Earlier in the week we wrote about the overall issue of calls for false unity from the apostate church. We must remember that the purpose driven industrial complex is a cash cow. It generates millions if not billions of dollars per year. Consider that Joel Osteen recently admitted that he spends nearly 60 million dollars per week to provide the church services at Lakewood and the accompanying television programming. The first rule of this syndicate is to protect the brand at all costs. It is bad enough when those in the world can see through the thin veneer of pseudo-piety and see the wizard for who he is but when the body of Christ starts to criticize the church they will fight back. This week's call for unity is linked above and was written by Anna Aquino. She has carved out for herself a little niche within the complex that allows her to make money, write books and claim to be a prophetic voice. That niche is in selling false prophecy. She routinely writes for Charismas News with such renowned pieces as 'Our Divine Purpose in the Prophetic Waiting Room." False prophecy is a huge part of the cabal. So let us reason together through her article beloved.
"Recently I have witnessed a growing trend of Christians who are attacking and criticizing other Christians. Their verbal attacks are cannibalistic. I'm sure these kinds of things happened long before social media ever existed, but now it seems to be getting worse. A well-known ministry said one thing that is shared and reshared around pages where their followers start petty squabbles. The next week, it will be another victim. It becomes hot gossip, and people from all walks of life are weighing in on the latest story. Sadly it's like playing telephone, these things get blown way out of proportion. The ministries get attacked. The unbelievers are reminded as to why they don't want to go into churches, and the Christians participating think they have become some kind of church vigilante." -- Anna Aquino
Let's first notice two common false arguments offered by the false unity crowd. The first is to conflate the biblical duty of discernment with something God hates -- gossip. The bible cannot be clearer. The Bereans were nobler because they searched the scriptures to make sure what they were being taught was correct. Titus commands all ministers to call out who is teaching falsely. Paul routinely named those that were causing division in the church through their false doctrines. This is not gossip. If Jesse Duplantis called me two weeks ago and told me God wanted him to fleece his flock for 54 million to buy a new jet plane and I went ahead and told you about it THAT would be gossip. When Duplantis himself goes on television to beg for the money and I mention it; that is merely speaking the truth.
The second common argument Aquino makes here is the truth will somehow drive the lost away. What utter garbage. Beloved, the things of God are foolishness to them but the world has no problem identifying the things of Satan. They have no problem identifying a snake oil salesman like Duplantis while the church tries to protect him. The world would prefer to see some compassion and honesty from the church instead of partisan politics and hateful rhetoric. The number one reason given by the "unchurched" for why they will not go to church is not that Christians vie for the truth but that they are hypocrites. That they will talk about one thing and endorse or do another. For instance, they will demand fealty to sacrificial giving and in the same breath defend a man asking for 54 million dollars for an airplane. Aquino continues:
"The news media is even beginning to pick up these stories. This is ridiculous. I have come to expect this kind of behavior from the unbeliever but from the churched? Really? Medically, when one body part attacks another body part the whole body becomes out of order and can't function. This disunity, the attacks and the brutality of the situation are causing the church to become fragmented." -- Anna Aquino
Yes, the media has always picked up on when the church behaves reprehensibly. I first saw the Duplantis story for example on a completely secular news site. How much more powerful that secular story could have been if they could have heard from any church leader correctly denouncing the Duplantis duplicity! There are two other misconceptions here we must correctly understand. The first is that this is not body of Christ fighting against itself. This is the body of Christ repelling a virus in its system. When the word faith virus of Osteen comes in and attacks the body it is the job of the body to fight back against it so the body can be healed. The same goes with the experiential Christianity of Bethel, the bridal paradigm of IHOP, or the prosperity gospel of Jesse Duplantis. This is tied directly into point number two, which is what is the actual cause of disunity in the body of Christ?
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. -- Romans 16: 17-18 (ESV)
