THE
RETURN OF SUPERSTITIONSuperstition
is increasing in modern culture,
but worse, it is taking over the thinking
of the
People of God.
By Steve Van Nattan PART
ONE: SUPERSTITION IN OUR WORLD
PART
TWO: SUPERSTITION IS DRIVEN BY RELIGIOUS FERVOR
PART
THREE: THE HANDMAIDEN OF SUPERSTITION
IS RELIGIOUS OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SCRUPULOSITY-
You are here.
PART THREE: THE HANDMAIDEN OF SUPERSTITION
IS RELIGIOUS OBSESSIVE
COMPULSIVE SCRUPULOSITY CONSERVATIVE
CHRISTIAN OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SCRUPULOSITY  We
need to review the definition of scrupulosity again:
Repetitive
thoughts about being sinful, dishonest, or lacking integrity. Ruminating about
past mistakes, errors, or possible sinful behavior. Excessive fear of the possibility
of committing blasphemy. Excessive focus on religious and moral perfection.
Fundamentalist
Christian denominations are notorious for promoting Religious
Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity in their people. So are Charismatics and many
other Evangelical and Conservative groups. Fundamental Baptists are the worst
by my estimation. They have a whole theology called "Baptist Standards,"
and whole conferences have been based on preaching various standards. Many books
have been published by Baptists extolling the virtues of long fair on women and
short hair on men, among hundreds of other codes. Baptist Bible colleges often
boast that their standards are far higher then the next college. Ironically, when
going home on vacation from these colleges, the girls stop at the first rest area
and change into Levy's. Baptist standards totally fail to accomplish anything
but obsessive compulsive scrupulosity. Of course, the hot bed of standards propaganda
is in the pulpits of local churches. HERE
IS A PREACHER, THE ONE WHO ENFORCES STANDARDS, TRYING TO MAKE BAPTIST STANDARDS
LOOK ATTRACTIVE. This is seductive, but the net effect is this..... the standards
are man made. There is no guarantee that these standards are what the Holy Spirit
wants. The
clear conclusion is that Baptists DO NOT believe the Holy Ghost can change the
saints to be sanctified by only the preaching of the Word of God from the pulpit.
Of course, any Baptist preacher here will deny this, but their thousands of sermons
on hair and hem lines scream in the face of the Holy Spirit, "God, you just
don't change these people fast enough." I have learned from personal experience
that, if I preach the Word faithfully, people make changes, and often in ways
I could not have possibly done by making social rules of conduct. One
Sunday I preached on stewardship, NOT ON TITHING, and I gave statistics on how
much America spent on dog food, doggie operations, and on foreign missions. One
fellow in the assembly went right home and shot his dog. When I heard about it,
my first reaction was, "He missed the whole point." But, later the Lord
reminded me that I was very upset at the way that young father played with his
dog and neglected his young son. You see, by just preaching the Word and getting
out of the way, I allowed the Holy Spirit to give a boy his Daddy back. If I had
made a Baptist Standard about matching your giving at church to at least as much
as you spend on your dog, the young father might have done exactly that, and his
young son would have remained a de facto orphan in his own home. 
The
precise point where the leg ends and the hem of the dress begins becomes as urgent
as salvation itself. One pastor demanded the ladies who sewed their own dresses
would bring the pattern to show him so he could pass a verdict on it, whether
or not the pattern met his standard. Another pastor insisted that married couples
come to him for permission to have another baby.
This
mongrel legal system makes it very clear that only a pastor can give the verdict
on whether or not something is wicked of not. The Christian husband church member
is clearly left with the impression that he is not competent enough, with God's
help, to guide his wife and kids into holiness. I am not making this up. I have
seen it many times, and I have received hundreds of emails from Christian husbands
asking for advice on what to do about it. This
sort of folly breeds fear and guilt when any member does not get the minutest
detail just right. An unexpected pregnancy to a husband and wife is not a blessing
from God..... it is a grave violation and rebellion against the pastor's standards.
The pastor should have been consulted before birth control was suspended. Indeed,
some other pastors damn birth control, claiming it interferes with the will of
God. These are usually Patriarchal Movement Baptist bastards (Hebrews 12:8), We
talked above about the Catholic monk in the monastery who chastens himself as
a result of religious scrupulosity. What a pathetic thing it is to see a born
again Christian driving him or herself mad with fear as he tries to dredge up
another offense in his life. The sense of desperation can become bad enough to
destroy both mental AND physical health. And, in my own experience, I have seen
it a lot worse in Christian ladies. This is often because the preacher has a very
low view of females. If you are a Christian father and husband, I strongly encourage
you to watch for this in your wife and daughters. When scrupulosity is part of
your local church life it is 100% an attack of Satan against the peace of your
home. Only a fool would hang around to let the bishop in the pulpit spiritually
warp his family. Let
me say this in the most sweet and charitable manner possible..... TO HELL WITH
BAPTIST STANDARDS. The same to any other denominational standards. And, preachers
who invent and enforce Baptist Standards are jackleg brutes. Unchecked
religious legalism is the fastest way to mental illness in our Western culture.
