more busywork

The Prayer Room
Harp and bowl worship is a unique experience of worship derived from Revelation 5:8. The harp represents music and the bowl prayer. Prayer is sung or spoken along with music and is used to sustain long periods of worship such as 24 hour prayer.

So, Revelation 5:8...

rev.5.8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.†

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 174972-174974). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

Ok, it mentions harps, and it mentions vials, which I'll accept as being another word for bowls. Now, as far as I can tell, it mentions these things, and that's about it. They are emphasized or idealized or allegorized, they aren't the focus of the scene of the passage in it's context. They aren't stressed.

Watch and Pray

The harp and bowl model of prayer is sustainable, Bickle says, because it's both powerful and enjoyable. "[Without intimacy in Jesus] it is much more difficult to motivate people to pray [for hours]. The war cry in prayer is best fueled by love songs."

Bickle says some Christians find it difficult to accept the idea that aside from training and outreach, the primary responsibility of IHOP's 1,300 full-time staff and students is worship and intercession.

"We believe that the most effective way to evangelize and care for people is in the context of night-and-day prayer, which releases more of the power of God in our labors," he says. "This is a new paradigm for many in the church today. The New Testament presents the missions movement as deeply connected to continual prayer."
When I started looking into the 24-7 Prayer organization, one of the things that struck was just how ill-supported their ideas were biblically. This is no different.

Recently, I wrote a bit about what I called "spiritualized busywork". This is, to my mind, another example.

Prayer here is not biblical prayer. It is, to be blunt, superstition. Bicke, for example, says in the article that "The New Testament presents the missions movement as deeply connected to continual prayer". Where, pray tell, does the New Testament present anything like that? Where does the New Testament say anything about churches needing to set up these 24 hour a day prayer structures?

In a couple of words, it doesn't.

What is this, then? This is Man, trying to do the impossible thing of impressing God with our works. This is Man, trying to outspiritualized each other. This is Man, not God.

This Harp and Bowl prayer has only the most passing acquaintence with anything biblical. Basically, take a verse out of context and develop a practice around the misapplication. More busywork.

the definition of spiritualized busywork

When Jesus ascended after His resurrection, His last commands were rather simple--take the Gospel to the whole world, to the ends of the Earth, baptize those who believed, and teach them what He had said. Not easy, but simple and straightforward.

Fast-forward to...today.

Project 4K

And what is this, really?

4K is a global mapping project aimed at responding to the world’s spiritual and physical needs more strategically. With the vision of reaching every person on Earth, 4K has created a framework called Omega Zones. The world always has roughly 4,000 Omega Zones, hence the name 4K.

In this Information Age of technology, the use of maps to track Gospel presence and basic life needs will make the task of reaching everyone on Earth a reality. Through the Omega Zone mapping grid, Christian workers will have a better understanding of where we are and where we are not. Every person on the planet has needs, whether they are spiritual or physical. Using 4K, the global task at hand will be more apparent on a map, and the Body of Christ will be better equipped to mobilize its resources.

Funny, I don't recall anything in the Bible about Omega Zones, or the need to map them. Maybe the book about them got schlupped off into the Apocrypha.

Look, this isn't against technology, or information, or whatever. It's about...well...

Look at what's said there. "Every person on the planet has needs..." Ok, and the most important need they have is to know about Christ. Other needs are not necessarily unimportant, but that is the primary one. You don't need a cool techie map to know that.

This is just "spiritualized busywork", kinda like prayer walking and prayer mapping and the like. Little about this is of any real worth.

I'm also going to ascribe to it a even less good motive--it's about control. It's linked in Call 2 All, which is endorsed by people like Mike Bickle, he of the off-the-wall KC IHOP (I ain't talking pancakes, either) apostles and prophets.

Can you say "Dominionism", boys and girls? I thought you could. And what says "We're taking dominions!!" like cool maps showing that you're taking dominion?

Sad, isn't it, that this is what it's come to. From Jesus' plain commission to unbridled religious ambition.

who's really speaking?

