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Christians who tell lies for Jesus?

One of the things that concerns me is the many untrue statements and stories that people make up and pass on in order to cause others to believe that Jesus is going to drop out of the sky at any moment or any second. Believe it or not to believe in an eminent return of Christ at any moment has produced a lot of lies that people use to try and convert a lost soul. It seems to be the thinking of some that whatever it takes to get some one saved is ok. This kind of thinking might be all right among the belief of some religions in this world but it is totally unacceptable in Christianity. We do no lie about anything to get people to receive Jesus. In fact I believe that it is the absurdity of some of this stuff that goes around that causes people to feel sick in the pit of their stomach when approached by some Christians. They do not trust people that come on with all of this unfounded information.

How do untrue stories come out? I haven't got a clue unless they begin with someone saying; "what if this or that were to happen?" and then someone else passing it on as if it did happen. This is a possibility but I pray to God that he will have mercy on the people that continue to tell unproven hype to others. The main reason being is that it is repeated and other Christians like parrots spread these stories across the land bringing scorn and shame to the intelligence of Christian people. No wonder some people think that we are nuts.

Research that proves life after death: I would like to begin with a story that is often repeated amongst Christians to prove that there is life after death. It would be great to be able to prove this point but should we lie to convince others of the authenticity of it? A few years ago a man in California pretended to be a doctor that was with a research team that was doing a study on what happens to a person at the moment of death. He said that they could tell by the change in the weight of the body at the moment of death that something happened and that he believed that this weight change was because the spirit left the body. He was very successful for a while with this teaching. He was invited to large churches to speak making lots of money, etc. This message went out across America via television, radio, telephone, and word of mouth. But very shortly after his momentary success, it was discovered that the man was not a doctor at all and that there was no research team. He had made it all up. People were saved over the message but was he right in doing this? The damage to others that were not saved was non-repairable because it was not true. I imagine that it was hard on those who had come to Christ. Some may have fallen away after they had heard that some one that called himself a Christian deceived them. How can a sinner believe in Jesus if Christians tell lies to prove his existence? This story and all of the others that I am about to share with you are still being told today because once a story like this starts in the Church it as though it cannot be stopped. We can stop it by exposing it to those that we know.

Vultures in the valley of Megiddo: In the early 1980s while I was the Pastor of a small church in northeastern Oklahoma I received a letter in the mail. This letter that I received was also received by millions of preachers and Christians across America. At that time we believed that the Rapture could take place any second based on Israel becoming a nation in 1947 and adding 40 years to this we came up with the Tribulation ending in 1988. By these calculations we believed that since the rapture had to happen first that it was going to occur any second. At that time I believed pre-trib just like most everyone else. The message that we received and that swooped across America like a windstorm was this: Scientists are very puzzled at the phenomenon that is taking place in the valley of Megiddo in Israel. The story went on to say that Vultures were reproducing and hatching in an unusual manner, more than they normally produce. There was supposed to be millions of vultures along the canyon walls of Megiddo. This story went on to explain that this was how close we were to coming of the Lord. The vultures were gathering for the battle of Armageddon and we had better warn everyone because the eminent return of the Lord was at hand. I was excited and told my congregation plus warned many others of this important piece of information. Millions of others did the same thing. We believed that it was true.

Pat Robertson on television received this same information and decided to take pictures and do a television story on this amazing event. Him and a team went to Israel and for days along with their guide searched the canyons and valleys of Megiddo. They went to all the places that they knew were scriptural concerning these vultures. The looked but did not see millions of vultures, in fact they didn't see any at all. Finally they saw a bird way off in the distance and asked the guide if it was a buzzard. The guide looked through his binoculars and replied; "no, it's just a stork". They were very disappointed and had spent a lot of money to see this marvelous thing that turned out to be a dirty lie being passed around by Christians. It was a demonic trap to make us look stupid in the eyes of the world.

Temple Stones hidden in Kmarts: There is another end time story that makes it way around the Church and that is the Temple building stones. We all know that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before the anti-Christ invades the city because he will go into it and declare himself to be God. So in an effort to hurry up the coming of the Lord and to make people believe that Jesus could drop out of the sky any second another story has it that everything is ready to begin the rebuilding of the Temple. In reality part of this story is true but it has some added information that rocks the boat on ridiculous. Many parts of the Temple furniture has been built in Israel and many are hopeful that the situation in Israel will change so that the Temple can be built. However since it would take time to build this temple it is told that all of the Temple stones have been already built and numbered so that all they have to do is say the word and they can throw the Temple together in just a few days. Guess where these Temple Stones are supposed to be? It is told that they are hidden in Kmart warehouses all across the United States. Whew! Now that ought to get peoples attention right? Wrong, even a sinner isn't gullible enough to believe that. Kmart has a very difficult time even saying Merry Christmas let alone hiding stones for the Temple.

