Colonel Potter is not who you think he is!

A few people have sent me a video of a Colonel Potter. I’ve not put them up because there seems to be something not quite right about him. I try not to jump on anybody’s bandwagon — even if what they are saying appeals to my desire of truth. I test everything that comes to me. I may not get it right each and everytime, but I do try and test every thing. If something does not appear to be right, I will not put it up. I have done some research on this man, trying to find what is it that does not ring of truth to me. Yes, he may say some things that make you at first want to hang on to his every word as being the truth. But, there is more to him than he desires to tell us about himself. He appears to be a polygamist. He appears to have his own gospel. He appears to have some roots in Jewish Mysticism/Kabbalah/Occult. I will not go into every detail. You may click on the following links below and judge for yourself.

The one thing I will address is a movie he has made with his name on the closing credits. According to his gospel – Jesus was married and on the night He was arrested, fought with a sword in His hand. This is a FALSE Jesus being set up for Christians to follow. Jesus was not that kind of revolutionist.

Even if this man is speaking some things that appear true to me, I am not interested in anything he has to say. I will not waste my time searching for pearls among a stinking garbage pile.

We have to be careful in the days to come. We must not believe everything that comes to us. That includes myself. You are not obligated to believe everything that comes from me. You must test everything. Even though there may be things I can agree with, does not mean I swallow the whole package. Some people are out to get as many followers as they can, and they do not care how they get them. I’m not one of them. I would much rather people stay away from this place/this blog if they thought I was leading them into a place where God did not want them.

That being said…

His movie is as fake and fraudlent to the real Gospel, as the fake wigs on the heads of the actors.

CrimsonThreadMovie:

The links below will give you more inforamtion on who this Colonel Potter is.

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=35253

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=35267

One more and I am done

One more and I am done with this guy. One more for those who did not test anything a few years back. One more for those who made excuses. One more for those who have mocked those who have tried to warn the sheep of the apostacy. One more for those who have created a new religion making Jesus look like a laughing drunken idiot through their blashphmeous teachings. Kenneth Hagin gave root to that one.

You can not do it anymore. You are faced with this now. It — is — your — baby. Own it.

As for the godly, those who refuse to bow to the vulgar and lying gospels that are being birthed by the whore, if any of you have children involved in any kind of youth group, you better make sure who and what they are following. “Oh but my child does not follow this,” some of you may say. You may be right. But are you sure? Can you be certain that not even the smallest bit of deception has entered in? Parents, it is up to YOU to teach your children. If you do not, Satan will gladly take them over.

I will not even try to transcribe his filth. To even give this attention, sickens me. But I will only for the sake of maybe some can be warned not to allow themselves to come under this at some time. As for others, may you repent and come out from under it.

What part of God being a HOLY God do people not get? Is anyone so blinded they really think God in heaven is winking at this? The God I serve does not. But the god Brandon serves does.

Repent, Brandon. Turn from this folly and wickedness and be washed in the blood of the Lamb who was slain for both you and me.

BB cuts lose with foul words saying, ”If you have a dirty mind, you can’t say it, but if you have a holy mind you can use it…”

Really? What does the Word of God say?

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. — Ephesians 5:1-7 –

Once again, you can find the video by doing a search on Brandon Barthrop Formerly Known as Cuss Words

I can not even post the rest of his description.

But be warned

Things my dogs teach me: Let the Master Touch You

And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
— Matthew 8:2,3 –

When our blue-tic Beagle, Jethro, began to get eye infections, I had to put ointment in his eyes. I dreaded it because this dog did not let you touch him if he thought you were checking something out on his body that needed care. He never bit me, but he would try if I somehow didn’t trick him into letting me. When it came time to put ointment in his eyes, I had to think of a way to make it “fun” for him in order to get him to submit to my care. I began by muzzling him. Or at least try. He was not going to have it. But when I grabbed a little can of sausages and let him see me go through the little ritual of opening the can — making sure he got a good wiff — laying the little sausages out, cutting them into pieces, he watched and waited as his slobber drooled on my kitchen floor.

I began to train him with the bits of sausages. Making it a game. He got muzzled, let me put ointment in his eyes and after we were done, he knew he was going to be rewarded. It did not take long for him to not even need the muzzle. He was perfectly content to come to me and let me do what needed to be done. Knowing he had little sausages waiting for him.

I guess in a way you could say, he had his eyes set on the prize before him.

Dolly, my smallest dog sometimes wakes up with an infection in her eyes. The first time it happened, it alarmed me. I didn’t want to have to muzzle this sweet little timid dog. It would confuse her, making her more timid. I never want my little girlies afraid of me.

I decided I would not muzzle her and just see what would happen. As I got the ointment, the dogs being curious little creatures, were under foot, hoping it was to be a treat for them. I got my reading glasses to use as I can’t see up close without them. The whole time speaking in a low soothing voice telling them what good girls they were.

They went to their bed where they followed me, and laid down. Instantly rolling over. Perfect sign of submission. Dolly let me put the ointment in her eye without trying to bite or wiggling out from under me! Dixie on the other hand, seeing what I was doing to/for her little sister, hid the upper part of her body under the bed. As if the master couldn’t see her rear end sticking out!

Aren’t we like this sometimes? We either allow the Master to touch us or we don’t.

We all hurt at some time or another. Either through sicknesses, circumstances or things that have been said or done to us. We have done things to hurt others (intentionally or not) that may may end up being the very thing to come back and bite us. Our human nature — our flesh, tends to go off somewhere and nurse our wounds. We may try to find ways to bring healing to ourselves through things that lead to types of death — physical or/and spirtual. We may go here or there looking for that one thing – one person that can “fix” it. Yet, on the other hand, we may reach the point of not wanting anything or anybody touching us. Eventually we come to a place where we realize there is nothing that can. We even stop running to others, even to other Christians. It is then, we more or less throw in the towel, giving up, perhaps feeling a sense of hopelessness. We find we are not running anymore in seeking that perfect “fix.”

You wonder if you will ever see the light of day, if there is anything good under the sun at all. We realize all our running to – and -fro has done nothing but wear us out. Friend, would you believe me if I told you that is a great place to be!? His desire for you is to bring you into the place He wanted you from the beginning of the moment He began to create you in HIS image. His desire is to make you whole, to heal, to bring restoration, to REDEEM. The Master desires to touch you!

Perhaps you have said “no” in your heart, thinking, “I’m too rotten. I’m unclean, vile before the eyes of a holy God.” I would have to agree with you. Yes, you are. You are rotten and unclean. God already knows. Just as He knows it about me and every other human being on the earth.

There is only One who makes clean. Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice.

Or perhaps you have thought, “But you don’t know the things done against me.” You would be right. I do not. But God knows. Isn’t it enough that He knows?

He sees us trying to hide. I think we probably look ridiculous to Him when we do that. Just as goofy as Dixie with her butt stuck out from under the bed. I, as Dixie’s master, did not come up behind her and kick her. Nor did I reprimand her harshly, trying to force her out from under the bed. For one thing, she was not the one who needed the ointment. If she had, I would have found a tender way to deal with her. I don’t want my girlies hiding from me when I aim to do them good.

God does not want you trying to hide from Him, either. You can’t. So you may as well come out in the open with Him anyway and admit you need HIS touch. Not those whom you may have been running to. Not that one special prayer that Christians sometimes look for in their time of need. Not that one person who we have run to on occassion. Not that one new book which you hope has all the answers. Not that one revival meeting. Not that one conference some may say you need to attend.

God is jealous over you. Not in a bad way that some people like to portray, but in a good way. He wants you to know HE is the one who heals, HE is the repairer of the breach, HE is the one who redeems. Not because He is some selfish God who needs us to know these things for His sake. But because of who He is. A loving God, a merciful God, a kind God. He knows the only way you can be safe in your soul, is if you submit every hurt, pain and suffering to Him. To trust in anything else is idolatry. That is sin.

Whatever you are facing, whatever your circumstance, take it to the Cross. Be willing to die. You are not alone. He will show you how as He is right there with you. He is willing to touch you in spite of any foul and festering wounds. Let the Master touch you.

Only the Dead Worship the Dead

My attention has changed somewhat with the election of the recent new pope. Some things have been brought to my attention and I present them here. Some may think I am picking on Catholics all of a sudden. I am not. I love you enough to tell you the truth. Oh what will you do after being presented with the truth? Will you continue to cling to these abomnible teachings or will you turn your hearts away from such obscene idolatry? Jesus is God of the living.

Top picture is a human heart heart. This is what is written about it: “This relic represents a call to the heart, a call to return to what must lie at the heart of the life our parishes declining or apparently flourishing in city, town and countryside,” Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury told pilgrims at Liverpool’s Cathedral of Christ the King on July 6.

The bottom picture:

The archbishop bow before, and kiss the box that contains the heart of the “saint”.

How can anyone, and I mean anyone, who confesses that Jesus is their Savior, accept this as something normal and good? Please do not say, “well, I’ve been a Catholic all my life.” Well, don’t you think it is about time you come out from under such idoaltry?

http://ivarfjeld.com/2013/03/09/6-000-roman-catholics-bow-before-a-piece-of-flesh/

Worship in Spirit and Truth

My father grew up in a little log cabin in Kentucky. He was a country boy who went to a little country church. There were only a couple of churches where he lived. One, his mother took him to. The other, a holy-roller church, as he called it. His mother was a godly woman, who read her children scripture every night by the light from a lantern. Dad told me once he managed to skip church in order to go fishing. On his way home, he passed by the holy -roller church. He peeked in the window and ran home to tell his mother what he witnessed. He hit the porch laughing, barged in and said, “Ma, guess what I saw?”  She asked him what and he went on to tell her he saw the congregation standing up, hooping and hollering, one woman looked over at the woman next to her and said, “Hold my baby! I gotta shout!” The other woman said, “Hold your own baby, I gotta shout too!” Dad thought that was hilarious. His mother did not find it amusing and told him, “Son, never make fun of how someone worships God.”

Worship to her could be sitting on her front porch, stringing beans or shucking corn while singing the Old Rugged Cross. Simple and pure. I believe if my grandmother were alive today, she would be aghast at what is called “worship” today.

What are we to think about some of the so-called worship of the God we serve? Where do we draw the line and how?

Jesus has this to say:

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. — John 4:23,24 –

Spirit and truth are the two priorities.

I am reminded of how we have been taught how “David danced naked before the Lord.” But unless someone is using a different Bible than the one I use, I do not see the word “naked” anywhere in that part of scripture.

Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. — 2 Samuel6:14 –

From what I gather after reading the whole chapter, it appears his wife Michal who happened to be the daughter of Saul was put out with him. Perhaps it had more to do with jealousy on her part, than it did with his dancing.

We (women especially) have been taught not to judge worship or else we will be cursed in one way or the other. Even to the point of … Shock … not having children, such in Michal’s case. Too many times in the past when my dear sweet balanced stable husband was not acting the dancing fool in church, or allowing himself to be thrown about like a sack of potatos by manipulating over-zealous preachers, while other men were (who I happened to know some treated their wives like dirt) being tossed to – and fro, running around, my husband stood quietly, his hands clasped before him, eyes closed, worshipping God just as my grandmother did. As his wife (me) stood next to him judging him, wondering why he would not worship like the other men. After all, didn’t David dance naked? Is it a little too much to ask that your husband get with the program? It is a good thing that I was the one in the wrong, or else I still would be waiting for my husband to be some kind of dancing machine.

Was I cursed for judging my husband? No. In Michal’s case, it was her husband who decided not to allow her to have children. But I had not known that, because we women were taught differently. Talk about a spirit of control. It is becasue of this spirit now, that any and all things are called worship.

I — thank — God that he finally was able to get through to me that my husband was not a puppet. Yet, there are women all throughout the church who look upon other men and wish their husbands could be just like them. This is idolatry. Such as was in my case.

The video below is one of a Jesuit dancing. I find it wrong on many accounts. He mixes Hinduism with the Gospel. Is this not leaven that Jesus warned us about?

The church needs to be very careful what we call worship. I don’t like to take scripture out of context, but the message is still clear:

They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols…. — Deuteronomy 32:21 –

Satan is a thief. He comes to steal. When he can not completely steal something, he hangs around and corrupts things is his image. This is done in the video below.

Exactly what is spirit and truth? I am far from a Bible scholar, I’m not some great theologian, but shouldn’t worship point straight to Jesus? Some would say the below does. Really? What kind of Jesus?

I know for a fact it is not the Jesus I worship.

I do not believe it is the same Jesus my grandmother worshipped, nor do I believe it is the same Jesus I have seen my husband worship.

God does not need worship so badly that He would allow incorporation of false religions to muck up His purity and His Truth! That would make Him a harlot!

NationalJesuitNews:

Part 1: Heresies in “The Bible” TV series

This will be part one of the heresies that will be covered in the “The Bible” series. I am just not able to focus on the entirety of it, right now. It has a very dark feel and makes me kind of ill to think so many people, including those within the Church are esteeming this as some great work. However, if you wish you can go one and read the rest of the article here.

Excerpt gotten here: http://beginningandend.com/the-bible-miniseries-hollywood-heresy/

100huntley:

Here is that same account in the actual Bible:

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.                – Luke 5:1-11 –

Notice Peter’s reaction to the miracle that Jesus had performed. He and his men were fishing all night and caught nothing. There was seemingly, no way to catch any. Yet Peter believed Jesus’ words and obeyed him. And after the miracle, Peter dropped to a position of worship and said “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Recognizing one’s own sin before the morally perfect God and Lord that is Jesus Christ, is key to going to Heaven. This is again a critical aspect of how a person is saved from the wrath of God and the lake of fire. Peter understood he was in the presence of Divine Power and did not feel worthy. Yet Jesus encourages him by inviting him to come with him to “catch men”, meaning bringing more people to believe in Christ. And Peter “forsook all”, meaning he gave up everything he was doing with his life on the spot, to follow Jesus. All of this is what a person has to do in order to go to Heaven. Acknowledging your sin, confessing it to God, believing in Jesus Christ and giving up your past life of sinful ways and letting your own heart rule, in order to follow Jesus and let Him be Lord of your life, is all a part of being a born again Christian.

Does The Bible Miniseries illustrate these powerful points? Not at all. Instead of being astonished and worshiping at the feet of Jesus, Peter asks him “How did this happen? What did you do?” as if he had no idea what was going on. The Jesus character (who looked like the renaissance era/Catholic depictions of Jesus) responds: “I am giving you the chance to change your life..giving up catching fish and I will make you a fisher of men.” Peter answers “What are we going to do?” showing he still does not really understand if Jesus is divine or why it would be necessary for people to know Jesus. And the Jesus character’s answer is “Change the world.”

Change the world how? I suspect it has more to do with bringing everybody together under the guise of peace and love, than actual repentence. Typical New Age thought.

No mention of sin, acknowledging of Jesus as God in the flesh or a real salvation message. Instead it is almost a social justice message. Jesus Christ did not come to change the world, He came to save it from its sin. Without understanding that sin is the greatest problem the world is facing, Jesus’ message could be changed to just helping the poor, or providing water wells to communities in drought or working in a homeless shelter. All these actions, while noble, will not get you to Heaven or make one right before God. This is the problem with many churches as they put overemphasis on “changing the world” without first changing the sinful heart that has led a person into sin and damnation, lest they believe the Gospel. And the false doctrines being preach today, while exciting are not Biblical. Do not be deceived.

Is “Heaven Is for Real” for Real?: An Exercise In Discernment

Following article gotten here:

http://www.thebereancall.org/content/heaven-real-real-exercise-discernment-0

There have been quite a number of books written by or about people who claim to have personally visited Heaven.

Some of these authors profess to be Christians while others do not. The descriptions of their experiences vary regarding such things as entering into a dazzling white light at the end of a dark tunnel and being greeted by deceased loved ones, or being in the presence of God and seeing the shed feathers of angels dotting the grand floor of His throne room. Many of their stories contain information that would seem to be beyond their ability to know at the time–or at all.

Although these individuals supply much information, the content raises many questions. Obviously, everything they say can’t be true because some of the content in one book contradicts what’s written in others. How do we know who is giving us an accurate and truthful account?

