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Sunday, April 30, 2017

CHURCH OF ENGLAND SPOKESMAN: "CHILDREN SHOULD BE FORCED TO LEARN ABOUT ISLAM"

CHURCH OF ENGLAND SPOKESMAN: "CHILDREN SHOULD BE FORCED TO LEARN ABOUT ISLAM" 
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
The Church of England has called for parents to lose the right to withdraw their children from religious education classes – because some parents are apparently using it to pull their children out of lessons on Islam.
This shocking encroachment upon the rights of parents is being justified by the Church of England’s essentially accusing parents of being ignorant for trying to deny their children exposure to “other faiths” and “world views.” Nonsense. Never before has there been any controversy about parents not wanting their children exposed to “other faiths” until Islamic supremacists burst into Western society with their full-fledged war on infidels and ambitions to conquer the “House of War,” not to mention the routine cursing of Christians and Jews during Friday prayers and the condemnation of the accursed people (Jews) and the astray people (Christians) during the daily repetitions of the Fatiha. Parents have every right to be concerned about the Islamic indoctrination of their children and to fight for their rights against what amounts to a “fatwa” by the Church of England.
Derek Holloway, the head of RE in the Church of England’s education office, has called for that right to be removed from parents and for their children to be taught other world religions regardless of the parents’ views
In America, Islamic indoctrination has also become a worrying issue. The Christian Action Network stated on its website:
The United States Department of Education has developed an Islamic indoctrination program for public schools called, ‘Access Islam.’ The lesson plans are written for grades 5 through 12. They include worksheets and videos to help students perform the 5 Pillars of Islam – prayer, fasting, alms giving, pilgrimage to Mecca and the proclamation of Muslim faith.
In Canada, Islamic indoctrination has also concerned parents, with unvetted sermons allowed by the Peel District School Board.

“Church of England Spokesman: ‘Children Should Be Forced to Learn About Islam’”, by Donna Rachel Edmunds, Breitbart, April 28, 2017:
The Church of England has called for parents to lose the right to withdraw their children from religious education classes – because some parents are apparently using it to pull their children out of lessons on Islam.
Currently parents can choose for their children not to take part in religious education (RE) lessons, and can do so without giving a reason.
But Derek Holloway, the head of RE in the Church of England’s education office, has called for that right to be removed from parents and for their children to be taught other world religions regardless of the parents’ views.
“Seemingly [some parents] do not want their children exposed to other faiths and world views, in particular Islam. We are concerned that this is denying those pupils the opportunity to develop the skills they need to live well together as adults,” he told The Times.
He added: “Anecdotally, there have also been some cases in different parts of the country of parents with fundamentalist religious beliefs also taking a similar course. This is not confined to any one particular religion or area of the country.”
In a blog post on the Church of England’s Facebook page, he insisted that children should be taught about all religions to prepare them for life as global citizens.
“Religions are global in their reach and are global in their organization. The UK is part of a global community and so the time is now right to consider the RE curriculum content balance in global terms rather than in terms of parochial English census data,” he wrote.
The Church of England runs approximately 4,700 schools, of which around 200 are secondary or middle schools. The Church is, therefore, responsible for educating around a million children each year.
However, although Government guidelines stipulate that religious education must reflect that “the religious traditions of Great Britain are in the main Christian”, they continue that it must take “account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions”.
In his blog, Mr. Holloway supported this principle, writing: “Church schools are not ‘Faith schools for the faithful, they are church schools serving the community’. Therefore, we do not seek to deliver a Religious Education (RE) curriculum suitable only for those from Christian backgrounds but a Religious Education that is an essential component of an education that enables all the pupils we serve from all faiths and none to flourish and be prepared for life in modern Britain.
He added: “The right of withdrawal from RE now gives comfort to those who are breaking the law and seeking to incite religious hatred.”
However, Mr. Holloways’ blog has raised concerns from parents over state interference. Martin Earnest commented: “This is an appalling proposal and crosses the line too far of church interfering in the State and privacy of conscience.
“I will be pulling my child from RE to avoid religious indoctrination via the State.”
Another reader, Eric Norton, accused the church of hypocrisy, taking issue with Mr. Holloways assertion that church schools are not faith schools….”

