Pages

Friday, October 6, 2017

‘In the midst of this psychic and “religious” devastation of the American land . . .’



The [u]nited States have never been very friendly toward traditional, which is to say Orthodox, Christianity.  Once the South, which was trending in some ways back towards pre-Modernity before the War and therefore acted as a sort of restraint on the radicalism of New England, was defeated by the North and folded back into the Union, she shed most of her pre-Modern ways in order to cooperate in the building of Babylon America, and the doors were thrown wide open to all kinds of spiritual corruption throughout the States.  Things have declined dramatically since that time. 

Now, in the midst of this chaotic religious scene, as well as growing political unrest and violence and terrible natural disasters, comes the turmoil of a mass murder event in Las Vegas.  The delicate, pampered modern American psyche, unaccustomed to suffering and struggle, will not be able to cope well with all this. 

‘Never let a crisis go to waste’:  The devil and the demons know how to leverage a crisis, just as much as human politicians do.  What are they planning through all this?  Possibly, this is where the Third Great Awakening (i.e., a further initiation into the religion of Antichrist, though it will be presented as something completely different:  a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost, etc.) that many have been talking about lately begins.  And when deep Elite players like former Pres George W. Bush are also talking about it, we should probably take heed:

President Bush said yesterday that he senses a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation's struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as "a confrontation between good and evil."

Bush told a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels, and he suggested that might signal a broader revival similar to other religious movements in history. Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.

"A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me," Bush said during a 1 1/2 -hour Oval Office conversation on cultural changes and a battle with terrorists that he sees lasting decades. "There was a stark change between the culture of the '50s and the '60s -- boom -- and I think there's change happening here," he added. "It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening."

 . . .

Source:  Peter Baker, 13 Sept. 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201594.html, opened 4 Oct. 2017

To the point, this weekend (Oct. 6-9) in Washington City a great Protestant Evangelical revival gathering is planned, called Awaken the Dawn, which is pushing the idea of a new Great Awakening and a renewed focus on ‘Jesus’:

Awaken the Dawn is a worship movement, a prayer movement, and a missions movement. We gather around the worth of Jesus. Our dream is to see a generation galvanized with the glory of Jesus and the presence of God.

The gospel was made to go viral. Now, more than ever, we believe it is time to present a millennial generation with the greater pleasure of knowing and encountering Jesus. A Third Great Awakening is not just an idea. It is not just talk. It is time to take our place in history.

Source:  http://www.awakenthedawn.org/about-us/, opened 4 Oct. 2017

IN THE LATE SIXTIES…

There was a viral counter-cultural movement fueled by self-love, pride, psychedelic drugs, and music. This was a negative worship movement. It didn’t take much in marketing budgets and mobilization to get a generation to Woodstock or Haight Street in San Francisco. The heart and imagination of a generation was captured. In a similar way, there was a Jesus Movement in the same generation that was fueled by a sound of the good news of Jesus. Now, we believe that it is time for a generation to be galvanized by the worth of Jesus and the Great Commission—God’s storyline. Jesus will go viral.


Blessed Fr Seraphim Rose (+1982) warned us against such ‘Jesus movements’ in Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future:

JUST IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, significantly, the figure of "Jesus" has been thrust into strange prominence in America. On stage and in films long-standing prohibitions against portraying the person of Christ have been abrogated. Sensationally popular musicals present blasphemous parodies of His life. The "Jesus Movement," which was largely "charismatic" in orientation, spread spectacularly among teenagers and young people. The crudest form of American popular music is "Christianized" at mass "Jesus-Rock Festivals," and "Christian" tunes for the first time in the century become the most popular in the land. And underlying this whole strange conglomeration of sacrilege and absolutely unenlightened worldliness is the constantly reiterated expression of seemingly everyone's expectation and hope: Jesus is coming soon.

