%1

by Pastor Mark Downey

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:19-25

The authors tell you “Reading this book takes courage” not because of its contents, but what you must do after you read it.  I say it takes perseverance to wade through the misconceptions they’ve given, because the book is a smokescreen for a new spiritual fad and fads are wrought with bait and hook.  They are not fishers of men, but poachers.  If you’re already disgruntled with whatever typical church is out there, then this is an easy excuse to find not only an alternative church, but an alternative Jesus.  Or maybe you’ll just drop out of being a Christian altogether. 

After they put a burden of guilt upon you, you are primed for the next step of participating in spontaneous anarchy in the name of “the Church.”  The point of this review is not to make a big deal about the origin of church practices and how we worship, but to warn you of how our faith can be undermined by an even more hideous hyper-apostasy than churchianity, which calls itself “organic,” as if that makes it pure as the driven snow. 

The church or ecclesia must be understood in the context of race.  If the race card is not played, then you have a stacked deck.  In other words, if the relevance of Israel in the Bible is trivialized with universalism, then the church itself is corrupted.

by Pastor Mark Downey

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55:6-11

I received a copy of this book in the mail from our Australian friend, Hank Roelofs of Christian Identity Ministries.  Evidently, it is causing some controversy over there and here as an idea that is either loved or hated; and he had an uncomfortable feeling about it and asked if I would review it.  While the book purports to support 1st century Christianity (and guess what? So do I, but not the way they do), Hank said it seemed to have the odor of rebellion (citing Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Numbers 16, which we will look at later on).  He suspects a rather effective disruption to Christian thought through the wedge of ‘divide and conquer,’ but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.  I think I can point the fickle finger of fate to these authors who have written a book paved with good intentions and where that road leads to. 

The most important thing I could ascertain from this book is that it was void of the same thing it was chastising i.e. the modern church and that is identifying the people for whom the Bible was written and what their responsibilities are.