PRESIDENT TRUMP "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" RALLY SPEECH IN HARRISBURG, PA

PRESIDENT TRUMP "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" RALLY SPEECH IN HARRISBURG, PA 
 

JUDGMENT IN THE HOUSE OF GOD~WHERE TRUTH IS CENSORED BY FEAR OF OFFENDING, GROSS IGNORANCE & IRS 501C3 TAX EXEMPTION THREATS

 WHERE TRUTH IS CENSORED BY FEAR OF OFFENDING, GROSS IGNORANCE, IRS 501C3 
TAX EXEMPTION THREATS, AND THE BOTTOM LINE
JUDGMENT IN THE HOUSE OF GOD 
BY ROB PUE
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
I have to say, sometimes — MANY TIMES — I feel like Jeremiah, who was known as the “weeping prophet.”  I do not claim to be a prophet, but I know what I know, and I cannot UNknow what I know…  Life would be much easier, I suppose, if I were to simply tune out and live like the rest of the world; focused on sports, worldly entertainment, easy living and comfort.  But I know God’s Word and I see what is coming upon this Earth, and surely, the judgment of God is coming soon, to all those who now live in ignorant bliss.  I feel such an urgency to sound the warning signal and call people to return to God in repentance, seeking Him with all their heart, NOW, while He may still be found.
As we read in 1 Peter 4, “It is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  Yes, my friends, God’s judgment will BEGIN with those who claim to be a part of His Church…  Jesus said that “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few ever find it.”  The truth of the matter is, MOST of those who sit with you in church every week will one day by VERY SURPRISED to learn that Jesus never knew them.  I wonder how many professing Christians are, in reality, walking that broad road, all the while believing they are safely and soundly “saved,” because they have been purposely misled by cowardly, people-pleasing preachers.
We live in a day and age of such deception and delusion, the likes of which I have never seen before in all my years.  If we cannot hear the truth of Satan’s lies exposed in our Christian churches, WHERE, I ask you, CAN we?  We are now two, if not three generations past the time when people had even a modicum of Biblical literacy.  Those days are long past.  Moses warned: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;  tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, while you lie down and when you get up.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…”
The words we were to hold onto so securely — AND TEACH TO OUR CHILDREN — included the knowledge, wisdom and understanding of God’s Holy Word.  I dare say that today, most households in America probably contain numerous copies of the Bible, but they are rarely, if ever, opened.  Most church-goers no longer even bother to go through the motions of carrying them to church.  After all, the Scripture the pastor has chosen, to prove his point,  is placed up there (for our convenience) on the big TV or projection screen.  It seems, in our churches today, there is no more need for the Bible.
Thus we have a generation of people so far removed from the truth of God’s Word we  don’t even know what we don’t know.  A wealth of knowledge and wisdom — all the ancient Holy Scriptures, the very words of GOD HIMSELF — lay there at our fingertips, yet most cannot be bothered to even look, much less study.  We rely on what the “pastor” tells us; and sadly, most of the sermons preached in our modern American churches today PURPOSELY EVADE the whole counsel of God, lest one in the congregation might be offended.
One man recently asked the very serious question:  “Why must I go outside the church in order to get the truth?”  He was referring to the recent Wisconsin Christian News Ministry Expo and Conference in which we featured expert speakers to directly discuss the topics of Islam, Homosexuality, the God-ordained Family, Apostasy in our churches, Biblical Illiteracy, Political Correctness,  and what is required for true salvation in Jesus Christ.  We addressed these most important issues HEAD ON —  to standing-room-only crowds of people — hungry for truth that they will NEVER hear in their churches.  We had people attend our conference from far and wide —  coming from all over Wisconsin, at least 7 other states AND CANADA… yet the local pastors in the area actually BOYCOTTED our event, and would not even announce it to their congregations.
This man asked this question (“Why must I go outside the church in order to get the truth?”)  of his pastor, and his pastor’s pastor, and several men in leadership at his church.  None would answer.  They consider him a trouble-maker because he presses for answers they are not willing to give.   The senior pastor even implied he might be “happier” at another church…. a “polite, non-offensive” way of asking him to leave.  This after years of faithful attendance.
I’m becoming convinced that the seminaries MUST have special training courses to teach new pastors how to evade the hard topics completely, lest someone be offended; how to be “people-pleasers,” how to run a successful money-making business, and how to be popular and well liked.  It seems that’s all they know… but there is such a HUNGER AND THIRST for the WHOLE counsel of God — for the WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH… and people are not getting it in their churches today.
After the terror attacks on 9/11, churches nationwide were packed with people…  they came to find truth and they came to find answers.  They came seeking God, but He wasn’t there….  And so within a month, the churches were emptier than before.  Those who were sincerely seeking God had to go OUTSIDE the churches in order to find Him.  I am sad to say that we have turned Christianity into a mere religious exercise, and our pulpits are mostly filled with “hirelings,” as we read about in John, Chapter 10:  Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  The hireling is not the shepherd who owns the sheep.  So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.  Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep.”
Am I too harsh?  Sorry, those were Jesus’ words.  Not mine.  Most of today’s pastors love to be praised by the people;  they love to be popular and well liked.  I’ve said it before, but in case you missed it:  PLEASE, show me ONE MAN OF GOD in the Bible who courageously spoke the truth — the whole counsel of God — who was well liked and popular among the people.  Such a one does not exist.