A biblical Christian might say that he would compare what they say with what is presented in the Scriptures about Heaven. If it rings true to the Word of God, then it must be true. Well, yes and no. Yes, it must be true to Scripture. What is presented certainly cannot be at odds with what the Bible teaches about Heaven; nevertheless, just because it conforms to Scripture doesn’t prove that the person’s declaration or experience of being  in Heaven actually took place.

I know a good deal about Heaven from my study of the Bible. If I told you that I had recently visited there and only communicated what I knew was recorded in the Bible about it, you couldn’t object to what I said on the basis of my being biblically inaccurate. Accuracy, however, is not the only criterion for biblical discernment. There are many other instructions and examples that we must take into consideration. For example, the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 of a “man in Christ” (no doubt Paul himself) who was caught up to Heaven. He didn’t know at the time whether it was an experience in which his spirit had left his body, or a vision while his spirit remained in his body. Nevertheless, he states that what he saw and heard in paradise was not lawful for a man to utter. Paul’s experience was followed by a humbling infirmity, which he states that God allowed him to suffer “lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations…” (2 Corinthians:12:6-7 [6] For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. [7] And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. ). That isn’t always the case in Scripture. The Apostle John obviously was given permission to declare what he witnessed in Heaven in the Book of Revelation. This would seemingly apply as well to the writer of the Book of Job.

But can we be sure that the visions and personal experiences of these writers are true? Absolutely–because their words are found in the Scriptures . Of the Word of God, the psalmist writes, “Thy word is true from the beginning…,” and Jesus said, “Thy word is truth” (Psalm:119:160Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.; John:17:17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.). That  is the ultimate verification that the experiences of those men of God indeed took place as they described. Furthermore, since the canon of Scripture was closed in the first century A.D., no one since that time can have his vision of-or his alleged visit to–Heaven  validated in the same way.

Jesus gave us another insight to help our discernment when He told of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man, who had died, was in a place where he was tormented and suffering remorse. Yet he begged Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers so that they would not end up with him in “this place of torment.” Abraham’s response was: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” And again, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke:16:19-31 [19] There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: [20] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, [21] And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. [22] And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; [23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. [24] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. [25] But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. [26] And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. [27] Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: [28] For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. [29] Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. [30] And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. [31] And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. ).

Armed with the above scriptural teachings for the purposes of discernment, let’s apply these and other biblical admonitions and critical questions to a book that is having an impact on Christendom and the American public.  Heaven Is for Real  was published in 2010 and made the New York Times  Best-Sellers list. It has also been the cause of controversy in some fellowships, as believers have been divided in their support of and disputation over the book’s veracity.

Heaven Is for Real  is a nonfiction account that documents the experience of a three-year-old boy who believes that he visited Heaven. The story is told by the boy’s father, an evangelical pastor. He and his wife initially seem to be rather startled by their son’s revelations, which he shares over a period of about three years. There is nothing not  to like about this Christian family, and much that is quite admirable. The little boy is a typical three- or four-year-old–hardly precocious, but simply matter of fact in relating what he seems to have experienced.

That experience took place when three-year-old Colton was undergoing emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. Not too long afterward, he told his parents that he saw them praying for him outside the operating room. When they asked how he knew what they had been doing he said, “Cause I could see you….I went up out of my body and I was looking down and I could see the doctor working on my body. [Scripture tells us that death takes place when the spirit vacates the body. Yet there was no medical report of a clinical death during Colton's surgery.] And I saw you and Mommy. You were in a little room by yourself, praying; and Mommy was in a different room, and she was praying and talking on the phone” (pp. xx-xxi). The accuracy of Colton’s disclosure rocked his parents to the core. But that was just the beginning of revelations that far and away defy natural explanations.

Colton’s other revelations included: angels singing “Jesus Loves Me” to him; his sitting on Jesus’ lap; meeting John the Baptist and the angel Gabriel; petting Jesus’ rainbow-colored horse; his descriptions of Jesus’ wounds and attire, including a crown with a pink diamond that Jesus wore; the prevalence of kids in Heaven; his description of everyone there having wings like the angels–all except Jesus, that is; his being recognized by his great grandfather, who died decades before Colton was born; and the description of God as “really, really big.”

Although most of Colton’s observations in Heaven are not outside the realm of possibility of what could  take place there, they are nevertheless extra-biblical insights and information, some being more problematic than others. For example, Colton explains that “Everyone kind of looks like angels in heaven,” sporting wings (the size of which are dependent on the individual’s size) and a halo. Since the resurrection of believers’ transformed physical bodies has yet to take place, their form now in Heaven must lack physical attributes. Hence the need for wings of whatever size makes no sense. Moreover, other than the descriptive visions of the heavenly creatures known as cherubim and seraphim and the decorative designs in the Temple and upon the Mercy Seat, angels that appear to humanity are never described as having wings.

Many supporters of the book claim that any and all objections pale in the face of the supernatural knowledge that Colton reveals–things that were humanly impossible for him to know. For example, he said that he had met his other sister in Heaven. When told by his mother that Cassie was his only sister, his shocking response was, “No….I have two sisters. You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?” (p. 94). Colton had never been told of the “painful episode” of the miscarriage, and his parents never knew the gender of the fetus. Colton added, “In heaven, this little girl ran up to me, and she wouldn’t stop hugging me….She said she just can’t wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven” (p. 96). That revelation seemed to be the most convincing for Colton’s parents that their son had indeed visited Heaven: “We had wanted to believe that our unborn child had gone to heaven. Even though the Bible is largely silent on this point, we had accepted it on faith. But now, we had an eyewitness: a daughter we had never met was waiting eagerly for us in eternity” (p. 97).

Was Colton truly an eyewitness  in Heaven to everything he described? Much of it is quite mindboggling, notwithstanding the fact that all of it  is extra-biblical. Yet it provides alleged insights about Heaven; e.g., a girl dies as a fetus, grows into a little girl in heaven, and then is eagerly awaiting her parents’ arrival. What if one or both parents reject the gospel? Would there then be disappointment in a place of perfect bliss?

Consider how Colton’s father mentioned that “the Bible is largely silent” on a certain issue. It is also completely silent on the specific things that Colton has revealed. This raises the question as to why God would leave out something of value for us in His inerrant Word, which was given through His prophets “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter:1:21For 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.)–only to reveal it later through a little boy (as well as many others who make similar claims). On the back cover of the book we read, “ Heaven Is for Real  will forever change the way you think of eternity, offering the chance to see, and believe, like a child.”

The Bible is God’s  precise, absolute, and eternal communication to mankind (Luke:21:33Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.; Hebrews:4:12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.). It did not come by nor was it left up to the will or imagination of man (2 Peter:1:20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.). Paul writes, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians:2:13For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.). Our faith can be childlike, but it is faith placed in God’s Word, not in anyone’s alleged “eyewitness” account, be they a child or an adult. Peter was an eyewitness to an incredible event. He saw Jesus supernaturally transfigured before his very eyes and heard the voice of God. We can be sure that the personal experience he had was true because it’s reported in Scripture. Nevertheless, he tells us that his personal experience (or anyone else’s) is not as trustworthy as the Word of God : “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed” (2 Peter:1:19We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:).

At the time and in the years following Colton’s experience, his dad was very interested in having him describe Jesus. He wrote that “as a pastor, I wound up spending a lot of time at hospitals, in Christian bookstores, and at other churches–all places where there are lots of drawings and paintings of Christ….When we came across a picture of Jesus we’d ask Colton, ‘What about this one? Is that what Jesus looks like?’” (p. 93). Time after time, Colton would reject the dozens of misrepresentations. Then, nearly three years after Colton’s surgery, he was shown a portrait of Jesus painted by a young girl named Akiane, who also claims to have have visited Heaven beginning at the age of four. Colton’s reaction was, “Dad, that one’s right.” His confirmation convinced his father: “Knowing how many pictures Colton had rejected, Sonja [his mother] and I finally felt that in Akiane’s portrait, we’d seen the face of Jesus. Or at least a startling likeness” (p. 145).

In Exodus, we find a definitive statement against anyone attempting to make an image of God (Exodus:20:4-5 [4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: [5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; ). That applies to images of Jesus, whether of statues or great religious paintings or on the silver screen. One of the many problems is that they inevitably lead to idolatry, which in turn breeds superstition and occultism. Another related problem is that they must all  be false representations because they have no basis in Scripture–other than being condemned. Jesus therefore could not encourage a young girl to paint His portrait.

Those who believe that He did encourage Akiane (because she could then point people to Him through her amazing art skills and her testimony concerning Him) need to compare with Scripture what she, at age 16, says about Jesus: “Jesus shared with us: ‘I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes to my Father, but through me.’ I feel that he invited us to participate in the divinity. Each of us is one of kind [ sic ] original path to the way of truth and light, and without our individual love and effort we cannot understand and reach God” (http://akiane.com/blog/?tag=akiane). Her interpretation rejects Jesus as being the only way for mankind to be reconciled to God. It opposes what Jesus taught in favor of Satan’s promise of divinity to Eve (Genesis:3:5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.). Akiane’s paintings and words clearly reflect “another Jesus.”

What puzzles many people is how Colton, as a three-year-old at the time of his experience, could attain information, most of which was completely foreign to him at his young age. His parents don’t know for sure but believe their son received the visit to Heaven as a gift from God. Their “faith,” however sincere and biased toward their little boy, does not have the support of Scripture. How, then, was he able to describe what he did without the input gained from actually being in Heaven? No one can say for sure–not even little Colton. He was in an operating room, surrounded by attending medical personnel, and under the influence of an anesthesia-produced altered state of consciousness.

What we do know about that and other types of drug-induced conditions of mind (even dream states, meditation, and an overworked imagination) is that multitudes of people have reported experiences that seem to validate everything from clinical or near-death events to past-lives journeys to abductions on UFOs. They also reveal information for which they had no basis of knowledge prior to their experiences. It may be that an altered state of consciousness creates a condition in which the mind is like a blank screen, open to outside input. Spirit entities, whose goal it is to undermine the Word of God and deceive the world, might have that ability to program the blank screen and could therefore take advantage of anyone in such a highly susceptible condition (see Dave Hunt, Occult Invasion , pp. 187-90). But again, no one knows for sure how such things take place.

The critical issue for discernment is not “how it works” but “what is being communicated.” All that a Bible-believing Christian can do in ascertaining the truth of a matter is to be vigilant by “searching the Scriptures” to see if what is being presented is true to the full counsel of God’s Word (Acts:17:11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.). If we don’t do that, whether we are young believers or mature in the faith, we are just as vulnerable to false teachings as those whose circumstances have directly opened them to deceptive experiences.

A believer’s life in Christ is shaped by a great many experiences that the Lord allows for our growth in Him. It begins with one’s believing the gospel, to which sound doctrine is added. As we abide in Christ’s teachings, our discernment will increase, thus protecting us from “being carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians:4:14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;). Let us therefore take to heart Paul’s warning: “I have laid the foundation [of the gospel], and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon” (1 Corinthians:3:10According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.). TBC

Choo’s Tall Tale of Heaven

Following article gotten here:

http://newdiscernment.org/wordpress/?p=526

NOTE: I will not be taking comments from those who want to promote or defend this book. The following author has given us more than enough proof of the occult lying spirit behind this book.

by Robert S. Liichow

I am not surprised that people have an interest in the afterlife. Every world religion, cult and sect has its version of what happens after we die and since there is still one death per person due to being sinners it comes as no surprise that the world desperately seeks answers. What does surprise me is how gullible and biblically illiterate multitudes of Christians are regarding this subject.

The vast majority of Christians who purchase these books fall into the category of sign-gift believers, i.e. people of the Pentecostal and charismatic persuasion. Coming from that background I can shed some light as to why these folks are more susceptible to this particular brand of deception. Many (not all) charismatic believers hold to the view that God is still revealing truth to His people, apart from the Bible. While claiming to believe that the Bible is the standard by which they judge all revelations, they readily admit that new revelations are still coming, usually through the so-called restored Apostles or Prophets. What they will not admit is that the Bible is a complete and totally sufficient revelation. According to them God has something more to say.

I remember confronting John Arnott, the Pastor of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship regarding the bizarre and unbiblical manifestations transpiring under his pastoral leadership. I challenged him to prove that what was taking place could be found within the context of Scripture. He responded by attempting to validate the manifestations by using fragments of biblical text without regard to their context. When I challenged him regarding his use of proof texts he switched gears and used what I have since termed the “John 21:25 Argument.” This text reads “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written Amen.” Arnott and the other charismatic extremists cite this text to answer those who question their new doctrines or practices. When forced into a corner exegetically they simply respond that what they are teaching or doing is part of the “many other things which Jesus did” that are not recorded for us in the Bible, but God in these last days is revealing them to us!

This is philosophically called – an argument from silence, there is no way of biblically validating such claims ergo we are told to accept them based on the sole authority of the person(s) making them. Thus the restored prophet or apostle becomes the authority over the new doctrines and practices and not the Bible. To question them is to doubt the work of God in the end times and to demand biblical precedents simply proves that we are undoubtedly of a Pharisaical spirit and are steeped in legalism.

All of the accounts regarding alleged visits to heaven and hell since the 1800’s in America have been written by either Pentecostal or charismatic believers. This most recent foray into the afterlife is no exception to this fact. The book we are going to consider has sold over 450,000 copies overseas, making it an international bestseller and with the recent full page story in Charisma magazine (whose publisher, Strang Communications, just happens to be owner of Creation House, the publisher of this book) it will no doubt quickly gather steam among the sign-seekers in our own nation.

Throughout this article I will be citing the page numbers in brackets versus using endnotes. The title is: Heaven Is So Real, Thomas, Choo, Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 2003.

Who Is Choo Thomas?

Isn’t it interesting that of all the accounts by people claiming to have given a personal tour of heaven (or hell) do not have any theological training whatsoever! In other words, Jesus does not choose someone like Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. H. Wayne House, Dr. Marquart or any other theologians to give a personal visit of the heavenly realms too. Instead, He chooses people with little to no biblical education or knowledge whatsoever, like Choo Thomas.

Mrs. Thomas is a Korean-American, her parents are deceased, and she is married and has two grown children (p1). She says she became a Christian in February, 1992 and from that moment on she began to skyrocket into the upper realms of personal holiness “I could only think about Jesus every waking moment,” (p.1). Two years later she says she received “the fire of the Holy Spirit” while she was praying at home in January, 1994. After this experience she had her first vision of Jesus sitting by the pulpit at her local Assembly of God in Tacoma, WA (p.2).

What Does Choo’s Jesus Look Like?

It is interesting but almost everybody’s heavenly encounter with our resurrected Lord differs as to their descriptions of what Jesus looks like. According to Choo this is how Jesus looks:

He was sitting by the pulpit. His legs were crossed, and I could see Him as clearly as a real person, except I couldn’t see His face. As I perceived Him, He had silky white hair and was wearing a pure white robe. His person was visible to me for almost five minutes. After seeing Him my body was on fire with unspeakable joy, and I became wholeheartedly committed to Jesus. (p.2)

Unfortunately, no one else saw “Jesus” during this service or any other time throughout her book. Being married to an African-American woman for over twenty years I can tell you I know the difference between silky (straight) and wooly (kinky hair. According to the Book of Daniel (Dan. 7:9) and the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ has hair “like as wool” (see Rev. 1:14) which any woman can tell you is far from silky. Beyond this minor detail what is troubling is that Jesus appears to this woman for no apparent reason, He is simply “there.” Every time the Lord appeared either in an Old Testament theophany or in the New Testament (Stephens stoning in Acts 7:59; Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:4; or John on Patmos in Rev. 1:12) it was for a specific purposes in the economy of God. As we shall see, Choo’s role is pivotal in God’s end-time redemptive plan. Beyond seeing this apparition and feeling her body of fire with joy nothing else transpired but 100% commitment to Jesus.

Before delving deeper into Choo’s delusion let me just say that there is no such thing biblically as a baptism of fire. She says she had some physical experience in 01-94 which she interpreted as “the fire of the Holy Spirit,” yet there is no support exegetically for such a claim. It is after this vision that things begin to become very bizarre in Mrs. Thomas’ life.

