On Monday, July 1, Brannon Howse in typical form and with David James - a fellow Cessationist - attacked other Christian Evangelicals on his program, Worldview Weekend.
Perhaps the biggest lie of the entire interview was David James' claim that no one had stepped up to challenge what he claims in a book he wrote against the New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger, and the year long witch hunt these gentlemen and their colleagues at the Berean Call, and other Cessationist ministries have been running to discredit and destroy the ministry and work of Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
Perhaps the biggest lie of the entire interview was David James' claim that no one had stepped up to challenge what he claims in a book he wrote against the New York Times bestseller, The Harbinger, and the year long witch hunt these gentlemen and their colleagues at the Berean Call, and other Cessationist ministries have been running to discredit and destroy the ministry and work of Pastor and Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
Just the fact that these gentlemen have conducted the modern equivalent of a witch hunt for the better part of a year, and appear not to be dissuaded by any reason, Scriptural or otherwise, indicates two things about the entire controversy; it’s spiritual in nature, and they’re under a very deep delusion.
The Lord Jesus Himself warned that it might be possible even for the very elect to be swayed by the forces of darkness. And we can see this happening right in front of our eyes with the great number of black Evangelicals favoring candidates over and over again who are diametrically opposed to the very values that are taught in many mainline black Evangelical churches across the nation.
Only one thing can explain this, the churches themselves are promoting these people regardless of what their stance is on the key moral issues of our day; and or the people themselves are biblically illiterate. I believe it is a combination of both, and it varies from church to church, just as it does in predominantly “white” churches.
The Lord Jesus Himself warned that it might be possible even for the very elect to be swayed by the forces of darkness. And we can see this happening right in front of our eyes with the great number of black Evangelicals favoring candidates over and over again who are diametrically opposed to the very values that are taught in many mainline black Evangelical churches across the nation.
Only one thing can explain this, the churches themselves are promoting these people regardless of what their stance is on the key moral issues of our day; and or the people themselves are biblically illiterate. I believe it is a combination of both, and it varies from church to church, just as it does in predominantly “white” churches.
It’s part of the great apostasy in our land of the church, just as part of this great apostasy is the so-called self-appointed “discernment” ministries like the Berean Call, Worldview Weekend, and the Alliance for Biblical Integrity, as well as DiscernIt, Challies, and one or two others; who focus their animus against Christian Evangelicals of all sorts under a wide and ever growing umbrella of ministries they term NAR, Dominion Theology, Christian Right, whom by the way, Brannon Howse now claims are in apostasy because they’ve found common cause with others in fighting the slipping and sliding of American Evangelicalism into political correctness, and the Emergent Church.
The reason these people attack incessantly Christian Evangelicals who are either Pentecostals and or Charismatics is because it is convenient for them to do so as Cessationists, and they go for the most obvious examples of false teachers and preachers they can find (which isn't too hard to do) and include them over a wide umbrella under which they put these sincere Spirit-filled devout children of God.
As ardent Cessationists they have no problem blaspheming the good name of Christ by bringing both judgment and condemnation upon all Pentecostals and Charismatics.
The reason these people attack incessantly Christian Evangelicals who are either Pentecostals and or Charismatics is because it is convenient for them to do so as Cessationists, and they go for the most obvious examples of false teachers and preachers they can find (which isn't too hard to do) and include them over a wide umbrella under which they put these sincere Spirit-filled devout children of God.
As ardent Cessationists they have no problem blaspheming the good name of Christ by bringing both judgment and condemnation upon all Pentecostals and Charismatics.
This is Satanic in pure form, because it is a blanket denial of the office and gifts of the Holy Spirit in His currently capacity, as He now fills the work of Christ in his church with the ascension of the Messiah to the right hand of God. This aspect of His work and function and His office and role in the Godhead is prophetic and biblical, as it applies to the last days, which according to Scripture, we are living since the time of the Apostolic Age.
These people are playing with fire, and they have no idea how serious it is. This is why any mention of this is deemed by them as “personal attacks,” because it brings what they are doing under the attention of God’s Word, and brings it into stark contrast to what the God’s Word declares clearly without equivocation. In doing this, they know they must personally give an account to God for both their actions for the better part of one year, and their continued weekly attacks against Jonathan Cahn, and against other Christian Evangelicals.
