In response to this blog post article:
http://spiritualsoundingboard.com/2014/03/17/learn-to-discern-can-women-read-scripture-aloud-to-men/#comments
My dominion mandate to you:
It is not, “take dominion of the 7 mountains of culture”.
it is not, “be a crusader and take over the world in the name of Christ”.
it is not, “go against the heathens with the military if necessary”.
it is not, “take control and domination of others”.
it is not, “Christianize the world system”.
it is not, “convert the nations (collectively in groups or political nations) to Christianity”.
it is not, “rule over the Church and the State with strategy, polity, military and all carnal power”.
it is not, “build the kingdom of God through any means necessary”.
it is not, “make disciples by subjecting them to the Rule and dominion of Christendom”.
It is, “walk with Christ your Lord and your God”.
it is, “follow Jesus your Shepherd “.
it is, “do what He did, and what He said to do, and do whatever He says to you now”.
it is, “yield yourself to Him, that Christ’s life be lived through you, in His power”.
it is, “pick up your cross and follow Him”.
it is, “repent” and “be transformed” and “walk according to the Spirit”.
it is, “listen to HIM, He is speaking to you”.
it is “be filled with the Spirit” and “do what pleases HIM”.
it is, “deny self”.
it is, “submit to one another (in Christ), and humble yourself”.
it is “die to sin and abide in Christ”.
it is, “rule over your flesh with the Spirit and Power of God”.
it is, “know Christ’s dominion is in you, for His kingdom is within you”.
it is, “build the kingdom of God through the preaching of the true gospel” (that Jesus Christ taught and demonstrated).
it is, “make disciples by witnessing/ evangelizing/ preaching the gospel, and then instructing them to follow Jesus, to love and obey Him, and teaching His words and His way”.
it is, “make disciples of CHRIST” (not disciples of Law based-Theonomist-political-cultural-militaristic Institutional Christianity) “teaching them (individuals) to observe whatsoever things HE has commanded you”.
Now go forth in love, His life living through you, and serve Christ to His glory, making disciples.
Hear My voice, I am the True Shepherd of the sheep, the thief comes to kill and destroy, but he comes as an angel of light! from John10 and 2Cor11
I accepted an invitation from my girl friend, to go to a Christian conference at a Church building. I went because I wanted to spend time with her, and hear news of the suffering saints. I was given liberty from the Lord, to go, to hear what was being said these days, to Christian people at Church.
It was the VOM regional conference; the subject was persecuted believers in communist and Muslim countries. There were videos, pictures, testimonies
of these saints, and stories the speakers told, of their lives and suffering. I am always glad to hear of them, it is a sweetness and bittersweetness at the same time, the believers in hostile lands are so dear and sweet, but it is so sad, their suffering. I wanted to participate in remembering them, and learning of their plight.
But there were some things I noticed that grieved me. I really went, with an open heart, assuming the best, hoping and trusting I would not hear anything that would grieve me, but alas, I did. But I’m not surprised (though I’m saddened) because the Church System really is Babylon….. and she cannot be healed. Thus fleeing and forsaking her is the only way……. it’s not safe because the truth is tainted and muddied with bondage or lies (or both!).
The main speaker (from Iran) said all kinds of concerning things, though he is very eager to reach muslims in Iran as a missionary. Now he did report that many Iranians are coming to Christ and are assembling secretly, quietly in homes and such, and are doing a lot of evangelism. But this man defined the sharing the gospel as getting someone to “pray the prayer” for God or Jesus to “come into your heart”. That was concerning.
He basically pushed for political and religious Dominionism in Iran. His words and style reminded me of Campus Crusade for Christ and YWAM, as far as the ministry catchphrases.
He boldly promoted the 7 Mountains Dominionism! That is where the 7 Mountains of society will be ruled by a cultural and political Christianity. He said Iran will become a Christian country! He said 2 kingdoms are clashing and Islam is a spirit. But then he said, “You can’t come against it (the spirit of Islam) with the military, well sometimes you have to use the military.”
With that statement, he went against Jesus’ words and promoted war and killing “if it is necessary”.
Further, he said that we want to evangelize the muslims and convert them for these reasons:
1. because if not they will kill us all
2. because they want to take over the world and make every nation Muslim, (submit to Islam) thus we must stop them by converting more of them to Christianity.