The writer of Hebrews tells us what REAL MEN OF GOD accomplished for their Lord, and what they endured throughout the Scriptures — and what REAL CHRISTIANS should EXPECT to endure even today:  “they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised;  they shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies…. Others were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were put to death by stoning, they were sawed in two, they were killed by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated…”  Now I ask you:  how many of US are willing to endure such things in order to follow Christ today?  And perhaps more to the point, how many of our PASTORS would be willing?  Sadly, most today are afraid to even mention the hard things that are deemed “politically incorrect,” for fear of someone taking offense…much less consider enduring any sort of hardship — or fighting for righteousness.
A case in point:  I recently warned a pastor that there were people in his congregation who were embracing and promoting the apostate movie “The Shack,” in which God is portrayed as an African woman, in which Jesus states He does not want people to become “Christians,” but rather, ALL religious paths lead to God’s acceptance and forgiveness;  and the Holy Spirit is portrayed as another woman with a Hindu name.  These regular church-goers said it was by far the best “Christian” movie they’d ever seen and were highly recommending it to others.  I warned their pastor — “You MUST speak on this!  This is apostasy of the highest degree and people in YOUR church are being led astray by this false teaching!”  But the pastor refused to address the issue in any way….  because some might be offended if he attacked the sacred cow of this Hollywood heresy.
Last summer I attended a funeral, where the pastor openly declared from the pulpit that “God needed another angel,” thus the untimely death of the deceased.  SURELY this pastor knows that people are not transformed into angels when they die… yet he purposely led all those people astray, with false doctrine about a false future…  he may as well have said, “every time a bell rings and angel gets its wings!”  That’s about the depth of the theology we are receiving in our modern American churches today.
I am most concerned about our children.  Scripture tells us that there is ENMITY between the seed of the serpent (Satan) and the seed of the woman (our children)…  Satan goes after our kids the hardest, because they are his greatest of trophies.  If he can steal the hearts and minds of our children, he can destroy all of mankind.  I believe we are seeing this come to pass in these last days, right now.  Our kids spend 6-8 hours a day, five days a week in government schools, better described as Liberal, Socialist indoctrination centers.  Then, a scant FEW will spend an hour or two in a church once a week, where they are taught Bible STORIES, as if they were fairy tales.
We have just recently observed the Easter season.  I received at least a dozen sets of photographs from people in various places; images from Easter celebrations at churches where they live.  The pictures showed senior pastors dressed up like clowns, movie characters and of course, the Easter Bunny.  The same thing happens at Christmas, when churches mix Santa Claus in with the birth of Christ.  We’ve turned HISTORY, wisdom and knowledge, found in God’s Word into fairy tales… all to attract kids to our Establishment churches…  and then we rejoice when so many kids show up for the easter egg hunt, the bounce houses, the face painting, the jugglers and clowns….  we measure the success of our Easter “services” by how many kids came out and collected candy-filled eggs, after which they heard a short candy-coated message about a ficticious “Jesus.”  How can we be SO BLIND?!   Look what we are doing to our kids.   If only we could see the millstones we are heaping around our own necks as we deceive our own children.
I’ve heard it said that “Church is not supposed to be a museum for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners.”  I beg to differ.  THE CHURCH, (the one of which the gates of hell will not prevail against), is the BODY OF CHRIST….  unrepentant sinners will NEVER be comfortable there.  Church is SUPPOSED to be the House of God, but we have turned it into a worldly, carnal social club, designed to make everyone feel comfortable and accepted in their sin.  But Church is supposed to be a gathering place for the children of God — and contrary to popular belief, not EVERYONE is a child of God.  If you are not saved by the blood of the Lamb, then you are at ENMITY with God. You’re His ENEMY… you are a child of the devil.  For what fellowship can light have with darkness?  Yet many churches today, LITERALLY entice the unsaved in with darkness and carnality….
Is it any wonder, then, that there is now emerging a REMNANT — those who take the Lord and His Word SERIOUSLY… they are COMING OUT of these carnal social clubs and as Jesus said they would be, they are scattered — sheep without a shepherd — because of the wolves, and the hirelings that refuse to speak the truth.  Church should be a place of discipleship and growth, where shepherds teach their flocks to GO OUT and make disciples, teaching them to OBEY all Jesus commanded.  Not a place of entertainment and indulgence.  Our kids see through the hypocrisy clearly, and want no part of it, if that’s what “Church” is all about.  “Christianity,” they say, does not “work” for them…. thus they choose instead, the false doctrines of demons, if they follow any spiritual path at all.
You see, they’ve been taught that the Christian life is one of peace, prosperity, comfort and ease.  Free candy when they’re kids and comfort and ease when they grow up.  We, as adults, often believe just the same.  We are never challenged to study and dig into the Word of God ourselves.  We’re rarely asked to DO anything at all.   We simply come and sit, and pay our “dues,” and listen to a comforting message that makes us feel good about ourselves.
Contrast this to what Peter spoke of regarding what the REAL Christian life is like:  “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ…If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you…If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.  For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household.”
Jesus does not call us to a life of comfort and ease, indulgence, carnality and acceptance of sin.  He calls us to repent, to go OUT and make disciples, teaching them all He commanded.  That REQUIRES us to be politically incorrect in this world filled with demonic delusions and lies.  Those who follow Christ will NOT be popular or well liked.  But neither will they hear those awful words one day, “Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity… I never knew you.”
Audio CDs and transcripts of this message are available when you call me at Wisconsin Christian News, (715) 486-8066.  Or email Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com and ask for message number 196.

