Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…
Spiritual Counterfeits Project
Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
American Family Foundation & CAN
“Sometimes a ‘Board of Directors’ doesn't really direct, and the persons involved with it are practically invisible…from the day-to-day operations and identification with the ministry.”
The source of the statement above is the Manual of Ethical and Doctrinal Standards of Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR). This manual, which contains the official EMNR guidelines, was written in 1997 by Eric Pement and Craig Branch, members of the Board of Directors of EMNR.
Considering the above statement, in the interest of Christian discernment, we are on the verge of understanding something that has remained hidden for over 25 years — a phenomenon of sorts.
There appears to be a revolving door of personnel among five internationally known ‘Christian’ ministries:
· Christianity Today [CT]—Harold O.J. Brown, J.I. Packer, Chuck Colson [a “contemporary prophet” according to Hank Hanegraaff], Doug LeBlanc, Vernon Grounds, William Pannell, Earl Palmer, Terry Muck, Nancey Murphy and George Gallop [John Templeton Foundation advisory members] and many others
· Christian Research Institute [CRI]—Walter Martin, Hank Hanegraaff, Ronald Enroth, Gordon Lewis, Paul Martin, Wayne House, Norman Geisler, Francis J. Beckwith, Doug Groothuis, Eric Pement, Harold O.J. Brown, Chuck Colson [frequent radio guest], Doug LeBlanc, Rich Poll, Anton Hein, Ron Rhodes, Bob & Gretchen Passantino, Bill Alnor, Bob Bowman, Paul Carden, Rich Abanes, Luke P. Wilson, J. Isamu Yamamoto, Dean Halverson and many others
· Spiritual Counterfeits Project [SCP]—Ronald Enroth, J.I Packer, Art Lindsley, Vernon Grounds, William Pannell, Hank Hanegraaff, Doug Groothuis, Earl Palmer, Ron Rhodes, J. Isamu Yamamoto, Brooks Alexander, Bob Burrows, Dave Hunt [colleague], Dean Halverson, and many others
· Evangelical Ministries to New Religions [EMNR]—Walter Martin, Ronald Enroth, Gordon Lewis, Vernon Grounds, Norman Geisler [PFO-Personal Freedom Outreach & EMNR speaker], Craig Branch, Gordon Melton, Wayne House, Eric Pement, Rich Poll, Anton Hein, Bob Bowman, Ron Rhodes, Paul Carden, Bill Alnor, Bob & Gretchen Passantino, Francis J. Beckwith, Doug Groothuis [speaker], Luke P. Wilson, Rich Abanes, Dave Hunt [speaker], Terry Muck [speaker], Craig Blomberg [speaker] and many others
· American Family Foundation [AFF-affiliated with the old Cult Awareness Network/CAN]—Ronald Enroth, Paul Martin, Paul Carden, Ron Rhodes, Craig Branch, Johannes Aagaard, Margaret Thaler Singer, Louis Jolyon West, Steve Hassan, Gordon Melton, Eileen Barker
The facts show that these are interlocking organizations and that, true to the words in EMNR’s manual, “the persons involved with it are almost invisible”. These ministries act in concert for their true leadership extends to higher levels—well hidden. This structure, with the invisible leadership, allows a guiding hand, whose agenda is anti-Christian, to influence well-meaning Christians who trust the lower levels of leadership and financially support their work. The hidden hand which oversees their operation turns out much truth along with much deception—through books, tapes, newsletters, journals, interviews, web sites, travel and numerous conferences.
Jeremiah 48:10 warns: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully…” Are these organizations going about the Father’s business? Are they truly fulfilling their mission to protect the sheep? Or is something entirely different transpiring?
Let us examine what is actually happening.
Ronald Enroth gives us a start at understanding this revolving door in the ‘Christian’ cult-watcher, discernment ministries. They are not what they appear to be on the surface.
But has this shift achieved the acclaimed results? Are great numbers in these New Religions being evangelized and coming to Jesus Christ? Or is there a hidden agenda to transform Christianity, first, by reimaging the cults as ‘new religions’ and then assimilating them into the mainstream of a new form of Christianity?
The apologetics organization which are the subject of this series do not defend the Christian faith that was once delivered to the saints, but rather undermine it, and in its place they are subtly and systematically mainstreaming the ancient Gnostic heresy. This network with its invisible directorate finds its precedent, and possibly its origin, in the occult societies of another era that were directed by an "invisible college" with an identical agenda.