The reason many of us miss the miracles is that we aren’t looking and listening. The easy part of prayer is talking. It’s much harder listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. It’s much harder looking for the answers. But two-thirds of praying hard is listening and looking.
Zondervan, (2011-12-13). The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears (Kindle Locations 1659-1661). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Praying hard starts with listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. And if you are faithful in the small things and obey those little promptings, then God can use you to do big things.
(Kindle Locations 1735-1736).

"The still small voice of the Holy Spirit". So, anyone out there, please, can you show where the Bible says that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in a "still small voice"?

I know, I know, you may point to Elijah. And I can point out that, contrary to what seems to be popular view of that passage, nothing in that passage supports the contention. God spoke in what some translations of the passage call "a still small voice", but the point is that God spoke in an audible voice to the prophet. Elijah heard with his ears a real voice, not something inside himself.

But this is so popular now. There are so many teachings out there about how to "hear the voice of God", or the voice of the Spirit, or however it may be phrased. Sit in a circle, sit in silence, straining with your 'spiritual ears' to hear some kind of rather faint and indistinct inner voice. Stop being so busy and try to get impressions and leadings. Look around and see what message the Spirit is giving you through the license plate numbers in the cars around you.

But I have to wonder...if the Bible says nothing about the Holy Spirit speaking to us in some kind of still small inner voice, and it doesn't, then what or who are we listening to when we try to hear this still small inner voice.

Because if one thing is becoming clear, it's that these "listen to the still small inner voice" types of people are simply looney. Ok, maybe not all, but it certainly seems an unhealthy majority of them are, especially the popular ones, the leaders, the ones who appear on television and talk about hearing God's voice telling the listeners to send their money to the person on television, or making claims about seeing someone who's watching and that God is healing them of something or another.

It's quite well known that modern-day prophets are notoriously inaccurate. One could expect more accuracy from the carnival palm reader or crystal ball gazer. The charismatic types have not been able to hide this fact, and so instead they have concocted excuses--being inaccurate is a good sign, God doesn't mind such inaccuracies and even expects them, and you people out there should submit to these prophets even though they can't absolutely guarantee that they are accurate. It's one of the biggest crocks out there.

So, is God lying? Is God giving them bad prophecies? Or, is it that they are not really hearing God speak? Does God really speak in a such an obscure, indistinct manner that people can so easily misunderstand HIm? But if they are hearing something speak, then what? What is speaking to them?

Charismatics, Pentacostals, all the "spiritual gifts" types of churches, have been an unmitigated embarrassment. There is no nicer way of saying it. When people like Robert Tilden and Jim Bakker were accepted without being rebuked until they openly fell (their false teachings were obvious even before then), when people like Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar and T.D. Jakes are still accepted today, when the airwaves of so-called "Christian" TV and radio stations are filled with money-mongerers, false teachers, false gospels, inane and sacchrine music, all designed simply to make peole feel good and to give money, all because these people display certain 'spiritual gifts', then something is bad wrong. When things like the idiocy at Toronto and Pensacola are accepted without rebuke, when obviously fake healers like Todd Bentley are encouraged and promoted, then charismatics have more of a need to cry in repentence then brag about any real spiritual gifts they may or may not have.

I'm not one who goes so far as to say that God cannot use things like dreams to direct us, I see no reason from the Bible to say that it cannot happen and there are examples I can think of. But there is a lot of nonsense out there about how God supposedly speaks to us. For example...

http://burn24-7.com/2011/2011-a-year-of-incense/
The Lord birthed one word in my spirit during our annual corporate fast last December: Transition. Many of us kept seeing 11:11 everywhere and would hear confirmations of this from the mouths of prophets and leaders across the world. Although there is a constant and daily transition for every living believer from “glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18), I felt like 2011 would be a year of significance as God aligns and shifts us into a place for an outpouring in the season ahead. We experienced this reality in our Burn 24-7 family from physical moves (new homes, cities, nations) for many of our leaders to a change in jobs to much more! Globally this word took root as entire regions of the world were literally transitioned and shifted overnight (ie. Middle East)!