JORY MICAH, SARAH BESSEY & THE "CHRISTIAN FEMINIST" GOAD KICKERS

JORY MICAH, SARAH BESSEY & 
THE "CHRISTIAN FEMINIST" GOAD KICKERS
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POST ABOUT JORY MICAH:
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
 
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”  Acts 26:14
NO.  It’s not some new contemporary Christian rock band comprised of Joan Jett divas for Jesus sorts.
And, NO, it’s not intended to be either a subtle or candid way of calling Jory Micah or Sarah Bessey (or any of their cadre of co-antagonistic, ecclesiastic-equality gender crusaders) a cow or an ox.
It’s just that it’s more than obvious to any abide in my word believer that Micah and her “Christian feminist” compatriots are doing nothing short of “kicking against the goads.”  It’s like when a genuine, Scripture-informed believer turns on the evening news and immediately recognizes Scriptural truth being played out in Dolby Hi-Def.  Unless you’re unregenerate and therefore unable to recognize it, God is “giving them up” across the “breaking news now” globe in His active, ongoing, righteous judgment.  You can’t miss it.  Same with Jory and her “we don’t like what the Bible says about women” crowd.  A believer can see that they really are just typical, Scripture-denying, run-of-the-mill goad-kickers.
“They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.” 2 Peter 2:13
Micah made her goad-kicking proclivities very evident in a recent post on her website, which is, btw, tag-lined with the subtitle #BreakingTheGlassSteeple.  Her March 29, 2017, blog entry, Come To Our Table (Luke and I Are Starting A “Church”)” outlines clearly the numerous goads against which Jory is foot jolting in the name of ecclesiastic gender equality, social justice, and the epic quest of self-glory.
The triplicate identifiers on Micah’s site – “Advocate – Writer – Preacher” – give more than an ample clue about her Scripture-denying perspective.  But the article adds a certain clarity to her “look at me, I’m Sandra Dee in Minist-reee” self-descriptors.
If you follow my ministry, you know that I have been like a lost puppy when it comes to finding a church to call home.
“Preacher” Micah has no church home.  Of course, we knew that from her blog’s title.  She and her apparently pants-sharing marital colleague are starting a “church,” duly denoted by Micah in her post in the “scare quotes” format. Whatever Micah starts won’t truly be a church because, whatever Micah claims, she is not truly a “preacher,” unless one counts false teachers in that category. (I do not.)
The reason for “preacher” Micah’s unchurched status isn’t because of fundamental theological motivations.  That is to say, she and hubby have not been unable to find a doctrinally sound church.  They have, rather, been unable to find a church that suitably meets the conditions of Micah’s own pietistically, self-righteous petulant preferences.  Her preeminent personal passions have not been sufficiently shared by potential church candidates.  In other words, Micah has not yet found a church that does what she pleases.
Sucked in by the post-modern, “it’s about me” culture, Micah wrongly believes the church is about her, rather than Christ. Hers is not altogether unlike witnessing a toddler tirade on the cereal aisle where the parental word “No” has just been uttered.   For Micah, the petulant thrashing and shrill shrieking just happen to be in an aisle bordering church pews, well … it would be if she could find a “church home” in which to throw her ecclesiastic fit.  It’s a classic case of Scriptural goad-kicking.
Our hearts burn for social justice in both the Church and in society. I have dedicated my life to ministry and theological academia, while Luke has dedicated his life to working with local governments and political academia.
We have always searched for ways to combine our passions, but we have struggled to find a church home in which we feel our unique combination of gifts are seen and appreciated.
Social justice, of course, isn’t the gospel and is not hinted at as the goal of the church.  Though popular in the contemporary “we are the world” church culture, Micah’s preference for a visibly proactive, social justice focus is absent in her thumbs-up/thumbs-down review of possible congregational suitors. The churches she has assessed with the hope of gracing them with her membership have received the metaphorical, nail-polished “thumbs down.”
“True social justice is outside of reach this side of heaven.  That is not an excuse, but it is the reality of life in a fallen world.  One day, the Lord Jesus will return to establish His kingdom.  Then the earth will experience true justice.  In the meantime, God has not called the church to change the world socially, but rather to turn it upside down with the world-tilting power of the gospel. (Acts 17:6)”  Jesse Johnson, Right Thinking In A Church Gone Astray
Like Johnson says, the church has a mission.  It’s found in the commission. (See Matthew 28:16-20) Social justice is notably absent. The Gospel is the singular feature. Broadcast that Gospel and, it being the “power of God to save,” (Romans 1:16) we can trust that we will find God doing what only God can do – regenerating dead souls with new life. Want to change the world?  Fine. Do it by doing the commission thing and letting God do the change thing.
But it’s not just the lack of a Micah-approved level of social justice consciousness her candidate churches have lacked.  Those churches apparently also grievously offended the pompous Micah duo as the look-at-us limelight was absent.  As she said, they need to be “seen and appreciated.”  It’s hard to be humble, evidently, when you’re a gloriously gifted goad-kicker.