Guillotines on train cars: One of the interesting facts about America is that most people do not realize that you can lie and not have to face the consequences of it. You can be sued for liable but it is very, very hard to get it done because of the free speech issue. As in politics you can lie all you want to about a politician and he cannot sue you, you are protected by law and believe me there are a lot of people that take advantage of this horrible thing that is allowed in America under the guise of free speech. People prey on Christians who are open minded to someone else that seems to know what they are talking about. Especially if it goes along with the doctrine that they believe is correct in the Bible. Believe me most of this is to sell a book or make money in some way or other. There are a small group of people using you and me to make fools of us in order to make us look foolish to the world. It doesn't take much to convince a sinner that all Christians are crazy anyway. With the kind of ammunition that false teachers are giving to the Church and the way that many respond to these lies is very effective to prove that we are crazy. The Devil loves to make God's people look and sound like fools.

Back in the early 1990s a very good a respectable Christian friend of mine was attending a seminar in Tulsa Oklahoma at a very expensive hotel. He told me that at that seminar there was a man teaching that he while he was in California he found out through a certain source that an incident had happened. This incident could only prove that the Tribulation was about to begin and the anti-Christ was about to take over America. He said that a person that he was acquainted with knew a man that happened to be along a railroad track in California. There was a train sitting on this track that had flat cars as far as you could see. On each flat car was a large wooden crate strapped down. As he was standing there one of these crates that was not strapped down as good as the rest toppled over and fell off the train. He went over to look at it and it was a huge guillotine for cutting off heads. He also said that all the crates were marked "top secret." This was told to prove how eminent the Lord's coming had to be seeing that the anti-Christ was getting into position to take over America. He went on to say that all of these top-secret crates were identical and the train was as far as the eye could see.

I marveled that my friend was taken in by this stuff. He attended every night of the seminar and later told me of a conspiracy that they had discovered that had government concentration camps and trains and planes to carry the prisoners. These prisoners of course were all going to these camps for refusing to take the mark of the beast. Whew again! I was in security in the military; for a train with military top secret boxes on flat cars to be traveling without guards is ridiculous. For something like a huge crate to just topple off a train is ridiculous as well. I have seen some of the pictures of some of these camps that people claim to exist and that is ridiculous as well. Some of these I could create in my own back yard. Or go out and take a picture of government military base and claim that it is a picture of a concentration camp. It is amazing the lengths that people go to convince others that the UN and Russia along with the one world government are taking over America. They even say that there is a secret code on the back of major highway signs. This is so army tanks from the United Nations could follow to find where they are going. Isn't this strange? If people would only use their minds and think for a moment. Nations have had the ability to translate and write maps as well as we can any day. The US doesn't have to go to another country and through the secret service write codes on road signs to find their way around. I guess with this project they are operating with a low budget? If this were true what is being said the government wouldn't allow them to go on saying it. The people exposing this kind of thing would be disappearing. But sadly we do not arrest people for lying only if they break the law.

Fables and wives tales: I don't know if you are familiar with the old scary story that has been passed around for years but here it is. The story is always told as if it were true and happened to a friend or relative, or friend of a friend or whatever. It always goes similar to this: there is young couple out on a date and they are parked in place to be romantic. They hear on the radio that there is a one armed serial killer on the loose and they feel uncomfortable being out there by themselves and leave. Deciding to stop at a service station to get gas on the way home they discover a hook that a one armed person would use hanging on one of the door handles. It's an old scary story that people like to tell.

Well, believe it or not Christians are not immune to this kind of story telling and often continue to tell stories that are similar in nature just to convince people that Jesus is coming at any second. One of these stories is a story of someone that someone knew. I have heard this story told over and over and the location is always different happening to different people and always told as the Gospel truth. A person is driving a car down a major interstate and sees a hitchhiker along the way and picks him up. For some reason or other the hiker is always in the back seat. They ride along for a ways and all at once the hitchhiker says; "Jesus is coming very soon". When the driver looks in the backseat the hitchhiker has vanished. This proves that Jesus is coming real soon. Whew again! May heaven help us to refrain from repeating stuff like this?

Another one of these stories is that a person that someone knew, who knew someone else said that a newborn baby was born in a certain hospital somewhere and the baby looked up at the doctor during delivery and said, "Jesus is coming soon" and died. This stuff is always told as the absolute truth. Can we realize how damaging this is to the Kingdom of God?

The Church is so misinformed it is unbelievable. Every now and then I get an email trying to get me to sign a petition because Madeline O'Hara is trying to take prayer out of school. You know she has been dead for a very long time, murdered by one of her atheist partners over the money they were making. It is amazing what goes around in the Church.

We do the same thing with scripture, you know it happens all the time. Many teach that an angel is going to preach the Gospel in the last days because we won't be here to do it. Whew again! Men preach the gospel not angels. The angel in the Bible that people use for this is merely telling us what is going to be going on the world at that time. Like a kid at a school play holding up a sign to tell what act is coming up. It is amazing. The Bible teaches us to be sober minded; don't you wonder sometimes who is?

Yours in Christ,
Tommie Spurgeon

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