I might alter that to say that drug abuse is the fastest, but religious legalism
is well established in second place. Religious
scrupulosity is also an insult to God. Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose
again from death to purchase your salvation. But, even more, he died to get you
back as his friend. So, why does Jesus want to have a friend who just cannot leave
his or her forgiven sin behind and go on living in victory with Jesus walking
nearby? Church
house Standards are the single most deadly force I have seen in Baptist churches,
and other denominations, that drive people to become superstitious about their
Christian lives. They start to live in perpetual fear of what could go wrong because
they have not adopted every little law the pastor has invented for them. And,
when they break one of the standards, they become fearful that God is angry with
them. The only solution soon becomes a trip nearly every Sunday to the altar during
the pastor's terrifying altar call. 1
Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. The
more wicked you were before you were "washed," the more blessed it should
be to you to claim your place in the Church of Jesus Christ. Those who have sinned
the most have the most to be thankful for. Why are you still trying to find the
old wickedness in yourself when Jesus has washed it away? If
your pastor has driven you into a state of religious OCS over every detail of
life, YOU NEED TO CHANGE CHURCHES. That pastor is very likely not born again and
is being used by Satan to enslave you to legalism and fear. If you think you can
live with it in some sorry form of loyalty to the local church, your kids CANNOT.
You will lose your kids the day they figure out that the Bible does not teach
them to fear the details of life. Former Independent Fundamental Christians are
all over the world today blaspheming God and the warped heritage their pastor
and Daddy foisted upon them. Also,
there are people who crave abuse by preachers. One preacher in Texas had the reputation
of slugging one of his deacons in the face from time to time. The deacons submitted
to this abuse. How utterly pathetic. The Good Shepherd does not beat his sheep,
so why do some of you pastors beat the sheep? You hirelings ought to be horse
whipped. And, Daddy, why are you so eager to keep being bashed around by a pastor?
Send me email please, and tell me where Jesus told his disciples to beat up the
sheep. SEND MAIL John
21:15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that
I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. In
retrospect, we must add that there are other church groups that also indulge in
religious legalism and lead their people into OCS. I think of some Dutch Reformed
groups, of some holiness churches, and Roman Catholicism. Mormons have their brand
of legalism that causes members to live in abject fear of disapproval by the hierarchy
and by their fellow Mormon friends. Let's face it, legalism is the easy way to
keep the members in bondage in many churches. Pastors resort to this because they
are too lazy to study their Bible and teach the believers so that they can make
mature life decisions on their own. And, many pastors flatly do NOT trust the
Holy Spirit to lead the believer to make right choices on his own. Thus, the rule
book at every Christian college. Ironically, that rule book totally fails to prevent
the dire fears of the faculty..... unwanted pregnancies. There is research to
prove that. Colossians
2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow
of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
18 Let no man beguile you of
your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into
those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19
And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment
ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. When
is the last time you heard a Fundamental Baptist preacher preach on that text? The
deadly force of Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity is intrusive thoughts. You are
going along fine, living life and maybe enjoying it for once. Then, your mind
asks you that horrible question, "What if God is angry with me for enjoying
myself right now?" The spiral begins, and down you go. The next mental event
is to pick yourself apart over everything you were just doing or thinking. Then
you go bonkers trying to order your life differently. The end of the process is
to beg God for forgiveness for what your twisted mind came up with. This then
results in mental vows to never let that happen again. Thus, happiness and peace
of mind have become your enemies. In
a church my Dad pastored when I was a kid, there was a young woman who always
passed up the Lord's Supper when we had it. She sat and appeared to Dad to be
in anguish because she could not bring herself to partake. Dad made a point of
talking about the text in the Bible that he figured was her problem: 1
Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread,
and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For
this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. The
woman did not get the teaching. Finally, Dad had to talk to her and warn her about
brooding over past sins. He told her to confess any sin she knew about, and then
take of the Lord's Supper. She received the teaching, and she eventually got over
her obsessive scrupulosity. Where
to start your escape from Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity. 1.
Start reading the Bible looking for the ways God has gone out of his way to take
care of you. The object is to see that God loves you no matter what you do. Do
you believe that? If so, write it in the fly leaf of your Bible. "God loves
me even though I am still a sinner." 2.
Get dirty. I do not mean to get sinful. What I want you to do is get a puppy that
poops on the floor so that you have to clean up the mess. If not a puppy, find
some other dirty thing and volunteer. Like, clean the church restrooms every week.
The point is for you to see that life is not squeaky clean. Nor are you sinless.
While you need to confess sin, you do NOT have to become obsessed with fear that
you will sin again. You will, but God loves you anyway. WATCH
THIS VIDEO, AND THEN, THANK GOD FOR YOUR IMPERFECT WORLD. 3.
Write down the ways God has blessed you. Also, write down the ways God has used
you. Start looking for ways and times to do those things again. Start every day
with the prayer, "Lord, make me a blessing to someone today." And, telling
some other Christian what a mess your life is IS NOT being a blessing to them.
