I normally try to write blog posts with more substance than what I am about to spew out, but I think it’s a good way to make my feelings public while building an argument for my case. I debated whether to publish this at all, but I went ahead with it because I felt that it was necessary to shed light on the true issue at hand; apostasy in the church. More specifically, I believe this is a direct result of Satan entering into where he can be most effective; the church. I believe this whole thing has come about because Satan does not want the body of Christ to wake up and become fully aware of the spiritual realities which exist just beyond the veil of the material world.
Before I jump in, I want to let you know that I am working on several video and book projects at the moment, as well as maintaining Canary Cry Radio, my Youtube Page, and this blog. So I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, so I will be plenty busy over the summer. I am hoping to get more videos out and transform the blog into a more multi-media thing where I have text, video, and audio podcast on each post. That’s the goal, but it also means I will have to post less often. In either case, I hope someone can relate to the things I experienced this week, and what I am posting about today.
THE BACKGROUND
About two months ago, Doug Hamp and myself decided to try to push for a Prophecy Conference in Southern California. Doug being close with LA Marzulli, we would have had an all star line up. We also felt that my home church (non-denominational), which I will keep nameless (do enough digging and you can figure it out) would be a great place to host a conference like this because it would invite like minded people to gather together from San Diego and Los Angeles since Orange County sits right in between the two major counties. Well the two guys were on board and so I began to write a proposal to one of the church leaders. After I sent the first email, I got a reply saying that they were interested and that it would get pushed to higher people within the church to confirm the event. What we were merely asking for was a room to rent out for a day. My church, which has a beautiful campus hosts various conferences and meetings throughout the year (half the time having nothing to do with Church or Christianity). So I figured an event focused on Prophecy would be something they are open to. After having a face to face conversation with this person, I sent her the email proposal. This is what I said in the email:
“Thank you for taking the time to listen to me this morning. I really appreciate it. Please pray for discernment over the request. Below is the official proposal of what you can expect to see in this one day conference. The speakers will be Doulas Hamp and LA Marzulli. Doug has spoken for Doc Beshores class and even has his endorsement on the back of his book.
Like I mentioned, we will be speaking about topics which should be, in my opinion, of greater concern to the church and it’s future than people are recognizing. I know when I had these questions, it was not our church who helped me answer them. In fact, because of the lack of answers, I nearly lost my faith just a year or so after I declared my faith in Christ. I don’t want anyone else to go through that because what I found was the the Biblical perspective is the BEST answer and Jesus’ light shines MUCH brighter after understanding these truths. Please give us an opportunity to speak into these topics and provide space for curious people in the church to get answers.
I get that most people don’t like talking about things that make them uncomfortable. But I believe it is understanding the enemy and the darkness revealed to us through God’s Word that makes the work of Jesus and his Gospel message shine! Again thank you for giving me an opportunity to share this with you. Here is a brief proposal of what we would like to do:
Preparing the Church for the Future (Name is still in the works)
(The views and opinions expressed in this conference may not necessarily reflect those of ******* Church)
This will be a one day conference with two speakers, both of which are evangelical Christians who will present a case for how the prophetic events described in the bible are manifesting in our time today. This conference will be scripture based, rooted in the literal interpretation of proper exegesis and hermeneutics of the bible, and have a scholastic approach where all information is credible, historic and well documented. The goal is to equip the body of Christ with a posture they can take moving forward into a time the Bible speaks more about than almost any other point in history. Unlike most conferences and teachings that concern prophecy, this event will not only be informing and eye opening to the audience, but will provide three crucial, practical, and tangible tools for the Bible believing Christian:
1. Thinking outside the box
What this conference will provide is a practical way for the believer to begin seeing the world with Scripture goggles in every facet of life. From personal struggles to what we see in the news, media, and the public forum, the goal is to give the audience the confidence that the Word of God is more than just a self-help book – but actually a book that is relevant and speaks into world events unfolding right now! We will speak into topics many churches would never touch on but are totally embedded in main stream culture while providing that solid foundation of God’s Word as the basis for understanding it’s deeper implications. We believe this is vital for the future generation of Christians who are living in a culture where Christianity is being more and more compromised, pushed away and considered irrelevant.
“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me” Hosea 4:6
2. Outreach
The dichotomy within the churches today seems to be that either they focus entirely on studying the scriptures while avoiding serving opportunities, or on the other hand, serving consistently but spending little to no time in the Word. This conference will open up new ideas and opportunities to bridge the two sides by having conversations about what it looks like to serve the community in a brand new way. While many speakers and teachers of prophecy are very good at giving lectures, we hope to open up an extensive time of Q&A following the lectures as well as discussion time (much like Lumen) to provide the opportunities for these conversations to develop.
