That article reaffirms my belief in the fact that toooo many people are caught up in following the men that they see, instead of the God of the Bible.
Sometimes a Job experience is needed to awake the true saint to the fact that they were following men and error that some of them spue.
Glad to see that the blinders are off for this person.
Wake up everybody that is still buying massive amounts of books, cd’s & every reading material that they can get their hands on!
Sometimes it takes a solid week to read 5 or 6 pages of my Sunday School book.
New International Version
2Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.
This quote right here let me know that this guy was in the ballpark, smacking home runs!
“Prosperity, after all, was the sign of having an anointing! Keller failed to dissuade me, but radio preacher Bob George - who runs a call in show - did. Now I had read 1 Timothy 6 many a time, but never understood that IT SPECIFICALLY REJECTS THE PROSPERITY DOCTRINE until he explained it to me. Why did I listen to George and not Keller? Maybe it had something to do with George and the caller catching my attention just prior by pointing out that Fred Price claimed that Jesus Christ had to be born again”
2Pe 2:2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
2Pe 2:3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[fn1] putting them into gloomy dungeons[fn2] to be held for judgment;
Greetings in Name of our Lord & Saviour Jesuc Christ!
Brother IC, I can relate to this guy’s story and your story as well. The Lord saved me away from religious and traditonal settings. I did not want anything to do with Church. I always had a reverential fear of God. But I thank God for drawing me to Him in 1997!
I never forget about 10 years ago, I was visiting my former best friend’s church in the DC Metro Area. The members had a worship like adoration for the Pastor and the 1st Lady(Brother IC where is 1st Lady in the Bible and where is Co-Pastor???LOL–I can’t stop laughing at how silly Church folks can get with these titles!) My point is church folks (not true believers) go overboard with “Anointings”! Getting back to my friend’s church, this place was like a fraternity/sorority type atmosphere–if you did not go along with the program or questioned (A good Berean) you were coming against the “anointing” or “the pastor”. Things like people standing up and cheering whenever the pastor or his wife(sorry 1st Lady-LOL) entered the building! It was totally mind-boggling of the control these people had over their members! I know that my friend (he’s a deacon there now) faithfully gives tithes plus offerings plus “mandatory” attendance to all of the services/meetings and the only ones prospering financially is the pastor and the 1st lady! I wonder how he has time for God, himself, his wife, his young children with all that “wheel spinning?”
I hate to use the word cult, but most of these megachurches/ministries are borderline cults. You hear the truth being preached but somewhere in their teachings there are half-truths. I know myself, even in the smaller fellowships I worship with, you see leaven. I was taught at an early age never take the preacher’s word for 100%, you must get into the bible and know for yourself what you hear being preached is the total truth!
We are in desparate times of greater discernment and the truth being preached AND teached 100%, because 99% of truth is still error!
IC, I am still praying for my friend that is still in this church. IC, your testimony about your wife is more powerful than you could imagine, my former best friend is trapped in this place because his wife was a member of this church and they were married by the pastor. As a matter of fact, she is on the 1st lady’s staff!
Didn’t you know Peter’s wife was co-Apostle ? The anointing was SO STRONG on Peter that she had to carry some of it . Not trying to disrespect Peter’s wife, but you know the stuff being pulled these days can’t be found in scripture at all.
Worship like adoration for a pastor. Stand at attention whenever he enters the room. I’ve been there. You’ll find that at Club New Birth right now still going on I’m certain. On top of throwing money on the “altar” when he’s “preaching”. So you know, money at his feet. And check out my post How Roman Catholicism and Word of Faith Gets it Wrong. You might not have been around back when I put that one up, but given what we are talking about AND the leader of the cult of Mary coming to America PLUS the INCREDIBLE welcoming Bush has laid out for him, it’s all related.
I hate to use the word cult, but most of these megachurches/ministries are borderline cults.
They crossed the borderline a long while back! 1 Timothy 6 says they are cults led by people depraved of mind, seeing godliness as a means of gain and passing that on to others who willingly embrace the lie. Read Matthew 23 and think about that spot in DC your friend is a deacon at while reading it. You’ll agree it’s a cult then.
Yea my wife really was not into that junk at all when we first met. I think I sort of tainted her a little while we were dating, that’s when she switched over to Wiley Jackson’s club. (Not that I suggested that spot, but me plus other factors around her resulted in her joining there for a time.) Then we got married and I felt I was taking her a step “up” to have her join me attending Fast Eddie’s Club. Talk about delusion! My wife while she was attending some of the clubs for a while, she never really fell for the money-hook like me, which kind of helped me better understand some things in time. She having had less time in the clubs than myself was holding to the true basics of the gospel better than I, who felt I was “seasoned”.