We also helped launch the “Global Day of Worship” on November 11th (11/11/11) where we trumpeted every major city on the earth to host 24 hours of syncopated and unending worship to God!

http://burnhillcountry.com/11-11-11
The Lord has been impressing prophetic voices all over the world with the numbers 11-11. In response, a Global Day of Worship has been mobilized for 11/11/11. BURN Hill Country, along with other BURN furnaces and worshipers from around the world will be participating in this day!

We will begin at 11:11pm on Thursday, November 10, 2011. We will worship for at least a full 24 hours through November 11, 2011.

(I wonder if they contacted Greenwich to make sure that their clocks were set exactly right so they could certain to start exactly at 11:11PM? Or would it hurt the prophetic impact to have started at the wrong time because your clocks were a bit fast or slow).

So, because a bunch of people kept seeing 11s around in the year 2011, they thought God was telling them something? Oh, actually, 11-11. Yeah, like so many people weren't thinking it would be cool to do something cool on 11-11-11. So, I guess 11-11-11 was like the spiritual version of Y2K--a great non-event. It's been a few months, and wow--nothing's really happened. I do remember some movie being released on that day, Immortals I think it was, but that was about it. And from what I've heard, it wasn't even all that great of movie. Though I do wonder if some 'prophet' gave some 'word' about the 'prophetic significance' of a movie called Immortals being released on that date. I think that would be justification enough to not take them seriously.

It's time to stop abiding this nonsense. The fruit of this tree has done beyond being merely rotten, and has become putrid. It's time to stop practicing unbiblical practices, like these attempts to hear a still small inner voice. You're not hearing the Holy Spirit when you do that, if you hear any spirit at all it isn't a holy one. Mark Batterson, and the many others who teach this, are misleading you.

the jesus brand?

From the moment he became a professional golfer, Tiger Woods was marketing gold. He not only energized people who already loved golf, but he also influenced nongolfers to try to sport. And try it with a brand-new sleeve of Nike golf balls.

When it comes to representing Jesus, are you and I doing that? Are we energizing people who already love Him, as well as influencing non-Christians to try Jesus? Do people really want what we have? Are we giving them a reason?

I'll say it again: Many people have no problem with Christ, but a big problem with Christians. Expressed in marketing terms, the product isn't the problem--the spokes people are.Instead of bringing people to Jesus, it seems we're more effective at turning them away.
Tim Sinclair, "Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture", p. 140

Oh, where to begin...

So, we should market Jesus like Nike marketed Tiger? How does that work? If you have Jesus, you can win major victories? If you have Jesus, you can walk confidently, have swagger, never be down and out? If you have Jesus, you can be the best? If you add Jesus to your life, everything gonna be hunky-dorey?

Well, that sounds like the seeker-sensitive, relevant message, for sure.

It's interesting reading about us having to "market" Jesus like a company markets a spokesman. Let's say that someone who thought like this was around in Jesus' time on Earth, and was trying to get Jesus to act like he wanted Him to, so that He could be marketed better.

This marketing guru would likely have been apoplectic when Jesus drove off a bunch of people by talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He may have wanted Him to play a bit more nicely with the social religious leaders, having them on His side would have made things so much easier. Our marketing guru would have looked on with googly-eyes when Jesus let the rich young ruler walk away--hey, he's rich, he's young, he's a guy in charge, you don't let an opportunity like that just slip away!! He may have thought that having so many social misfits among the disciples was not the wisest of marketing moves--yeah, you want to appeal to a broad audience, but, really, isn't there a better selection process than just Your seemingly random choices? On the other hand, when Jesus discouraged people who claimed they wanted to follow Him, well, you can't sell your product when you do that!! And stop talking about "taking up your cross", that's polling badly, and by the way, this whole real crucifixion thing, no one thinks that is going to sell big at all.

