Evangelical Madness

"There is a revolution coming to the Body of Christ that is going to redefine how we define Christianity." (Bobby Conner, Cincinnati, OH, 5/29//99).

A recent crusade in Hickory, NC, is a perfect picture of the present world of mega evangelical ministries. The mix was Greg Laurie, rock and contemporary entertainers, local churches, and, supposedly, the Holy Spirit drawing souls to the old rugged cross. The only guest that did not show was the Holy Spirit, because He will not endorse such madness. Of course, nobody knew the difference because the anointing of rock and contemporary music created the atmosphere for religious conversions. At least, a score of souls were injected with religion, which will effectively quarantine them against the further need of being born again. What a picture of religion when Bible standards are ignored or rejected.

The pictures displayed on this page are the entertainers that sung for Mr. Laurie. Let’s spend a moment looking at what happens when this kind of music is offered to the crowd. Number one is that rock and contemporary music has its own anointing. It has been documented by Jeff Godwin, Bill Gothard, and others that this music is no different than the pagan music of heathen lands. The anointing is identical to other forms of mysticism and is clearly occultic. Watch these entertainers when they sing and they will manifest a soulical emotion by captivating body movements. The music itself is stirring to both the flesh and the soul. The emotions produced in the hearer can be both fleshly and soulical and in a religious setting it creates a religious response. The dark part is that this religious response is being mistaken for being born again and dupes the hearers into claiming themselves converted.

They indeed are converted, but the conversion is to the Antichrist spirit and not to Jesus Christ. What sadness when we realize that most of the evangelical world is now so deep into this pit of deception. I warned everyone I could when Promise Keepers invaded the church world that they were setting the standard for these churches by bringing them into this very kind of mass mystical religious events. Most churches are in too deep to ever find their way out. Mix this with the new versions of watered down Scripture and you have apostasy on a grand scale. No wonder the lives of these kinds of evangelical believers are no different in real lifestyle from the unbelieving world.

I guess this is why Greg Laurie calls his new book, The Upside Down Church. Study the great revivals of D.L. Moody, John Wesley, etc. and you will see the transformed lives of the converts, the closing downs of the bars and places of ill repute and the Godly lifestyle matching perfectly the great standards of Biblical Godliness. Contemporary evangelical religion is not even a shadow of the Holy Ghost revivals of the past. To claim them to be is the worst form of hypocrisy. Let’s either go back to the Book or quit marketing religion like just another commodity.

The great God said, "And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 1:15-20).