Author Archives: takeheed

Rick Warren: The art of ‘politically-correct’ praying

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Invocation at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama 20th January 2009

When the Apostle Paul came to the city of Athens we read “his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry” [Acts 17:16] and later in verse 22 we read of how he stood up on Mars Hill in that same city and to a people whom he described as “very religious” he proceeded to proclaim the Biblical God of creation and His appointed coming judge of all people, His crucified but resurrected Son, Jesus Christ. Yesterday, along with countless millions around the world I watched on television the inauguration of President Barack Obama and not surprisingly I was particularly interested to listen to the ‘Invocation’ delivered by Rick Warren. As I listened to him speak, like Paul of old, ‘my spirit was stirred within me’ for this was not a prayer offered to the One true God of Heaven, Father, Son and Spirit but rather it was a cunningly crafted idolatrous prayer designed to placate and please many of the false ‘gods’ worshipped in Washington DC, in America in general and around the whole world.

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Mark Driscoll’s approach to preaching

MARK DRISCOLL My FACEBOOK post of 13 August 2014

In early January 2009 a lady who had been given some preaching tapes of Pastor Mark Driscoll by a young relative contacted me. This lady, whilst acknowledging that there was some commendable content on the tapes, was nevertheless uneasy about some aspects of both the preaching style and content of Mark Driscoll and she wanted to know my views on him.

Mark Driscoll first came to my attention when I was researching and preparing my talk on what is loosely termed ‘The Emerging Church’. Unlike many of the perceived leaders of this grouping [people like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell] who are unwilling to stand up and proclaim ‘thus saith the Lord’, Mark Driscoll does defend and declare many of the crucial doctrines revealed in God’s Word so he has in the past classed himself as “swimming in the theologically conservative stream of the Emerging Church’.

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News From The Front – December 2008

Dear praying friends,

When commenting on the parable of the householder and his vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46) the great English Anglican Bishop J C Ryle wrote ‘The fruit that the Lord receives from His vineyard in this land is disgracefully small compared with what it ought to be. We should note what an awful reckoning God sometimes makes with nations and churches… A time came when the long-suffering of God towards the Jews had an end. Forty years after our Lord’s death…they received a heavy chastisement for their sins in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple… And will the same things ever happen to us? Will the judgments of God come down upon this nation… Only God knows. But history tells us that judgments have come on many churches and nations. Where are all the early African and Eastern churches? They are run over by Islam and destroyed…Nothing offends God so much as the neglect of privileges. Much has been given to us and much will be required’. Truly remarkable and in many ways ‘prophetic’ words seeing that they were first published in 1856. Margaret and I thank you all for another year of encouragement and support and wish you His rich blessing in 2009 [DV].

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The ‘gay christian’ TV debate

A number of recent articles posted to the website have been dealing with so-called Christian groups and individuals who have been teaching that a sexually active homosexual or lesbian lifestyle is compatible with a profession to being a Christian.

In October 2008 on GENESIS TV [which as you will see has a leaning towards ‘things Pentecostal’] a debate took place between David McIlveen, the minister of Sandown Road Free Presbyterian and a self-confessed lesbian ‘Bishop’ attached to the Metropolitan Community Church denomination. In an article that I wrote several years ago on the worrying views of Philip Yancey on this issue I referred to an interview that he gave and in the course of it he himself refers to this MCC grouping. That article can be accessed on

https://www.takeheed.info/philip-yancey-turning-the-grace-of-god-into-lasciviousness/

The contribution to this debate by David McIlveen, which as you will see was overwhelmingly endorsed by the vast majority of those who emailed or telephoned the programme, is I believe Scripture-honouring and God-glorifying and I pray the Lord will use it to bring biblical clarity to this contentious issue.

Comrade Barack Obama by Shaun Willcock

The election of Barack Obama to the White House is the greatest disaster for the United States of America in its entire history

Of course, the fawning millions who voted for him don’t believe that. Throughout his campaign they hung on his every word, and gazed on him adoringly as if he were a messiah. And as the truth dawned that he had won, millions of people, not only in America but even around the world, stood and openly wept. Marxists, liberals, New Agers, Muslims, sodomites, illegal immigrants, and the dumbed-down masses in general, all rejoiced in the streets. The only thing comparable to it was the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa in 1994. Mandela himself gushed over Obama after he won, saying his victory was an inspiration to people all over the world. But just as the rainbow began to lose its sparkle very soon after Mandela came to power in the “rainbow nation”, so the glitter will fade from Obama’s victory. This latest “Marxist Messiah” will be no better than the one before him.