A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On aka Choo is Special!

As of Easter Sunday, 1995 Choo enters into (and she has not stopped to this day) the realm of charismatic extremist manifestations. While she and her family were attending their AOG church in Puget Sound she states:

…my whole body began to shake violently, and we had to stay for second service. I was experiencing the same phenomenon known among Quakers, Shakers and early Pentecostals. Since then, my body never stops shaking in church or during my prayer time at home. Two weeks after this Easter Sunday experience, I received the gift of tongues while at home and began to sing in the Spirit. While watching a Benny Hinn crusade on television, I stood up and lifted my hands in prayer. Then I fell on the floor for almost three hours. The anointing of God’s Holy Spirit was so strong that I couldn’t get up, and all I could do was sing and talk in tongues and laugh. During every worship service after that, I could see the presence of the Lord Jesus in church. (p2)

Please note that Mrs. Thomas is a very special person which she shall make abundantly clear to all of us as we progress. The church she was attending obviously had been involved in the Toronto Blessing aka The Pensacola Outpouring because neither the pastor nor anyone else thought her shaking was out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is that this shaking occurs whenever she is in a church service or even praying at home. She also claims to have received the gift of other tongues while alone at home. Apart from the debate as to the validity of this gift today, the general manner in which 99.9% of all Pentecostal and charismatic believers receive this gift is through the laying on of someone else’s hands or during a congregational meeting. Very few people attest to receiving this gift at home, and without dispute no one in the book of Acts received any of the spiritual gifts apart from the presence and/or the ministry of one or more of the Apostles.

Choo seems to indicate that she received this gift while watching a Benny Hinn crusade on television, this is very problematic considering the facts about Mr. Hinn since he is a false prophet, false teacher and proven liar. Also her statement about being slain in the spirit for almost 3 hours seems more demonic than divine. She states that she could not get up, something she stresses throughout her book, and all she could do was sing, talk in tongues and laugh. She attributes this experience to the anointing of the Holy Spirit being heavy upon her. As taught and practiced by today’s sign-gift believers there is biblically no such thing as being slain in the spirit. More importantly, the Holy Spirit gives us self-control (see Gal. 5:23 and 2 Peter 1:6). He does not possess us to the extent where we are physically paralyzed yet according to Choo this is exactly how the Spirit ministers to her. After this possession, which is what I consider it to be, her spiritual eyes are opened and from this point on she could see the presence the Lord in every worship service.

I will not go into the history of these aberrant “revivals” and their attending manifestations. I have covered them in the fullest detail avail in my 2 books “Blessing or Judgment” and “Two Roots of Today’s Revival.”

Obviously, Choo is the yielded vessel through whom God is about to do a great work, a theme she hammers home throughout her book. This preparatory work is ratcheted up by the Lord after her Easter 1995 experience. On January 19, 1996 the Lord wakes her in the early morning and personally visits her. Before each visit the Lord causes her body to shake and perspire for close to an hour, and then the apparition speaks and appears to her.

I turned my head on the pillow to look in the direction of the sound, and there, all aglow, was a figure dressed in white garments. The radiance that emanated from this unknown visitor was so brilliant that I could not see His face, but in my heart of hearts I knew that I had been blessed with a special visitation from the Lord. (p.7).

How did she know this was Jesus?  She “knew” in her heart of hearts. I guess she never was taught that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) or that our Lord Himself warned that many will come saying “I am he Christ” (Matt. 24:5). This figure speaks the following words to her “My daughter, Choo Nam, I am your Lord, and I want to talk to you. You have been My special daughter for a long time,” (p.7). According to her own chronology she has been saved about 4 years when this occurs, not much of a “long time” in my book. Don’t lose sight of how Choo’s Jesus calls her His special daughter, Choo is special! He goes on to reveal to her “Daughter you are such an obedient child, and I want to give you special gifts. These gifts are going to serve Me greatly. I want you to be happy about these gifts,” (p.8). Because of her total obedience to the Lord, He has chosen to give her special gifts and He wants her to be “happy” about them.

I knew at that moment God was choosing me to do an important work for Him and that this must become my single-minded purpose…I have known since then that when my body begins to shake from the inside out that God will be speaking to me…God has chosen me for a specific work. It was too wonderful to imagine…(p.8).

The same experience happens again the next morning and this time as she shakes and sweats the Lord explains the reason He must do this to her: “You are my precious daughter…I am giving you the power that you will need for the work I’ve called you to do. I am preparing you to serve Me. Your body shakes as the power flows into you. I am giving you all the spiritual gifts. I am releasing your spirit so you will be completely free to serve Me. (p. 10).

Now we know when we see someone shaking and sweating it is because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We are witnessing God pouring His power into some one for a special purpose. He is working to release his or her spirit so that yielded vessel can serve Him! Choo explains it this way to us:

The shaking continued for twenty minutes. I began to view it as being like a spiritual transfusion. The power of the Holy Spirit was coursing through every nerve, sinew, muscle and organ of my body. It was setting me on fire with the power of God. (p.11).

He then explained the shaking in my body. “Your body shakes for a long time because you need power for this work. I want you to expect many surprises.” (p.17).

Shaking equals power in Choo’s world and few charismatic extremists would argue that point with her. The problem with these statements is that there is not one shred of biblical proof to backup such a claim. Everything in her book is based on her own subjective pseudo-spiritual experience. Choo does not make a strong appeal to the scriptures. Instead she continually points to herself as being Jesus’ “special daughter.”

“I know you do not know many things, but I see that you are pure-hearted. I know that you believe everything about Me. I’ve seen your obedience, and I know you fear My words. (p.80).

Because of her high degree of sanctification and her unwavering belief concerning everything about Himself He chooses her for this great end-time work.

“You are living your life completely for Me. Your heart has willingly given up all worldly things for Me. I now know that nothing brings satisfaction to you more than being in My presence. (p.84).

Choo has become totally heavenly-minded. She has reached sinless perfection because one would have to be totally sinless to live his or her life completely for Christ, without any thought of self. She has reached a level of perfection that even surpasses the Apostle Paul who said that he had not obtained (read Phil. 3:12) perfection and was still striving to reach it.

“Whoever permits Me to control their life will be blessed. These are My obedient children. You are My special child.” (p.93).

Choo’s life is blessed because she is one of the obedient children, which makes her special.

“Daughter, you are special to Me…I choose My children who are pure and obedient — those who put Me first in their lives. (p.107).

She gets confused here because she stated earlier that the Lord had told her He had chosen her for this work before the foundation of the world. Yet now her Jesus reveals to her that He choose His children based on their purity of heart and obedience, people who put Jesus first in their lives. It is by our works, whether of personal sanctification or obedience to the law and putting Jesus first. (which in and of itself is fine) that determines the Lord choosing us or not.

If you were not such a special daughter, I could not bring you to heaven to show you all the things you have seen. (p.11).

Obviously Thomas is such a special daughter because if she was not then Jesus could not have brought her to heaven and shown her all these wonders. The inescapable inference is that the vast majority of Christians are not special to the Lord because He has not given them this foretaste of heaven. Choo is special, you and I are not.

…You are very special to Me. You must believe this. I had to choose the right daughter for this important work, and you are the one I’ve chosen. (p. 111).

I am not a psychologist, but it really seems that Choo suffers from delusion of grandeur because the quotes from Jesus deal with how special she is versus revealing unknown truth to the church. Choo is the right daughter for this work, she is the personally chosen one!

“This is one of the reasons I love you so much, My daughter.” (p.115).

“My daughter, I really enjoy being with you.” (p.125).

“You have beautiful hair.” (p. 125).

“You are beautiful, My daughter.” (p.125).

“Don’t be shy, My daughter,” the Lord counseled. The He lifted my face… (p.125).

Choo and Jesus are on a deserted beach and she is dancing and singing in front of the apparition. One of the reasons Jesus loves her is because of her yielded spirit and devotion, so now we know that Christ’s love is not unconditional, there are reasons why He loves us. Here again I believe we read about her deeply held insecurities because Jesus tells her how much He enjoys being with her, how beautiful her hair is, how beautiful she is! This specific encounter is one of the most sensual and frankly, disgusting of the entire book.

“ I will bring many of My children to the Kingdom, but not every one will live in mansions like the one that had your name on the door. These mansions are for very special children.” (P.138).

There are 2 classes of Christians in heaven according to Choo’s Jesus. The lower wattage believers will not inherit palaces like Choo’s with her own name in gold on a nameplate on the door. These palaces are reserved for the, you guessed it, the very special children (more on the 2 classes a bit later on).

“I didn’t show you the kingdom and the pit of hell to bring you home now. I showed you all those things so you will help save the lost and let everyone know what it takes to enter the kingdom. (p.152).

After seeing her mansion and all the glories of heaven she does not want to go back to earth. Yet her Jesus tells her that He has shown her these things so Choo can help save the lost. What is more she is to let everyone know what it takes (WORKS) to enter the kingdom. Choo has a role in the redemption of the lost and is appointed to tell everyone what it takes to get to heaven. The problem is she does not tell anyone in the book exactly “what it takes.” She surely does not mention that salvation is the gift of God, or that what it takes is the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Nor does she point out that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone.

“My daughter, you are an End-Times prophetess.” The Lord told me, “and You are living proof of My Word and My prophecies. (p. 168).

Towards the end of the book we see her role in the Church revealed. She is an end-time prophetess (she told us she was special). She is living proof of the Word and His prophecies! The Bible is not enough “proof”…

“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31).

The fact that the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of God is also insufficient proof (see Rom. 8:16). Nope, we need living proof in the form of sister Choo to believe God’s Word.

“He took me to His throne and directed me to sit on a chair next to Him. This was the first time the Lord seated me next to Himself.” (p. 61).

While in heaven she entered into the throne room which is filled with the O.T. prophets and N.T. authors and directed by Jesus to sit next to Him on the throne! The mother of James and John must have really been livid upon finally discovering who the Father was granting the right to sit at Jesus’ right hand. Remember she tired to wheedle her boys into the right and left hand seats in the Kingdom (see Matt. 20:21). Sorry sister, very special Choo is seated next to Jesus not James or John.

There can be no doubt in the readers mind how special Choo Thomas is. It makes sense when you realize how important the work she has been given to do is according to God’s plan for the end-times. His great work for her is to complete the canon of Scripture.

Choo’s Book Is Divinely Authoritative

Choo told us she was special, so special in fact that what she has written for us are the exact words of Jesus Christ. If language means anything, then the revelations in Choo’s book are on the same level as the Holy Bible; in fact, we should cut out the pages and tape them into our Bibles. Keep in mind according to this woman, Jesus appears to her and directly tells her to remember and write down His exact words. If that does not mean her book is to be treated as divine revelation than I do not understand the concept at all. Here are only a few of the statements from her book which prove my point:

“I am your Lord, My daughter. I want you to hear and remember everything I tell you. When you write it down, use My exact words. You are sleepy, but do not miss any of the words I tell you. I will be visiting you many times in the future because I have important work for you to do. You are the child I am going to use to do this work for Me, so be prepared.” (p. 11).

Then He reiterated something He had commanded me to do several times before: Write down everything I show you and tell you. (p.21).

The Lord continued: I want you to remember everything I tell you and show you. Make sure you write everything down. I will make sure that everyone understands all the things I show and tell you. (p.28).

“I do not want you to miss anything I show or tell you,” He instructed. “Nothing more; nothing less. Everything has to be exactly as I reveal it to you.” (p.36).

“My daughter you have much work to do. I want you to write a book. This is an important book for the last days, and it will be translated into many languages. I chose you for this work before you were born, and this is why My Holy Spirit is always shaking your body—to pour My power into you. (p.47).

You do not need to know how to write the book. Just write down what I show you and tell you… (p.70).

“Now you know why, My daughter. I want you to concentrate on the book, with no interruptions. This book is very important to Me, and it will be a special blessing for My children. Whatever you do, I want you to talk to Me first. Everything about this book has to be My will. (p.79).

“Some people will not believe you, but you don’t need to worry about that. My daughter, I am simply using you for this book. It is My book and I will take care of it.” (p.80).

“Because you are what you are, I chose you for this work…This is My book and My responsibility… I want you to be happy because you are My special daughter. (p.80).

This book will help deliver many people who are in spiritual darkness…I notice that you have never been deliberately disobedient since you gave your heart to Me, an you always put Me first in your life. This is why I chose you as My special daughter and friend. (p.92).

Write this down, Choo Nam. I want all My children to know what awaits them in heaven. I know many of My children have questions about heaven. Some of them wonder if there will be food to eat in heaven. (p.100).

Why do you think I chose prophets to work for Me on earth? Like you, I’ve sent them in order to do My work. Without prophets, I would not have any way of communicating my desire to My children. Therefore, My daughter, do not miss writing about anything I show or tell you. Tell it all. It is because you are such an obedient daughter that I am able to use you. (p.102).

“I want My children to read this book, because so many of them have doubts about heaven. I want them to believe there is a heaven and to live pure and obedient lives so they can come into My kingdom. This book is about all My words and the Kingdom I have prepared for whoever wants to come. Everything is already prepared. This book must be written by a Spirit-filled person. My daughter, if you were not under the special power of my Holy Spirit, I could never use you for this work. (p.116).

I want you to write down exactly what I show you and tell you. Nothing more and nothing less. After this is done, you will receive special gifts to serve Me, and you will be a blessing to My people. I will also bless you more than you want. (p.120).

I want all of My children to come to My kingdom. Whoever reads this book, I want them to believe and realize how they have to live in the world in order to enter the kingdom. (p.131).

From these 15 citations (there are more in the book) it should be obvious to the reader that this book is no ordinary book. Choo, although very special to Jesus, was simply the vehicle through which the “Lord” gave the Church and world new insights. Her book is so powerful that God will use it to deliver people out of spiritual darkness and through its revelations teach people how to live in order to enter the Kingdom of God. According to her Jesus, everything in the book, including its title (p.120), comes directly from the revealed will of God. At no point does Choo’s Jesus direct her or her readers to read the Bible daily, or to study and show themselves approved of God (2 Tim. 2:15). This entity makes no statements regarding the centrality of the Bible; He does make quite a few comments about how important His book through her is!

Hitherto Unknown Heavenly Revelations – aka The Gospel According to Choo

Since you now understand the divine weight of the words in His book, it behooves us to look into the “deep’ insights Choo’s Jesus is sharing with the Church and World. According to Mrs. Thomas, our Lord took her to heaven on 17 occasions. Prior to each “lift-off” the paranormal pattern is as follows: It is early in the morning, between 1:00 and 3:00 AM. Choo’s body goes into the uncontrollable spasms and she sweats profusely. This shaking goes on from a half and hour to an hour. She refers to the cause of this experience using a variety of adjectives based on the root word “anointing.” Here are a few examples: “the anointing of the Lord’s presence,” (p.9), “the intense heat of His anointing,” (p.19), “The anointing was heavy upon me,” (p.59), “a special anointing,” (p.59), “by the anointing of heat,” (p.74), “I was praying intensely under a great anointing from the Holy Spirit,” (p.84), “I cried under the precious anointing,” (p.87), “I plan to give you a special anointing,” (p.121), “a very special anointing,” (p.121), “then the hot anointing and groaning began,” (p.137).

Then she hears a voice speaking to her and she sees the apparition. At this point she has an out-of-body experience where this being first takes her to a secluded beach on earth (location unknown), where they chat for awhile. While out of her physical body it reacts to everything she sees and experiences in her transformed spirit body. If she dances spiritually, then her body on the bed dances too, etc. From the beach they then travel to heaven. I will not detail all 17 trips, but I will cite the “new” information from her trips.

The Master again took me into a huge tunnel. Again—unlike most tunnels—it was bright and shiny…I reasoned this must be the tunnel that people who have near-death experiences frequently describe as the passageway from this life to the next. (p.24).

Unlike Duplantis who got a cable car ride to heaven, Choo goes through a bright tunnel and pops out on the other side in heaven. She has no Scripture to equate her experience to,  so she relies on the subjective alleged near-death experiences of others for validation.

