Discerning Against Some Books and Websites Supposedly Meant to Help Christians
It's April 1 but rather than post a joke to lighten things up - it would better to write something about discernment as many Christians do get fooled a lot with some rather questionable sources. It's so often that so many Christians get fooled by spurious sources that seem helpful to evangelism. The Christian bookstore doesn't look anything like where you should exercise discernment, right? Unfortunately, there are some books in the Christian bookstore that are questionable at best. I remembered going to a Christian bookstore and nearly buying Joel Osteen's books (and I used to support him when I was newly saved). Then I thought about several books on the occult and Roman Catholicism was my next fascination - I was just saved away from them and I wanted to find more information against them!
I remembered getting some books on the occult to do my research on rock music - something that got me labeled as a nutjob. Fans of rock music called me a fanatic and said that they weren't zombified by it like those in the movies. I even went as far as to read some books by Rebecca Brown (which were published by Chick Publications) who turned out to be a fraudster. One thing I remembered in one of the many books I read also mentioned a supposed former Satanist named Elaine "married" Satan in human form. I thought it was just a metaphor until I realized that something is very wrong with that claims. Demons can only appear in the flesh in mythology but not in our reality. I was even told anybody can just pretend to be a former Satanist and come up with a fantastic story. I thought the idea was bogus until I realized that I could also come up with a fantastic fake testimony for money or attention!
But that wasn't the end of it as I really had a strong hatred against my former religion for having kept me in bondage for many years! I soon started reading the Alberto Comics also available from Chick Publications. I heard that they were exaggerations of the truth. A high school classmate of mine who I once falsely accused of having been "secretly working for the Jesuits" said that it's not a reliable source and it could just be half-truths. I read several Christian sites (that in no way supported the Vatican) that tried to refute the late Alberto R. Rivera and thought that they probably were just misled by a still ongoing smear campaign against the former. One of the speakers in the soulwinning video called "Catholicism: Crisis of Faith" - former Roman Catholic priest Bartholomew Brewer did raise questions against Rivera's credibility as a former priest. It's even probable that two real former Jesuit priests in the said documentary (namely Victor Affonso and Bob Bush) may have revealed that Rivera was not in the order either. Maybe, that's why Rivera himself never appeared in the said video when he supposedly had a lot of interesting stories to tell. Later, Chick would later question Brewer's credibility in the book "Smokescreens". Rivera himself has also managed to make Satan look more powerful than he is in "The Force" - such as when he claimed that a man missing a leg grew a leg at Lourdes. We know Satan is powerful but he isn't all that powerful!
Reformation.org may contain some useful information but the credibility of the site is nothing more than conspiracy theory filled. I really got amazed at how the site itself even wants to say that Jesus equals Zeus (HUH?!) and has added several questionable "scientific" claims. Some of these claims involve that pasteurizing supposedly kills all the nutrients in milk (well milk heating was already done before Louis Pasteur - only that he pioneered said process) or that vaccination is bad for your children. I wonder if this website actually contributed to said scare? There are also rather fantastically stupid claims such saying the lion-like men in Moab were literally half-lion, the genetic evolution mess before the flood (and just where are the fossils) and that fallen angels bred with human women. It also has had tried to dismiss the Rapture as "Jesuit futurism". They even dare say that the Antichrist is a dynasty - did they bother to take 1 John 2:18 in context between many antichrists and the Antichrist? The site itself repeatedly gives some rather weird information that should be questionable at best.
Maybe, we can also consider the number one nutjob conspiracy website called Jesus-is-Savior. It's also a staunch supporter of the sexually immoral Jack Hyles' ministry. I used to read the site a lot before after I got saved then started to find out some questionable stuff. How can David J. Stewart (its webmaster who is apparently faced with sexual harassment charges) even go as far as to defend the unbiblical idea that Christians can live like the rest of the world and still be saved then take his word back at the next? He's doing double talk and not everyone who visits the site can notice it and I didn't notice it until several years later! While Christians aren't perfect and salvation is not by works yet no Christian can ever live life just like that. He also uses various sources such as the paranoid Infowars site (and Alex Jones of Infowars is not even a credible Vatican exposer either and I'd want to believe he's also a fraudster who only wants your money), he even goes as far as to have 9/11 conspiracy theories (like saying Islam had nothing to do with 9/11 even with the proof of Muslim extremists involved). While he does write good content about the Vatican yet he also has plenty of unreliable proof and sensationalism. I wonder how many people fell victim into this site? I didn't want to believe Hyles was such an immoral man and thought it was just a Jesuit plot cooked up to destroy Baptist churches.
It's only normal that gullible people (and I was one of them who got deceived) will get sucked into these sources. It's really best to investigate the sources and their claims. While there's some truth in some of these sources but that doesn't justify the lies told by the writers! It's a call for continued discernment in finding the right sources to refute heresies. Perhaps the best rule of thumb is if you know the claims are too preposterous (just like saying that the Jesuits currently operate at the moon or run a space station) or unsubstantiated (such as Harry Potter supposedly increased Satanism but there was no proof) then question them or even reject them. There are still many sites and this is but a few. Always discern and investigate because they may just come from a spurious source!