I can only praise God through Jesus Christ that we got out and like you I continue praying for others I know who are still in it. The recent scandals have helped some of them to better understand, but there are still lost sheep out there to reach, they’re not all goats.
For me it was various factors that helped like with Job’s testimony. The wife being one, but reading the Bible and the Holy Spirit helping me clearly understand the words on the page was the real kicker. Also having some online friends that while they never used or knew much scripture they just knew from common logic something was wrong with the pimps, some of their questions about what the pimps do helped too.
Of course once I started understanding I was allowing our household to be pimped, my wife said “yea I told you that you didn’t have to give them all that money” . She didn’t rub it in too much though. She might have gone for some of it, but she had a better handle on some things than I did.
I too read the article by Job and was blown away - and reminded of how I wilfully turned my mind over to pimps (first Long, then Landers).
It’s easy to look back now in disgust, but I thank God that He kept me through Jesus Christ so that I could make it out and (hopefully) warns others to stay away as well.
Hey IC, I was thinking earlier today about when Eddie “burned” mortgages for the sheep back in 97/98. I remember one brother had a testimony that he burned his mortgage note (believing it would be paid off).
The brother called the mortgage company the next day (like Eddie told him to) to check on his balance, and they said he didn’t owe anything!
I knew someone who worked in Benevolence back then, so I got (as Paul Harvey would say) “the rest of the story”. The bank had foreclosed on the house, so when he called they had already completed the proceedings - so yeah, he didn’t owe anything anymore
This poor fool thought that being “obdedient” to Eddie’s “anointing” would make him “debt free”.
This is yet a continual reminder to pray for the sheep.
I forgot to mention - my wife didn’t buy the whole “pay to play” mentality with Long or Landers either, yet she kept quiet so as not to disrupt my “ascent” in ministry.
Of course, she did the same gentle “I told you so” thing when I fled the plantation (although she was blown away at how quickly God opened my eyes…she stopped attending several years prior to my departure).
Isn’t it interesting how some women are sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit yet obedient to their husbands knowing that God will work everything out in the end?
The brother called the mortgage company the next day (like Eddie told him to) to check on his balance, and they said he didn’t owe anything!
I absolutely remember that. Fast Eddie had him stand up and tell it to everyone.
I knew someone who worked in Benevolence back then, so I got (as Paul Harvey would say) “the rest of the story”. The bank had foreclosed on the house, so when he called they had already completed the proceedings - so yeah, he didn’t owe anything anymore
Ahhh.. Now all these years I never knew that! I figured perhaps they made a clerical/data error that they would sort out later and maybe they hit him with a bill later. Interesting how we who did not have an inside scoop were never told about the rest of the story.
I always had issues with that guy’s claim and Fast Eddie playing it up, because it totally defied scripture. I mean it was one of those things that helped me see something was fuzzy in the picture way back, but I didn’t know how bad things really were and continued in that mess for too long. I mean, I knew then, that a debt just “disappearing” was not biblical. In scripture the man with a debt had to:
A) Pay his debt via his own labor and treasure.
Or
B) Pay his debt via others giving him the money. (Our sin debt is paid through Christ.)
Or
C) The lender would have to knowingly forgive the debt. (A Year of Jubilee type situation and I’m sure you’ve heard the pimps claim a supposed “Year of Jubilee” a while back.)
That’s all I see in scripture and knowing that even then I knew that guy’s story was not right. It was one of those things I kept in the back of my head and once ready to go remembered it with a host of other things.
Isn’t it interesting how some women are sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit yet obedient to their husbands knowing that God will work everything out in the end?
IC, I agree about Matthew 23. You know, I tell anyone to judge a church/ministry/pastor by the following. Isaiah 61:1-4 and Matthew 25:31-46.
If a church and/or its ministers (pastors, apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers) are not doing the Great Commission, Matthew 25:31-46, what kind of “anointing” do they have? The Lord says they will be eternally damned for not doing this!
I challenge myself and my wife, then my church fellowship and anyone else who claims to live for Christ, this is the purpose of the “anointing”, Matthew 25:31-46.
The anointing is not to build megachurches(towers of Babel), sell books, tapes, music, CDs,etc, etc, etc, etc–This is the way of Balaam! The “anointing” is for laying down one’s life, taking up their cross and serving/feeding the sheep–True Ministry. Being served by and feeding off the sheep–this is what WOLVES and HIRELINGS Do! Whether they are the likes of Tonex in music or Bishop Eddie Long in pastoral authority, they are Wolves and Hirelings!