Which brings us to the last part of that excerpt--the notion that people have no problem with Jesus. This isn't the first time I've heard or read someone make that claim, and, frankly, I'm not convinced. I've no doubt people may say that, but I've never heard of anyone asking a follow-up question like "Can you tell us about this Jesus that you like?"

Because, I'm pretty well sure that when it comes down to it, the Jesus most people find so unoffensive is a Jesus that is only marginally like the Jesus we read about in the Gospels.

There is a little skit I've heard on an internet radio show, that I think will explain what I mean. A woman walks into a Build-A-God store, and with the help of someone working in the store, creates her very own deity, one that embodies all the things she likes and doesn't like. At the end of the skit, the store worker asks the woman what she wants to call her deity, the woman calls her new deity Jesus, to the delight of the store worker, who says that that is what everyone calls their newly-created deity.

When people make a claim such as "I like Jesus, but it's the church that I can't stand", I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb, and say that the Jesus they claim to like is a Jesus that has more to do with their own likes and dislikes than any outside information about the real Jesus, a Jesus that they themselves created. I suspect that, if they could jump into a time machine and meet the real Jesus, they would dislike Him even more than they dislike the church. I'd even bet that they would be among those calling for Him to be crucified.

This notion of marketing Jesus seems rather problematic. Jesus seemed to have done a poor job of marketing Himself. The early church didn't do all that hot at it, either. The churches today that seem to be most concerned about it are...well, are they really the best examples we should follow? Cheesy rap videos, circus churches, televangelist who sell Jesus as the doorway to wealth and health.

Plus, how should we market Jesus? Health and wealth are bad theology. Life change is problematic at best. Jesus Himself talked about the world hating those who follow Him because the world hated Him. Trying to pretty up Jesus so that the world will like Him seems to simply lead to a compromised message.

When we try to market Jesus like a product, it seems to lead to silliness.

my first book!!!

I know it's been quiet here for a few days. There have been reasons for that. Here's one of them.

Rigor

Trying to figure out how to format it for Kindle took a bit of time and effort, but there it is, my first book.

the cute is overwhelming!!

sojo's double standard

Jon Stewart on Limbaugh: 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Gross'

For one thing, isn't Stewart castigating someone else a bit like a drunk getting on someone else's case for looking at a beer can? Or, as the commenter (so far) quite succintly put it.

pot...kettle...

But my concern is mainly Sojo, and their double standard. Remember this?

Jesus Gets the Last Word on Rick Perry's Ad

Yep, this is Sojo gleefully posting a video where a man depicts Jesus, and this jesus calls someone an a--hole.

So, Sojo finds insults to those they disagree with hilarious (and to not apologize for posting them), while continuing the usual liberal schtick when a conservative messes up, even after the conservative apologizes.

Yep, Sojo--elevating the conversation by plunging it even deeper into the mud. Is this what is meant by "falling upwards"?

has YWAM jumped the shark?

My heart was heavy as I traveled Africa, as I thought about my own nation. My prayer became, “Lord, what has gone wrong?” Nearly two thousand years of concentrated missions effort on this continent—how could it result in this? God spoke, simply and with a dawning revelation that would change my understanding of missions and my life calling, fundamentally and permanently. He said, “The devastation you see is the result of a gospel that limits itself to the preaching of salvation.”

Landa Cope, The Old Testament Template for Discipling Nations
(2012-01-22). His Kingdom Come: An Integrated Approach to Discipling the Nations and Fulfilling the Great Commission (Kindle Locations 669-673). YWAM Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Well, if that doesn't sound like Enlow's nonsense, I don't know what does. So, what does she suggest...?

All of a sudden it was as though I were given ears to hear what I had read so many times in my life and never understood. Somewhere between Boise, Idaho, and Omaha, Nebraska, (which is about five days of corn and wheat,) I was driving along and all of a sudden I thought, Whoa! Do you know what that chapter was about? It was about Law! Moses was teaching law. Moses was forming government. A little farther through the corn I thought, Whoa! Do you know what that chapter was about? It was about hygiene! There was a passage on economics. Then one on family and health care. Now another on law, and on it went. The light flashed into my poor little brain. Revelation hit like a laser beam. Moses’ job was to disciple a nation. His job was to teach people who had been slaves for more than three hundred years how to form and run their nation. Moses was to teach Israel God’s principles of government, economics, the family, the priesthood, and every domain of human society. He had forty years in the wilderness to do it, and he had written it all down!
(Kindle Locations 709-717)

And there we go...she wants to put us back under the law.