See also:
I remembered getting some books on the occult to do my research on rock music - something that got me labeled as a nutjob. Fans of rock music called me a fanatic and said that they weren't zombified by it like those in the movies. I even went as far as to read some books by Rebecca Brown (which were published by Chick Publications) who turned out to be a fraudster. One thing I remembered in one of the many books I read also mentioned a supposed former Satanist named Elaine "married" Satan in human form. I thought it was just a metaphor until I realized that something is very wrong with that claims. Demons can only appear in the flesh in mythology but not in our reality. I was even told anybody can just pretend to be a former Satanist and come up with a fantastic story. I thought the idea was bogus until I realized that I could also come up with a fantastic fake testimony for money or attention!
But that wasn't the end of it as I really had a strong hatred against my former religion for having kept me in bondage for many years! I soon started reading the Alberto Comics also available from Chick Publications. I heard that they were exaggerations of the truth. A high school classmate of mine who I once falsely accused of having been "secretly working for the Jesuits" said that it's not a reliable source and it could just be half-truths. I read several Christian sites (that in no way supported the Vatican) that tried to refute the late Alberto R. Rivera and thought that they probably were just misled by a still ongoing smear campaign against the former. One of the speakers in the soulwinning video called "Catholicism: Crisis of Faith" - former Roman Catholic priest Bartholomew Brewer did raise questions against Rivera's credibility as a former priest. It's even probable that two real former Jesuit priests in the said documentary (namely Victor Affonso and Bob Bush) may have revealed that Rivera was not in the order either. Maybe, that's why Rivera himself never appeared in the said video when he supposedly had a lot of interesting stories to tell. Later, Chick would later question Brewer's credibility in the book "Smokescreens". Rivera himself has also managed to make Satan look more powerful than he is in "The Force" - such as when he claimed that a man missing a leg grew a leg at Lourdes. We know Satan is powerful but he isn't all that powerful!
Reformation.org may contain some useful information but the credibility of the site is nothing more than conspiracy theory filled. I really got amazed at how the site itself even wants to say that Jesus equals Zeus (HUH?!) and has added several questionable "scientific" claims. Some of these claims involve that pasteurizing supposedly kills all the nutrients in milk (well milk heating was already done before Louis Pasteur - only that he pioneered said process) or that vaccination is bad for your children. I wonder if this website actually contributed to said scare? There are also rather fantastically stupid claims such saying the lion-like men in Moab were literally half-lion, the genetic evolution mess before the flood (and just where are the fossils) and that fallen angels bred with human women. It also has had tried to dismiss the Rapture as "Jesuit futurism". They even dare say that the Antichrist is a dynasty - did they bother to take 1 John 2:18 in context between many antichrists and the Antichrist? The site itself repeatedly gives some rather weird information that should be questionable at best.
Maybe, we can also consider the number one nutjob conspiracy website called Jesus-is-Savior. It's also a staunch supporter of the sexually immoral Jack Hyles' ministry. I used to read the site a lot before after I got saved then started to find out some questionable stuff. How can David J. Stewart (its webmaster who is apparently faced with sexual harassment charges) even go as far as to defend the unbiblical idea that Christians can live like the rest of the world and still be saved then take his word back at the next? He's doing double talk and not everyone who visits the site can notice it and I didn't notice it until several years later! While Christians aren't perfect and salvation is not by works yet no Christian can ever live life just like that. He also uses various sources such as the paranoid Infowars site (and Alex Jones of Infowars is not even a credible Vatican exposer either and I'd want to believe he's also a fraudster who only wants your money), he even goes as far as to have 9/11 conspiracy theories (like saying Islam had nothing to do with 9/11 even with the proof of Muslim extremists involved). While he does write good content about the Vatican yet he also has plenty of unreliable proof and sensationalism. I wonder how many people fell victim into this site? I didn't want to believe Hyles was such an immoral man and thought it was just a Jesuit plot cooked up to destroy Baptist churches.
It's only normal that gullible people (and I was one of them who got deceived) will get sucked into these sources. It's really best to investigate the sources and their claims. While there's some truth in some of these sources but that doesn't justify the lies told by the writers! It's a call for continued discernment in finding the right sources to refute heresies. Perhaps the best rule of thumb is if you know the claims are too preposterous (just like saying that the Jesuits currently operate at the moon or run a space station) or unsubstantiated (such as Harry Potter supposedly increased Satanism but there was no proof) then question them or even reject them. There are still many sites and this is but a few. Always discern and investigate because they may just come from a spurious source!
See also:
- Being Careful of the Pitfall of Believing Conspiracy Theory Messages on Text and Social Networks
- Christians and Conspiracy Theories: Discernment or Distraction?
- Conspiracy Theories Usually End Up Nowhere But Endless Speculations
- Conspiracy Theorists Are Usually Just Close Minded People with Wide Open Mouths
- Some Disinformation Agents Are Just Bitter Individuals