The Damascus road goad-kicker-turned-apostle would be a helpful source for the attention-coveting Micah.  “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  Or am I trying to please man?  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  (Galatians 1:10)  Paul, of course, was a legitimate minister with a properly oriented passion – the Gospel.  Micah, who is disqualified by gender – God’s rule, not man’s (See 1 Timothy 3:2 or 1 Timothy 2:11-12, for example) – for the ministerial moniker, has yet disqualified herself further by seeking to please man (perhaps “please people” is more appropriate), receive their due laudations, and, most importantly, do it from a pulpit.  Thus, goad-kicking has identified her as a usurper of Christ in His Word, not a servant of Him by it.
And so we have struggled for years to know where we fit in the world of Christianity. Even if we were to leave evangelicalism, we have wondered where we would go.
Perhaps that is why we have such a heart for those who feel left out: because we know what it is like to have much to offer the Church and world, but to go unnoticed by those with influence and power.
I have often been overlooked in church jobs, and Luke has often been overlooked in local government jobs. We understand what it is like not to have a seat at the table. (Emphasis original)
Last year, Luke and I got involved with planting a church that seemed like it was going to be a great fit, but it turned out that their vision took a turn that was simply different from ours.
Micah and her husband “have much to offer the Church,” but they can’t get “a seat at the table.”  They have been forced to “go unnoticed.”  (Actually, they’re not going unnoticed. They’re just “going.” Sans the successful procurement of a Micah-approved church home, she and hubby have, according to her blog, effectively picked up their toys and gone off to play “church” by themselves.)  How can this happen?  How has the church managed to scrape along for two millennia without this dynamic, ego-driven, gifted duo?  Doesn’t the local bride of Christ know what an opportunity this is?  Why is no church willing to change their entire ecclesiastical structure and ministerial philosophy (and toss Scripture and orthodoxy to the post-modern winds of tolerance) to comply with Micah’s mandates so as to procure the duo as its own limelight glowing congregants?
What this boils down to is something Christ once chided the Jews for doing.  “Do not grumble among yourselves.” (John 6:43)   Micah is grumbling about how the Lord has built His church, and how He has done it sans the dynamic, doctrine-denying, hubristic Micah duo.  What’s worse is that He’s built it with a “Men Only” sign on the pulpit … which, after all, is … His pulpit. Grumbling = goad-kicking.
Of course, that’s the real goad against which Micah kicks … authority … particularly the authority of Christ as Head of his Church and, as a result, the Lord’s direct establishment of male authority in that church.  Micah wants women in the pulpit.  It is the “glass steeple” she aims to shatter.
“Several weeks ago, I went to church with my parents at a local Assembles of God Church. I grew up AG, and I thought I would try returning to my roots, but when I opened the bulletin and saw that all of the elders were men, my heart sank and I knew that I could never again return to any church that claims to empower women in ministry, but does not actually do it.”
“…I pray they would have an awakening and begin to empower women in church leadership.”
“Women ministers are tired of being overlooked in the conservative evangelical church. Often, women ministers end up marrying male ministers who have the same exact training and education as they do; yet, the women stay as “children’s pastors” or “youth pastors,” while they watch their husbands climb the church-ministry career ladder.”
“This is not only hurtful and unloving towards female ministers; it is disrespectful and demeaning.” (Emphasis original)
If you’re a genuine believer and can’t look around at the culture and recognize that gender and sexual persuasion are presently a favorite, powerful tools of the enemy to keep those entrapped in his darkened fortress of wrong, damning beliefs, then you need to spend a bit more time in the Book.   The enemy of God, who has lost the war, is yet winning many battles among those too focused on things below to recognize the spiritual warfare going on.  Go ask the Methodists how they could tolerate lesbian women in the pulpit of Christ’s church and you’ll find out what happens when Scripture isn’t exalted as the church’s sufficient authority. (See Psalm 138:2)  Spiritual warfare points go to the enemy, not to the Methodists.
Whether it’s the LGBTQ-ee-ii-ee-ii-ooh agenda playing on the Romans 1 big screen of culture, or the egalitarian, “I am woman, hear me preach” pursuits of the likes of Micah, to fail to recognize this strategic maneuver of the enemy is to easily fall victim to it. The spiritually dead of the world can’t avoid it, but a real “minister” should.  To suggest, however, that the structure of the church established by the Lord “is disrespectful and demeaning” fails to understand what starts way back in Genesis 1:1In the beginning, GOD.  Jesus hasn’t forgotten that we are the creatures and He the Creator … but obviously, gender-driven goad-kickers have.
Besides her “pride of Micah” malady, her penchant for social justice and ecclesiastic gender equality serve to expose the “preacher’s” serious mishandling of the word of truth.  While Scripture clearly holds no sacred place of authority and sufficiency for her, when she does reference the Word, it is not through the lens of sound doctrine and viable hermeneutics, but through the lens of her own personal passions.