It is now rumored that David James is considering an expose of Messianic Judaism, singling out the Torah Zealot Cult known as the Hebraic Roots Movementm, and possibly making it synanomous with mainline Evangelical Messianics. Whether true or not, if indeed this is the path he is pursuing regarding Messianics, we can expect the same roughshod sloppy theology he has displayed regarding The Harbinger. Mr. James has a nack for "finding heresy" under every bed, and bringing into question a person's personal faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, making salvation synanomous with theology and doctrine, when the Scriptures are clear that they are by faith alone and not according to any type of work or effort of man, lest anyone should claim credit. (Ephesians 2:8)
It is now rumored that David James is considering an expose of Messianic Judaism, singling out the Torah Zealot Cult known as the Hebraic Roots Movementm, and possibly making it synanomous with mainline Evangelical Messianics. Whether true or not, if indeed this is the path he is pursuing regarding Messianics, we can expect the same roughshod sloppy theology he has displayed regarding The Harbinger. Mr. James has a nack for "finding heresy" under every bed, and bringing into question a person's personal faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, making salvation synanomous with theology and doctrine, when the Scriptures are clear that they are by faith alone and not according to any type of work or effort of man, lest anyone should claim credit. (Ephesians 2:8)
I really am convinced that had the Apostles lived in this day and age, these three so-called “discernment” ministries would have had real substantive biblical problems with them, because they would have differed with them as far as the Atlantic is from the Pacific Oceans on many levels, mostly cultural-religious, but entirely biblical.
We see them taking issue with the Messianic movement among the Jewish people, and God’s latter day outpouring of revival among His first love – the children of Abraham – the natural branches.
We would also see them taking issue with them over their continual worship in Jewish synagogues. We’d see them taking issue with them on their continual observance of the Jewish Sabbath on Friday nights well into Saturday nights, and then the observance of sunrise services in honor of the Lord’s Day – the day of His resurrection on Sunday mornings.
We’d see them have issue with them on the continual observance of the feast days of Israel. We’d see them take issue with them on their practice of Biblical Judaism (True Christianity in its purest essence) – not Rabbinic Judaism. In fact Nazarene Messianic Judaism predates Rabbinical Judaism by forty years, and it is the true expression of Judaism in keeping with all of the feast days of Israel, all of the cultural norms of the Jewish community which they continued to keep even into the Fourth Century (as related to us by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History); all of which these gentlemen - all of them Gentiles - in their pure Twenty-First Century American Protestant Evangelical Christianity deem the only true expression of our faith – would take issue with. What they do not understand and view as culturally and religiously alien to them, they attack, like unreasoning savages.
We see them taking issue with the Messianic movement among the Jewish people, and God’s latter day outpouring of revival among His first love – the children of Abraham – the natural branches.
We would also see them taking issue with them over their continual worship in Jewish synagogues. We’d see them taking issue with them on their continual observance of the Jewish Sabbath on Friday nights well into Saturday nights, and then the observance of sunrise services in honor of the Lord’s Day – the day of His resurrection on Sunday mornings.
We’d see them have issue with them on the continual observance of the feast days of Israel. We’d see them take issue with them on their practice of Biblical Judaism (True Christianity in its purest essence) – not Rabbinic Judaism. In fact Nazarene Messianic Judaism predates Rabbinical Judaism by forty years, and it is the true expression of Judaism in keeping with all of the feast days of Israel, all of the cultural norms of the Jewish community which they continued to keep even into the Fourth Century (as related to us by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History); all of which these gentlemen - all of them Gentiles - in their pure Twenty-First Century American Protestant Evangelical Christianity deem the only true expression of our faith – would take issue with. What they do not understand and view as culturally and religiously alien to them, they attack, like unreasoning savages.
So, what is their “beef”? They live to destroy anyone, and make money doing it, while they can misbrand other Mainine Christians Evangelicals as apostates, just as the Roman Catholic Church has done for sixteen centuries all Christian forms of expression other than those it espouses.
What’s the difference between these people and the Roman Catholic Church of the Inquisition? Only one; they do not have the authority to exert capital punishment for heresy. It matters not to them, since they literally cut off anyone as apostates who disagree with them even on the smallest infraction of their interpretation of the Christian Faith.
This is what Twenty-First Century Apologetics has degenerated into; a self-consuming all assuming character assassination of all Christians who do not conform to their expression, be it written, oral, or even of conscience. This is how far these people have descended.
What’s the difference between these people and the Roman Catholic Church of the Inquisition? Only one; they do not have the authority to exert capital punishment for heresy. It matters not to them, since they literally cut off anyone as apostates who disagree with them even on the smallest infraction of their interpretation of the Christian Faith.