The Invisible College
‘The schools of universal wisdom advocated by Bacon will be founded. And the prophets of universal wisdom in all countries must be accessible to one another.’ ~ The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
Seventeenth century Prague in Bohemia was “a centre for alchemical, astrological, magico-scientific studies of all kinds… A Mecca for those interested in esoteric and scientific studies from all over Europe.” Restive under Hapsburg rule, in 1619 the Bohemians defiantly offered the crown to young Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, who had recently married Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, of England. Frederick was a Knight of the Order of the Garter and, in the words of Renaissance historian Frances Yates, “an intellectual and a mystic.” The conquest of Bohemia by the Rosicrucian movement would advance the English Renaissance throughout Europe. However, Frederick needed England's support to overthrow the Hapsburg sovereign.
King James was no friend of the occult societies of his day and disapproved of Frederick and Elizabeth's usurpation of Bohemia's sovereignty. James’ neutrality allowed the Catholic Hapsburg armies to defeat the Rosicrucians who were behind this enterprise. Frederick and Elizabeth took refuge in the Hague and the Thirty Years War ensued. The conspirators fled to England where they were organized into societies called ‘Christian Unions’ ruled by an occult academia known as the ‘Invisible College.’ After the demise of Cromwell’s Protectorate in 1660, the Invisible College became the Royal Society, which rose to prominence during the reign of the later Stuart kings and is operative today.
The first meetings of the Royal Society were held at Oxford University, according to Yates: "...in the year 1648...the meetings at Oxford began which are stated by Thomas Sprat in his official history of the Royal Society... These Oxford meetings...ran from about 1648 to about 1659, when the group moved to London and formed the nucleus of the Royal Society, founded in 1660." 1.
This transitional period of English history, which Yates called the "Rosicrucian Enlightenment," is described in The Temple and The Lodge, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who reveal the modus operandi of the secret societies:
“Thousands of refugees - among them the philosophers, scientists and ‘esotericists’ who embodied the ‘Rosicrucian Enlightenment’ - fled to Flanders and the Netherlands, and thence to the safety of England. To facilitate the escape of these fugitives Johann Valentin Andrea and his colleagues in Germany created the so-called ‘Christian Unions.’ The Unions, which constituted a species of lodge system, were intended to preserve intact the Rosicrucian doctrine by organising its proponents into cells and smuggling them to safe havens abroad. Thus, from the 1620s on, German refugees began to arrive in England, bringing with them both ‘Rosicrucian’ ideas and the organisational structure of the Christian Unions.
“By James I's time, as we have seen, a lodge system had already been established within the guilds of 'operative' stonemasonry and had begun to proliferate across Scotland. By the end of the Thirty Years War, a system had filtered down to England. In its general structure, it seems to have coincided most felicitously with that of Andrea's Christian Unions; and it proved more than ready to accommodate the influx of 'Rosicrucian' thought. German refugees thus found a spiritual home in English masonry; and their input of 'Rosicrucian ideas' was the final ingredient necessary for the emergence of modern 'speculative' Freemasonry.
“In the years that followed, developments proceeded on two fronts. The lodge system consolidated itself and proliferated further, so that Freemasonry became an established and recognised institution. At the same time, certain of the individuals most active in it formed themselves into an English version of the ‘Invisible College' of the ‘Rosicrucians’ - a conclave of scientists, philosophers and ‘esotericists’ in the vanguard of progressive ideas. During the English Civil War and Cromwell's [Puritan] Protectorate, the 'Invisible College' - now including such luminaries as Robert Boyle and John Locke - remained invisible. In 1660, however, with the restoration of the monarchy, the 'Invisible College' became, under Stuart patronage, the Royal Society. For the next twenty-eight years, ‘Rosicrucianism’, Freemasonry and the Royal Society were not just to overlap, but virtually to be indistinguishable from one another.” 2.
“The Bohemian adventure,” wrote Frances Yates, “was not merely a political, anti-Hapsburg effort. It was the expression of a religious movement which had been gathering force for many years, fostered by secret influences moving in Europe, a movement towards solving religious problems along mystical lines suggested by Hermetic and Cabalistic influences.” 3.
The Invisible College, and its successor, the Royal Society, envisioned the breakdown of Western Civilization and the establishment of a new civilization based on the pre-flood culture of Atlantis, which founded the occult arts, sciences and ancient wisdom. The broad outlines of a restoration of the lost civilization of Atlantis, as set forth in Yates’ Rosicrucian Enlightenment, called for missionaries commissioned by a central ‘College’ to spread the new gospel of a New Age by establishing “schools of universal wisdom…colleges and organizations for the spread of light, ‘the merchants of light’ of the New Atlantis.” The new order would necessitate a universal language, recalling the ancient tower of Babel (Gen. 11).