You are no blessing to anyone when you share your morbid fantasies and fears with
others. 4.
At the end of every day, review what you wanted to do in that day, and thank God
for interrupting you and causing you to NOT fulfill your goals. Every day ends
the way God planned it, and you need to relax and let him take charge. Your idea
of what causes a day to be perfect is lousy. Stop planning to be perfect. But,
keep making plans. Do not give up. But, rejoice every time God rearranges your
day. While you are planning your day with limited wisdom, God is pushing you toward
perfection because he is the wise One. Let go, and let God. 5.
Find someone who is struggling physically or socially. Do things to lift their
burdens. Do not do this to the opposite sex. We are not looking for that sort
of trouble. Find some way in which you can become faithful to another person to
help them, and stop talking about yourself so much. 6.
Whoever is, in any way, contributing to your OCS struggle, shuck off that person
at once. Is it your pastor? If so, find another church NOW. Is it your spouse?
Divorce is not the solution, but insist that your spouse join you in counseling.
If the spouse refuses, separate at once. You are being mentally abused, and you
need to get away from it. Let your spouse know that you want to reunite as soon
as they promise to stop abusing you mentally. If you keep putting up with it,
the mental abuse will soon turn to physical abuse. History proves that. Jack Hyles'
daughter did a video online telling how her father abused his wife mentally until
the lady became a mental vegetable. Hyles was a moral dog. HERE
IS THE TED TALK OF JACK HYLES' DAUGHTER. Jack Hyles was one of the most vicious
inventors of Baptist Standards in America. At one time, Hyles had a barber shop
in the basement of the church, and when any man went forward to be saved after
a service, the man was taken to the barber shop and given a hair cut. Hyles was
demon possessed. 7.
If your pastor rages at you and haunts you after you leave his loonie bin church,
SEND MAIL to alert me, and ask your pastor to call
me. I will put the hammer to him. But, I WILL NOT call him for liability reasons.
He must call me. Do not hesitate to put a restraining order on a jackboot pastor.
Again,
stop hugging your sins of the past. A
farmer had a pack of dogs around the farm that he loved very much. But, as time
went by, one by one the dogs died. When they died, he buried them with their tails
sticking up out of the ground. One day the farmer's neighbor came around, and,
seeing the tails sticking up, he asked, "John, why did you bury your dogs
with their tails sticking up like that?" Farmer John said, "Well, I
really loved those dogs a lot. So I buried them with their tails sticking up so
that, when I got lonely, I could pull one up and love it some." If
that story was disgusting to you, how do you think God feels when he sees you
digging up your buried sins and hugging them again? Hebrews
10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said
before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will
I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Do
you believe you are perfected forever (Verse 14)? If you are memorializing your
sins by keeping the memory of them fresh, you are offending Jesus Christ who washed
them away long ago. Also, when you are worrying yourself about whether or not
you will return to your old ways, Jesus has no idea what you are thinking about.
Why? Because he cannot remember your past sins which he has wiped from his divine
memory. Isaiah
43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins. God
says, "for mine own sake." This is because if God did not eternally
forget your sin, he could not tolerate you. Is
it time for YOU to bury your dogs deeper? Like..... the dogs of superstition,
guilt, and self-destruction. BEWARE
OF DEEPER LIFE PREACHERS AND TEACHERS  Charles
Finney was an angry man. He was the one who made the "altar call" popular,
and it was adopted by thousands of preachers. He looked angry, and he preached
angry. He went to great lengths to convince his hearers that they were wicked
and doomed to defeat. The solution was to examine one's self incessantly so that
all sin could be found and confessed. Victory was not the aim. The aim was bondage
of the mind of the believer to self-examination. DO NOT buy books by Finney to
read for spiritual growth. You will become morbid and unhappy with life.
Leonard
Ravenhill was another man who preached in an angry impatient manner at the hearer.
His tone and presentation made Christians believe they were spiritual disasters,
and he encouraged a form of Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity. Listen to the rage
and impatience in this wicked man: HERE
IS A SAMPLING OF RAVENHILL IMPATIENTLY RANTING AND RAGING AT HIS AUDIENCE.
Please notice all the accusations. I
have never heard an evangelist with more rage in his soul. Frankly, I believe
Leonard Ravenhill is a servant of Satan. He has taken up the office of accuser
of the brethren, and that office has already been taken. If Ravenhill is an example
of the "deeper life," I want none of it. I will stay close to Jesus
who loves me. Revelation
12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Tell
me, when you read about Jesus in the Gospels in the Bible, who was he angry with?
I will tell you..... the Pharisees and hypocrites. Jesus was never angry and nagging
with his disciples and those who followed him closely. And, you KNOW that many
of them had things still in their lives they needed to get victory over. Peter,
for one, had an impetuous mouth and could be violent, and James' and John's nickname
was The Sons of Thunder. Did Jesus mock and degrade their zeal the way you saw
in the above video? Wake up. If you have confessed faith in Jesus Christ, you
are saved for eternity. Whatever is still imperfect about your life has NOT caused
Jesus to want to change his mind about you. Everything
you need to do to be born again has ALL been done..... 1.