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Welcome to the Church of Ireland Diocese of Sodom and Gomorrah

In Luke 17 the Lord Jesus Christ outlined what conditions would be like just before He returns again to “judge the world in righteousness” [Acts 17:31]. He referred back to God’s earlier judgments by a worldwide flood and localised fire and brimstone and said, “as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat…until the flood came and destroyed them all. Also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat…But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in THE DAY when the Son of Man is revealed” [Luke 17:26-30].

Conditions pertaining “in the days of Noah” are vividly described in Genesis 6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination [purpose and desire] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. As the saying goes, it does not take ‘rocket science’ to look at today’s world and to see and to read of the uncontrolled wickedness that pervades every continent on planet earth and to realise that the heart of mankind is today spewing forth those evils identified by the Lord Himself in Matthew 15:19 “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”.

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News From The Front – September 2008

Dear praying friends,

This entire newsletter, continuation enclosure [Professor Nevin and Peter Jennings] and enclosed CD are given over to a debate prompted by the Todd Bentley so-called ‘Healing Revival’ taking place in Florida and in other locations. I apologise for the smaller than usual font size of the entire newsletter and enclosure but I did want to include all that is relevant. This whole Todd Bentley ‘affair’ is one of the most distressing deceptions I have ever had to address and it is amazing how many around the world are actually accepting this as a ‘move of God’. Truly our foe is “more subtle than any beast of the field” [Genesis 3:1]. You will also see an enclosure reviewing and recommending 2 books – “True to His Ways” by Ruth Davis and “Test All Things” by Joe Mizzi. The first is absolutely essential reading in the light of the Todd Bentley fiasco and the second will be a wonderful tool in seeking to reach Roman Catholics for Christ so I would encourage you to seriously consider obtaining a copy of each from us. Your ongoing support and prayers are ever appreciated.

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Todd Bentley/Alpha links to St Andrews, Chorleywood

Vaccinate now [via DVD] against the TB [Toronto Blessing/Todd Bentley] and ALPHA outbreaks planned for St Andrews Church, Chorleywood in the Autumn of 2008.

The church website of St Andrews Church, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire in England is currently a living testimony to just how far “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons” [1st Timothy 4:1] have infiltrated and infected professing Christendom.

Their forthcoming events include the following –

  • Conferences
  • Firestorm UK – FULLY BOOKED!
  • Speaker(s): Mark Stibbe[pastor of St Andrews] and Ken Gott
  • Date: 25th June 2008

The promotional write-up for this event included the following –

  • ‘FIRESTORM!
  • The Lakeland Outpouring

On April 2nd, a move of God began in Ignited Church in Lakeland Florida. Todd Bentley, a powerfully anointed evangelist, began holding nightly meetings which were initially attended by about 700 people but soon grew to 9000 and even more.

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TODD BENTLEY and GOD TV – What’s’ ‘the pedigree’ of GOD TV?

Currently the so-called ‘revival’ claimed to be taking place in Lakeland, Florida and orchestrated for the most part by TODD BENTLEY is receiving vast worldwide live television coverage via GOD TV that was founded by Rory & Wendy Alec. TODD BENTLEY and other speakers have paid many tributes to GOD TV from the platform(s) in Lakeland.

In April 2005 I invited Alan Morrison who had produced many helpful materials at the time of the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’ to come here and speak in a number of churches on the subject

If you click on the following link you will be able to view the talk that Alan gave and I believe what you will see and hear should be important factors to be taken into consideration when evaluating whether or not what is happening in Lakeland is truly ‘of God’.

Florida/Belfast ‘Healing Revival’ debate on Sunday Sequence: 22nd June 2008

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In the article already posted to our website titled Todd Bentley and his ‘Healing Revival’ in Florida I made reference to how unfortunately this had impacted locally here in Northern Ireland. I wrote the following in that article –

‘Sadly from a local perspective the events in Lakeland are being given both coverage and credence in the Elim Christian Centre in Alexandra Park Avenue and there are links on their website to enable people to watch what is happening…the Belfast Pastor, Brian Madden…the Pastor tells of visiting a young man in hospital who he claims was clinically dead for 15 minutes [during which time he apparently ‘saw the devil’] but of how he felt led to ‘anoint the sides, head and foot of THE BED with oil’ and to ‘rebuke the spirit of death’.

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