Umm, not exactly there pastrix.  When Micah uses “patriarchy” it carries the intentional tone of “God’s not being fair.” She attributes it as a result of sin, something from which Jesus has now redeemed us.  What she actually misses is that male headship doesn’t start in Genesis 3:16 but is scripturally elucidated in Genesis 2:18.  God made man first.  He then made woman.  Why?  Man needed “a helper fit for him.”  “Helper” does not imply woman’s inferiority, but man’s inadequacy alone.  Paul, the male apostle, elaborates this God established order in 1 Timothy 2:12-13, confirming the order God has established prior to the fall.  (Primogeniture is the technical term for it … priority and greater authority went to firstborn males.  It’s throughout the Old Testament.  Jacob and Esau is a notable example from Genesis 25:29-34.  It’s repeated in places like Genesis 49:3, Exodus 13:2, Numbers 3:13, Numbers 8:17, 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2 Chronicles 21:3.  Christ, of course, is the preeminent example of this divine principle as Colossians 1:15 emphasizes.  Course, this is going by the Book … one that Micah-like crusaders prefer to dismiss.)   
Beyond her miss on the authority structure established by God, Micah’s poor interpretation of Genesis 3:16, even if it were remotely correct, invalidates itself because if Jesus redeemed us from the dysfunction of “patriarchy,” why didn’t He redeem women from “the pain of childbirth,” also noted in that verse?  But from the outset, Micah fails to realize this is God Himself speaking in this verse.  He is issuing the curse.  Jesus redeems, but He does not contradict.  God’s curse was not “patriarchy.”  His curse was judgment.   Plus, if Jesus intended for the judgment to be reversed with regards to God’s established order, He failed to inform Paul who gave quite clear instructions on the matter for both husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:22-25.