First Christ finished paying the price for your salvation on the Cross on Calvary. 2.
Second, you did EVERYTHING you must do on your part if you believed the Gospel
and confessed Christ before men.
Romans 10:9 That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed.
You
have NOTHING to be ashamed of. You are a COMPLETE Christian.
Colossians
2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Ravenhill,
and maybe your pastor, want you to believe you did not finish your part by only
confessing faith in Jesus Christ. They want you to feel INCOMPLETE, and you ARE
NOT INCOMPLETE if you are in Christ. You cannot be only partially saved. You are
either 100% saved, or you are 100% still lost. Once you are saved, the present
status of your zeal and sanctification does not determine if you are still saved. John
10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. There
are gems of truth in Ravenhill's preaching, but the anger at the listener, and
his raging impatience, are wicked. This is how he always preached. DO NOT waste
your money on his writings. He will cause you to live in terror of yourself instead
of in victory in Jesus Christ. By the way, did you notice how little Ravenhill
quoted Scripture to prove his points? None....zip....zero. 
Phil
Kidd talks about letting go of things in our life. The message holds up just fine
until about minute seven when he gives the solution to letting go of something
in our life. His first solution is not "give it to Jesus." Jesus is
left to second place. His first solution is go to church and listen to a preacher,
especially to him. He even rages at the audience for not coming to him first.
PHIL
KIDD'S HERETICAL SOLUTION TO THE SIN OF RESENTMENT OR AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT
This
doctrine is the bedrock of Fundamental Baptists: "You follow me (your pastor),
and I will follow Jesus." This is a reworked from the Catholic doctrine that
Mary is the mediatrix between the believer and Jesus. It is also blasphemy. If
they are following Jesus, why do they remind me of Adolph Hitler? There
is no way I can imagine Jesus preaching like Phil Kidd. Jesus talked like a shepherd,
not like a demented longshoreman. There
is NO humility in these angry preachers. They are full of themselves and tell
many stories about their accomplishments and conquests. PREACHERS
VENT ANGER AT THE LISTENER
Again, some truth, but also some rage and degrading
of the listener. These man bring people to do an autopsy on themselves but do
not talk enough about Christian victory. This is typical of both Fundamental Baptists
AND Calvinist Reformed men. It is very typical that, when a man dives into Calvinism,
he comes up mad at humanity and full of rage. Look
at the eyes of the preacher. Are they angry, especially when he is preaching?
If so, he is possessed of devils. Remember,
they do not do autopsies on living people. What
is the problem with these men? Here
is a Bible text they love to use: Psalms
139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And,
after David learned his "wicked way" and confessed it to God as sin,
what did God do? Did God tell him to dig a little deeper to see if David could
come up with more wickedness? David tells us what God did after his confession: Psalms
40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new
song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall
trust in the LORD. But,
these terrorist preachers, all too often, leave the believer hanging there in
self-condemnation desperate to hear from God what their sins are. They prefer
that the Christian stay in the "horrible pit", "in the miry clay"
so that the preacher can keep thrashing him for his sins. The preacher fails to
take them on to this Bible text: 1
John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And,
these preachers are terrified of this text. It might lead the Christian from his
sin to victory, peace, and rest. The preacher WANTS the hearer to stay guilty
so that he will keep coming back to take his flogging at the altar: Philippians
3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I
follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul
teaches us to forget past defeat and sins, and press on to the prize of God's
calling for us. Beware
of Paul Washer, John MacArthur, and RC Sproul. These men use various preaching
tricks to cause you to doubt your salvation. Paul Washer seems to preach with
the objective of offending you with his rage. Who needs that? RC Sproul does his
best to keep you guilty of something, anything, so that he can control your thinking
about your salvation. I
also notice something in the last video..... all of those men are Reformed theologians.
John Calvin was a man who delighted in rubbing the saints' noses in their past
failures. It is a rare Reformed pastor who behaves like a shepherd. Reformed theology
is basically a go-to-Hell theology. John
MacArthur especially asks you if you have made Christ Lord of your life. You cannot
make Christ Lord. He has been Lord since eternity past, and you have all of him
you will ever have. The only question is, how much of you does Christ have? The
fact that you may not be fully dedicated to hand over every detail of you life
to Christ, does not imply that your salvation is deficient. Nor is Jesus Christ
standing over in the corner, wringing his hands, and wondering what to do next.
I have
news for you..... good news at that: Jesus
Christ is the Lord who chose you before the foundation of the world. Ephesians
1:3-4 Jesus
Christ is the Lord who died on the cross for you. I Peter 2:24 Jesus
Christ is the Lord who sent the Holy Spirit to convince you that you were a sinner.
John 16:7-11 Jesus
Christ is the Lord who sent the Holy Spirit to live in you and never leave. I
Corinthians 3:16 Jesus
Christ is also the Lord who will never leave you. Hebrews 13:5 And
if you do not deal with sin in your life, Jesus Christ is the Lord who will, in
love, chasten you. Hebrews 12:6 Finally,
Jesus Christ is the Lord who will soon come again and take you to himself in Heaven.