You know Balaam was a prophet for hire–he had a true gift from the Lord but his heart led him to Baal! We are witnessing 2nd Peter 2:15 and Jude 1:11.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
That article reaffirms my belief in the fact that toooo many people are caught up in following the men that they see, instead of the God of the Bible.
Sometimes a Job experience is needed to awake the true saint to the fact that they were following men and error that some of them spue.
Glad to see that the blinders are off for this person.
Wake up everybody that is still buying massive amounts of books, cd’s & every reading material that they can get their hands on!
Sometimes it takes a solid week to read 5 or 6 pages of my Sunday School book.
New International Version
2Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.
This quote right here let me know that this guy was in the ballpark, smacking home runs!
“Prosperity, after all, was the sign of having an anointing! Keller failed to dissuade me, but radio preacher Bob George - who runs a call in show - did. Now I had read 1 Timothy 6 many a time, but never understood that IT SPECIFICALLY REJECTS THE PROSPERITY DOCTRINE until he explained it to me. Why did I listen to George and not Keller? Maybe it had something to do with George and the caller catching my attention just prior by pointing out that Fred Price claimed that Jesus Christ had to be born again”
2Pe 2:2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
2Pe 2:3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[fn1] putting them into gloomy dungeons[fn2] to be held for judgment;
April 15th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Greetings in Name of our Lord & Saviour Jesuc Christ!
Brother IC, I can relate to this guy’s story and your story as well. The Lord saved me away from religious and traditonal settings. I did not want anything to do with Church. I always had a reverential fear of God. But I thank God for drawing me to Him in 1997!
I never forget about 10 years ago, I was visiting my former best friend’s church in the DC Metro Area. The members had a worship like adoration for the Pastor and the 1st Lady(Brother IC where is 1st Lady in the Bible and where is Co-Pastor???LOL–I can’t stop laughing at how silly Church folks can get with these titles!) My point is church folks (not true believers) go overboard with “Anointings”! Getting back to my friend’s church, this place was like a fraternity/sorority type atmosphere–if you did not go along with the program or questioned (A good Berean) you were coming against the “anointing” or “the pastor”. Things like people standing up and cheering whenever the pastor or his wife(sorry 1st Lady-LOL) entered the building! It was totally mind-boggling of the control these people had over their members! I know that my friend (he’s a deacon there now) faithfully gives tithes plus offerings plus “mandatory” attendance to all of the services/meetings and the only ones prospering financially is the pastor and the 1st lady! I wonder how he has time for God, himself, his wife, his young children with all that “wheel spinning?”
I hate to use the word cult, but most of these megachurches/ministries are borderline cults. You hear the truth being preached but somewhere in their teachings there are half-truths. I know myself, even in the smaller fellowships I worship with, you see leaven. I was taught at an early age never take the preacher’s word for 100%, you must get into the bible and know for yourself what you hear being preached is the total truth!
We are in desparate times of greater discernment and the truth being preached AND teached 100%, because 99% of truth is still error!
IC, I am still praying for my friend that is still in this church. IC, your testimony about your wife is more powerful than you could imagine, my former best friend is trapped in this place because his wife was a member of this church and they were married by the pastor. As a matter of fact, she is on the 1st lady’s staff!
IndependentConservative reply on April 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm :
EnochWalked,
Didn’t you know Peter’s wife was co-Apostle
? The anointing was SO STRONG on Peter that she had to carry some of it 
. Not trying to disrespect Peter’s wife, but you know the stuff being pulled these days can’t be found in scripture at all.
Worship like adoration for a pastor. Stand at attention whenever he enters the room. I’ve been there. You’ll find that at Club New Birth right now still going on I’m certain. On top of throwing money on the “altar” when he’s “preaching”. So you know, money at his feet. And check out my post How Roman Catholicism and Word of Faith Gets it Wrong. You might not have been around back when I put that one up, but given what we are talking about AND the leader of the cult of Mary coming to America PLUS the INCREDIBLE welcoming Bush has laid out for him, it’s all related.
They crossed the borderline a long while back! 1 Timothy 6 says they are cults led by people depraved of mind, seeing godliness as a means of gain and passing that on to others who willingly embrace the lie. Read Matthew 23 and think about that spot in DC your friend is a deacon at while reading it. You’ll agree it’s a cult then.
Yea my wife really was not into that junk at all when we first met. I think I sort of tainted her a little while we were dating, that’s when she switched over to Wiley Jackson’s club. (Not that I suggested that spot, but me plus other factors around her resulted in her joining there for a time.) Then we got married and I felt I was taking her a step “up” to have her join me attending Fast Eddie’s Club. Talk about delusion! My wife while she was attending some of the clubs for a while, she never really fell for the money-hook like me, which kind of helped me better understand some things in time. She having had less time in the clubs than myself was holding to the true basics of the gospel better than I, who felt I was “seasoned”.