So impassioned is Micah’s vitriolic kick against the goad of Christ’s established authority in His church that, in a maneuver not unlike a childish nana-nana-boo-boo taunt more common to a schoolyard battle of slurs, she often refers to the Holy Spirit as a “she.”  This is, of course, in intentional disregard for Scripture’s numerous references to the Spirit as “He,” most notably from our Lord Himself. (The screen clips above also exhibit an array of other erroneous theological presumptions, but are provided merely to show Micah’s intentional derision against the Third Person of the Trinity.)
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”  John 16:7-8
#ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear
Micah’s demand for gender equality in the pulpit and elsewhere in church and denominational leadership is shared by many others who also share her fundamental disregard for Scripture.  A recent Twitter thread #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear initiated by fellow goad-kicker Sarah Bessey served as a grumbling point for women who don’t get their ministerial and ecclesiastic leadership dreams of gender glory satisfied.
Sarah Bessey
The Scripturally irrelevant Relevant Magazine ran an article entitled  #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear Puts Church Misogyny On Blast. CBN News carried a similar article about the viral hashtag entitled #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear Reveals World of Hurt in the Church, describing it as “as a forum to discuss experiences of discrimination and oppression within the church.” The webzine ChurchLeaders featured a staff-written piece,  The Hashtag #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear Is Blowing Up Twitter and Pointing Out Misogyny in the Church, stating that the “experiences women are relating are heartbreaking, and sadly point to a divisive rift in the church.”  The hashtag has been modified to also include #ThingsOnlyBlackChristianWomenHear.
Last week, Jesus Feminist author Sarah Bessey took to Twitter to start a conversation under the #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear hashtag, and it turned into a bit of a thing. Women tweeted stories of the misogyny, sexism and patriarchal abuse they’d experienced in the Church.  (Source)
Bessey is the author of the 2013 book “Jesus Feminist: An Invitation To Revisit The Bible’s View of Women.”  The book was endorsed by Brian McClaren, Jen Hatmaker, Shauna Nyquist, and others for whom the Bible is often a really nifty suggestion, but hardly an authoritative resource that should be seriously utilized as a guide for the 21st-century church or “Christian.”  (Oh, and anytime you get an invitation to “revisit” what the Bible says, activate your Berean discernment skills … someone likely wants the “revisit” to result in a “revision” to correspond with their particular preferences.  Eisegesis and narcigesis may well be afoot!)
Like Micah, Bessey is a Christian feminist or a feminist Christian or, perhaps to hear her tell it, a victim of 2,000 years of Christ’s leadership over His church. Here are a few lines from Bessey’s blog. (You’ll find these cited from her entry entitled On Being A Christian And Being A Feminist … And Belonging Nowhere.)
Yet I choose to be a feminist in the way that I believe Jesus would be a feminist.
(Yeah, well, that sounds really idyllic if not for the fact that the premise of Jesus as a 21st century post-modern feminist is not merely Biblically absurd but patently contradictory to how a genuine believer is to think and behave. We are to become like Christ, not remake him in our image to suit our post-modern, gender-interpreted fancy. And Jesus was assuredly NOT a gender-focused feminist, not when He was on mission on earth … nor is He now, in heaven, where there is neither male or female.)
When I decided to become a disciple of Jesus, it meant that I wanted to live my right-now life the way that I believed Jesus would do it.
(Okay, so we’ve got some Joel-ette Osteen “right-now life” nonsense going on.  But the same argument applies from above, with the necessary notation that no one gets to decide to “become a disciple of Jesus.” He picks His disciples, from the original Galilean gang all the way through the last soul just saved on the planet as you read this. But, interestingly enough, we can know who His disciples are because they are the ones who “abide in my word,” per John 8:31.  Abiding, btw, implies obedience, which makes one think Bessey, Micah, and their ilk are falling a bit short on the “abiding” part.  And, if you are one who loves Jesus, you’re also one who obeys Jesus … according to His Word per John 14:23. The result of all this abiding, obedience, and love?  Fruit.  That’s how, according to Jesus, you can tell.  Matthew 7:20)
Because I follow Jesus, I want to see God’s redemptive movement for women arch towards justice.
(I’m not really sure what this even means, but it smacks of gender justice in the church, a reality that – had God wanted it according to Bessey’s egalitarian benchmarks – would assuredly have been established by Jesus when he started building it. Evidently, what Bessey wants to see from “God’s redemptive movement” isn’t in line with that “your will be done” thing from the disciple’s prayer.  Matthew 6:10)
Nevertheless, Bessey’s thread soon filled with bloviating gender-driven angst, orthodox ecclesiology-bashing ardor, and occasionally outright vitriolic attacks by the “Christian feminist” forces, grumbling that conservative churches dare remain obedient to Scripture. A few samples are below. You can peruse the Twitter thread for more at your own discretion.