This is NOT to be our motivation. His motivation was unfortunately pure FEAR— fear of being killed, fear of jihad, fear of being forced to submit to Islam, fear of our country being taken over, etc. This is NOT of Christ.
That attitude is the spirit of the Holy Roman Empire of Christendom, which wanted to preserve the culture, earthly kingdoms, lands and power holdings of State-Christianity (Christendom). This is not of the Spirit. This is of earthly Churchianity or what we call Babylon Church.
The motivation he promoted, is the same motivation that sent men to the Crusades to kill and shed oceans of so-called infidel or heretic blood (Christian, Muslim and Jewish blood, and also pagans of other indigenous local religions). This motivation is satanic, it is not of Love, it is not of Faith, it is not of Hope. It is not loving God and loving neighbor. It is pure fear, and determination to hold on to what we “have in this world” (lands, nations, freedoms, rights, our lives, our culture etc). This is not of Jesus Christ who told us to die to self, follow Him and make disciples.
The man did promote evangelism and making disciples, but for the wrong motivation, not out of obedience to Christ, not out of love for God and people, and not out of gratitude to our beloved Christ Jesus for our salvation, not out of compassion for the lost, not out of the willingness to die if need be, not to serve others and love enemies, to give to others, like Christ gave to us.
So his message of what motivates us to reach Muslims, was entirely political and carnal, fear based and worldly. And it feeds into satan’s plan to get us warring and killing, (Christians and Muslims) that the synthesis/ solution of world government and global syncretic religion might be implemented as the solution for world peace. Political-military Dominionist Christianity is being used right now to help this global plan along.
So the man was either knowingly or unknowingly (we don’t know) helping the plans of the wrong side, so to speak, rather than encouraging us: to NOT FEAR and LOVE NOT YOUR LIFE and LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE FOR ANOTHER, and to LOVE UNTIL YOU DIE in your service of bringing Christ to the lost world WITH JOY AND HUMBLE TRUST IN THE LORD. We do not try to save our life, lifestyle, limb, culture or physical nation. We lay it down, and love like our Father loves.
I would have been so edified to hear that from this Christian Leader.
The teacher taught that the motivation (to try to convert them) is:
1. because of terrorism growing
2. because they want to take over nations and plan to take over all nations including USA
3. because Islam is the greatest threat to the world, to world peace.
4. because Islam wants to wipe (political-geographical) “Israel” off the map. Yes he said this. This motivation seems entirely fleshly, earthly and political.
Then he said: Iran will be a Christian nation! Christianity will rule the (7 Mountains) business, government, family, religion, media, education, entertainment (the 7 mountains exactly as taught by Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham!). There you go folks, straight up Dominionism.
He said, The future of Iran and Israel are united! He had scripture to back this up. He was quite serious that he meant this literally, in the physical-political. !!
He said, over 25,000 documented “decisions” for Christ. (This sounds identical to Billy Graham and CCC).
His definition of sharing the gospel, shown repeatedly over his speech, was leading ppl in prayer for God to come into your heart. Salvation was praying “the prayer”.
He taught that 9 11 was done by muslims. He showed pictures of the “twin towers” in a ball of flames and other scary pictures.
He had a lot of power point pics and charts that fanned the flames of “fear of Muslims”, and reiterated that the main reason for his evangelism was to hold back the tide of Islam and prevent them from ruling nations. weird. This is not the motivation Jesus gives us.
Also, this statement, “You can’t come against it (the spirit of Islam) with the military, well sometimes you have to use the military”,
is a statement that reveals an unstable DOUBLE-MINDEDness.
It’s either one or the other.
We either obey Jesus Christ’s instructions and love our enemies, and war in the Spirit with Holy Spirit power against principalities (spirits), OR we war in the flesh with physical war machine weapons, against flesh (literal physical men).
One or the other.
The Earthly Church has no qualms promoting warring in the flesh, and killing enemies. “Fight the enemies and kill your neighbor.”
The spiritual church, those led by Jesus, does what Jesus says: “Love your neighbor, love your enemy.”
Babylon Church has lied for far too long to the Christians, about this. It does mislead the sheep.
It is a lie that it is “God’s will” that we as Christians must war and kill in the flesh in order to survive or take out the enemy or save the country or Christendom or take back the ‘Holy Land’ for God.
Let God (JESUS) be true, and every man a liar.