I discovered that chapter 28 gives us what I call a national inventory. It gives us a way of measuring how our nation is doing. It says if you are experiencing these things, you are being blessed. If you are experiencing those things, you are being cursed. When I drew out the different domains that are blessed when we are following God’s laws, I realized that he talks about the whole of society. So he says, “You will be blessed in the city; you will be blessed in the country.” When I hold American cities up to this, I know we are not being blessed. Our cities are a mess...
(Kindle Locations 901-906).

God says that the weather will be blessed (bad news for California!). He says national debt will be blessed—by lack of it, that is. America is failing on this list. How is your nation doing? God basically says that if you obey this body of laws, your country will be blessed.
(Kindle Locations 916-918)

It's as if she's never read the New Testament.

ga.4.21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? ga.4.22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. ga.4.23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. ga.4.24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.† ga.4.25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.† ga.4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ga.4.27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. ga.4.28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. ga.4.29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. ga.4.30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. ga.4.31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 172337-172353). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

ro.3.19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.† ro.3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 170524-170527). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

Is Cope right the we could be blessed if we keep this body of laws? Sure. Now, go try.

No, seriously, please try. Try to make your nation, your district, your county, your city, your suburb, your family, or even yourself perfectly keep those laws. Don't pretend that you can do pretty good, and maybe that's good enough, 'cause it ain't. If a person violates one law, then he or she is guilty of all the law.

The truth is, the law was given to us for reasons. Consider what the verse above from Romans says. The law was given, to essentially shut us up. It was given so we could know about our sinfulness, so we can stop boasting of our own righteousness, or excuse our sins. It was not meant as a means to justification, because that is impossible. It was not given as a means for us to earn blessings.

ga.3.21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. ga.3.22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. ga.3.23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ga.3.24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ga.3.25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. ga.3.26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. ga.3.27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 172294-172304). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

The Galatian Christians had to deal with those who wanted to put them under the law, by saying that they had to be circumcised. Those like Cope seem to want to do the same, by saying that we have to return to the law in order to have nations be fit for God to bless. Never mind the fact that God spoke those words to a particularly people many long years ago, never mind that the intent of the law was not to make them righteous, but rather to show them sin and make it exceedingly sinful, so that they would repent and believe in the Messiah.

So, has YWAM jumped the shark? Has YWAM crossed the line? Landa Cope is not some little nobody in the grand scheme of things in YWAM, when she talks, people in YWAM listen. When her 'god' tells her that the world's problems are because the church has preached only the Gospel of salvation, what other gospel is there? What else is there, except law?

And this is what Cope is saying we should return to. In order to be blessed as nations, we have to keep all of the law. If that is so, than woe unto us!! Shall any nation, composed of sinful men, fully keep the law? Shall we dare to come to God, wrapped in the rags of our own righteousness, say that we have kept all his commands, and thus demand that He bless us? Is that not what her quid pro quo amounts to?

In Deuteronomy 27:26 God says through Moses, “‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” Indeed, man is invited by the Law to pronounce a curse upon himself. Only a person engulfed by infernal darkness can believe that the Law will give him no trouble.
C.F.W. Walther (2011-12-29T05:00:00+00:00). The Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel (Kindle Locations 235-238). Pirate Christian Media. Kindle Edition.

Do not be mistaken, Cope is promoting bondage and slavery, the very things that we who believe in Christ have been freed from, just as those who tried to make the Galatians be circumcised were trying to put them back under the bondage of the law.

If this is where YWAM is going, or has gone already, then they are to be rejected by the Christian churches. They are preaching law, they are preaching another gospel, they are preaching a false gospel. And just as Paul told the Galatians, those who preach another Gospel are eternally cursed.