John 14:1-3
So,
what can you do to improve on how Jesus Christ, your Lord, does his work with
you? He IS Lord of your life, and he has been since before the world was created.
Stop trying to find a reason for Jesus to throw you away. He has said he will
not, and he cannot, throw you away. And, stop letting these deeper life preachers
tell you that you have to make Jesus Lord of your life. He was Lord of your life
before you were born. And,
what can we say about these preachers who cause you to doubt your relationship
with your Lord Jesus? Jude
1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds;
trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars,
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. So,
if the preacher leaves you guilty without leading you to victory, go find a preacher
who believes you should live in Christian victory. If your only way to find peace
is to go weep at the preacher's altar, he has not finished the job. Make no mistake.....
we are most certainly to examine ourselves to see if we have sin. But, confession
of sin is only half of Christian victory. The instinct of a godly shepherd is
to lead the sheep on to peace and rest. Psalms
23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's
sake. Does
you pastor make you feel like you have walked in green pastures and beside still
waters? John
14:27 Peace I (Jesus Christ) leave with you, my peace
I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If
your pastor shows you a problem in your life, does he also show you the solution?
Does he lead you to green pastures? If not, pack it up, and move on. If your pastor
implies, IN ANY WAY, that your response to him defines your relationship with
Jesus Christ, your pastor is a devil. Christian victory is 100% based on your
submission to Jesus Christ alone. Is
this where your preacher takes you..... to Jesus?  Matthew
11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
HERE
IS A SING ALONG HYMN ABOUT FOLLOWING JESUS The
end of Christian victory is rest, not an autopsy. Are
you destroying your mental and spiritual usefulness to God by ripping your mind
to shreds looking for a bit of naughtiness? You are not your own, you are God's
property, and he has better things for you to do than dredge your soul daily for
wickedness that may not even be there. 1
Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye
are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God's. Here
are the first and last words of Jesus to the Apostle Peter: Matthew
4:18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And,
after his resurrection, Jesus said this to Peter: John
21:20 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following;
which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth
thee?
21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that
to thee? follow thou me. Finally,
if any preacher leads you to question your salvation, he is doing the work of
Satan. "Yea, hath God said?" That peachier is defying the will of God
to keep every person who comes to his Son, Jesus Christ. You are the victim of
the attack by Satan and his helper in the pulpit. Get a lot of distance between
you and that preacher, and get as close to Jesus as you can. God has no dumpster
out back in Heaven. If
you have been born again, it is too late to die again. Stop trying to die again
please. BEWARE
OF THE FAMILY FORMULA GURUS 
All
over the world are thousands of parents who are raging and stamping their feet
at Mike Pearl and Bill Gothard. Thousands of Baptists rage at jack boot preachers.
So, why are they mad? Answer: These gurus, and many more famous men like them,
have turned these parents into tyrants, beating their babies and turning their
sons and daughters into models of paranoid terrified young people. Then, these
kids get old enough to leave home, and they curse God and go into the world, rebel,
and become moral dogs. When it is all too late, the parents turn in rage against
the gurus who deceived them.
I
have news for you parents. YOU are the ones to blame. Stop blaming these freak
gurus of Christendom. You had every opportunity to examine the teachings of these
brutes, and you came running to them like panting puppies because your diddle
head preacher persuaded you to hand your kids to them. So,
what shall we do now? Much
like the deeper life men above, the family engineering men send you into a monastic
form of Oppressive Compulsive Scrupulosity in the way you guide and raise you
children. You become obsessed with raising perfect children, and you believe that
every one of your kids will come out a perfect adult and a perfect Christian.
The leading men in this category of OCS are Mike Pearl, Bill Gothard, Doug Philips,
The Duggars, and SM Davis. Dr. Dobson is every bit as worthless as he claims to
be a guide to family life, but he is much less of a slave driver than the ones
listed above. Many pastors use these men to invent their own little kingdom of
child rearing ashrams in the local church. So, your pastor needs to be examined
to see if he is driving your home into his child rearing and discipline rules
to the exclusion of the leading of the Holy Spirit. When any system of piety or
alleged "Christian living" ends up making freaks and social misfits
of your kids, something is wrong. The Holy Spirit can lead you, by the study of
your Bible, to be a family of separated and godly people without making you all
look like a freak show from a baboon convention. Also,
when your pastor pushes you to home school, understand that he may have one of
two motives. 1.
He may be protecting your kids from the evils in the public school system. This
is a very good and worthy motive to home school. A pastor of this sort will provide
you with curriculum options that put you in control of the learning process. He
will NOT use home schooling to take control of your home. 2.
Or, he may be trying to enslave you and your kids to himself. His ultimate objective
is to socially isolate your kids and enslave them to his control system. The ultimate
motive of this sort of pastor is to gain access to your sons and daughters so
that he can prey on them sexually. He usually has other perverts in leadership
who help him succeed in this process.