I have heard this also, on Christian “God N Country” Crawford Broadcasting and Salem Communications radio stations, back when I used to listen to them. I heard very clear messages of “fear of Muslims” and promotion of politics and “war and killing” being necessary to deal with this scary “greatest threat” to us. This is not of the instructional words of Jesus, nor of the Spirit of Jesus.
Dear friends, let us encourage one another in this time, to heed the voice of our Shepherd Jesus and do what He says, doing the will of our Father.
Let us not operate in the flesh, but in His Power.
Let us not live because of fear but because of Love.
Conservative christendom, full of pride and hypocrisy, was emboldened by her political allies to fight in the flesh for key social issues. She and the world exchanged blows as they battled back and forth. Even with the strength of her evangelicals, catholics, and mormons joining hands together she couldn’t best the world. Now the world rejoices in its alleged victory, erroneously thinking it has defeated Christ and His kingdom, not realizing its triumph was merely over american jesus and his kingdom.
There is no hope in the world or in christendom. The only hope is to keep your eyes on the real Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God the Father and shun the ways of american jesus who is seated at the right hand of worldly political powers. The early followers of Jesus didn’t spend much time trying to legislate holiness in rome or else where. Instead they preached ‘Christ crucified’ with great spiritual authority and power and it pierced the hearts of the most depraved men. If this lost generation (world and christendom) is to escape hell-fire nothing else will do.
1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Article link Here
Quote:
“If you wonder why the first century church turned the world upside down and why we do not, it is because they preached the gospel, and we do not. ” ~ quote from “Hearts for the Lost”.
The gospel that was preached in the first century offended the establishment Political Leaders (Rome) and the establishment Religious Leaders (of Jerusalem).
One result from their preaching (aside from people converting to faith in Jesus Christ) was that these followers of the Way (Christians) who preached the gospel, were labeled “traitors, treasonous and sacrilegious” by the State and, “heretics, law breakers and insubordinate” by the Religious Leaders. There was a price to pay for preaching this message.
Their preaching was not State Custom compliant (the custom of worshiping Caesar and the gods) nor was it Religious Tradition compliant (the tradition of loveless legalistic dead ritualistic rote religion).
Their preaching of JESUS IS THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE and REPENT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND and SALVATION ONLY IN CHRIST JESUS THE LORD actually offended the government and the religion! (“The State” and “The Church”, we would say today.) Their gospel threatened the State’s power and control over everyone as they forced allegiance to the gods and to Caesar as lord. Their gospel threatened the Religious Establishment’s power and control over everyone as they forced allegiance to the Religious Establishment and Leaders and Traditions and Rules.
The first century gospel turned the world upside down! What does that mean? The State flipped out when the Christians preached Jesus as Lord and they declared their allegiance to Him alone! (and not to the State or their System!) The Religious Establishment flipped out when the Christians preached Jesus as Lord and declared their allegiance to Him alone! (and not to the Religious Leaders or their System of manmade rules!)
The people flipped out when they heard that Jesus is the Way– NOT Rome or Caesar’s decrees, NOT the Temple in Jerusalem or the Pharisees’ traditions. JESUS IS THE WAY! Many believed and followed Jesus Christ THE WAY.
The people flipped out when they heard that the KINGDOM OF GOD is here and it is NOT the rule of Government’s Caesar in Rome and it is NOT the rule of the Religious Pharisees in Jerusalem. THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS the rule of JESUS CHRIST! In the hearts of His people! Many believed and entered the KINGDOM OF GOD.
The people flipped out when they heard that salvation is NOT through the State (Government) and it is NOT through the “Temple in Jerusalem” (the “Church”) (Established Religion). SALVATION IS IN JESUS CHRIST! Many believed and received SALVATION IN CHRIST ALONE.
Why is it different today? Why are not the Christians turning the world upside down today as in the first century?(I speak primarily of Western Christians.) Because the Christians have forsaken exclusive marriage TO CHRIST and have entered adulterous relationship with The Establishment State, with all its idolatry and false pagan gods. They are not opposing it, not separating from it, but joining it and fornicating with it. They make The State part of the way in their hearts. They make the State part of their salvation in their hearts. They make The State the kingdom of God in their hearts.
The Christians have forsaken exclusive marriage TO CHRIST and have entered adulterous relationship with The Establishment Church with all its pagan idolatry and false doctrines, traditions, rituals and idols, not opposing these things, not separating from these things but joining it and fornicating with it. They make The Church part of the way to God in their hearts. They make The visible institutional Church, the Kingdom of God in their hearts. They make The Church a major factor in their salvation in their hearts.
