of what it teaches concerning the sin of Eve and the role assigned to women in both the Old and New Testaments. In their response to the Bible, three different views developed.

1. The Moderate View: The moderate view did not consider the problem to be the Bible itself, but rather the acceptance of perverted and sexist interpretations of the Bible. Once the Bible is properly interpreted, it can be seen as not being hostile to women. Many who took this view were adherents of metaphysical or "New Thought"(such as Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science.) religions , which believed that the Bible must be interpreted symbolically or mystically. These agreed that the Bible is harmful to women if taken literally, but when understood according to its inner or mystical meaning it affirms the equality of women with men.

2. The Liberal View: The liberal view accepted the theory of evolution to be the answer of culture and religion. It viewed the Bible as a purely human book which records the history of one of the world’s many religious traditions, and which has no special divine authority and no more relevance for today than scores of other such books. As such the Bible should just be ignored.

3. The Radical View: The radical view agreed with the liberal understanding of the nature of the Bible as a purely human book with no divine authority, but it did not agree that it could simply be ignored. As long as the Bible is being distributed in mass quantities, and large numbers of people still believe that it is God’s inspired Word, they will believe that provides a divinely given mandate to keep women in subjection. Thus some positive action with regard to the Bible must be taken. Whether it is just a matter of wrong interpretation or a false view of its nature, either way the influence of the Bible must be neutralized. This was Elizabeth Stanton’s view. She believed that the Bible must be destroyed if women were to be free.

In order to neutralize the influence of the Bible, Elizabeth Stanton and other women wrote "The Woman’s Bible" to show the world what the Bible is really like.

While Stanton allowed the moderate members of the project to express their ideas and to present the "correct" interpretations of various Bible passages as they saw them, she repudiated the moderate approach. She wrote,

"In plain English, the Bible itself is simply degrading to women. No mystical symbolism can enable one to twist out of the Old or New Testaments a message of justice, liberty or equality from God to the women of the nineteenth century." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, I:61, II:66

The Woman ‘s Bible is actually a commentary rather than a translation. It is not a commentary on the whole Bible, but only on texts referring to women

Excerpts From "The Woman’s Bible"

"The Bible, with its fables, allegories and endless contradictions, has been the great block in the way of civilization." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, II:9

"From the inauguration of the movement for woman’s emancipation the Bible has been used to hold her in the ‘divinely ordained sphere,’ prescribed in the Old and New Testaments.
The wonder is that women . . . make a fetich [sic] of the very book which is responsible for their civil and social degradation." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, pg. 7, II:12

"The Bible has been of service in some respects; but the time has come for us to point out the evil of many of its teachings." Clara Neyman, The Woman’s Bible, II:17

"The Bible always has been, and is at present, one of the greatest obstacles in the way of the emancipation and the advancement of the sex... This book has been of more injury to [woman] than has any other which has ever been written in the history of the world." E.M., The Woman’s Bible, II:201, 203

"No institution in modern civilization is so tyrannical and so unjust to woman as is the Christian Church." Josephine Henry, The Woman’s Bible, II:205

"All the religions on the face of the earth [including Christianity] degrade women; and so long as woman accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, I:12

Writing about the account of the widow’s mite in Mark 12:41-44, Stanton criticizes the church for promoting self-sacrifice instead of self-development on the part of women.

"But when women learn the higher duty of self-development, they will not so readily expend all their forces in serving others.... ‘Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice,’ should be woman’s motto henceforward." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, II:131

"I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God, I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, I:12

"Does any one at this stage of civilization think the Bible was written by the finger of God, that the Old and New Testaments emanated from the highest divine thought in the universe? Do they think that all the men who wrote the different books were specially inspired?...
It is full of contradictions, absurdities and impossibilities, and bears the strongest evidence in every line of its human origin...
We have made a fetich [sic] of the Bible long enough. The time has come to read it as we do all other books, accepting the good and rejecting the evil it teaches." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, I:61, II:213, 8

The final statement in the Woman’s Bible:

"The real difficulty in woman’s case is that the whole foundation of the Christian religion rests on her temptation and man’s fall, hence the necessity of a Redeemer and a plan of salvation. As the chief cause of this dire calamity, woman’s degradation and subordination were made a necessity. If, however, we accept the Darwinian theory, that the race has been a gradual growth from the lower to a higher form of life, and that the story of the fall is a myth, we can exonerate the snake, emancipate the woman, and reconstruct a more rational religion for the nineteenth century, and thus escape all the perplexities of the Jewish mythology as of no more importance than those of the Greek, Persian and Egyptian." Elizabeth Stanton, The Woman’s Bible, II:214

(The Bible does not hold Eve responsible . In Adam all die 1Cor. 15:22.
As the head, the man is held responsible)

Not all of the early feminists accepted the views taught in the Woman’s Bible. There was open debate over it at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in of 1896. During this debate, Susan B. Anthony was one of Stanton’s strongest supporters.

The first wave of feminism ended in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which recognized the right of women to vote. This right had already been won on the state level in nearly 20 states, beginning with Wyoming in 1890. An amendment on the federal level, called the "Anthony Amendment," had been submitted since 1878 but was defeated by both the House and the Senate up through World War I. The active role of women in the war effort turned the tide in their favor, and the renewed influence of the National American Woman Suffrage Alliance (with over two million members in 1917) made a difference.

The amendment was passed by the House in January 1918 and by the Senate in June 1919.

In August 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it, making it a part of the Constitution.

Once the vote was won, the original feminist movement fragmented and lost momentum.

The "Second Wave" of Feminism

The next push for feminism began in 1960’s and continues strong into the 1990’s

Two of the most influential leaders of this new movement are Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.

Betty Friedan has been called the "Mother Superior to Women’s Lib."

1. She is credited with launching the women’s liberation movement with the publication of her book, "The Feminine Mystique", in 1963.

2. She also founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), on June 29, 1966. She was one of its chief organizers and its first president.

3. She also initiated the Women’s March for Equality in August 1970 and the National Women’s Political Caucus in March 1971.

4. She was also a signer of the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973.

Excerpts From The Humanist Manifesto II

Religion

"We believe, however, that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species... But we can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.

Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful. They distract humans from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from rectifying social injustices."

Ethics

"We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction."

The Individual

"In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized."

World Community

"We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus we look to the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government."

1. Gloria Steinem is also recognized as one of the leaders of the feminist movement in America. She was on the cover of the August 16, 1971, issue of Newsweek as, "the personification of women’s liberation."

2. In January 1972, McCall’s named her, "Woman of the Year."

3. She started Ms. magazine in 1971 and remained its editor until 1987. Through it, the message of feminism was made available on a monthly basis at newsstands everywhere.

"By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God." -Gloria Steinem, in Saturday Review of Education, cited in the pamphlet, "Do These Women Speak For You?"

The woman’s liberation movement, is almost altogether the product of women who reject the divine origin and absolute authority of the Bible, and usually the very existence of the God who reveals Himself in the Bible.

Not all feminists follow the extreme ideas as many of the leaders. Some have tried to blend the goals of feminism (elimination of the roles of the sexes) with the Bible. This will not work. Just as the general theory of evolution and the Bible cannot be blended together.

It is true that there is special evolution, that is, there is change within kinds. The Bible even gives example of this type of evolution taking place. But the general theory of evolution, that is, the gradual development of all life form rising out of simple organisms completely contradicts what Genesis teaches and these two views cannot be harmonized.

In the same way, there is some truth recognized by feminists. The Bible teaches that God made men and women equal. As long as we recognize that both are in the image of God, both have dominion over the earth, and both share in the inheritance in Christ, there is no conflict. But, when feminists want to eliminate all roles the Bible give for men and women, there can be no harmonizing of feminism and the Bible. Many who claim to believe in the Bible have tried to make the Bible fit the teachings of the feminists. This cannot be harmonized with the teaching of the Bible, just as the general theory of evolution cannot be harmonized with the Bible.

1 Timothy 2:11–15, A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
1 Corinthians 14:34–35, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Posted with permission:

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Feminism/history.htm