444 reasons to not believe 7 mountains dominionism

I have to tell you something cool with the numbers real quick. Many of you know that the number 444 is specifically the number the Lord has been speaking with me for many, many, many years, and even as kind of in honor of that, a gift Elizabeth gave me about a month ago was this thing on my wrist. What you can't see is there is the number 444 in it, 'cause I'll always tell, "There's 444". Kind of it just means that we're on target, we're on pace, place we're suppose to be, there's connection to Ezekial 44:4, other things. And it's just a remind kinda of God's fingerprint everywhere on things we're doing and seeing. And so she says, "Anytime you need to see 444, you can just look on your wrist, don't need to even look to find something else, he's with you all the time." It wasn't that...And it looked cool, too, she thought. But it's interesting, in the prophetic unfolding of things. My daughter, elder daughter, oldest daughter, just bought a car yesterday. And it's a used car. We told her we'd help her, you know, 'round a couple of thousand dollars with the car. And she called me yesterday, this is what she said, "Dad, the tag on my car is 444!" And I said, "(unclear), Did you order that, or is that the way it came?" "That's the way it came!" And I was like, "Oh my goodness!" You talk about the Lord speaking even as regards his promises and, you know, Promise had a year not without struggles and tests, and there is this thing, though, that she got a car, and the cost of it was $2,220, is what her car cost. So there's a 222, the license tag is 444, so Promise is driving basically, to end 2011, she gets a car that has the 444 on the back, that costs $2,220, and it's a Honda Accord. And Honda, in Spanish, means 'wave'. So there's a wave, accord, unity. There's a whole bunch more stuff we could go in to on that, but the Lord is speaking again about his promises and how he's all over his promises.
John Enlow, Daystar Church Atlanta, from a sermon called "2012 Prophetic Insights"

Yeah, this is weird.

If you've been around people who either are church-goers, or where, or who at least have a passing knowledge of things biblical, you'll probably know that few things will set them off more than seeing the number 666. It doesn't have to be connected with anything biblical, it just has to be there--on a license plate, in a ZIP code, on a restaurant receipt, wherever. There are people who simply cannot stand to write that number, they associate it so strongly with evil and the devil.

13 is another number with a bad reputation, I'm not sure why. But some will go to great lengths to avoid it. I've even heard of people who design and build buildings who will not call the 13th floor the 13th, but will skip it. Perhaps that is only an urban legend, but the truth is it is believable. Friday the 13th is quite the legendary day for badness to happen.

While there may well be some merit to studying how numbers are used in the Bible and what they symbolize, Enlow has obviously taken it too far.

Because this is just superstition.

He knows he's doing what God wants him to do if he looks around and sees the number 444? So his wife or daughter (not sure who Elizabeth is to him) makes him some kind of bracelet-like thing with the number 444 on it, so he can see it all the time? I'm trying to think of any biblical passage that says that the Spirit will lead us by making sure we see certain numbers. Can't think of any.

And doesn't giving him a bracelet with the number on it, so he can see it whenever he wants, just give him carte blanche to do whatever he wants?

Finally, there is his prophetic breakdown of his daughter's new used car. Isn't Honda a Japanese company? Why would the meaning of a Spanish word that sounds similar to Honda be in any way prophetically important?

What next, killing and gutting goats to somehow find 444 in their entrails?

If you think that little attempt at humor was me just being ridiculous, consider this--why did people examine entrails? To look for signs, confirmations, to divine what they should do.

Isn't that how Enlow is treating the number 444? "Kind of it just means that we're on target, we're on pace, place we're suppose to be..."

For him, numerology is divination. He gets prophetic messages in the numbers associated with his daughter's car. He knows he's on the right track when he sees the number 444.

There is nothing Scriptural about this. This is satanic. I don't care if he's dressing it up in Christianese, that just means it's satanic in drag.

i guess he just throws out certain passages

So, I found this little blog post, by someone somehow related to the whole apostolic and prophet nonsense. It's about his views of the end times.