The gospel that is preached now is weak because it leaves out the fact that “JESUS IS THE WAY” means that State Government and Religion are NOT the way.
The gospel that is preached now is weak because it leaves out the fact that “THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND” means that USA, the world, the government, the presidents, politics, political leaders, parties, laws, constitutions, nations and The Institutional Church is NOT the Kingdom.
The gospel that is preached now is weak because it leaves out the fact that “SALVATION IS ONLY IN CHRIST JESUS” means that it is NOT in Government or politics and it is NOT in Church or Religion or Traditions.
One reason the preachers of the modern gospel do not want to say these things is because they do not believe the truth that the first century believers believed. The other reason is that preaching the truth as the first century believers did, would jeopardize their standing in the world, ie, the Establishment: politics, government, the State, The Church, religion, “important people”….all that is the Establishment of the world system and society. Thus allegiance is given to The State and to The Church, and not exclusively to Christ. And the true gospel is not preached.
The early believers preached in such a way that all hearers knew that their allegiance was ONLY TO CHRIST and that they were not giving any to the state or to the establishment religion. They had left “fear of man” in all its cowering and obedience to State and Religion, to follow Christ. They had faith, courage and boldness to preach the real gospel and were not afraid to declare this truth and declare their exclusive allegiance to Christ. The underlying foundation for their allegiance to Christ alone and their preaching is they had love for Jesus Christ that superseded everything. Their love for Christ superseded their desire for acceptance in the Church and State of the day. They feared not: being labeled “traitor” or “heretic”. They feared not: losing approval, family, friends, job, position, titles, income, benefits, social standing, acceptance, greetings in the marketplace, status, or their very lives.
The World System as it is now is overseen by the god of this world. The World System is that Establishment State and Establishment Religion. These World Systems are “business as usual” in the kingdom of darkness. Jesus was offered “all the kingdoms of the world” if He would bow down and worship the devil. He refused. The World System was humming along when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, appeared to His followers, ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to fill and empower His people. Their allegiance was to Christ alone. Their gospel was “Christ alone”. Their preaching messed with that world system as people were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s Beloved Son. Their preaching upset the world system. They turned the world upside down.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
These that have turned the world upside down Acts17:6
Year 202 AD.
Roman State Official: “Declare your allegiance to Caesar! Say, ‘Caesar is lord’ and burn your incense on the altar to the gods of Rome!”
Christian: “No! I refuse. Jesus is Lord!” (declared with joy)
Roman Official: “Die Christian scum! You are guilty of sacrilege and treason against the Empire!”
Christ followers 202 AD: willing to die.
Year 2012 AD.
Roman State Official: “You have been approved. Sign here on the dotted line for your 501c3 State Incorporation Contract so you can have limited liability, financial gain and State permission and oversight.”
Pastor: “Yes sir!” (submissively)
Roman State Official: “Congratulations! Welcome to the Corporation. You are now duly incorporated with the State. By the power vested in me by the State, I pronounce you a Government Incorporated registered Church. Here is your manual of obligations, rules, regulations, requirements, and restrictions. Have a nice day!”
Churchianity 2012: willing to compromise
Did some shopping errands today. Some highlights of my day:
1. While choosing a red onion in the produce section, the lady next to me was picking the skins off and bagging them. She said, ” I will boil these and this will make the best red dye for my eggs!” I told her I was making salad.
2. While driving to the farmer’s market, i saw at the “Positive Place on the Peninsula” Church that they were setting up a circus for the kids in the parking lot.