You
better stand back, and do some very objective examination of that pastor. If your
pastor is already driving you and your church friends into Obsessive Compulsive
Scrupulosity, his zeal for home schooling will simply be another step in his enslavement
of the church family to his lust for power. So,
do you really believe that God the Holy Spirit can change you and your kids into
the image of Jesus Christ? Do you need the big red book on your coffee table to
be right with God? John
16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away:
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I
will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: The
Comforter is the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in the New Testament is the pastor said
to be the one to convince you of sin in your life. Here is the pastor's job..... 2
Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. He
is not told that he is to convince you to be guilty for your sin, and he is not
told to give an invitation to you to respond in any way. That is between you and
the Holy Spirit. And, your pastor is NOT to raise your kids for you. Proverbs
22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not
depart from it. The
whole Bible teaches that parents are the ones, the only ones, qualified to raise
up a child. As soon as a pastor intrudes into your role as parents, that is your
signal to get out of that local church and find a Bible believing pastor. When
a pastor teaches that he is the head of every home in the local church, he is
possessed of devils. And,
any guru out there, like Bill Gothard or Mike Pearl, who claims to be the final
authority on child guidance, is a fraud. If you subject your kids to them, your
kids will one day figure out that they have been guinea pigs in your experiment
in mind control, and your kids will rebel. They may even curse God and become
Atheists.  JIM
BOB DUGGAR TEACHES THAT YOUR BODY BELONGS TO GOD, NOT TO YOU
Thus,
when you are sexually abused as a child, that is God's will for you. What blasphemy.
The Duggars have had several total disasters in child rearing. Their son Josh
is now under indictment for the most grievous level of child porn harvesting.....
Sexual abuse of babies, including killing babies for sexual lust. He is not accused
of doing this but of loading his computer with it. If convicted, he will serve
some hard time in the big house. What a tribute to the child raising schemes of
the Duggers. NOT!
Again,
the Duggars teach that you have brought on yourself all your sorrows. This is
used of Satan to drive you into Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity as you search
your soul to find the evil things you have done to bring pain to yourself. This
is one of the most treacherous forms of torture that false Christian teachers
have ever come up with. Does
your pastor act and talk like he has been with Jesus? Or, is he a blow hard with
rough words and self-exaltation? Do you ever catch your preacher praying or reading
the Bible? There are thousands of preachers today who do not read the Bible just
to get to know Christ better. Many of them have no prayer life, and if you ask
them who is on their prayer list, they will draw a blank stare at you.
Do
not expect any man, preacher or mentor, to bring you close to Jesus. That is YOUR
responsibility. 
The
Bismarck was uniting Germany in the 1870s, and he fought battles to defend Germany
against adversaries that outnumbered his army as much as ten to one. He was highly
loved by his soldiers because he let them know his top secret orders. He loved
to sit at night at a campfire with his soldiers and talk. In one battle, a soldier
had started into the battle when the order to attack was given. Then, that soldier
panicked and turned and ran back behind the lines. He was brought to the Bismarck
for the final verdict, which was death by firing squad. The Bismarck asked the
soldier why he fled from the battle. He told the Bismarck that he meant to fight,
but something in him snapped, and he ran the wrong way. The Bismarck told the
soldier, "Tomorrow, we will again attack the enemy. I want you to come to
where I am, and you stand right beside me and my horse. When the attack is ordered,
you stay right beside me all the time and fight for Germany. If we win, you will
win with me, and if we lose, you will die with me."
See
how close you can get to Jesus. Does
your pastor remind you of the Good Shepherd? If your pastor leads you and your
family into Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity, he is a devil. Get away from him
at once. Do not confront him. He will attack you in some way, and he will try
to woo your kids away from you to punish you. A pastor and assistant pastor (who
was a Marine veteran) went to a home my son was visiting, and they had made it
clear that they intended to beat my son up. What was his sin? He advised the people
of the home to leave the church because there were signs of sexual abuse. Another
pastor and his second man followed a lady who had left his church at night in
a car with the lights out. These sort of pastors play rough. Leave quietly. Do
not make a big scene. Tell your kids exactly what is going on so that they understand
that you are not backsliding. Rather, you are saving them from disaster. The
exception to this rule is when any of your kids have been sexuality abused. If
your kids have been sexually or mentally assaulted by a pastor or church member,
go at once to the police and report it. Do
not confront the abuser. He will try to convince you that your kids asked to be
abused. This is a pattern that is seldom broken. Church house sex abusers are
beasts of prey, and they play rough. Do not let church members try to talk you
into showing mercy on the offender. This also is an old story as the abuser turns
the congregation against the victim. Burn
the fetishes. That means to burn all the books and DVDs of the gurus. Do not leave
them laying around to tempt anyone to go back to them for anything. ARTICLE
ON MIKE PEARL AND HIS INFLUENCE WHICH CAUSES CHILD ABUSE WITH
WHAT SHOULD WE REPLACE SUPERSTITION? Over
much righteous Ecclesiastes
7:16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest
thou destroy thyself? Does
this mean that we can slack off and settle for a little unrighteousness in our
life? Answer:
NO! 1
Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. What
Solomon is talking about it self-made holiness. Please notice the words, "Neither