Eschatological Core Values

I'll just look at one or two them, but please, look at all of them. They put me in mind of someone sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling "LALALALALALA!!" over and over.

4.I will not allow any interpretation of the scriptures that destroys hope for the nations and undermines our command to restore ruined cities.

.

Not sure wher he finds any command for us to restore ruined cities. Probably something God promised to Israel, not the church.

An interpretation that destroys hope for the nations? Again, not sure what he means here. Being a dispensationalist type myself, I think my view gives great hope to everyone--that Christ will return and set things right Himself. The notion that it is the church's job to set things right is, well, rather scary.

8.I don’t believe that the last days are a time of judgment, nor do I believe God gave the church the right to call for wrath for sinful cities. There is a day of judgment in which GOD will judge man, not us

I'm not sure where the Bible says anything about church's calling down the thunder on cities, either. But the last days not being a time of judgment? Well, I guess he just throws out the entire book of Revelation, not to mention the other parts of the New Testament that deal with the end times.

I've heard that Jefferson once made his own version of the Bible, which removed every supernatural element. This guy Vallotton must be doing much the same thing, chopping out all the biblical prophetic elements of judgment in the end times.

a sojrone goes delusion

Yeah, I know...that's not really any new. But, still, this is just loony.

They're Baaa-aaack: Return of the Christocrats (Who Never Really Went Away)

In the 2012 presidential election, the Christocrats are out in force on many fronts: trying to eliminate prenatal care and all forms of contraception; defunding breast cancer screening; opposing civil rights for same-sex couples; contesting evolution and substituting creationism in public schools; denying the reality of global climate change; and discrediting the "lame stream media."

Wow. So, where to begin...

I suspect that the contraception remark has to do with the recent spat of attempts by the government to try to make religious organizations, like Catholic churches and hospitals, provide free birth control and contraception to employees, despite their religious convictions against such thing, and the US Constitution's statement about the government not imposing itself on religion. In other words, this looney sojrone is has hallucinations about how relgious organization defending themselves from a power-hungry US president and lackies is somehow something evil.

Defunding breast cancer? Ah, the little stink a few weeks ago about Susan B Komen and Planned Parenthood. Apparently, to the lefties like this sojrone, it's bad for Komen to separate from PP. You know, PP being all for killing the unborn and all.

Civil rights. Yeah, playing that card in regards to gay rights and gay marriage. Can someone say "slippery slope"? I suppose morality has nothing to do with this sojrone's rantings.

Contesting evolution? Oh, the horro!! Oh, the humanity!! Stop showing how silly evolution is, and just...stop. You came from a monkey, deal with it!! Stop pointing out the facts otherwise, or we'll take you to court and make a judge shut you up!!

And denying global warming? When the proofs for it have been shown to be fake (much like with evolution), then the crazy thing would be to just close your mind and accept it (much like with evolution).

And the "lame stream media" are the ones who discredit themselves every day.

Perhaps the best responds was from a commenter by the name "CommLaw".

I find this conversation very interesting because while social conservatives are concerned about gay marriage and abortion, it's the left that wants to control virtually every aspect of our lives: health insurance, pipelines, carbon usage, and on and on an on. Yet the left claims the right wants to control all of their lives.

Well said.

how could He not have known?