If poverty really is defined as “a lack of Shalom,” then “serving” becomes a posture that goes beyond helping the poor and needy, but to all people that you come in contact with. This includes the atheist, the party kids in college, the homosexual community, but even more, the new agers, the psychics and mediums, the spiritualists, people in the occult and secret societies, and even the Satanists and Luceferians. Besides, didn’t Jesus die for them as well? Furthermore, we hope to provide information that can be used as a platform for evangelism in a world pushing further and further away from the Gospel message. In other words, we hope that this conference will set a fire in the hearts of the believer so that we become people who serve the Lord and the community ruthlessly, without fear, and with total conviction that no matter how dark the world seems to be, the light of the Lord will prevail.”Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:2
3. Prayer
The average time allotted for prayer in most churches on a given Sunday is a mere 50 seconds. Most of the time it is concerning the topic of the message and a general blessing over the congregation. We believe we need more prayer warriors. We want to provide an opportunity for people to pray not just for one another for personal struggles, but also as a body to pray against the darkness and high places. God is a powerful God and nothing is impossible with Him. While prayers for personal struggles is vital, we believe that by praying as a large group against the dark forces of evil is something that is not done enough. Occult groups, new agers, spiritualists and even satanic covens are strongly devoted to their rituals, yet the body of Christ does not do enough to fight in spiritual warfare against such practices. The church has great power under the authority of Christ, and we want to provide an opportunity to practice this authority by spending time in prayer after each presentation with suggested prayers against the principalities and powers (as covered in each lecture).
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:11-16
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
SPEAKERS
LA Marzulli-Author/film maker/researcher/Lecturer: LA has authored several books including the Nephilim Trilogy which is a fictional book as well as Politics, Prophecy and the Supernatural, Alien Interviews, and most recently, The Cosmic Chess Match. He is also the director of the Watchers DVD series and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM, Prophecy in the News, and has spoken in hundreds of venues concerning the signs of the times in light of biblical revelation. He is well respected in the alternative Christian community as being one of the pioneers in discussing topics that no other Christian has.
Douglas Hamp, author of Discovering the Language of Jesus, The First Six Days and Corrupting the Image earned his MA in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. During his three years in Israel, he studied both modern and biblical Hebrew, biblical Aramaic, Koine Greek and other ancient languages as well as ancient texts and the archeology of the Bible. He served as an assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa for over six years, where he taught at the School of Ministry, Spanish School of Ministry and Calvary Chapel Bible College Graduate School. Douglas has given numerous lectures on biblical languages, creationism and prophecy in the United States and internationally.”
THE REJECTION
About a month ago, I received notice that the church prayer team approved the event and that it would be going to a meeting where the final decision would be made. I was really excited because I thought this was going to be a turning point for the church that always preaches being “bold, courageous, and stepping out in faith” but avoided prophecy like the plague.
After two weeks of waiting, I heard nothing and so I asked the lady who I initially sent the email to what was going on. She told me that one of our other leaders in charge would make the final decision. So the next week, I went up to this person and asked him what the verdict was. He told me that it was brought up in the meeting and that he would let me know. I told him that both LA and Doug were holding a date for the conference for several weeks now so the sooner we know, the better.
The following week (which was earlier this week), I went up to the guy again and asked him if there was an update. He briskly moved away from me saying it’s not up to him and that it was placed back into the hands of the initial lady I emailed. Talk about playing hot potato. At this point I suspected something was up.
After contacting the lady once more, she gave me a call and told me that there were too many “red flags” in the theology and that it would not be a good time to hold such a conference and that this church would not be the best place to hold it. She apologized profusely because she was under the impression that someone else had already contacted me to tell me that it was a “no-go” several weeks before.
I was upset not so much that they declined the event, but rather that they all avoided telling me face to face. But at this point, I believe this is spiritual warfare and the veil of darkness that the institution of church is under. If it’s true that Satan does not want people to know or begin to recognize the spiritual realities, then it makes sense that he would attack the one place that is most powerful when it comes to influencing “God’s people.” The Church.
THE RESPONSE
I understand the politics that go on in a church institution. Because we are in a fallen world, these points of practicing power and authority are common and rampant even amongst the church establishment. But I just don’t understand why a non-denominational church avoids prophecy like the plague. Prophecy is the one thing that truly authenticates the Bible. It is a way to show that God really is supernatural. But it seems we have become so blinded by the world, so blinded by our own pride, so blinded by our greed and self-righteousness that we have become afraid of talking about it.
One of the things I’ve heard over and over again while talking to church leaders here about the topic of prophecy is that it doesn’t lead to a self-righteous lifestyle. The claim is that topics like the Nephilim, Sons of God of Genesis 6, the Divine Council and other supernatural elements of the Bible are irrelevant to being a better Christian. I wholeheartedly disagree with great conviction.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37 to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind. Notice where it says “mind.” Part of righteous living is diving into scripture and grounding yourself in all the facets of scripture. And if you’ve done any research of the Divine Council as articulated by Dr. Mike Heiser, you will know that this understanding makes many parts of the Old Testament come alive, while it makes the New Testament have a whole new, much deeper meaning. It’s not just about stories that have good morals. But the church has reduced the Bible into just that…a good book for moral lessons. And while it certainly is that, it is SO much more! Why O Why does the church ignore the things that make the Bible truly a supernatural book? I pray that the Holy Spirit convicts the leaders of the institution to repent from their lackluster ways and set themselves on fire for the Lord Jesus!