make thyself....." This may be the most powerful verse for the victim of
Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity in the whole Bible. When you set out to make
yourself holy or righteous, you will fail. Worse, you will make a freak of yourself
because the Holy Spirit is not in charge. When you sign over your life to some
famous Amos guru like Bill Gothard, John MacArthur, or Dr. James Dobson, you become
the product of the teaching those men lay on you. And, whatever they get wrong,
you will get it wrong also. Stop
trying to design your own righteousness. Stop trying to be the most antiseptic
kid on the block. In
a church I pastored in the California High Desert, we had a young lady come to
our church who had just graduated from Bob Jones University. Every Sunday she
would hold court in the foyer of the church, after the service, and she talked
on and on about all the low standards of society and backslidden Christians. She
then exalted the latest lily white standard of Bob Jones University. I was very
familiar with BJU and its failed standards, and this young lady only succeeded
in making a fool of herself. The sad thing about people like this is that, by
and by, they go into the ditch when their soul gets exhausted with their self-righteousness,
and they end up deep in the very sins they claim to have abandoned. And, the young
lady? One of the older women in the church kindly told the young lady what a pest
she was making of herself. This made her panic, and she abandoned her legalistic
evangelism in the church house and seemed to relax in the faith. Who
makes us righteous? You know the answer, even though you may be trying to design
your own righteousness. So, if only Jesus can make you righteous, what is life
with Jesus said to be..... by him? Matthew
11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. The
soul that is under the control of Jesus, and his plan for righteous living, will
be at rest. Are YOU at rest in Christ? Principle
of replacement
If you sense that you have some sort of hocus pocus superstitions in your Christian
life, what does the Bible say that you can do to replace them..... what pleases
God? 1
Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath
created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received
with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Here
are two steps to a spiritually uncluttered Christian life: 1.
Give thanks for all things. If you can seriously thank God for the thing in question
without the Holy Spirit setting off an alarm in your conscience, do it. 2.
Examine all things with the Word of God. Some things are explicitly forbidden
in the Bible, while other things are implicitly ruled out by the Bible. With the
implicit issues, you will have to pray the prayer David prayed. Psalms
139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
You
may have a charm or religious practice that is loaded with superstition that I
did not deal with in this article. It is up to you to pray that prayer and get
serious with the Holy Spirit, and be ready to shuck off anything he shows to you.
There
is NO fetish in your life, be it a physical toy or a religious practice, that
God does not have something better for you. Psalms
40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my
feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust
in the LORD. May
our Lord give you victory as you clean house. Is
the Preacher trying to destroy your soul? We
talked about preachers who invite you to do an autopsy on yourself. These people
were the enemies also of a very great man of God long ago...... King David. Psalms
63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice.
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts
of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for
foxes. | RELIGIOUS
OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SCRUPULOSITY IS LIKE A BLIND MAN IN A DARK CLOSET LOOKING
FOR A BLACK CAT THAT ISN'T THERE. |
Preachers
who use clever altar calls and invite you to dredge your soul to find sin that
is not there are devils. They are not born again pastors. They are being used
by Satan to destroy you. I have seen this done, and it is wicked. They almost
all say something like this..... "If you do not come forward and pray
at the alter, why should I believe your are really saved?" Substitute
any number of other works in the italics, like, tithe, hand out tracts, be here
every time the doors are open, or ladies stop wearing pants..... on and on it
goes. These preachers do not really believe that you cannot lose your salvation,
and they try to make you doubt it. Do you? These
preachers will also say something like this, "You follow me, and I will follow
Jesus." This is a man stepping in between you and Jesus. There is one God
and one mediator between God and man, and it is not your pastor. It is Jesus.
Verse 9 and 10 ABOVE make it very clear that such preachers are damned to Hell. Have
you become a slave to a devil in the pulpit? If
the answer to that question is, "Yes," go back up in this article to
the sub-topic RELIGIOUS OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SCRUPULOSITY, and read the
seven steps back to peace with God and yourself.
King
David, earlier in Psalm 63, tells us about his relationship with God. Read this,
and ask yourself, "Is this how I relate to my Savior, or do I only live in
terror of God?" Psalms
63:1 O God, thou art my
God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for
thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and
thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness
is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while
I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied
as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: We
talked above about the principle of replacement. I suggest you ask the Lord to
show you a replacement for the preacher you now have, that man who is an "accuser
of the brethren." God has better things for you. It is time for you, like
King David, to "follow hard after" Jesus instead of men. Please burn
all of those books on the deeper life and by men who help you hate yourself. And,
burn your books that pretend to know how you should raise your kids. Get back
to studying your King James Bible as your guide for your family. Do
you have a friend who is suffering from Religious Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity?