Thomas and her apparition walk along a winding road, passing gorgeous flowers until they come to a white palace with beautiful stained glass windows. They walk in and she sees — The Lord’s glistening golden throne stood atop a raised, oval shaped platform. Beams of radiant glory streamed from the center of the room where this platform was located. I was directed by an angel to a little room on the side, and I was surprised to discover a powder room there. A full-length mirror covered the entire wall on the left side of this room, and many beautiful velvet chairs were neatly arranged in front of the mirror…The being opened a large, walk-in closet that contained many robes, gowns and crowns…After I was dressed, the angel escorted me back to the main room. The Lord was waiting for me. I noticed that He was wearing a gown and crown like mine. (p26).

Good news ladies there are powder rooms in heaven! Every time Choo gets ushered off to heaven she and her Jesus must first change into different robes than their normal spirit-body robes. Note that Jesus wears a crown and robe like Choo’s, as opposed to her being clothed in the robes of His righteousness, no Jesus is dressed like Choo.

What is fairly unique to Choo’s delusion is that she does not see many others in heaven, no multitudes, no throngs of joyous saints praising their Lord. She does mention briefly meeting Abraham, but basically her report is about her, she is the center of attention.

After walking over the beautiful bridge, the Lord led me to a place where babies and infants—many of whom looked as if they had just been born—were kept. It was a huge room, like a warehouse, and wasn’t fancy or pretty. It was filled with babies who were naked and lying close to one another…”There are the babies of mothers who did not want them.” (p.38).

Something doesn’t make sense, Duplantis saw babies and little children being taught by angels….Thomas on the other hand sees them laying in a drab building, naked with no one attending them. They are the aborted babies, whose mothers can have them back if they get saved. Robert LIARdon saw a warehouse in his trip to heaven, but his was filled with human body parts, not babies. Whose vision can we trust? After all, the Bible is silent about what happens to infants and none of the biblical accounts of heaven make mention of them.

The Lord took me to a barren site outside the gate of the Kingdom and showed me many people wearing sand colored robes were in this region, standing very close together, and I noticed that they looked forlorn and lonely even though they were in the midst of so many others. (p.39). I noticed multitudes of people who were wearing sand-colored robes roaming aimlessly in the vicinity of the pit’s yawning mouth. Their heads were hanging low, and they looked very dejected and hopeless. Who are these people, Lord? I asked. “They are disobedient Christians.” How long will they have to stay in this barren, lifeless place? “Forever, My daughter. The only ones who will enter My kingdom are the pure of heart—My obedient children.” (P.46).

He took me to another high mountain from which I could look down into another endless valley here a multitude of people dressed in grey-colored robes were wandering about in an apparent mood of dejection. Their robes reminded me of the gowns worn by hospital patients. The people looked weak and lost, and their grey faces matched the color of the robes they were wearing…This place was mostly men with just a few women. Who are these people Lord? “They are sinful Christians.” What is going to happen to them? I wondered aloud. “Most of them will go to the lake of fire after the judgment.” (p.58).

At least in this detail Choo stays the course with many of the other heavenly delusions in print. We can expect there to be 2 classes of people in heaven. Duplantis saw people in different colored robes, denoting their rank in heaven. Choo sees a class of Christians, some are disobedient and others are sinful. Her Jesus says some of these sinful Christians will end up in the lake of fire. Why not all of them? What did some of these sinful saints do in order to escape the fire? Choo attempts to back up her cockeyed notion by citing 2 Cor. 5:10 concerning the judgment seat. According to her revelation only those who attain sinless perfection in his life will be numbered among the justified in heaven. Again, her focus is on our works and our strivings as opposed to the work Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. If these are the lower class of Christian who are the “high class” super saints?

…I noticed many adults and children who were wearing white gowns, and some of them were wearing crowns. They were simply standing there with very happy looks on their faces. (p.40). As I turned in another direction, I noticed a beautiful river. Along the river was a rock wall, and magnificent dwellings were situated on the left side of the river. Many of these homes looked like castles where only the very wealthy might live. The Lord said, “They are houses for My special children.” (p.44).

These folks have worked really hard and because they are extra special to Jesus (no doubt because of their works), He has made castles for them. As we know all too well by now, Choo is “special” to this being so it only stands to reason that she should get to see her mansion in glory:

We approached one of the castles, and the Lord opened the door for me to enter…The walls were constructed of multicolored precious gems that glistened in a magical way…The Lord rested on a chair as I went up the winding staircase that was more massive and grand than the one shown in Gone With the Wind’s Tara plantation…I noticed that the carpeting was a plush white. I entered a huge powder room that had a very large, sparkling mirrors everywhere. They reflected the brightness of the room (p.55)…I was awestruck by the sparking stone walls that lined the corridor of my mansion. I loved the red-and-cream-colored carpet with its round pattern. The red velvet chairs—so classic and sophisticated—were like the ones I had always wanted in my home. The red draperies were the finest I’d ever seen…The bedroom was carpeted in pure white, and I noticed that the headboard of the bed was silver with blue stones embedded…The mirror on the dresser also had blue stones…The bathroom had a silver bathtub that was decorated with precious jewels of every color. (p.64).

Everybody who gets a pre-death trip to heaven gets to see their “mansion.” This is one problem with taking the Kings James version of the Bible at face value without doing a little grammatical digging. Robertson’s Word Pictures of the New Testament says the following about John 14:2:

John 14:2 – Mansions (monai). Old word from menw, to abide, abiding places, in N.T. only here and verse 23. There are many resting-places in the Father’s house (oikia). Christ’s picture of heaven here is the most precious one that we possess. It is our heavenly home with the Father and with Jesus. If it were not so of the verb (Mark 2:21; Re 2:5,16; Joh 14:11). Here a suppressed condition of the second class (determined as unfulfilled) as the conclusion shows. I would have told you (ejpon an u `min). Regular construction for this apodosis (an and aorist-second active–indicative). For I go (o`ti poreuomai). Reason for the consolation given, futuristic present middle indicative, and explanation of his words in 13:33 that puzzled Peter so (13:36f). To prepare a place for you (e `times topon u `min). First aoist active infinitive of purpose of e `toimazw, to make ready, old verb from e `toimoj. Here only in John, but in Mr 10:40 (Mt. 20:23). It was customary to send one forward for such a purpose (Nu 10:33). So Jesus had sent Peter and John to make ready (this very verb) for the Passover meal (Mr 14:12; Mt 26:17). Jesus is thus our Forerunner (prodromoj) in heaven (Heb 6:20).

These text says nothing about each saint having their own mansion. Her description sounds more like the TBN television set than something created by God! Also, think a moment, why will we need beds in heaven? Will we get tired of praising the Lord? There is no day or night there; the Christ himself is the light throughout heaven (Rev. 21:23). We will be in eternity, so time as we know it will not pass. We will be glorified and like Christ, so we will not get tired and need a “nap.” Choo is fixated on mirrors and powder rooms in her book. She does not describe a heavenly commode, but I assume there must be some since there are heavenly bathtubs (I wonder where the dirt will come from that needs to be cleansed off our bodies?). Thomas also noted a dresser in her bedroom, I guess that is to hold her gowns, maybe the saints “dress” for dinner. Furthermore, the obedient/special children on God will also possess vacation homes on the beach (p.102). When you get tired of all the hubbub in the New Jerusalem just pack up the kids in your chariot and go down to your beachfront vacation mansion for a little R&R!

Good news for pet owners!   Hot off the pages of the Gospel according to Choo: We hiked out of the garden, along a narrow, winding road that led to a mountain vista overlooking a lush green valley. I could see animals of all sorts galloping and playing among the trees. I particularly noticed a spectacular deer that looked so strong and healthy. I noticed that these animals, which would usually be considered wild, were playful with one another. (p44)…It is reassuring to know that animals will live with us in paradise. So many people wonder if their pets will be in heaven…where people and animals alike will never experience pain, hardship, death or suffering ever again. After our visit to the animal paradise, the Lord and I went back to the waterside…(p55).

Again, this is information that the Bible does not detail for us. The book of the Revelation does not mention any animals, there may or may not be animals in heaven, does it really matter? Thomas tells her readers that no animals will ever experience pain or death. Well, that is, except for fish!

Good news for Fishermen!   According to the revelation of Thomas we shall both catch and eat fish in heaven.

We descended the hillside and walked to the water where we saw all kinds of fish swimming in the river…It amused me to see fish in heaven, and I began to laugh…I reached down and grabbed a red, striped fish and lifted it out of the water. I was laughing so uncontrollably, so the fish jumped out of my hands and swam to safety…He began to participate in the action with me by reaching down and grabbing a large fish…It was so good to see the Lord enjoying the moment with me (p.88-89).

As we walked over it, I looked down and saw that the stream was filled with many different kinds of fish. What are the fish for? I asked. “This is food for the kingdom.” the Lord replied. It made me happy to know that we willl be eating fruit and fish in heaven. The fact that these are the primary foods of the kingdom suggests we should be eating more of them on earth. (p.97). …by wading into the water and grabbing a large, flat, white fish. It was about the size of my two hands together. I enjoyed watching the Lord do this for me, and I found the scene to be very amusing…Next, I walked with Him beyond the rocks, where I noticed many large cooking areas that had silver-colored ovens built into the rocks. Atop the oven were cooking grilles with oval-shaped plates and silver forks. The Lord simply pushed a button on the side of one oven and a fire began. He then assumed the role of a cook, right in front of me. He grilled the fish until both sides of it were brown. He seemed to be so happy doing this for me…When we finished eating, He took my plate and fork and put them into a silver container…It wasn’t because I ate the fish; it was because my Lord and Savior cooked the fish and we ate it together. (p.98).

PETA will not be happy to learn that Jesus is not a “vegan.” However, we have been given important information about our future diet in heaven, fruit and fish, ergo we are to be eating much more of these on earth now (I suppose we should walk around in gowns too). I suppose eating all this fruit and fish necessitate the need for “powder rooms” in glory.

Demonic Possession

I stated earlier in this article that it is my belief that Choo is demonically possessed, certainly under the control of a strong demonic delusion. Her own account bears witness to my belief:

“During the night of February 12, my body shook more violently then it ever had. I was almost hurled form the bed because it was so forceful. I tried to grab the sheets to steady myself, but I couldn’t because I had no control over my body. The shaking was unremittingly forceful, and I grew afraid. (p.17).

I began singing in the spirit. The songs come forth, and I have no control over them when I am with the Lord. (p119).

The unusual voice that accompanies the supernatural visions the Lord gives me came forth. (p.123).

The supernatural voice that accompanies the visions He imparts to me came forth, and I saw the cover of Heaven Is So Real. (p.128).

“After everything is done, I want you to build My church.” This statement called forth the voice that always accompanies the supernatural visions the Lord gives me. (p.132).

The vision-voice came forth from my spirit. It seemed to take control of me for a long time (p.134).

My vision-voice came forth as it usually does in preparation for a supernatural vision from the Lord (p.138,139).

By this time I was singing loudly, and my hands were moving around like fists swinging at a punching bag…My whole body was jumping up and down because of the anointing and the shaking. I felt as if I were flying…The excited movement of my body and my vision-voice were so loud that I’m sure the whole house could hear me. (p.139).

Since January 1996 the anointing has been so strong that I cannot even control the shaking and other physical manifestations…For example, as off this writing, I cannot even enter the room where Roger works on the computer because the Holy Spirit’s presence is so strong there…my body begins to jump for joy. This is a physical response that comes from the Lord, and I have no control over it. (p148).

During the periods of shaking I would read my Bible and pray. Then as I would get into bed, my body would undergo tremendous and violent shaking for five or ten minutes. In the process my stomach would tighten, and I would experience spasms in the abdominal region. All of this happens each evening before the Lord’s visit to my room…During these marvelous visits, the Lord speaks directly and personally to me. Then He began to preparatory work in my body. When this happens, I have no control over my body for a period of two to four hours. (p158).

It isn’t until the reader is almost half way through the book that Choo’s mentions that prior to the appearance of the apparition she begins to speak in an “unusual” vision-voice. This is not her usual voice, but something that comes upon her or from within her which signify the beginning of her visions. She admits time after time throughout the book that when this voice speaks through her she has no control over it. When her body shakes or she jumps up and down, again she has no control over it. During the duration of visit by her spirit-guide she is physically out of control. This simply is not the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not indicative of His fruit in our lives.

Galatians 5:22-24  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

1 Corinthians 14:32   The spirit of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.

Choo tells us that she is an end-time prophetess, why can’t she control her own spirit? Where is the self-control in her devotional life? By simple definition, when one is possessed then that individual is incapable of independent action apart from the controlling entity. Choo tells us she has no control during these times.

During the next portion of her book, Thomas goes on to reveal to the readers how “anointed” she is and exactly what the Lord did to her physically in what she refers to as her “body work.” “Each time before the preparatory work begins the Lord talks to me about my future. Then the body work commences…” (p.159). Sound creepy? Choo takes us to the “outer limits” and beyond in the next chapters:

The work involved with preparing my body for the ministry God has called me to do included my face, my hands, my head, my feet and my back. The Lord used my hands to touch every part of my body from my head to the bottom of my feet over and over again…The Holy Spirit directed me in all of this. I don’t really have control of my hands, or any part of my body, when the Holy Spirit is doing His anointed work on me and with me…On several of the nights the Lord poured oil upon me. This precious oil was in oval vessels that looked like small perfume bottles. The bottles were of many different colors. He would pour the oil upon me from head to toes, and on my back as well…I have found that He poured a total of eight-five bottles of anointing oil upon me…Before being bathed in the anointing oil each time an unusual vision-song would come forth. (p.160).

As He poured the anointing oil on my body, I would shake, jerk, perspire and become intently hot…Some nights, while the Lord would be working with my body and hand movements, my entire physical being would become black and cold… There were other occasions when my entire body would become invisible as the Lord was doing His preparatory work with me…During some sessions the Lord would both lift my body and lower it…Many times He would raise and lower my body forty-none times a night (p.162).

Thomas goes on and on with more of the above. My brothers and sisters what she is describing has absolutely no relationship to the Bible whatsoever. She is describing perfectly what happens to an individual who has undergone what the Hindus call “Shaktipat initiation.” Those who practice Kundalini yoga (translated the serpent power) undergo what they term as an unlocking of their charkas. Charkas are alleged to be energy centers within the human body. The lowest charkas is at the base of the spine and is said to have the form of a coiled serpent (the Kundalini). There are 7 charkas, stopping at the top of the head. Kundalini yoga is considered to be one of the most dangerous forms of yoga and the most demonic gurus of our day have all practiced and taught it, i.e. Bhagwn Shree Rajneesh, Swami Muktananda, Sai Baba to name just a few to deceive multitudes in our own nation. When the serpent power is released in the body, the body goes into spontaneous “kriyas”:

Kriyas, literally “activities”, are spontaneous movements that occur after Kundalini awakening. These include bodily activities such as trembling, shaking, and spontaneous yoga postures; vocal activities such as yelling, or spontaneous chanting and mental activities such as visions. These Kriyas eliminate the blocks to kundalini rising within the spine or central channel.

” Then came the most wild of the kriyas. They continued day and night, but were most vigorous when I was lying down at rest. I hardly slept at all during this period. My body would jerk around in radical, spasmodic movements. These often involved very specific muscle groups, such as those in my feet, hands, stomach, back and so forth… then my arms would fly up and down in similar kind of rapid and rhythmic motion. My legs would kick up and down in the same way. These movements were hard and martial, as if I were practicing military marching while lying in bed… The arm movements were becoming more sinuous and complex. As these arm motions became more fast and furious, I went to a full length mirror to witness what was happening. All at once I had the most eerie feeling, as if my body was ‘remembering’ something. My hips, knees and legs began to sway and undulate as the intricate arm motions choreographed. I stared at the mirror in awe…My body was performing some kind of exotic dance. Then my arms came forward and my hands met, palms pressed together in a prayer-like pose, and drew up to the centre of my chest. A force pulled me over into a bow and held me there an instant. Then my knees buckled, and I found myself kneeling prostrate on the floor. The thought hit me; ‘I’m worshipping something, but worshipping what? Then I knew; I had just performed a sacred temple dance.