The careful observer of the contemporary religious scene - especially in America, where the most popular religious currents have originated for over a century - cannot fail to notice a very decided air of chiliastic expectation. And this is not only true of "charismatic" circles, but even of the traditionalist or fundamentalist circles that have rejected the "charismatic revival." Thus, many traditionalist Roman Catholics believe in the coming of a chiliastic "Age of Mary" before the end of the world, and this is only one variant on the more widespread Latin error of trying to "sanctify the world," or, as Archbishop Thomas Connolly of Seattle expressed it [as] "transforming the modern world into the Kingdom of God in preparation for His return." Protestant evangelists such as Billy Graham, in their mistaken private interpretation of the Apocalypse, await the "millennium" when "Christ" will reign on earth. Other evangelists in Israel find that their millenarian interpretation of the "Messiah" is just what is needed to "prepare" the Jews for his coming [17]. And the arch-fundamentalist Carl McIntire prepares to build a life-size replica of the Temple of Jerusalem in Florida (near Disneyworld!), believing that the time is at hand when the Jews will build the very "Temple to which the Lord Himself will return as He promised" (Christian Beacon , Nov. 11, 1971; Jan. 6, 1972).

Thus, even anti-ecumenists find it possible to prepare to join the unrepentant Jews in welcoming the false messiah - antichrist - in contrast to the faithful remnant of Jews who will accept Christ as the Orthodox Church preaches Him, when the Prophet Elijah returns to earth.

It is therefore no great consolation for a sober Orthodox Christian who knows the Scriptural prophecies concerning the last days, when he is told by a "charismatic" Protestant minister that, "It's glorious what Jesus can do when we open up to Him. No wonder people of all faiths are now able to pray together" (Harold Bredesen, in Logos Journal , Jan.-Feb., 1972, p. 24); or by a Catholic Pentecostal that the members of all the denominations now "begin to peer over those walls of separation only to recognize in each other the image of Jesus Christ" (Kevin Ranaghan in Logos Journal , Nov.-Dec., 1971, p. 21). Which "Christ" is this for whom an accelerated program of psychological and even physical preparation is now being made throughout the world? - Is this our true God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who founded the Church wherein men may find salvation? Or is it the false Christ who will come in his own name (John 5:43) and unite all who reject or pervert the teaching of the one Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church? [Bolding added--W.G.]

Our Saviour Himself has warned us: "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness, go not forth; Behold, he is in the inner chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man" (Matt. 24:23-27).

The Second Coming of Christ will be unmistakable: it will be sudden, from heaven (Acts 1:11), and it will mark the end of this world. There can be no "preparation" for it - save only the Orthodox Christian preparation of repentance, spiritual life, and watchfulness. Those who are "preparing" for it in any other way, who say that he is anywhere "here" - especially "here" in the Temple of Jerusalem - or who preach that "Jesus is coming soon" without warning of the great deception that is to precede His Coming: are clearly the prophets of antichrist, the false Christ who must come first and deceive the world, including all "Christians" who are not or do not become truly Orthodox. There is to be no future "millennium." For those who can receive it, the "millennium" of the Apocalypse (Apoc. 20:6) is now; the life of grace in the Orthodox Church for the whole "thousand years" between the First Coming of Christ and the time of antichrist [18]. That Protestants should expect the "millennium" in the future is only their confession that they do not live in it in the present - that is, that they are outside the Church of Christ and have not tasted of Divine grace.


That Awaken the Dawn is more than likely a product of demonic delusion is discernible from the way its leaders write about the origin of this event, that it is largely the product of dreams.  Here are a couple of outtakes from the story they posted about themselves:

In 2011, an older Christian leader in his 80’s visited Fredericksburg, VA for a gathering under a 5,000-person tent. He shared with us that we would help lead gatherings on the East Coast in the years to come. They would be characterized by masses of young people. To use his own words, there would be “porta johns and hotdog stands beyond your wildest imagination.” There would be music and prayer. It was a new Jesus movement, a Holy Spirit Woodstock. He told us about tent cities that would be part of these gatherings. As he shared this word, the Holy Spirit began moving on our leadership team in a way that I have rarely known. A number of us began weeping. God was speaking to us.

Fast-forward two years.