I can only praise God through Jesus Christ that we got out and like you I continue praying for others I know who are still in it. The recent scandals have helped some of them to better understand, but there are still lost sheep out there to reach, they’re not all goats.
For me it was various factors that helped like with Job’s testimony. The wife being one, but reading the Bible and the Holy Spirit helping me clearly understand the words on the page was the real kicker. Also having some online friends that while they never used or knew much scripture they just knew from common logic something was wrong with the pimps, some of their questions about what the pimps do helped too.
Of course once I started understanding I was allowing our household to be pimped, my wife said “yea I told you that you didn’t have to give them all that money”
. She didn’t rub it in too much though. She might have gone for some of it, but she had a better handle on some things than I did.
speakingtruth reply on April 15th, 2008 at 7:11 pm :
I too read the article by Job and was blown away - and reminded of how I wilfully turned my mind over to pimps (first Long, then Landers).
It’s easy to look back now in disgust, but I thank God that He kept me through Jesus Christ so that I could make it out and (hopefully) warns others to stay away as well.
Hey IC, I was thinking earlier today about when Eddie “burned” mortgages for the sheep back in 97/98. I remember one brother had a testimony that he burned his mortgage note (believing it would be paid off).
The brother called the mortgage company the next day (like Eddie told him to) to check on his balance, and they said he didn’t owe anything!
I knew someone who worked in Benevolence back then, so I got (as Paul Harvey would say) “the rest of the story”. The bank had foreclosed on the house, so when he called they had already completed the proceedings - so yeah, he didn’t owe anything anymore
This poor fool thought that being “obdedient” to Eddie’s “anointing” would make him “debt free”.
This is yet a continual reminder to pray for the sheep.
Oh, as a side note - James has responded to your post to him regarding staying under pimp Eddie’s control.
speakingtruth reply on April 15th, 2008 at 7:15 pm :
I forgot to mention - my wife didn’t buy the whole “pay to play” mentality with Long or Landers either, yet she kept quiet so as not to disrupt my “ascent” in ministry.
Of course, she did the same gentle “I told you so” thing when I fled the plantation (although she was blown away at how quickly God opened my eyes…she stopped attending several years prior to my departure).
Isn’t it interesting how some women are sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit yet obedient to their husbands knowing that God will work everything out in the end?
Praise God!
IndependentConservative reply on April 15th, 2008 at 10:21 pm :
speakingtruth,
I absolutely remember that. Fast Eddie had him stand up and tell it to everyone.
Ahhh.. Now all these years I never knew that! I figured perhaps they made a clerical/data error that they would sort out later and maybe they hit him with a bill later. Interesting how we who did not have an inside scoop were never told about the rest of the story.
I always had issues with that guy’s claim and Fast Eddie playing it up, because it totally defied scripture. I mean it was one of those things that helped me see something was fuzzy in the picture way back, but I didn’t know how bad things really were and continued in that mess for too long. I mean, I knew then, that a debt just “disappearing” was not biblical. In scripture the man with a debt had to:
A) Pay his debt via his own labor and treasure.
Or
B) Pay his debt via others giving him the money. (Our sin debt is paid through Christ.)
Or
C) The lender would have to knowingly forgive the debt. (A Year of Jubilee type situation and I’m sure you’ve heard the pimps claim a supposed “Year of Jubilee” a while back.)
That’s all I see in scripture and knowing that even then I knew that guy’s story was not right. It was one of those things I kept in the back of my head and once ready to go remembered it with a host of other things.
Very much so, to God be the glory.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
IC, I agree about Matthew 23. You know, I tell anyone to judge a church/ministry/pastor by the following. Isaiah 61:1-4 and Matthew 25:31-46.
If a church and/or its ministers (pastors, apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers) are not doing the Great Commission, Matthew 25:31-46, what kind of “anointing” do they have? The Lord says they will be eternally damned for not doing this!
I challenge myself and my wife, then my church fellowship and anyone else who claims to live for Christ, this is the purpose of the “anointing”, Matthew 25:31-46.
The anointing is not to build megachurches(towers of Babel), sell books, tapes, music, CDs,etc, etc, etc, etc–This is the way of Balaam! The “anointing” is for laying down one’s life, taking up their cross and serving/feeding the sheep–True Ministry. Being served by and feeding off the sheep–this is what WOLVES and HIRELINGS Do! Whether they are the likes of Tonex in music or Bishop Eddie Long in pastoral authority, they are Wolves and Hirelings!
You know Balaam was a prophet for hire–he had a true gift from the Lord but his heart led him to Baal! We are witnessing 2nd Peter 2:15 and Jude 1:11.