Once these “blocks” within the body are removed, then the serpent power can flow throughout the person and from them to others! This is precisely what Mrs. Thomas is undergoing and she has mistakenly attributed it to the work of the Holy Spirit! Choo, like the woman in the quote, mentions that her hands began to move at such a rapid rate they were almost a blur at times. She spends a great deal of time relating to the readers how she privately “dances” before the Lord on the beach. At least the woman in the above citation had the wherewithal to ask what she was worshipping? Choo never asks, just knows all of these experiences are of the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why on earth (or heaven) would the Lord have to work on her physical body in order to prepare her for ministry? No one else in the entire Bible has had to undergo such experiences, frankly, no orthodox Christian since the Apostles have had to undergo any such nonsense.

It was as if He were unlocking the potential within my body…He would cause my body to rise and kneel before Him in intervals of seven, over and over again…Thirty-three different time He “unlocked” the various parts of my body that needed His work of preparation. When He unlocked my hands, for instance, they shook so hard that I grew frightened…Each part of my body had a special reaction to the unlocking work…Each time the Lord pours the anointing oil on me or unlocks the locks of my body, my physical being responds with violent shaking, jerking, intense heat, groans and supernatural power that causes my body to be lifted up (p.165).

Thomas says her body literally levitates, at times becomes invisible, other times turns black and cold. She experiences intense heat and each part of her body (charka?) responds differently as it is unlocked, which is exactly what everything written about kundalini awakenings denotes.

She reports so many other bizarre occurrences during the 3 years of her spiritual transformation that I cannot describe them all. What is to me most disturbing is that close to half a million professing Christians have purchased her book! What shocks me is that Strang Communications, owners of Creation House, would deign to publish a book that is so completely off the charts biblically. From start to finish her novel is fill with unsupported statements and out rightly demonic manifestations. Why didn’t the Strang Editors pick up on this? Why didn’t they refuse to print her book and point Thomas to the Bible and the Jesus of the Bible, who sees all His children as special?

This book and its growing popularity prove to me that we are surely living in dark times. When people can give this balderdash any credence at all is beyond the scope of even my warped imagination. Her book does alert me, and now I hope you as well, to the desperate need that the Body of Christ has for Apologetic ministries. When hundreds of thousands of people can be deceived by such patently obvious fabrications we know that we have got a real battle for God’s truth on our hands. Please pray for Mrs. Thomas and ask God to grant repentance to Strang publications for being a tool in Satan’s hands to mislead multitudes.  ♦

Heaven is so Real Deception by Choo Thomas

Kudos to the author of the following article gotten here:

http://www.ltradio.org/articles/?admin=linkto&link=139&&quick=y

Emphasis and green is mine

We are only going to look at a few things in this book for now.

1 John 4:1 tells us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

If we are to take Choo Thomas’s word that this book is really written by Jesus, thru her, then we can then glue it to the back of our Holy Bible and make another book of our Holy Scriptures. Satan will appear as an angel of light and impersonate the real Christ Jesus to receive glory due to the real Christ Jesus

The Jesus Choo Thomas is referring to in this book is an imposter -Satan himself! Why did Jesus not have his Apostle John to write about heaven like this in the book of Revelation? Christians are now supposed to believe that God has raised Choo Thomas up as he did his own Apostle’s? I guess Jesus did not accomplish everything he needed to do with them! This is dangerous and leaves a Christian open to be swayed by any false prophesy and teaching just because they say it is from God!

Choo believes this encounter is from Jesus because the spirit that spoke to her said he was Jesus -I am not President Bush or anyone else because I say I am! Satan or any demon is not Christ Jesus just because they say they are. Satan would be glad to take the Glory of this even under the name of the real Jesus! How can Choo give such a detailed description of heaven and angels? Because Satan and his demons where there and they saw first hand, heaven and the angels.

Note: This still does not mean she actually went to visit heaven. A lot of things can bring delusions of all sort; Drugs, sleeplessness, self-induced trances, Kundalini, etc. Sometimes it is just an out right lie.

Choo is taken into a hypnotic trance-like state and this enables demonic influence to communicate to her mind through images of heaven and angels as they know them to really be -since they have been there before they were kicked out! Thats how! Satan is an angel of light because he knows how to imitate the real light!

One reason Satan is good at imitating the light, is because he is such a good mocker.

Satan is a master deceiver. I know it all sounds good and people today are itching for a sign and revelation from God. Because of this itching some will fall for the most incredible deceptions. Choo herself has fallen for this great deception. I know it sounds right because she points to Jesus. Does Satan care if people point to Jesus if it is actually him behind the mask. No! He doesn’t care. If anyone comes to Christ from her book -then they came to the wrong Christ. The Christ people should come to is the Christ of the Holy Bible -Not Choo Thomas’s revelation from a false spirit god! This is why we are warned to “try the spirits” -how do we “try the spirits”? We line up what the spirit is saying against God’s Word.

Does God’s Word give an indication that even on the day of Pentecost that people were jerking and miracle dancing in some sort of ritual? No it does not! God will not imitate Satanic rituals! But Satan will try to imitate God with adding his demonic rituals in with it. This gives it a good sugar coating to entice people to believe it is of God. We can no more listen to the revelation of Choo Thomas over Joseph Smith of the Mormons. The teaching of Joseph Smith sounds good on the surface – So does the revelation of Choo Thomas! Her talent, or Satan’s talent, for adding God’s Holy Word to her revelation is very enticing for many Christian believers awaiting a new revelation from God.

Choo says that since 1996 that every waking hour is spent with Jesus. She says that her husband has been so understanding or their marriage would not have made it -is this God’s intention according to His Word?

To take a married woman and separate her unto Himself! Show a scripture for that!

And while you would be looking for a scripture for that look up one that would allow her to overtake the platform of her church despite what the pastor would have to say about it!

Also, why did Jesus not tell her His real birthday date? Rather than telling her on Christmas eve that it was his birthday! Does not Jesus realize that Christmas eve is not his real birthday?

Why does Jesus not emphasize the resurrection day? The biggest day of the Bible!

Are aborted babies really stored naked, side by side, in a warehouse building awaiting their saved mothers to come to heaven and raise them?

This is about as hoky as it gets!

I know many will say, “who is he to come against a beautiful sister in Christ”. First I am not coming against a beautiful sister in Christ – only against the false doctrine of her book! Trying (testing) the spirits to see whether they are of God (1 John 4:1) shows a clear picture that her “hypnotic trance vision journey” is far from truth. This is not anything less than a Anti-Christ Satanic spirit passing himself off as Jesus to Choo Thomas and anyone else willing to be lead astray from the truth of God’s Word by this so called new revelation from an imposter Jesus. I may only be a voice crying out in the wilderness of cyber world – but so be it!

No friend, you are not the only voice. I thank God for you! May many see your words and be turned back to truth.

Amen and Amen!

Embraced by the Light of Deception

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/eadie.html

Green emphasis mine – red, the Word of God

For the record, I have read Betty Eadie’s book. Years ago. Something about it didn’t sit right with me back then and still doesn’t. If after reading the following, you feel the need to defend this book, don’t. At least not here. The writer of the article has given us more than enough to see the deception in her book and I will not get off on a bunch of rabbit trails with those who choose not to love the truth.

By Russ Wise

The Popularity of Betty Eadie’s Book

A growing number of Christians are embracing the light of Betty Eadie, the author of Embraced by the Light. Ms. Eadie’s book, along with several other new-age bestsellers, are influencing the Christian church in a negative way.

The bestseller, Embraced by the Light, is one that needs to be dealt with. It has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for over a year now and has sold more than two million copies thus far.Betty Eadie is a woman on a mission and her mission is to introduce the “Jesus” she met in her near-death experience to as many people as she can. She has been on a variety of national television programs and hundreds of local programs. According to her publicist she has spoken in a significant number of churches, and Christians make up a large portion of those who purchase the book. That is scary.Ms. Eadie has become somewhat of a guru for many. When she was in Dallas in February, 1994, the Dallas Morning News carried a lead story expressing the adoration of her new-found followers. One woman said that Ms. Eadie gave her a kind of inner peace and that without it she would have lost her mind. Another woman said that she cried all the way through the book the first time she read it. A man said that the book validated a lot of things he had believed and that he now looks at things differently.According to the Dallas Morning News article the book’s greatest appeal “stems from the description of eternal life, a comforting notion for people who have survived a loved one or for those pondering their own fate.”The popularity of Betty Eadie and her book Embraced by the Light in Christians’ lives raises some important questions for us to ask ourselves. Why is her message so readily accepted by Christians? How has the church failed in its mission, thereby creating an atmosphere where such heresy could flourish?

Answer: The church has  failed because there is no fear of God or love for the truth — The Truth of God.

Ms. Eadie says that she was shown in the spirit world that we were with God in the beginning and that we helped him to create the earth. She tells us that Eve’s “initiative” made it possible for mankind to have children, that sin is not our true nature, and that we are inherently divine.She continues by saying that we are all God’s children and that we are here on earth to learn the lessons we need for our own spiritual evolution. Our key lesson is to remember our divinity and return to heaven. Eadie embraces the idea that all religions and faiths are equal in God’s sight and that they are essential in our development. Likewise, spirits from the other side will also help us learn the lessons of life and aid in our progress.Ms. Eadie says that death is a spiritual “rebirth” as we simply make a “transition” to another state of being. There will be no judgement day and we will judge ourselves regarding our spiritual evolution.

This is what God says:

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. — Hebrews 9:27,28 –

Mormonism and Magic

She also teaches that we choose the illnesses that we would suffer and that some would choose the illness that would end their lives.

This sounds too much like the modern day heresies being taught by Kenneth Copeland, the late Kenneth Hagin, etc.

She further teaches that hell is not forever and that because of “love,” in the end, all will be saved.

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! JESUS — Luke 12:4,5 –

Before we can fully understand Ms. Eadie’s world view and theology it is important for us to recognize that she is a Mormon and has been exposed to new age paganism. She has, in fact, been a member in good standing of the Mormon Church for the past fifteen years or more.Betty Eadie’s background is a mixture of native American Indian spirituality, Catholicism, and Mormonism. Her mother was a full- blooded Sioux Indian and as a young child Betty attended a Catholic boarding school.This spiritual syncretism helps us recognize the source of her close encounter with “the Light.” As we take a closer look at her new-found belief system we are able to not only see Mormon ideas but beliefs that are found in the occult.On page 57 of her book Betty tells the reader, “within our universe are both positive and negative energies, and both types of energies are essential to creation and growth. These energies have intelligence–they do our will. They are willing servants.”You may remember “The Force” of Star Wars and its “light” and “dark” side. The Force was both “good” and “evil”. One simply chose which side of “The Force” one wanted to utilize for his evolutionary development. There was no “right” or “wrong” choice; it was a matter of personal preference.The Force is similar to “magic.” In the occult world magic has a “good” side and an “evil” side. It is also considered to have a “light” side and a “dark” side.Magic is an attempt by man to gain equality with God. To become a part of the creative process. God spoke the universe into existence by His word. The magician, sorcerer, or witch attempts to speak things into existence by words based on their occult knowledge.The Christian desires to obey the will of God, not to force God to do his bidding. This is the essential difference between occult practice, magic, and Christianity.

An example of this is the Charasmatic movement who believe “speak to your need.” Think about this: There is no need for God if all one has to do, is “speak to the need.” When do charasmatics actually pray or ask God for anything if they are so busy creating their reality? This is nothing but witchcraft in and of itself.

Another example of Ms. Eadie’s new age belief is the account of her being in a garden while she had her out-of-body experience (OBE). She saw a rose and was struck by its beauty and as she looked at it she felt that she had become “one” with it.

Yeah right. I remember having experiences like that under the influence of LSD. Once my guitar had become an extension of myself. This was not God. But a delusion, a lie, a result of my sin.

She states on page 81 of her book, “I felt God in the plant, in me, his love pouring into us. We were all one!”"At-one-ment” or the interconnectedness of all things is a primary tenet of new age thought and philosophy. Betty Eadie, through her OBE, experienced the greatest deception Lucifer plays on humanity– that we are a part of the divine, that we are indeed deity. The idea that we are divine beings opens our understanding that we have all that we need “within” us to progress toward our full potential as a god or goddess.Our “looking” or “going” within is an attempt to discover our inner allies and gain “deep” learning so we further evolve mentally and spiritually. These allies or inner teachers, helpers, or guides are available to all of us, according to the new age mystics.This inner teacher is also known as the “Higher Self” or the “True Self” and is in constant battle with our cognitive or conscious self.

These entities are demons.

The focus of knowledge is transferred from the objective and cognitive to the subjective and intuitive or experiential. It is my contention that the greatest danger Betty Eadie represents for the Christian is that Truth is based on or in experience rather than the Word of God.

Just like today’s followers of the charasmatic movements.

Betty Eadie’s View of Jesus

Ms. Eadie believes that the “Jesus” she met during her OBE was the “real” word of God and not a book that has been corrupted over the millennia. Perhaps some of the most disturbing aspects of her book is what is left out rather than the deception within.Betty Eadie never mentions the crucifixion or the atonement for sin. In her worldview they simply are not needed. According to her belief we are at-one with God. Likewise, she never mentions the cross of Christ; evidently her “Jesus” is too positive to mention something as negative as the cross or the need of redemption.There is no mention of evil or victory over sin. There is no resurrection. Ms. Eadie is almost evangelistic in her declaration that “all religions upon the earth are necessary because there are people who need what they teach. People in one religion may not have a complete understanding of the Lord’s gospel and never will have while in that religion.” (see Gal. 1:8 and 2 Cor. 11:13 along with Matt. 24:24)Eadie continues by saying “as an individual raises his level of understanding about God and his own eternal progress, he might feel disconnected with the teachings of his present church and seek a different philosophy or religion to fill that void. When this occurs he has reached another level of understanding and will long for further truth and knowledge.”She says, “Having received this knowledge, I knew that we have no right to criticize any church or religion in any way. They are all precious and important in his sight.”

This is a lie. There is only one way to the Father and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. How could God say that all religions are valid? He can not, does not and will not. He would have to deny the truth. This truth alone makes Betty Eadie a liar.

 Another concern of Ms. Eadie’s is her unbiblical teaching regarding the person of Jesus. On page 44 of her book Ms. Eadie recounts her meeting the Jesus of her out-of-body-experience:

I understood that he was the Son of God, though he himself was also a God, and that he had chosen from before the creation of the world to be our Savior.

Ms. Eadie’s statement regarding the person of Jesus is legitimate with the exception of one word that causes us to think of how the Jehovah Witnesses translate John 1:1. The article “a” becomes very important when it precedes “God.” However, for Ms. Eadie the use of the article “a” indicates that she views Jesus as another distinct deity rather than the second person of a triune god–thereby exposing her Mormon understanding of the trinity. The Mormons believe in three separate beings who are each divine rather than three persons comprising one God as the Bible indicates.The Bible is explicit in its affirmation of the Trinity. Deuteronomy 6:4 is clear in its declaration of one God. Elsewhere in Scripture we see God the Father (Matthew 6:9), God the Son (John 1:1), and God the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4) as three distinct Persons who are equal in every aspect of their being.In John 10:30 Jesus says that He is one with the Father, thereby leaving no doubt of their oneness regarding their essence and that they are not two separate beings or gods as Ms. Eadie would have us believe. Ms. Eadie refers to “the Spirit of God,” although she does not mention the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Trinity by name. The Bible, likewise, is clear regarding the stature of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:26 the Holy Spirit is seen as the enabler in helping God’s people understand divine truth.Betty Eadie’s view of Jesus comes into focus once Biblical light is shed upon it. It becomes perfectly clear that she does not hold a trinitarian view of God.

Deception of New Age Religion

The unsettling message that Betty Eadie offers in her book is that we are not sinners needing redemption, but that we are spiritual beings who have lost our way. We have forgotten our divinity. Spiritual growth is a progressive process toward self-realization and at-one-ment.The new-age world view of Betty Eadie is evident:

• All is One

• All is God

• Man is God

• All is changing

• Man is changing

• All is relative

• Self is the Judge

• The gospel is unnecessary

Ms. Eadie sounds like Shirley MacLaine, the popular new age entertainer and author, when she says that her prior existence “had been purposely blocked from me by a `veil’ of forgetfulness at my birth.” Ms. MacLaine had previously made the same statement in her popular book Out on a Limb.