This is what Twenty-First Century Apologetics has degenerated into; a self-consuming all assuming character assassination of all Christians who do not conform to their expression, be it written, oral, or even of conscience. This is how far these people have descended.
This is the degeneration of Christian Apologetics – its misuse – into Discernment which really is criticism of differing theological schools of thought who digress from those calling themselves “discernment” ministries.
This is how the “discernment” ministry of Brannon Howse and T.A. McMahon, and David James have not shifted their attacks not just to Christian Evangelicals, but also Apologetic ministries with whom they disagree with.
This is not biblical, this is the purest form of heresy and dissension. It produces bitter fruit, divides the body, and creates enemies of Christian brethren over differences, which Paul the Apostle himself has admonished we should accept, though they may have a different function or ministry in the body. (1Corinthians 12:14-26)
As Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes, if one suffers, we all suffer (1Corinthians 12:26); this is why I have repeatedly asked these people if they have any sense of decency, because they appear to have lost it, as well as compassion, or all understanding.
This is how the “discernment” ministry of Brannon Howse and T.A. McMahon, and David James have not shifted their attacks not just to Christian Evangelicals, but also Apologetic ministries with whom they disagree with.
This is not biblical, this is the purest form of heresy and dissension. It produces bitter fruit, divides the body, and creates enemies of Christian brethren over differences, which Paul the Apostle himself has admonished we should accept, though they may have a different function or ministry in the body. (1Corinthians 12:14-26)
As Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes, if one suffers, we all suffer (1Corinthians 12:26); this is why I have repeatedly asked these people if they have any sense of decency, because they appear to have lost it, as well as compassion, or all understanding.
For the better part of one year I have continually addressed David James point by point, both privately and publicly on my website and on Amazon.com. I have asked repeatedly if I may address what he has had to say in his book point by point, to do so in a book I am – as God wills – will write, though some of it is addressed in the one I am about to publish. I have asked him to grant me permission to quote him at length, so that there would be no misunderstanding as to what he has written, and he has not answered me once. Not once. And I haven't been alone in this. Faith of Faith's Corner had been addressing every point of Mr. James' polemical work against The Harbinger on her website; Faith's Corner for months before I joined the debate.
Now David James on Brannon Howse’s program, Worldview Weekend for July 1st, claims that no one has done this, and he claims that no one has come forward to challenge and rebut his points of view, which he claims are biblical. They are not. Nor is his approach to this entire affair biblical.
Nor is his attitude about the entire affair biblical or honest, because what he has claimed for anyone who has followed what I’ve had to say to him for the better part of one year will attest that his claims are entirely as bogus and as disingenuous as the claims in his book. Every point he makes it is refutable and impeachable on solid biblical grounds as well as evidential grounds. There is not one iota of truth to what he claims in his book.
This action on the part of Mr. Howse and Mr. James appear to be a desperate attempt to gain publicity and garner some popularity as the expense of everyone else with whom they disagree.
This is so un-Christ-like in so many ways that I scarce know where to begin to enumerate them. Suffice it to say, they’ve been discovered for what the cranks they are, and in due course according to God’s will, the truth about them will prevail.
If David James were serious about resolving this issue, and serious about getting to the truth, he would have allowed me months ago, when I first made my request to him in private, to quote each of his points and address them biblically and legally as one would in a court of law – point by point – looking at the evidence, and allowing then those who watch to determine for themselves if these contentions of his have any validity at all.
Nor is his attitude about the entire affair biblical or honest, because what he has claimed for anyone who has followed what I’ve had to say to him for the better part of one year will attest that his claims are entirely as bogus and as disingenuous as the claims in his book. Every point he makes it is refutable and impeachable on solid biblical grounds as well as evidential grounds. There is not one iota of truth to what he claims in his book.
This action on the part of Mr. Howse and Mr. James appear to be a desperate attempt to gain publicity and garner some popularity as the expense of everyone else with whom they disagree.
This is so un-Christ-like in so many ways that I scarce know where to begin to enumerate them. Suffice it to say, they’ve been discovered for what the cranks they are, and in due course according to God’s will, the truth about them will prevail.
If David James were serious about resolving this issue, and serious about getting to the truth, he would have allowed me months ago, when I first made my request to him in private, to quote each of his points and address them biblically and legally as one would in a court of law – point by point – looking at the evidence, and allowing then those who watch to determine for themselves if these contentions of his have any validity at all.
God’s blessings to all,
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