The Disturbing Church of Oprah

Yesterday, on both CBGrace’s and Rochelle’s sites I saw this disturbing video. I’ll be making comments, but you probably will also profit by going to these other sites and reading there.

This is disturbing, for tens of thousands of Americans are now attending Oprah’s Church. The doctrine she endorses is not Bible based–indeed it flies in the face of sound biblical interpretation. This smacks of the anti-Christ to me, and I am astonished that multiplied thousands of Christians are flocking to this.

Consider this scripture in Isaiah 5:19-21, 24

“Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: …Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

It both puzzles and saddens me that so many people will reject God’s Word, which through the stormy testing of time and incident, stands true, relative and with the promise of eternal life, and yet these same ones will spend time, energy and money in studying so intensely the words of a mere man. It is called deception, and, with careless abandon will fling souls into hell.

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My other blog is here.

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In Defense of God’s Word

It grieves me to hear God’s Word so disdained, deprecated and ignorantly described as was recently done by Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I stand today in opposition to such statements as these, and in holy defense of the precious Word of God. The Bible is God’s Word to the world, and to suggest that such remarkable incidents as Moses’ observation of the burning bush was a reaction to psychedelic drugs is obscene and highly offensive.

Ridiculous!

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

“As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don’t believe, or a legend, which I don’t believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics,” Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the “burning bush,” suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

Preposterous!

Consider II Timothy 3:16

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

And II Peter 1:21

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

I love the Bible. It is dear, sacred and precious to me. It lights my path through this dark and troubled world directing my every step. It brings me hope and joy, and presses my heart with peace and comfort. Wedged between the covers of our Bibles are the world’s greatest literature, the Song of songs, and historically accurate accounts of ancient worlds. The Bible contains God’s personal words to me–His own child. It lays out the plan of salvation, and instructs me in righteous and godly living.

Don’t speak such blasphemous words that suggest the Bible to be the result of drug-induced visions. Quite the opposite is true: The Words of that precious book came through the pen of righteous men who were moved by the Holy Ghost.

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My other blog is here.

A Biblical Admonition To Be Cheated

It was into the left margin of my Bible beside I Corinthians 6:7, at some distant time, for I don’t recall making the notation, that I scribbled a single word: interesting. There followed a tiny check mark. I believe I have mentioned that in our Tuesday morning Women’s Bible Study here at DJs, we are studying the subject of forgiveness. Today, quite at length we discussed the earlier referenced scripture, which I’ll write out for you here:

“Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law with one another. Why do you not rather take wrong? why do you not suffer yourselves to be defrauded?”

Quite a scripture, huh? And it was quite a discussion into which we entered this morning. Actually, I didn’t even refer the ladies to the first part of the verse which deals with going to court with a brother, but we only discussed the latter portion of that passage. The platform was our study today of offenses, and the objective of this particular lesson was to understand that to be godly, progressive women we should avoid being offended. Suffer wrong, suffer mistreatment, Paul here is saying. It is better to do so than to offend your brother.

Such advise is powerful, but certainly there are limitations. Our study today led to the subject of “tough love” with wayward children, and violent marriages and mistreatment that should not be tolerated. But without going to the extreme edges of the subject, I wonder how we do with this scripture. Are we willing to be mistreated, to suffer wrong in order to have a godly, non-offensive spirit? Are we capable of taking a loss without resorting to the courts? Oh, I know a way around this scripture is the claim: “Well, they can’t be my brother or they wouldn’t treat me this way.”

A few months ago, I learned of a young man who did some physical labor for a brother in the church. There was some sort of a misunderstanding and the man decided he didn’t need to pay the laborer for his work. The young man desperately needed the money, but decided to follow God’s principle, and went on to his next job. I may never know the end of that story, but I expect that since these two men are brothers in Christ, the issue will at some point be resolved.

Perhaps, though, the misunderstanding will never be resolved and the debt will never be paid. But if we are to follow Paul’s commandments here, we will allow ourselves to suffer loss so that our brother is not offended.

Offense presents an ugly, enduring head. Proverbs 18:29 speaks to this issue: “A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.”

And you? Are you willing to suffer loss, are you willing to be cheated, in order to protect yourself from ill-will and to shield both you and your brother from painful offense?