In 2013, we were in the middle of a season of extended fasting and prayer and someone in our community had a very vivid dream of a gathering on the east coast where the church would come together. Shortly after this time, I texted Lou Engle that God was speaking to us about an East Coast gathering, perhaps on the Mall in DC. Lou immediately replied saying that he had just been in a prayer meeting where they had been praying these gatherings and he sensed the same authority as when he prophesied the first Call in DC. Immediately, I called Andy Byrd (Fire and Fragrance) to see when he might be in LA so that I could plan a trip there around the same time and, perhaps, we could all meet to talk about this storyline. We set up a meeting in October of 2014.

After I booked the ticket to fly to LA to meet with Lou Engle, Andy Byrd, and Brian Brennt and their teams, I was on a conference call with another friend. He told me that he had a dream the night before that I was meeting with Andy Byrd. I was shocked. I told him that I literally just booked flight to meet with Andy Byrd. What he said next shocked me even more. He said there is a massive gathering coming on the East Coast. He used the exact same language as the dream we had during the fast. Was God leading us to launch a gathering on the National Mall?

 . . .

Source:  http://www.awakenthedawn.org/our-story/, opened 4 Oct. 2017

It continues on like this in a kindred vein.

But the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church are clear:  Do not trust in dreams.

From Sts Barsanuphius and John:

Q: I have heard that if one and the same dream appears to someone three times, one should recognize it as true; is this so, my Father?

A: No, this is wrong; such a dream also one need not believe. He who has appeared once to anyone falsely can do this three times and more. Watch, lest you be put to shame (by the demons), but pay heed to yourself, brother.


Those with Awaken the Dawn did not even wait to see if their dreams appeared three times.  In their spiritual immaturity, they do not seem to have considered the possibility that the demons could be manipulating them.  They ought to have been more vigilant:

A rather dangerous kind of prelest is trust in dreams. The Holy Fathers say that we should never pay attention to them because they may originate from the demons.[43] St. John Climacus says: "The devils of vainglory do their prophecies in dreams. They guess the future and, as part of their deceit, they inform us of it so that we are astonished to discover our visions coming true. Indeed we get carried away with the notion that we are already close to the gift of foreknowledge."[44] The Wisdom of Sirach reads: "The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false: and dreams lift up fools. Whoso regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind."(Wisdom of Sirach 34:1-2) "For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them."(Wisdom of Sirach 34:7) If the person starts to notice dreams, looks for signs about the future in the dreams, the demons can quickly increase his trust to dreams to such extent that will lead to suicide or can turn the person into heresy[45] or other deadly sins.

Source:  https://orthodoxwiki.org/Prelest, opened 4 Oct. 2017

 . . .

From the Orthodox perspective, we also should assume that in many instances dreams do not carry any profound meaning. The Scriptures say that trying to understand dreams is like clutching shadows or chasing wind.

However, we also have to be careful, especially if we consider ourselves "spiritual" in any way, because demons can easily appear in our dreams as prophets. They make all kinds of guesses about things that they know we care about but cannot see, and they make us fall into sins of vanity and pride, leading us to the delusion that we are holy and worthy enough to receive visitation by angels in our sleep.

The Fathers warn us to test all spirits. We also have to test ourselves: If we are truly visited by a holy spirit for whatever reason, we will tremble in fear of God and recognize our unworthiness of being present in such company. Dreams that involve authentic visits from angels or saints will ALWAYS leave us repentant, contrite of heart, and imminently concerned for our own salvation. Fear of God is holy and good, but it is still fear nonetheless. If a spiritual revelation in a dream ever leaves us feeling anything other than fear of God, it is a "revelation" (i.e., a guess) from an evil spirit.

So, the takeaway points from this post are:

1. Most dreams are merely cognitive waste, or at best a by-product of things that we are thinking about, either consciously or subconsciously.

2. Dreams that are actually Godly and prophetic are typically frightening and make us aware of our unworthiness of salvation.

3. Other dreams that seem to reveal truths about spiritual things are often guest-appearances by demons who at best are guessing (as they are not omniscient), or at worst intentionally deceiving us.

The moral of the story: pray, focus on your salvation according to our Church's teachings, and forget about your dreams as soon as you wake from them. If God or an angel is trying to reveal something to you, they will keep trying until you get the message. You will know the message is authentic when it fills you with holy fear and trembling—i.e., repentance and an insatiable desire to strive for holiness and purity.


