by Van Robison

"Authority" is a major vehicle of both human governments and religion. The church world exploits millions of people through fear of church leaders. Cult groups are notorious to instill fear in their captives. Causing church goers to fear the loss of salvation if they don't conform to church leadership is a tool of dictatorship. Using very select passages of the Bible to validate authoritarianism is a common practice in the world of churches. Using very select passages of the Bible to validate "prosperity" by financially partnering with celebrity preachers and local pastors is also a very common practice in this day and age. Virtually anyone can quote scriptures, and "the Bible" is quoted probably more than any other reference on earth. The Bible is used as the source book and foundation for false authority, false prosperity, false man-made offices of power over others, false tithing in the New Testament era, false private church empires, and supposedly to validate control of common church goers by "professional" clergy. Innumerable good-hearted church goers have been spiritually abused by church leaders, using "the Bible" as their source of power-mongering, and this practice dates back a very long time in history. Read more...

Apparently, someone has once again tried to spam members of our discussion forums using the form e-mail function of the forums. To prevent this, do the following:


1. Log onto the forum, and then click on "Profile" (near the top).
2. Click on "Privacy" (on the left).
3. Select "Hide your e-mail address and disallow form e-mail".

Unfortunately, choosing this option will prevent other members from contacting you privately for legitimate reasons, but if you wish to not receive any spam at all, this is the only way to do so.

If you do choose to allow form e-mail (ie., you don't mind if other members of this board can contact you privately), then please do not reply to any spam e-mail messages. Rather, report them to us here (by posting a reply to the thread) so that we can deal with them as soon as possible.

Thanks.

by Van Robison

"Christianity" has been for a very long time, a smörgåsbord of choices as to what organization a church goer decides to participate in. The varieties are endless, from global church empires, to very small local churches with few attenders. Probably no church organization formed under the "laws" of man-made governments and nations, exists without a "FOR SALE" sign in the form of tithes, offerings or both. That is to say that churches merchandise Jesus Christ as a commodity FOR SALE, and expect financial partners. You might say that pastors and priests of churches offer salvation and eternal life at a price, and generally speaking, all church goers either adhere to the way of their pastors or priests, or hit the highway as a non-conformist. Read more...

Book review of Bill Gothard's The Exceeding Great Power of God's Grace by Pastor Barry D. Black with contribution by L.L. (Don) Veinot, Jr.

During the 1980's and early 1990's, we attended no less than half a dozen of Bill Gothard's "Basic Seminars," and no less than two "Advanced Seminars." we distinctly remember during that period, Gothard defined "grace" as "the power and desire to do God's will joyfully." That definition is far removed from the orthodox, Biblical definition of grace which, again, is: God's unmerited favor. The English word grace comes from the Greek word charis meaning gift, and it was in common usage among the pagans in the culture in which the epistles were penned. They certainly would not have understood it to mean "the power and ability to do God's will joyfully;" and if they had, the question then would have been, "Which god or gods?" since the word was in use prior to Christianity. Read more...

by Van Robison

An amazing reality about power, control, prestige and endless free money, is that those who nest in such places, tenaciously resist TRUTH. They resist truth by twisting scriptures to support their false authority over common church goers. While many church pastors are very deceived and deluded themselves, even if they are sincere, other leaders are simply addicted to power and money. Last year, the prestigious Wall Street Journal published an article entitled The Backlash Against Tithing by Suzanne Sataline, on November 23, 2007. What I find very intriguing is that many websites have posted comments about this article. Church goers have long been programmed to accept tithing as a "Christian" duty and responsibility, as well as the key to being materially blessed. It is therefore not surprising when many church goers post comments on various websites favoring the tithing principle. It shows the level of indoctrination many Christians have from pastors who stand in the pulpits. Read more...