(Well, if you got up to preach, I’d get up and walk out too.  But that’s going by the Book.  See Titus 1:6-9, 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 2:11-14 for why this is Biblically unacceptable.  Goad-kickers get no point on this one.)


(Course, if you take a look at, say, 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and then consider our responsibility to each other as siblings in Christ, as is pointed out in 1 Corinthians 8:9, it seems Biblically obvious that a woman’s immodest attire might indeed cause a “brother to stumble.”  If wearing something immodest gets you called out because it might lead a brother to sin, imagine standing before Christ in that outfit, explaining it to Him.  Of course, Jesus had rather a rather stark warning about those who would cause believers to sin … it was better to be dead.  See Matthew 18:6-10.  Bringing temptation to others is a consequence of a poor – or absent – relationship with Christ.   Another point goes to God’s truth.  Goad-kickers are zero for two.)


(Umm, “patriarchal death grip?”  Really?  So Jesus who is the God-Man has been building His church according to His will but that represents a “patriarchal death grip?”  And Jesus, the head of the church, with His “death grip” is preventing the Spirit – whom Micah identifies as female – from reigning?  This is blasphemous.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not in an ecclesiastic power struggle.  Christ rules and reigns in His Church and the Spirit of God … well … HE always, always, ALWAYS points to Christ.  See John 14:26, John 15:26,  &John 16:14, for example.)
#ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear substantially offers a prideful, self-centered perspective, the same one that has precluded Micah from finding a church home.  It presumes that church, Christianity, Scripture, and God are focused primarily on “me.”  My needs, my wants, my preferences – even noble ones – must take precedence.  “Thy will be done” is fine, so long as it falls within the parameters of “my will being done.”  For the crusading Christo-feminists, their “will” is being defied by an evangelical church that still finds God’s principles in His Word more persuasive than culture’s passions.
While there should be zero tolerance for actual gender-based abuses, vulgarities, disrespect, and misogynistic behavior against women in the church, the notion that such abuse occurs because of the Lord-ordained structure of male leadership in His church is illegitimate.  #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear should represent the exact same things that Christian men should hear … the Word of God.  Instead, contemporary church culture has often succumbed to validating victimhood on the basis of worldly standards.  But to shout “victim” at the Biblically obedient church because, as a woman, you are not allowed certain roles and functions doesn’t diminish the truth of God’s standards in His Word, but it does diminish your claim to be an authentic follower of Jesus.  To love Jesus and be His authentic disciple demands obedience to His Word as our fully authoritative and sufficient guide for, in it, “he has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”  (2 Peter 1:3)
The evangelical church has absorbed enough of the Western culture to adopt the secular mindset that defines such things as fairness, equality, tolerance, and authority on worldly, not Biblical, terms. Denomination after denomination, church after church, has fallen from their first love of sound biblical doctrine by catering to worldly desires and allowing women to occupy roles forbidden to them by God in his Word.
Like Himself, God’s Word is immutable and eternal.  Those churches and denominations who follow culture’s queues rather than God’s commands should take seriously the words of the Lord to the church of Ephesus: “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first.”  (Revelation 2:4-5)  The failure to abide by this warning, instead following the sirens’ cry of feminism, brings the certain disdain of the Lord, “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants …”  (Revelation 2:20)  The judgment of the Lord for this sin in Thyatira is severe: “…and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.  And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart …”  (Revelation 2:23)  Shall the judgment for disobedience be any less severe for the church today that fails in obedience to the unchanging commands of Scripture?  Culture may change, but His Word does not.
To goad-kick against God’s pre-fall order may establish Micah and Bessey’s worldly claims to victimhood; it may create a groundswell of cultural support; it may even become a viral media topic, but it does not validate their claim to be a child of His.   Prioritizing feminism over Jesus is idolatry and a concept foreign to His prescribed will for women in His Word.  Those who do it should be cautioned to seriously examine themselves, because it just may be that they are not in the faith. (2 Corinthians 13:5)  And those of us who are in the faith … well, we should pray … pray for those who seek to usurp God’s Word and Christ’s authority in His church … and pray that we will obediently “abide in my word.”  (John 8:31)
The serpent is still slithering about … whispering “Hath God said?” … while he looks to collect more goad-kickers, especially those who claim to belong to Christ.
For more on the false teaching, goad-kicking Jory Micah, see Brandon Hines’ review HERE.