We read in the book of Genesis that God put the stars and the sun and the moon in the sky, to give us signs and seasons, hours, days, and time. So that's an aspect. And I found out that that's where the number twelve came from, ok. So we're going to deal with twelve as a part of this year. The first aspect of twelve that the Lord asked me to tell you is that He is celebrating this year, 2012. And I went, what do you mean? And he said, "Well, symbolically, I was twelve years old when I discovered I was the Son of God". And it hit me. You know, you're right. The only recorded words of Christ in his growing-up years was "Don't you know that I should be about my Father's business?" And the Lord went on to share with me as I was meditating on this, that he came to Jerusalem with the women. It was a tradition for the women, when it was time to go to Jerusalem for the high festivals, to leave early in the morning with the children and the young men who had not gone through bar mitzvah, or who had no gone through becoming a man of the law. And this year was the year of Jesus becoming the man of the law, 2000 years ago, symbolically. I don't know, you know, some people say he was born 3 BC, some right on zero, you know there's all this debate, 4 AD, but for the sake of this discussion, the number twelve, the Lord said to me, He is celebrating the fact that it was the women who brought him to his revelation that he as the Son of Man found out that he was the Son of God, the dual nature of our Messiah, Jesus Christ. And as our pastor has already illustrated to us, I think it was October 1st, that this year we're coming in to, or already begun because of Rosh Hoshonah, is the year of the women. The women are cleaning up things, they're organizing the house, they're taking care of things. Well, in the case of Jesus, they were responsible for bringing Him to His revelation in the year 12 of his life. Amen, that is just so awesome!
Ron Whitehead, speaking at Daystar Church of Atlanta, GA, New Year's Eve 2011, starting about 6 minutes in

Well. that's something...odd. How about if we look at this passage, since he didn't read from it.

lk.2.41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. lk.2.42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. lk.2.43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. lk.2.44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. lk.2.45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. lk.2.46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. lk.2.47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. lk.2.48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. lk.2.49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? lk.2.50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. lk.2.51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. lk.2.52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 165844-165861). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

Let me give an excerpt from this same commentary, about a part of this passage.

44. sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances — On these sacred journeys, whole villages and districts travelled in groups together, partly for protection, partly for company; and as the well-disposed would beguile the tediousness of the way by good discourse, to which the child Jesus would be no silent listener, they expect to find Him in such a group.

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 69929-69931). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

Now, I don't know where this Whitehead guy got that part about Jesus going up to Jerusalem with only the women. The passage is plain that He was with both of His parents, and likely also traveled with quite a few other people there and back. Also, here's another bit from this commentary, about the festivals themselves.

42. went up — "were wont to go." Though males only were required to go up to Jerusalem at the three annual festivals (Ex 23:14-17), devout women, when family duties permitted, went also, as did Hannah (1 Sam 1:7), and, as we here see, the mother of Jesus.

Brown, David; Fausset, A. R.; Jamieson, Robert (2011-06-02). Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump) (Kindle Locations 69907-69910). OSNOVA. Kindle Edition.

Whitehead gives no verifiable source for his claim that Jesus went to Jerusalem with a group of women, except that he seems to claim that this is what the Lord Himself told him personally.

He says that it was a tradition for the women to leave early, and to take their young children with them. Leave from where? Their home towns? Would the women and young children really travel on their own, without husbands and fathers to protect them along the way? Sounds like the peak season for highwaymen and bandits.

And where were the men? Did they just tarry behind for a few days, puttering about, then rush to join the women in the city, assuming the women and children actually made it there?

Nothing in his description of them going to Jerusalem makes sense, and I've tried to record it just as he said it. It makes no sense that women and children would travel alone, unaccompanied by husbands and fathers and other male relatives who would look after them along the way.

Plus, there is the notion that Jesus did not realize He was the Son of God until this time.

We know very little about the childhood of Jesus, having essentially just this one glimpse of Him from that time, and some general descriptions of how He grew in favor with God and men. And I'll admit, there is something that for me is unimaginable about Jesus, God Himself, being taught, for example, how to walk, how to talk, how to read and write, and how to do various other things around the family's home.

The Bible says nothing about Jesus discovering that He was the Son of God at this time in Jerusalem, or that it was something that He needed to discover at all. This is a mystery here, I'll admit, one the Bible doesn't seem to clarify, but I really doubt that He ever didn't not know that He was the Son of God. How could He have lived a sinless life, if He did not know that?

However it was, we can see that what Whitehead is selling is not at all supported in Scripture. As such, then, what he's saying is whacky and simply shouldn't be taken seriously. And it's an indication of just how far from Scripture this church, it's pastor Enlow, and the whole Seven Mountains Mandate they encourage and teach really is.