In other words, we were with our heavenly Father in the spirit world and eventually came to the point where we were spiritually dry and realized that the only way to get beyond our dryness was to jump start our spirituality. Thereby, we chose to leave our heavenly home and incarnate on this earth where we might further develop our spiritual essence and advance our possibilities in the spirit world.Ms. Eadie states that prior to our leaving our spiritual home and incarnating in this world we perfected a plan for growth before we took on this physical shell. She says on page 47 of her book that “the Father explained that coming to earth for a time would further our spiritual growth. Each spirit who was to come to earth assisted in planning the conditions on earth, including the laws of mortality which would govern us.”In the spirit world Ms. Eadie was told “that we had all desired to come here, that we had actually chosen many of our weaknesses and dificult situations in our lives so that we could grow.” She continues by saying, “to my surprise I saw that most of us had selected the illnesses we would suffer, and for some, the illness that would end our lives . . . we were very willing, even anxious, as spirits to accept all of our ailments, illnesses, and accidents here to help better ourselves spiritually.”According to Betty Eadie we are basically good. On page 49 of her book Ms. Eadie says “that sin is not our true nature. Spiritually, we are at various degrees of light–which is knowledge–and because of our divine spiritual nature we are filled with the desire to do good.” She continues by saying “that there is a vital, dynamic link between the spirit world and mortality, and that we need the spirits on the other side for our progression.”In the above statement Ms. Eadie is allowing her god’s eclectic world view show. The idea that man is basically “good” is commonly held in the field of humanistic psychology rather than in Christian Scripture. The Bible indicates that man is in need of redemption and forgiveness. Her belief that we, in the mortal world, are in need of the spirits from the other side to aid us in our spiritual progression is taken directly from her Mormon background. We find this teaching in the Doctrine and Covenants (128:15), one of the Standard Works of the Mormon Church.The Biblical indication is that in the last days many will be deceived. The gospel writer of Matthew seems to agree. Not only will unbelievers be deceived but also those who have trusted Jesus for their salvation may be equally deceived. The Scripture says, “For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” The problem that many have in our day is that they seek “signs” and “wonders” rather than Jesus. Experience has become their teacher rather than the Word. Our response is simply, Jesus–the only begotten Son of God. There is salvation in no other. Our hope is not in our experiences, but in a person.

 

Testingthe Bookby The Bible

Betty Eadie exposes more of her Mormon world view with her belief in a pre-mortal existence. When Ms. Eadie first speaks of “Jesus” in her book she said “I knew that I had known him from the beginning, from long before my earth life, because my spirit remembered him.” Another example of her “new found” belief in a pre-existence was when “Jesus” allowed her to recall her feelings when creation occurred. She says that “all people as spirits in the pre-mortal world took part in the creation of the earth.”Ms. Eadie offers another example. She relates an experience during her heavenly visitation where she “traveled to many other worlds- earths like our own but more glorious, and always filled with loving, intelligent people.” She continues by saying, “I knew that I had been to these places before.” She had an experience that she could not deny.Some have said that a man with an argument is always at the mercy of a man with an experience. A growing problem in our society is the willingness to accept one’s experience over the protestation of the facts. As Christians we need to be careful that we do not fall into this trap. Our responsibility is to consider the Word of God and allow it to validate the experience or not. We must be extremely careful not to allow our or anyone else’s experience to mold our belief system.Another example of Ms. Eadie’s pre-mortal experience was an encounter with those in the spirit world. She said, “I saw again the spirits who had not yet come to earth, and I saw some of them hovering over people in mortality. I saw one male spirit trying to get a mortal man and woman together on earth–his future parents.” (I had a brief moment of deja vu and thought of Marty McFly in Back to the Future).A growing number of Christians are accepting Ms. Eadie’s account of the after-life, and the church is allowing her beliefs to take root by their lack of biblical teaching. The Bible is very clear regarding the individual’s moment of existence (Psalm 139:13-16). Nowhere in Scripture does our Lord offer a possibility that we pre- existed with Him in the spirit world. The burden of proof is on the one with the experience and not the objective Word of God.What can we learn from Betty Eadie and her near-death experience? First and foremost is that near-death experiences tend to alter one’s world view. Raymond Moody in his book The Light Beyond offers evidence for such a concern. He states that those who experience a near-death episode

…emerge with an appreciation of religion that is different from the narrowly defined one established by most churches. They come to realize through this experience that religion is not a matter of one ‘right’ group versus several ‘wrong’ groups. People who undergo an NDE come out of it saying that religion concerns your ability to love–not doctrine and denominations. In short, they think that God is a much more magnanimous being than they previously thought, and that denominations don’t count.

This idea, that doctrine is of no importance but we should only be concerned about love, is parallel to the teachings found in the New Age world view. Ms. Eadie is in agreement with Dr. Moody’s statement that “love” is our ultimate goal and that religion is simply a vehicle to get us to the party. It makes little or no difference whether we get there in a Ford or a Chevrolet. As warm and cozy as this idea sounds, it does not take into account the words of our Lord in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus was very clear that He wasn’t offering one of many ways, but that He was The Way and The Truth. He was very confident that salvation was found in no other.

The one book “Christian” bookstores do not want

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=175329

The book too hot for U.S. church establishment
Christian radio networks, stores run scared of ‘Shack’ critique

Making mega-millions off a novel seen by many as “heretical” wasn’t a problem for America’s Christian publishing, bookstore and broadcasting establishment, but a nonfiction book critiquing the best-seller was turned down by Christian publishers, avoided by Christian bookstores and boycotted by some of the largest Christian radio networks.

That’s the irony of “Burning Down ‘The Shack,’” a new book by New Testament scholar James De Young that examines the theology behind Paul Young’s publishing phenomenon, “The Shack,” a paperback novel that spent more than 100 weeks on the best-sellers lists in both the Christian and secular worlds.

“I believe this contrast illustrates the woeful state of discernment of the American church establishment,” says Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND and founder of WND Books, the publisher. “This book is a thoughtful, sober work of Christian scholarship intended to alert the church to the twisted theology and wholly unorthodox precepts of ‘The Shack.’ But the reaction to it by the Christian media has been one of avoidance.”

As a seminary professor and a former colleague and neighbor of the author of “The Shack,” James De Young has a unique perspective on “The Shack,” a book that has captured the hearts of many wounded Christians and skeptics and become the topic of sermons and Bible classes in churches nationwide.

Undergirding “The Shack,” De Young said, is an age-old heresy – universal reconciliation – that diminishes the work of Jesus on the cross and the holiness and justice of God by asserting that everyone eventually will be saved from eternal damnation.

Paul Young has vigorously and repeatedly denied he is a universalist, but De Young says he was personally acquainted with Young’s spiritual journey over more than a dozen years. De Young points to a 103-page paper Young wrote that presented his embrace of universal reconciliation and rejection of the “evangelical paradigm.”

De Young’s new book, by WND Books, is his attempt to warn of the seductive theology of “The Shack” and present what he believes are the biblical answers to the questions it raises.

“I think it is very clear ‘The Shack’ is written to teach theology,” said De Young, a New Testament language and literature professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore. “It’s not just written to tell a mystery story.”

De Young told WND his hope is “that as the truth is known about the universalist background of the author – and how it can be found throughout ‘The Shack’ – that people will realize a good story needs to be good teaching as well.”

In 1997, De Young and Young, whose families socialized through a Christian school and youth sports, co-founded a Christian think tank called M3 Forum. For the next seven years they discussed and probed topics, doctrine and problems facing the church as it approached the new millennium. Young submitted his surprising paper embracing universal reconciliation in 2004.

Less than two years later, Young asked friends to read the early draft of a novel he was writing as a Christmas gift for his children. Though highly impressed by the manuscript’s potential, the friends were opposed to the universal reconciliation they found in it and acknowledged publicly that they spent over a year trying to remove that message. Mainstream Christian publishers initially declined interest in publishing what became “The Shack,” so Young and his friends formed their own publishing company.

Now, with 10 million copies in print, “The Shack” has been on numerous best-seller lists for more than two years and become an iconic work among enthusiastic evangelicals, with many buying multiple copies to hand out to their friends.

But De Young believes the acceptance of “The Shack” by evangelicals and their institutions is evidence of a church in need of renewal.

It is evidence of a church that needs to read their Bible so they will not follow every wind of doctrine.

“I’m really dismayed to see that Christian publishers and radio programs, TV programs have basically imbibed the feel-good spirit of ‘The Shack’ and have not critically examined the theology,” he told WND. “If you point that out to them they feel offended. They feel that you’re being overly critical. They feel something like, ‘Well, can’t you look beyond the doctrine and appreciate the story?’”

This is the same thing many of us have been told: Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. In other words: We are expected to dig through garbage to find anything remotely good. If one is in the Word, they will NEVER have to dig through man-made demonically inspired garbage to find a pearl.

De Young laments “a great lack of discernment” in Christian media and publishing that is willing to “look askance at the doctrine” if a book enjoys widespread popularity and makes a lot of money.

Many evangelicals and churches have been seduced by “The Shack,” he said, because the story resonates with many who have difficult backgrounds in which they’ve been deeply wounded emotionally and spiritually.

Yes, we all have been hurt in many different ways. What is the true antidote? The Cross. Calvary. No matter the issue, the answer is the Cross. But the Church has been sucked into the world’s way: medication, anti-depressants, feel-good books, self-help books, psychiatry, etc. All of it is dung. It is the Cross and the Cross alone that delivers any of us out of/through any pain or hurt. But we have been taught not to suffer. So therefore, the church has put her trust in heretics, apostates and the world instead of God. 

“There is a growing segment of our population who have a bad background, perhaps in the sense they come from a divided home, a home where divorce took place or even an abusive home on the part of one or both parents,” he said. “When they can read a story like ‘The Shack’ and find solace and encouragement from the experiences of this fictitious person and his experience and realize that God does love them, then I think that it will resonate with a lot of people.”

People who have been deeply hurt, he said, “are reaching out for a sympathetic God who they can clearly understand and who loves them.”

De Young said the book’s “Christian bearings and overtones” encourage many Christians to accept the book and its message, particularly those unaware of the teaching of universalism.

“Unless you confront people with the truth, people will not find ultimate resolution of their need,” he said. “Only there will they find freedom from their past, deliverance from that which they feel in bondage.”

De Young pointed to Jesus’ promise “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

He said another problem is that evangelicals, in the U.S. in particular, can partake in a broad “buffet of food for their souls” outside of the guidance and discernment of local church pastors and elders, including through television, radio and the Internet.

“This explosion of information and knowledge enables people to draw on the things that they like,” he said. “Frankly, it represents a church that is increasingly indifferent to the gospel and in need of renewal and commitment.”

Churches have failed, he said, to teach the meaning of biblical inspiration and the authority of Scripture, so “people begin to form their own doctrinal positions and beliefs based upon not only the teaching of Scripture but other things they hear elsewhere.”

The great need in the American church today, he said, “is for renewal, and that will include a significant return to the authority of Scripture.”

Renewal? REPENTENCE

De Young recalled an encounter on a bus to the airport in Boston about a year and a half ago that helped shape his response to “The Shack.”

He sat next to a man who turned out to be a Christian and asked him if he had read the book.

“Oh, yes,” the man replied. “I think it’s a wonderful book.”

De Young described the man as a well-taught member of a conservative Episcopal church that was breaking away from the U.S. denomination because of its stand on homosexuality.

“This is a fellow who is seeking to know the truth and was part of the movement to pursue truth, and yet he thought much of ‘The Shack,’” De Young said.

The conversation, he said, convinced him that if he were to write a meaningful response, he had to acknowledge chapter-by-chapter the book’s good points and then “bring the reader around to questioning what that chapter really is all about and the doctrinal errors in it.”

“So that’s why my book is in the form it is,” he said. “I took [the conversation in Boston] as a sign that that’s what I ought to do instead of being totally confrontive and finding no good in it.”

Other books have been critical of “The Shack,” he said, but have been “dismissed as being extreme, and, therefore, people don’t read them.”

De Young said he’s prepared for an onslaught of opposition to his book.

He noted his daughter, who has followed comment on blogs, told him of how painful it is for her to see her father attacked.

“I’ve anticipated for some time that my family may suffer more than I do,” he said. “I am trying to alert them to that and tell them not to worry. It’s part of the cost of telling the truth, frankly.”

It may not be popular, he said, “but it’s right.”

“It’s what is godly and in accord with the injunction of Scripture that we’re supposed to go into all the world teaching them all the things that Jesus commanded us,” he said. “As long as we do that, we look toward the eternal determination of things, the judgment and our faithfulness in the calling that God has given us – and that transcends all else no matter what people do.”

Does The Shack Change The Way We Think About God? Should It?

This exposes the Shack better than anything I have found. I did not have to go out and buy the book in order to know the lies within it. Article gotten here and written by Lynn Barton:

http://www.pastordale.com/articles.asp?printable=yes&specific=199

THE SHACK: CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT GOD

Have you read and enjoyed The Shack, or do you have friends who have? First published in 2007, The Shack has been a blockbuster in the Christian world and beyond, selling over five million copies. This summer even Forbes magazine took notice, publishing a piece about author Paul Young. On the book jacket Kathy Lee Gifford exults, “The Shack will change the way you think about God forever!” I first heard about it a year ago, when several people urged me to read it, but I put it off due to lack of time. As the recommendations kept coming, I checked out some reviews from trusted sources like Tim Challies and Chuck Colson. Their comments concerned me, and I planned to skip it.

When the next friend raved about it, I asked her about some of the problems these critics had raised. She didn’t have any answers to the questions, but she was offended by them. She insisted I had to read the book to be able to understand it, and had no right to criticize until I had. Finally, as even more people recommended it, I decided to read it, if only to earn the right to say something about it when the subject came up again.

What I found there was deeply shocking to me. Not so much what the book contains, but that so many Christians have fallen in love with it. This article has been many months in the making, as I have wrestled over how and what to say, praying for wisdom and a soft heart. Because the book has most touched people who are hurting, I hate the thought of taking away something precious to them.  Here is my challenge: if you love Jesus, then you love the truth, because he calls himself the Truth. For Jesus’ sake, won’t you please pray and ask God to show you the truth about this novel?

But first, a question. Do you believe what the Bible says about itself? “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). 

If you don’t believe that the Bible is God’s inspired, infallible revelation to humanity, then you probably won’t want to bother reading further. But if you do believe this, then we have common ground. I am going to compare what the novel says about God with what God says about himself in his Word. This is what the Bereans did when they first heard the strange new teaching about Christ. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Since The Shack represents itself as a Christian book, it is critical to test what it says. God’s Word is the lens through which we ought to view every spiritual teaching. If that teaching contradicts what God says, then we must reject it. 

Some may argue that The Shack is not a Christian book. A certain plausible deniability could even be part of its appeal in non-Christian circles. After all, The Shack’s  Jesus character himself says, “I’m not a Christian.” But since it is still #2 on the Christian booksellers list, clearly legions of believers see it as a Christian book. It is loaded with Christian terms (though no scripture at all, not one verse or even part of a verse), and it presents itself as the true way to a relationship with God.

There are so many reviews already. Why I am I jumping in? Because most reviews are low on detail. Without specifics, you pretty much have to take the reviewer’s word for it. The popularity of The Shack is increasing, if anything. That’s why Tim Challies has just written his own expanded review, seventeen pages. Mine is several pages shorter, so take your pick. I do urge you to learn some of the details about this book, because it is changing how millions think about God. And with apologies to Martha Stewart, it’s not a good thing.

Popular for a Good Reason

The Shack explores perhaps the most delicate question with which human beings wrestle: what to make of unexplained, seemingly unjust suffering. This is especially painful for those who believe in a God of love and a life of purpose. The Shack presents a God whose greatest desire is that people should know of his deep love for them, no matter how horrific their life experience. Those I’ve asked what it was they loved most about the book have told me that it helped them better grasp and believe in God’s personal love for them, as they grappled with deep pain and loss in their lives.