There is much to be wary of with Awaken the Dawn.  But there is a little more to look at in closing.  The organizers go on to say,

We have reserved the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 6-9, 2017. We are calling America to an unprecedented worship movement on the National Mall. When we gather around the invisible God, the impossible becomes possible.

We will gather in 50+ tents covering the National Mall. It will be a tent-city filled with worship, music, prayer, and the gospel.

Each of the 50 states will have a tent for day and night prayer and relational connection. There will be larger regional tents with full sound systems for day and night worship and music. Nothing like this has ever been done before in our nation’s capital. Washington, D.C. will be a resting place for the presence of God and a staging ground for missions.

On the final day–all day–we are extremely excited to partner with Rise Up in a big stage venue on the National Mall! On this final day, we will worship, pray, preach the gospel with signs and wonders, and commission a generation to complete the Great Commission!

 . . .

AFTER PRAYING ABOUT THIS GATHERING…

Multiple leaders sensed that we were to gather on October 6-9, 2017. We later realized that these dates are during the Feast of Tabernacles when Israel gathered in tents in their nation’s capital, Jerusalem.

This same weekend 20 years ago, over a million men gathered for a full day prayer meeting called Promise Keepers “stand in the Gap”. We believe ATD is to be an answer to those men’s prayers- that a generation would return to the Mall simply as a love response to Jesus, in a Tabernacling expression. We want a whole weekend together this time!

In a time of unusual governmental shift in America, we are calling America to the National Mall in a procession to bring the “ark of God” to our nation’s capital. There is only one Man who is ultimately worthy. As we gather around Jesus, righteousness will be effected in our nation including our national government!

 . . .

Our goal is not merely a gathering, but a movement.

In 2018, our vision is to see tents for worship, unity, and prayer in every state capital and on university campuses nationwide, leading to a new Jesus movement around the nation.

We also will be giving practical steps for those who feel called to missions and leadership. Our 2017 gathering will be a “staging ground” for missions and evangelism.

 . . .


Here we see a mixing of old covenant Jewish customs with what is supposed to be a Christian event (something forbidden by the canons of the Orthodox Church), a further sign of spiritual delusion by these folks, as we see in the teachings of the Holy Fathers:

Saint John Cassian. "Conferences".

The Second Conference of Abbot Moses. On Discretion.

Chapter VII. Of the fall and deception of a monk of Mesopotamia.

It is a long business too to tell the story of the deception of that monk of Mesopotamia, who observed an abstinence that could be imitated by but few in that country, which he had practised for many years concealed in his cell, and at last was so deceived by revelations and dreams that came from the devil that after so many labours and good deeds, in which he had surpassed all those who dwelt in the same parts, he actually relapsed miserably into Judaism and circumcision of the flesh. For when the devil by accustoming him to visions through the wish to entice him to believe a falsehood in the end, had like a messenger of truth revealed to him for a long while what was perfectly true, at length he showed him Christian folk together with the leaders of our religion and creed; viz., Apostles and Martyrs, in darkness and filth, and foul and disfigured with all squalor, and on the other hand the Jewish people with Moses, the patriarchs and prophets, dancing with all joy and shining with dazzling light; and so persuaded him that if he wanted to share their reward and bliss, he must at once submit to circumcision. And so none of these would have been so miserably deceived, if they had endeavoured to obtain a power of discretion. Thus the mischances and trials of many show how dangerous it is to be without the grace of discretion.

[There is actually no distinction between the saints of the Old Testament and the New, as the devil pretends here.  All are together glorified in the Orthodox Church--W.G.]


Those with Awaken the Dawn have warned us, however:  They are not content with infecting Washington City with their ‘viral’ religion:  They are coming for State capitals and universities, etc., too. 

Their intentions may be good, but whatever ‘signs and wonders’ you hear about at their revivals, keep yourself well away from them, Southron.

(The title quote is also from Fr Seraphim’s Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, 5th edn., p. 176.)

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

No comments:

Post a Comment