3. While walking down the avenue, the Easter Bunny live and in costume, was delighting the shoppers.
4. While walking back to my car in the KMart parking lot, I bumped into “Pastor B—“, who was putting glossy invitations to his Church, on all the cars, including mine. (“Join us for our Easter Celebration Service! Special candy hunt for the kids!” The card had brightly colored eggs in grass.) So the first thing he asks me is if I have all my candy, baskets and eggs ready for my Easter egg hunt. I sheepishly told him that I’m a Christian who has decided to drop all the pagan stuff. I reminded him that Jesus celebrated Passover, and the early Christians, up until the time that the Roman and Babylonian “Ishtar” paganism was combined with Christianity. He then said that he likes to “use” those things to “draw” people in because they are fun and will get people interested. I told him that I believe it is better to forsake the “pragmatism” and just trust God to use the means He has established. He then said, “How then are we going to save people?” I told him we don’t, that people try by the strength of man to make things happen through gimmicks and pragmatism, when we are to do what God told us to do and trust Him to do it by His power. I told him I believe the verse “it pleased God by the foolishness of the gospel preached…” He said, “Yeah, so where do you preach?” (He mocked street preaching and witnessing…) “How many people have YOU led to Christ then?” With sober fear of God and trembling in my heart, I answered nothing other than, “Well I guess we will find out on judgment day.” He then went on to defend his pragmatic use of “whatever works” culturally relevant methodology (in evangelism), and I again testified of trust in the power of the Spirit of God, and shared the verse “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
He then said to me
“OH YEAH WELL HOW’S THAT WORKIN’ FOR YA?”
Here are some quotes from a recent newsletter article by David Brickner. Read the entire article here.
“Some people speak about “earning the right” to witness. While it seems like a humble thing to say, many people fail to see how that statement contradicts Scripture. The Bible teaches that proclaiming the gospel is an obligation to be fulfilled, not a right to be earned.”
“We hear much about relational or “friendship” evangelism, but the Bible says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).”
“Most who never quite get around to giving a clear-cut gospel message don’t even realize they are sacrificing their gospel witness on the altar of human acceptance.”
“It is easy to allow ourselves to believe that our silence is out of respect for those who might disagree with us. It is easy to see our motivation as noble, especially when we see our ultimate intention as positioning ourselves to be a better witness. But unfortunately, too often those intentions come to nothing, and we need to face the truth that sometimes our tact and our long-term intentions are merely masks that cover our natural fear of rejection and our reluctance to position ourselves where God really wants us: in a place of vulnerability.”
-quotes by David Brickner.
How can I describe it to you? Friday night was basically an answer to one of my longest held prayers; it was the gracious gift of God after years and years of hoping and waiting. For what you ask? To see this happen: A group of about 22 Christian brothers and sisters (half local, half from out-of-town) and I gathered in a home to pray and then we went out on the streets of my city downtown. In small groups or pairs we headed out for witnessing conversations with people hanging out by the clubs, cafes, fast food restaurants and the movie theater. One very exciting thing about this outreach was that about half the people in our group had no previous experience in evangelism to people you “don’t already know”.
It was great to hit the same city blocks I have previously tread alone, but this time with so many young brothers and sisters. It was very exciting watching these young college students give out their first gospel tract, and share the gospel with someone on the street for the first time. Their nervousness turned to encouragement and joy when they realized they were speaking with a guy, or a couple, or even whole group of friends, who actually wanted to hear it. I am very sure one of the young men may end up a street preacher. This brother was quite filled with the Holy Spirit. I thank God He let me live to see a large group of English-speaking saints at last go out on the streets of my city to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost, and to sow the written Word of God. I’m so glad I got to see some young believers give it a go for the first time-right in my city. It was awesome to see their compassion for people, their love for Christ, and their zeal to make Him known. It was wonderful to hear them witnessing and sharing the gospel on the street for the first time. I hope it happens again soon! All thanks, praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Friends witnessing to folks at the Arabic Cultural Festival at Union Square in San Francisco. One brother has a membership with the hosting cultural organization and thus was able to procure a booth at the festival. Another brother brought a dozen boxes of Bibles and Christian literature that he purchased himself. Believers from various cities manned the table and spent the day talking with all kinds of people and giving out tracts, gospels, Bibles, DVDs and children’s gospel literature. People were interested to find out that most of the materials were in the Arabic language. People from all over the world received the Scriptures and heard about the Gospel for the first time.
Witnessing Encouragement 
Any professing Christian “leader” who tells any disciple of Jesus, that they “should not” or “must not” be obedient to Christ, evangelize, speak of Jesus, preach the gospel, proclaim the Truth, or make disciples of Jesus, (which is part of loving your neighbor as He commanded) is a false teacher and is not speaking for Jesus Christ but is very much working against Christ. Woe.
To make evangelism and proclaiming the gospel about being obsessed with sex (that is, male roles, female roles) authoritarianism, power, control and domination over women, is to create a cult.
Jesus Christ Himself is the power and the authority. His Spirit indwells the female saints as well as the male saints. HE has given His authority also to the daughters of God (the sisters in Christ) to witness and speak of Him, or read scripture, to any person, as HE leads and empowers them by the Spirit.