Are you trying to help them out of it? I would suggest that you tell them to read
Psalm 63 every morning when they wake up, and start the day that way for thirty
days. When they get to thrashing themselves, read the Psalm to them. LAST
GRENADE Here
is what God tells us about the things we fear..... 1
Timothy 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it
be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and
prayer. The
black cat..... God created it. And, he nowhere tells us that he created anything
that comes with a dose of peril. Thank God for the world around you, flee the
lusts of the ungodly, and then plunge in without fear, and enjoy every day as
a gift from God. DO
ME A FAVOR.... SEND
MAIL, and make my day. Tell me what fetishes you shucked off as you read this
article please.  LINKS
JOHN
PETERS SHOWS HOW UNIVERSALISM ENTERED CHRISTENDOM
This
is possibly the best defining lecture on this topic which I have seen. SUPERSTITIOUS
KEEPING OF THE SABBATH AS TAUGHT BY SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISM
Anything you
observe because you are law keeping will cause God to punish you. It is rank superstition. You've
Got to Put Down the Duckie
What
do you have in your hand, or mind, that is keeping you from living in complete
faith in Christ? At
the above right is a Chinese wishing tree with wishes tied on written on red paper.
What is your fetish? Read
how God sends his servants to camp around about his children John
Piper discusses what is happening when your plans are totally shattered Mark
DeJesus on Religious Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity
Mark comes from
the experience of having lived with OCS himself. This is a great start to deal
with OCS. How
bad can Obsessive Compulsive Scrupulosity get.
Some poor language, but
Jordan Peterson tells stories that illustrate where OCS can end up. Learn
to tell the difference between the profane and the holy
This article is
at this journal.
With both superstition and Religious Obsessive Compulsive
Scrupulosity the most deadly aspect is that the victim cannot tell what is profane
and what is holy. Revival
Movement of East Africa- Obsessive confession of secret sin.
This video
exalts the Revival Movement. But, if you pay attention, you will hear the narrator
tell about confession of secret sin. This movement was still raging when I was
growing up in Africa, and it was clearly based on run away Religious Obsessive
Compulsive Scrupulosity. Many missionaries were sucked into it out of a desire
to be more godly. They sat in groups and confessed wicked and sensual thoughts
to one another which they should have confessed in their closet. The result was
that they became suspicious of one another, and they lost faith in Christian fellowship. SPIRITUAL
ABUSE AND THOSE WHO CRAVE IT
By Mary Van Nattan
Superstition is at the
root of spiritual abuse. The followers of the Indian guru or Baptist pastor are
both holding the leader in awe as a supernatural manifestation whom they must
adore and submit to in order to prosper spiritually. These leaders are virtual
talisman.
Excerpt from the article linked: "Just
because you, or anyone else, chooses to think that spiritual abuse and brutality
is helpful or satisfying or "serves a useful purpose" does not make it so. It
is still destructive. It is destructive to both those who abuse and those who
are abused. I don't care who it is - Phil Kidd, Lee Roberson, Paul Washer, Mark
Driscoll, Kenneth Hagin, Bill Gothard, or your own pastor - men who are motivated
to shame, berate and belittle Christians as a constant thread in their preaching
or practice are abusers. Men who use fear and guilt to keep people performing
to their expectations are abusers. An abuser, no matter how he is defined, is
an abuser still. He may claim the title of pastor, preacher, evangelist, missionary,
etc., but if he is beating the flock of God, he is an abuser. It is not necessary
to beat the sheep in order to get God's work done. This is not the way to feed
the sheep."
LEONARD
RAVENHILL SOUNDS VERY PIOUS,
BUT HE WILL INSPIRE YOU TO TEAR YOURSELF TO SHREDS.
This
is not the voice of Jesus who said.....
Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light.
Ravenhill's burden is not light. He inspires Religious Obsessive
Compulsive Scrupulosity.
And, right next door is superstition, in which, you
will add to your life the fear that, if you fail to do certain acts, God will
cast you away. THE
BILL GOTHARD SCANDAL
Gothard used girls, whom he claimed to be rescuing,
in his sexual perversion. You need to understand that the track record of family
guidance gurus is horrible. Get your child raising guidelines from ONLY the King
James Bible. THE
ALTERNATIVE TO SCRUPULOSITY-
DISCERN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PROFANE AND
THE HOLY
The word "profane" in King James English means a lot
more than modern English usage. SELF-PROCLAIMED
EXORCIST, BOB LARSON, USING THE BIBLE AND A CROSS AS MAGIC FETISHES TO ALLEGEDLY
DELIVER PEOPLE
This man never opens the Bible. He uses it as a battering
ram. That is a fetish action. The use of a crucifix is pure paganism. I have to
conclude that Larson is possessed of devils himself. The making of a video show
of spiritual warfare is vain and blasphemous.
BIBLICAL
EXAMINATION OF LARSON
SEND
MAIL
What
sort of superstition have you seen in the Lord's Church?
PART
ONE OF THIS SERIES: SUPERSTITION IN OUR WORLD PART
TWO OF THIS SERIES: SUPERSTITION IS DRIVEN BY RELIGIOUS FERVOR BACK
TO THE WAR ROOM BLESSED
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