Author Paul Young can speak with authenticity to broken hearts, having experienced great suffering in his life. Born to missionary parents, he was sexually abused as a child and later lost a younger brother and a niece. Out of these painful experiences and the questions about God they raised, he created the story of Mack, whose little daughter is kidnapped and murdered on a family camping trip. His healing begins when he spends a weekend with God in the very shack where her body was found.

Who wouldn’t want to follow the story of a man’s encounter with God in a situation like that? Few of us have suffered what many would consider the worst of all traumas: the murder of your own child. What will God say to Mack? If Mack can get some answers, if his heart can begin to heal, maybe we can too. It’s no wonder The Shack has touched a nerve.

A Manifesto of Bitterness

Early on in the story, we learn that Mack had grown up with an abusive father, causing him to suspect that God was like his dad: “brooding, distant, and aloof.” Seeking answers, Mack even attended seminary. He found no help there, nor did he find any in church. When his daughter is murdered, it only confirms his suspicions about God. Then, three and a half years later, Mack finds in his mailbox a mysterious note from God, inviting him to meet at the shack where his daughter’s body had been found. As Mack mulls this over, he reflects on his seminary experience, which he had hoped would connect him with God, but instead left him feeling more distant than ever:

“In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges? “ (pg. 63).

Wow. Packed within this one paragraph are at least seven charges against historic Christianity, charges that will be unpacked and expanded in the rest of the novel.

1. Authority is inherently unjust and abusive; used by elites to keep the rest of us from knowing God directly.

2. The Bible “reduces” God’s voice to words on a page.

3. We don’t need preachers or professors (“authorities and intellects”) to help us understand the Bible, if we read it at all, which we probably shouldn’t, because all it will do is make us feel guilty (“guilt edges”).

4. Guilt is not a real problem, but imposed, apparently by the Bible or those who use it to exercise their unjust authority.

5. Thinking (“intellect”) gets between us and experiencing God.

6. Seminary is not only a waste, but harmful, because it separates people from directly knowing God.

7. A hint that Eastern spirituality is superior to Western (since Western “mediated” Christianity is “controlled by the intelligentsia”).

All this is introduced while our guard is down, because we are not listening to a theological argument, but to the tortured thoughts of a man in pain.

It’s totally understandable that Mack, the victim of an abusive father, would view all authority as illegitimate, and that he would want direct communication with God, apart from the mediation of some authority. This would not be a point of criticism for me if God is going to show Mack that the problem is not authority itself, but the abuse of it. But as the story unfolds, Young’s God will validate not only Mack’s rejection of authority, but every single one of the above charges. Not only that, Young does it by using familiar Christian terms into which he pours his own, alien meanings. Changing meanings of words is confusing at best. At worst, it is deceptive and seductive, drawing the reader into what seems like familiar territory, but is in fact quite different from biblical Christianity.

Speak to me yourself, God

Let’s start with Mack’s desire for direct communication with God, apart from a mediator. Is the need for a mediator just a phony construct of the religious elite to keep us all in the dark and under their thumbs? What does Scripture say?

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:12).

When Adam and Eve sinned, they and all mankind lost the privilege of seeing God face to face. No longer did God walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day. Since then, the writer to the Hebrews explains, God continued to speak in various ways, but always through mediators (angels, visions, the prophets). And now, God speaks to us by his Son, our mediator, Jesus Christ.

Mack views the idea of needing mediation with a certain bitterness. I understand that. For years I was frustrated by the fact that God is hidden. Why wouldn’t God just show himself, so I could see that he was real? It wasn’t until I understood my sin, that I recognized that it is of God’s mercy that he does not let us see him. Notice in scripture that whenever people encounter the presence of God, they react with fear. When Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord (ch. 6), he cried, “Woe is me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips.” When Jesus stilled the storm, the disciples did not high-five Jesus and whoop with joy. Oddly, they were afraid. Somehow the manifestation of his power made them keenly aware of their own uncleanness by comparison. Moses, himself the mediator between God and the Israelites, was told by God, “You cannot see My face; for no man can see me and live” (Ex. 33:20).

Ever since the Fall, man has needed a mediator between himself and God, lest he perish in the burning presence of God’s holiness. Our mediator now is Jesus Christ, who with his own blood opened the way for us to “go boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). Now, how do we know about the Son, except through the testimony of eye witnesses who knew him? And how do we learn this testimony, except that these witnesses wrote down what they had seen and heard? So we need the mediation of both the Book and the Son. “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me…” (Ps. 40:7). Much as Mack desires to know God apart from any mediator, and as much as the God of The Shack will later affirm that desire, the Bible says that our sin has separated us from God, and we cannot know him apart from a mediator. 

This is not to say that God doesn’t speak to his children. When we are born again, Christ comes to us by the Holy Spirit and makes his home in our hearts. The Spirit bears witness inwardly that we are his beloved children (Rom. 8:16). The Father speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, who comforts, convicts, and encourages us, primarily by bringing to our understanding and remembrance… scripture. Jesus told his disciples, “…the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). The Holy Spirit never introduces new teachings that contradict scripture. Unfortunately, the God of The Shack will do so, repeatedly.

Who needs church, anyway?

As Mack continues his musing over the mysterious invitation, he realizes, “…he was stuck, and Sunday prayers and hymns weren’t cutting it anymore, if they ever really had…he was sick of God and God’s religion, sick of all the little religious social clubs that didn’t seem to make any real difference….” (pg. 63).

Why is there no encouragement for Mack in fellowship, in worship? Why does it make him sick? Perhaps, understandably, he is lost in his grief. Or, perhaps Mack’s experiences have been with dead churches that have an outward religiosity but no real heart or depth. I grew up in a church like that. For me, Sunday morning was the worst time of the week, hours wasted being bored to tears by empty platitudes, unable to escape. If that’s Mack’s issue with church, I can relate.

There may be a clue here. We’ve already seen that Mack didn’t think much of scripture or church even before the murder. He hasn’t made the connection that it is the churches with the lowest view of scripture that degenerate into social clubs that make no real difference in people’s lives. In the church of my youth, the congregation was far too sophisticated to believe that the Bible is God’s Word. Sin, the cross, and the resurrection were considered poetic metaphor, not reality. The result was a church that had forgotten why it even existed. If the Bible is, as Mack thinks, a dead book that “reduces God to words on a page,” no wonder church is a waste of time for him. But it’s not true. The Word of God “…is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12-13). Throughout the story, Mack’s low view of scripture and church never changes, for at the shack he will discover that God agrees with him completely on both points.

The Jesus of The Shack will say, “I’m not too big on religion,” and “I don’t create institutions – never have, never will” (pg. 181). Funny though, the real Jesus did, and he called it the church. If Jesus was opposed to institutional worship, why was he careful to observe all the festivals and rules of the Jewish temple? A church that takes God at his word is not a social club; it is the body of Christ. Being connected to a church body is not optional in the life of a Christian; it is the example set for us by the early church and the commandment of scripture: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” (Heb. 10:25). 

Not your mother’s Trinity

But I’m ahead of the story. So Mack goes to meet with God at the shack. He will eventually spend time with each member of the trinity. The Father, “Papa,” appears as an African American woman. The Holy Spirit is an Asian woman. Jesus still gets to be a Middle Eastern man. He first meets the African American woman, who tells him, “If you let me, Mack, I’ll be the Papa you never had” (pg. 90). “She” explains, “For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me Papa is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning” (pg. 91).

Is that it? Or is it gender-bending confusion? I understand that Young wants to disabuse Mack (and his readers) of the notion that God is a white-bearded old guy in the sky, but the Bible already tells us that God is Spirit and doesn’t have a body. There is no need to “mix metaphors.” I don’t have time here to go into God’s distinctions between male and female all the way from Genesis to Revelation, but the Bible is very clear that we are to honor gender distinctions, not blur them.

Since both man and woman are made in the image of God, both are designed to reflect God’s glory in a particular way. Blurring those distinctions distorts the picture God paints of himself through man, woman, and marriage. Though God has “feminine” characteristics, he has revealed himself as Father, not Mother or even Father/Mother, as some liberal denominations (i.e. those social clubs) call him. There is not a shred of biblical evidence that the real God would ever reveal himself as a woman called “Papa,” and a lot of reasons to believe that he would find it an abomination. Even for someone with an abusive father (like Mack) who has trouble seeing God as father, we just can’t remake God to suit our particular area of woundedness. Instead, we need to learn that God our heavenly father is not like our abusive human father. We can’t change scripture to accommodate our preferences. We need to let scripture change us.

Who knew?

Later, Mack will spend time with “Jesus.” Apparently in all his church experience, Mack has never understood that Christ makes his home within the hearts of his people. Mack asks Jesus in astonishment: “Aren’t you talking about a real indwelling, not just some positional, theological thing?” “Of course,” answered Jesus, “it requires that a very real dynamic and active union exists.” “That is almost unbelievable!” Mack exclaimed quietly. “I had no idea”  (pg. 112).

Really? How could he not know this? Is it because the churches he attended were those liberal  churches that view the Bible as little more than a collection of primitive myths? Or did they downplay the role of the Holy Spirit and reduce the gospel to a set of propositions you give rational assent to?  If Mack had read scripture himself (with an open and searching heart), he would not be surprised at what Jesus has just told him. How can he be a seminary graduate and never have encountered Paul rejoicing in “…the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:26-27).

Again, this would be fine if it was a plot device designed to show how a person could attend church or even seminary and still miss the glorious news that God himself comes to live in us. But Mack only learns this amazing truth (one of the few biblically accurate things said in this novel) directly from Jesus, not the bible or church. I believe this is purposeful, that Young intends to imply that we will not find that which we most hunger for in the Bible or in church. (Another irony: where are we learning these wonderful spiritual truths? In…a…book. Forget the Bible, read The Shack. One way or t’other, we seem to be stuck with a book).

No worries: God loves us too much to punish us

One reason Young seems to resent the need of a mediator could stem from his utterly deficient view of sin. Sin in The Shack, when acknowledged at all, is not something that offends God, affronts his holiness and kindles his righteous wrath. Not even the murder of Mack’s daughter. No, sin in The Shack is chiefly defined as “independence” from God. While independence is certainly a large part of the biblical description of sin, it is much more than that. It is rebellion, pride and outright hostility toward God; it is spitting in the face of our Creator.

We like to hear that “God is love.” A loving God would not be angry. Would he? The apostle Paul wrote, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them…so that men are without excuse” (Rom 1:18-20). In many places God expresses his anger against sinful, unrepentant men. It’s a testimony to our own capacity to deceive ourselves that so many Christians deny the wrath of God.

Not only that, God has a limit to his long-suffering patience and willingness to forgive. Don’t believe me? Consider Ezekiel 7:9, when God declares that it is too late to repent: “I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow.” Need more evidence that God has a limit? Read the whole book of Revelation, and then tell me that God is not angry with sin – and sinners.

But Papa says, “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside”(pg. 119). This is a half-truth. Sin does bring its own punishment, but that is a mere foretaste of the divine wrath to come if we don’t repent. Not Papa though. He is “especially fond” of everything and everybody, so much so that Mack finally asks if there is anyone Papa is NOT especially fond of. “Nope, I haven’t been able to find any. Guess that’s jes’ the way I is.” Mack then asks if he ever gets mad at any of them. “Sho ‘nuff! What parent doesn’t? …I love the ones I am angry with just as much as those I’m not” (pg. 118).

(Note: this dialect of Papa’s is not used consistently throughout the book. When explaining something more abstract, Papa reverts to standard American English. I suppose “God” can change his way of speaking if he wants to. But whether a white author ought to attempt African American dialect in today’s sensitized culture is questionable, and its inconsistency renders it phony to me, even offensive.)

It seems to me that being “especially” fond of everyone is a contradiction in terms. In any case, the Bible teaches no such thing. Yes, God is love, and God loves the world, but contrary to popular belief, while we are all created in the image of God and therefore of great value, we are not all God’s children. Otherwise, why would John have written, “…to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12).  To be a child of God is to be adopted into God’s own family, an amazing gift that cost God’s Son unfathomable suffering to be able to offer to us. It is unbiblical and dishonors Christ’s sacrifice to confer this status on every human being without reference to that person’s heart for or against God. What’s “special” about that?

Papa explains all this while “she” is fixing breakfast. Then Jesus and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) show up and they all sit down to eat. When Mack thanks Papa for breakfast, “she” responds in “mock horror…you aren’t even going to bow your head and close your eyes?” (pg. 119). So now we have “God” mocking the practice of giving thanks for food. Imagine, for millennia believers have sought to honor God by thanking him, and all the while, God thought it was just plain silly.

Can you imagine the true God making fun of his children for thanking him for his provision?  The God of scripture commands our gratitude. The God of The Shack finds it laughable. When Mack (of whom “she” is supposedly “especially fond”) offers a sincere (or at least polite) courtesy, “God” uses the occasion to embarrass him. For what reason, I don’t know. To break him of his “religious conditioning,” I suppose. My friends, this exchange could be the zenith of my frustration with why so many have gone crazy for this book. I can’t love this “God.” After reading this scene, I wanted to slap him. I mean, her.

You’re not the boss of me

For Mack though, things are looking up. Having learned that Papa is especially fond of everyone, and that God thinks the practice of giving thanks is just as foolish as he does, he now discovers that his problem with authority is really no problem at all. God feels just the same way. Mack asks Jesus, “Don’t you have a chain of command?”

“Chain of command? That sounds ghastly!”  The Shack’s Jesus said…“We have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command….We don’t need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us….Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of the relationship we intended for you”(pg. 122-123).

Really? Then please explain Bible passages like this:

Matthew 8:8-10: The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

Or this:

Matthew 26:53: “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

And this:

Phillipians 2:9-11: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The real Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (Jn. 14:15). He was not the least concerned that obeying him as Lord would cause us to “miss the wonder” of our relationship with him. When I require my children to obey me it doesn’t interfere with our relationship. In fact, it makes intimacy possible. An unruly, self-willed child relates to no one but himself. We all need authority in our lives, and rebellion against proper authority is sin. It’s what caused the fall of man, for heaven’s sake.

Contrary to Papa’s assertion, there is in fact a chain of authority even in the Godhead. The Son obeys the Father: “I do exactly what my Father has commanded me”(Jn.14:31). The Holy Spirit obeys the Son and the Father: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father…” (Jn.14:26). This relationship of authority in the trinity is always in the context of perfect love and harmony. Young seems to have been so hurt by his experiences with authority that he cannot see it as anything but destructive. We also live in a time when rebellion is publicly celebrated. So when Jesus says in The Shack that authority is “ghastly,” it fits perfectly with the cultural zeitgeist. But it is a lie.

The cross: what does it matter?

The final serious problem that I will tackle (there are more) is The Shack’s unbiblical view of the cross. When Mack asks Papa, “What exactly did Jesus accomplish by dying?” he answers, “….through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world” (pg. 195).

Now, what does that mean? Beats me. Though Mack has asked specifically “what exactly” was accomplished, Papa never explains how the death and resurrection of his son reconciled him to the world. It sure sounds nice though, doesn’t it?

Earlier, Papa had said that Jesus “…chose the way of the cross where mercy triumphs over justice because of love” (pg. 165). That does sound lovely, but it’s not true. At the cross mercy did not triumph over justice. The shining glory of the cross is that it is the place where both mercy and justice triumphed:

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).

At the cross, justice was not overcome by mercy. Justice was vindicated, and it couldn’t be any other way. God’s justice is as much an attribute of his character as his love. No sin escapes the just retribution of God, ever. The question is only who will bear that retribution, the sinner or the spotless Lamb? Only God could come up with such a brilliant, stunning, wondrous, plan that fulfills justice while extending mercy to the unjust (us). Only a God of astonishing love would accomplish this by his own agony.

Based on other things Paul Young has said and written, my guess is that he would respond to this criticism with something to the effect that trying to analyze the cross too deeply distorts reality; you can’t analyze mystery. There is, of course, mystery in the cross. That is not my complaint. My complaint is that Young obfuscates what God has revealed to us concerning the cross. By having Papa employ flowery language that doesn’t say anything substantive, Young denies, dodges and disguises the biblical revelation of God’s wrath and punishment of sin.

For clues to what Paul Young really thinks about the cross, we need to go to other sources. In interviews, he has specifically rejected the substitutionary atonement of Christ. In a radio interview with a pastor, Kendall Adams (to find it, google “Shack author rejects biblical substitutionary atonement”), he says, “We are all included in what Jesus did on the cross, but not everyone is interested in relationship.” To Adam’s question of whether Jesus was punished for our sins, Young answers, “Why would the Father punish his son?” He calls the penal substitution of Christ for the sins of man a “side point of theology.” This is really amazing. Picture Jesus hanging in agony on the cross, gasping for air, naked and bloody. Why would he do such a thing? What did he accomplish by it? Aww, who cares? It’s just a side point.

In contrast to Paul Young the author, Paul the apostle wrote, “…just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:18-19). Justification is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. But in The Shack, it’s a mere “side point.”

Wrong premises, Wrong Conclusions

Paul Young has written a story that millions have found powerfully compelling. Unfortunately, he writes from an unbiblical view of God and of man. Beginning from wrong premises, he draws wrong conclusions. Why does God allow horrible things to happen to good people? Christians know, or ought to know, that the answer to why bad things happen to good people is, “There are no good people.” I don’t mean to be flip about this. It is the sober truth, and it ought to sober us. All of us are shockingly evil in our hearts. We all deserve at this very minute to be banished to hell. Every breath we take is of the lovingkindness of God. The fact that we have not done worse than we have is not due to our goodness, but God’s restraining mercy on us.

If you find this hard to accept, you haven’t yet come to terms with who you are apart from Christ. Like my grandma, who said she didn’t want “Amazing Grace” sung at her funeral because “I never was a wretch.” If we began to understand the self-deceiving wickedness of our own hearts, we would not be even asking this question. Instead we would be asking,“Why is God so good to to a shameless rebel like me?” This is not to minimize the searing pain that we all experience to one degree or another, nor does it explain why suffering is not distributed evenly, or why often the godliest people seem to suffer the most. It is only to say that ignoring or denying our own personal wickedness in the context of our suffering will tempt us to think God unjust or unloving, or even, as in Young’s case, to invent a completely different God from the one revealed in the Bible.

The Shack’s God is not only not angry with sin, he hardly acknowledges it. This strips the gospel of its content and purpose. It makes the cross a “side point,” robbing Christ of the glory due him and us of the joy of our salvation. Only when we begin to grasp the depth of our own depravity, that truly our hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” (Jer.17:9) will the gospel become the incredibly good news that God’s Son died to rescue us from our desperate condition. Through Christ we can be forgiven, made clean, born again as a new creation. Praise God for his amazing love!

But then what are we to make of the suffering that we continue to experience throughout life even as followers of Christ? We are promised that we will never be punished for our sins, but where in the meantime is God’s love and protection when things go all wrong?  (St. Theresa of Avila, after being tossed from a carriage into the mud, is said to have quipped, “If this is the way you treat your friends, Lord, it’s no wonder you have so few of them!”)

If only all suffering was as minor as a little mud. Suffering is an integral part of the Christian life and is part of God’s plan for us: “…it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for him” (Phil. 1:29). The book of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those he loves, as a father lovingly disciplines his children (12:6). Sometimes we cause our own suffering through our sin, other times (as with Mack’s daughter) it hits us from outside. 

Often we will not understand why our sufferings have come to us. Jesus told the man born blind that this happened to him not because of sin, but so that he would see the glory of God (Jn. 9). That’s what we need, and should want, the most: to see God’s glory. Our response to suffering should not to be to change God to be more like we want him to be, as Paul Young has done, but to grow in our understanding of him as he has shown himself to be in his Word. Instead, look at Jesus as he is revealed in his Word, since it’s all about him, not us. We see that Jesus suffered more than any person ever has or ever will, as he bore God’s wrath for the sins his people. We know that he is able to sympathize with our sufferings because he has suffered. We have his promise that he will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  And just as his suffering resulted in great joy for him and glory to God, we can take heart, because “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor. 4: 16-17). Again, the aim is for us to see and know and love Jesus as he is described in the Bible, as Peter (one terribly well acquainted with suffering) knew: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:6-7).

Bottom line: idolatry

Paul Young’s God bears little resemblance to the God revealed in the Bible. Instead, Young has created a god in his own image. And wouldn’t you know, this god agrees with him completely on his negative view of church, scripture, authority, and the historic Christian faith. While The Shack tells an absorbing story, it is a very bad book.

One of the common defenses people make of The Shack is that “it’s just fiction.” “Lighten up,” they say. “It’s a story, not theology.” But almost every conversation in the book is a teaching interaction between Mack and one of the members of the godhead, each explaining something about God. We have a name for that: theology.

Others admit that there are some problems with the theology, but they say they just ignored the theology and enjoyed the story. Perhaps those who are really grounded in the faith could do that. What I don’t understand is how a person can enjoy a story that misrepresents who God is, when they know that he is being misrepresented? If someone was telling untruths about my human father, even “nice” ones, I wouldn’t be happy. I would tell that person to stop putting words in his mouth that he never said, and never would.

Stories are, of course, a powerful way to illustrate truth. The Bible abounds with stories that really happened. Fictional stories can be dangerous because they reach our emotions, and we tend to accept uncritically the ideas embedded within them. Stories can also seduce us to believe a lie. Sure, Jesus used parables, stories which may have been true or may have been fictional illustrations, but they always supported the rest of the Bible’s teaching, not undermined it.

For those who are not well grounded in the faith, The Shack, instead of the Bible, is shaping their theology. Don’t believe me? Just read the reviews on Amazon.com. Here is a quote from one:

“The mental images from The Shack will probably be the lens through which I will read every other book on Christianity in the future.” Shouldn’t the Bible have that honor?

How we think about God is not a trivial matter. The great theologian A.W. Tozer has written in his book The Knowledge of the Holy:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

The Shack presents a different God from the God revealed in the Bible, and a different gospel as well. It misrepresents the character and person of God, gives scant attention to Christ’s sacrifice, and frequently flat out contradicts what has been revealed to us in scripture. Paul Young has invented the God he desires, not the God who is. That massive numbers of Christians have not recognized the blasphemous nature of this book highlights the great need of every believer to revere God’s word and to study it. As for someone like Eugene Peterson, who ought to know better, but lauds the book as “a Pilgrim’s Progress” for our generation, all I can say is “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4).

To those who disagree with my view of The Shack, I say your argument is with scripture, not me. My bluntness is not meant to be unkind, but to challenge you to think. According to the apostle Paul, who actually did speak to the real Jesus, this is deadly serious business: “…even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8-9).

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31-32). If the truth sets you free, then what will a lie do? The Shack is just one more false gospel in a world teeming with counterfeits. Why are so many Christians flocking after the speculations of a mere man, when the only truly trustworthy person who ever lived, has already revealed himself in history and in his own Word? To all who have ears to hear, build your spiritual house on that Rock, and abandon the rickety shack before it crashes down on you or someone you love.

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Lynn Barton is a former stockbroker who homeschools her children on a small farm near Medford, Oregon. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and attends Bear Creek Church.

Behold America: Your new spiritual leader

This is what we can expect to be leading the Whitehouse in spiritual matters when Oprah is such a big part of the Obama’s life. Oprah is of an anti-christ spirit and those who follow her teachings are of the same. Anyone who once confessed to be a christian (such as Oprah)and follows her teachings has become a part of the falling away. You need to repent and turn back to the truth.

MandMEvangelists:

I have not been a big Benny Hinn fan for diferent reasons, never-the-less, the following video sets straight the difference between Oprah’s “gospel” and the true Gospel. I do not question the sincerity of Benny Hinn leading hundreds to the Lord or the ones who came forward that night. Benny Hinn presented the truth of the the Word and they came forward, acknowledging their need of a Savoir, Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, slain for our sins and rose from the dead for the likes of you and me.

Choo Thomas’s “Heaven is so Real” will lead you to deception

READ THIS FIRST: I am refusing to take any more comments from those who want to defend this woman. There is plenty of proof and information below she is a deceiver and a false teacher/prophet, etc. What you do with the information is now between you and God. I will not continue to debate this with those of you who will not look at the truth. 

I was not about to go out and buy the book as Christian bookstores have become nothing more than Occult and self-help in nature. I do best when I stay out of them with all the aposotacy being  shoved down our throat under the guise as truth. However I did find some information on Thomas gotten here: http://signofjonah.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/choos-message-is-hard-to-swallow/#comment-42143

The info is as follows:

Recently, we had an inquiry from a minister in Malaysia concerning Choo Thomas and her book ”Heaven is So Real”.

Dear Rev. _______,I am very sorry for the delay in responding to your question concerning Choo Thomas. Hopefully, I can give you enough information to be worth the wait. I am sorry to hear that you have a friend who has been caught up in the movement and even sadder to hear of the impact the book is having in Malaysia. God bless you as you seek to stand for the truthfulness of his word.

As you may know, Thomas’s story is that the Lord personally took her to heaven 17 times or more over a period of about one month. The purpose for these revelations was so that she could write a book that would convince people that heaven is real because apparently the Bible is not sufficient.

Each of these visits to heaven is preceded by violent manifestations in which Thomas loses control of her body. This loss of control continues today whenever she is worshipping or performing her healing dance. Here are some quotes:

“On the night of January 19, the Lord’s presence was so intense in my bedroom that I shook, perspired and felt very weak for more than an hour” (page 7) “Because of the trembling of my body that always accompanied the Lord’s visits, Roger was now sleeping in the guest bedroom” (page 14)“During the night of February 12, my body shook more violently than it ever had. I was almost hurled from the bed because it was so forceful. I tried to grab the sheet to steady myself, but I couldn’t because I had no control over my body. The shaking was unremittingly forceful, and I grew afraid.” (page 17)

RedeemedHippie>>>[I had a similar experience when I was in the occult. One night after studying the occult, I grabbed hold of my blanket sensing something trying to jerk me out of my body. One has to wonder what kind of god Choo is allowing to sling her around the bedroom. She should have  tested this event. She chose not to because she had already believed the lie that she was special. Jesus said, "I am gentle and lowly." This should be enough truth to anyone to know this was NOT the One True God. To make him any other way, is to make Him a liar.]

These all occurred during the visitations. Here is what is happening now.

“Sometimes the power of His anointing on my hands and arms is so strong that I feel as if my hands are actually breaking apart. One Sunday morning my hand touched my eyes thirty-six times, and before each of these touches, my hands made seven different strange movements.” (page 205)

RedeemedHippie>>>[She is describing more of an occult happening than one of some kind of sanctified notion with the Lord.]

She now also claims that God has told her that when she dances in church no one is allowed to touch her hands before she dances so that her hands will remain holy. Further God told her that she is never to stand at the back of the other worshippers but always in front and that the entire platform belongs to her.

RedeemedHippie>>>[Such arrogance and self exaltation. What better way for Satan to make a show of himself by putting himself up front? I wonder how many people felt unsure about this but gave in to it because of peer pressure.]

These manifestations sure seem to have more in common with demonic possession or kundalini arousal than anything to do with the Holy Spirit.

The book is full of false doctrine. Choo repeatedliy undercuts the authority, sufficiency and power of the Holy Scriptures. Here is a quote from the front page of her website:

“Heaven is so Real is our Lord Jesus’ end time book.”

Redeemedhippie>>>[Who says so? Anyone anywhere can write a book and say the same thing. The Bible, and the Bible alone is sufficient. Revelations  22: 18,19 If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plaques that are written in this Book. and if any man shall take away from the words of the this Prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are writeen in this Book.]

He only used my body to write this book. He wants all believers and unbelievers to read it and prepare for His coming. He said, He is giving people a chance to know what it takes to enter His Kingdom through this book. Remember, none of our salvations are secure until the end. We must do our best while we have a chance.”

Notice that her book is on parallel with scripture because Jesus wrote it. Also notice that salvation is not secure and is not completely by grace. We must secure it ourselves.

Here are some quotes from the book itself.

“My daughter, you are an End-Times prophetess,’ the Lord told me, “and you are living proof of My Word and My prophecies…….”He told me that many people don’t believe His words and prophecies, and He said even some Christians do not believe them.” (page 168)

“He wants me to serve as living proof of the Bible and His prophecies, because many people do not believe what they read in the Bible, nor do they believe He is coming soon for His people.” (page 177)

“He had shown me how desperate many people are to know the truth about heaven, and I realized emphatically that my book would be the means whereby they could really know.” (124)

RedeemedHippie>>>[See the delusions of grandeur here? Bride of Christ, we have the Word of God. We do not need books written by heretics.]

Notice that her book will be able to tell people the truth about heaven and truly convince them whereas the Bible is unable to do this.

Here’s more:

“Every word in this book is true. The words of Jesus have been transcribed exactly as He said them to me.” (page 153)

“Like John, I had been called to write, and my mission was the same as his-to let people know that the marriage supper of the Lamb has already been prepared, and blessed are those who are invited to be there on the last day.” (129)

RedeemdedHippie>>>[Once again self exalatation; to even compare herself with John is such a lie.]

Later in the book, Thomas reveals that not every Christian goes to heaven. Those who are not obedient enough spend eternity wandering in a desert.

“When we got to the top, I looked over a brown and lifeless valley. Everywhere there was brown. The whole region seemed to be filled with dead grass. I noticed multitudes of people who were wearing sand-colored robes roaming aimlessly in the vicinity of the pit’s yawning mouth. Their heads were hanging low, and they looked very dejected and hopeless. “Who are these people, Lord?” I asked.

“They are disobedient ‘Christians” “How long will they have to stay in this barren, lifeless place?“Forever, My daughter. The only ones who will enter My kingdom are the pure of heart-My obedient children.” (page 46 see also page 249)

Notice that these people are not lost and are not cast into hell. Thomas has discovered a third place where people will spend eternity.

Elsewhere, Thomas tells us some of the conditions for actually getting inside heaven.

“Innocence, trust, purity of heart, fascination, a sense of wonder, belief, joy, happiness, present-moment living-all these are some of the magical qualities of childhood that God wants us to exhibit to GET TO HEAVEN” (133)

RedeemedHippie>>>[Fascination? A sense of wonder? We can be fascinated with all kinds of things; even evil. But this is NO requirement to enter heaven.]

The book is patently arrogant. Over and over again Thomas informs us that Jesus told her that she is His special daughter. She is his obedient daughter. He can use her because her heart is so pure.

RedeemedHippie>>>[Satan loves to appeal to pride. He loves to make people feel they are special. Once he can do this, he has begun to build a cult through the person he has deceived.]

Elsewhere in the book she tells us that if we do not believe the book and rejoice in it, we will not be prepared for Jesus’s coming.

RedeemedHippie>>>[This is such a fear tactic to get those who may want to take the time to test things, to follow these apostate teachings.]

We may have to endure the terror of the tribulation period or we may not make it in the gates of heaven. She claims on her website that we should read the book over and over.

RedeemedHippie>>>[This endorsesment of reading a book over and over instead ot the Word of God, is blasphemous and heretical. This is how cult thinking begins; repetition. The only safe Book to be in is the Word of God.]  It is interesting that in the foreward to the book, David Yonggi Cho writes the following, “Please do not consider this a theological thesis or a book on doctrine. Just read it and enjoy it as the author’s personal experience and testimony about what she has seen and heard in heaven.”

I suspect that Cho wrote that because even Cho can tell that the book is terribly flawed doctrinally. But his words are fascinating. We are supposed to accept the claims that this woman makes about her visits to heaven and her conversations with the Lord but we can’t accept the doctrine that the “Lord” actually speaks to her. Can you imagine saying that about any other Word from God?

Pastor ___________, Choo Thomas is a heretic and a false prophet in the first degree. I pray that the eyes of your friend will be opened to the truth.

Blessings as you battle for our Savior,

Pastor Keith Gibson

RedeemedHippie>>>[If you have read this and are familiar with Choo Thomas, run from her teachings. They are meant to deceive and rob you of truth. Test all things with the Word of God. All others are imposters and deceivers!]