"In this thrilling hour (1641)...it seemed that England might be the land chosen by Jehovah to be the scene of the restoration of all things, when the possibility dawned that here imaginary commonwealths might become real commonwealths, invisible colleges, real colleges...
"When all instances and rules have been collected, continues [Johann] Comenius, we may hope that 'an Art of Arts, a Science of Sciences, a Wisdom of Wisdom, a Light of Light' shall at length be possessed. The inventions of previous ages, navigation and printing, have opened the way for the spread of light. We may expect that we stand on the threshold of yet greater advances. The ‘universal books’ (the simplified educational primers planned by Comenius) will make it possible for all to learn and to join in the advance. The book of Pansophia will be completed. The schools of universal wisdom advocated by Bacon will be founded. And the prophets of universal wisdom in all countries must be accessible to one another. 'For though it is true that the world has not entirely lacked intercourse, yet such methods of intercourse as it has enjoyed have lacked universality.
Therefore, it is desirable that the 'agents of general happiness and welfare' should be many. They must be guided by some order 'so that each of them may know what he has to do, and for whom and when and with what assistance, and may set about his business in a manner which will make for the public benefit.' There should be a College, or a sacred society, devoted to the common welfare of mankind, and held together by some laws and rules. A great need for the spread of light is that there should be a universal language which all men can understand. The learned men of the new order will devote themselves to this problem. So will the light of the Gospel, as well as the light of learning, be spread throughout the world.
"The obvious inference here is Bacon and his schemes for colleges and organizations for the spread of light, 'the merchants of light' of the New Atlantis." 4.
The New Atlantis was not to be, at least not in 17th century Great Britain or Europe. Undaunted by failure, the Royal Society foresaw a future era when, through careful planning and subtle deception, the Rosicrucian Renaissance would be realized through a future Bohemian subculture.
"It is this failed Renaissance, or premature Enlightenment, or misunderstood Rosicrucian Dawn, which we are now about to explore. What was the stimulus which had set in motion the movement leading to the 'Rosicrucian manifestos' with their strange announcements of the dawn of a new age of knowledge and insight? It is within the sphere of influence of the movements around Frederick of the Palatinate and his bid for the Bohemian crown that one should look for the answer to this question." 5.
Bohemia became prototypical of the radical youth counter-culture—intellectual, promiscuous and anarchical. Immortalized in the opera, La Bohème which was set in Paris in the 1830s, the Bohemian subculture was revived in New York in the 1920s and in San Francisco before its takeover by the “cellphone-talking, SUV-driving, Frappuccino-drinking dot-com yuppies” to quote a disaffected former resident.
Seventy miles north of San Francisco lies the Bohemian Grove, a secluded reserve where 2700 members of the Bohemian Club gather annually during the last two weeks of July. This period includes two major feasts on the Druidic calendar — July 25, which is the Druidic New Year, and July31/August 1 which is the Celtic festival of Lugnahsah. At the Bohemian Grove, Druidic rituals including human sacrifice are reportedly conducted by high officials of the U.S. Government. According to Antony Sutton:
“For decades, there have been vague rumors of weird
goings on in Bohemian Grove in more remote parts of its 2200 acres. Reliable
reports claim Druidic like rituals, druids in red hooded robes marching in
procession and chanting to the Great Owl (Moloch.) A funeral pyre with
‘corpses.’ (Scores of men work in the Bohemian Grove as servants so this party
is fairly well established.)
“An article in a local
community newspaper, Santa Rosa Sun (1993, July) reported on the Cult of Canaan
and the legend of Moloch in place at Bohemian Grove. The Moloch Pagan Cult of
Sacrifice is human sacrifice. About the mid 1980s there were rumors of murders
in remote parts of the property. A local police investigation went nowhere.
State investigators on related criminal acts went nowhere.” 6.
The San Francisco environs also include Berkeley where the Spiritual Counterfeits Project evolved from a 1960s counter-culture organization called the Christian World Liberation Front. CWLF was a front for Campus Crusade for Christ, which was co-founded by Pat Matrisciana who as an agent of the CIA also “created Jesus Freaks”. CWLF would transition to the Berkeley Christian Coalition and finally become known as Spiritual Counterfeits Project.
The reader will notice in the series of reports that follow the many connections of Spiritual Counterfeits Project and other apologetics organizations with not only Lausanne and New Age cults, but institutions in Great Britain, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Christian universities and colleges in the U.S. Also involved in this Anglo-American network are campus ministries to students such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) and International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) as well as accrediting organizations like the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the Rockefeller-funded Association of Theological Schools (ATS).
Cambridge-educated John Stott, the Anglican minister who was president of the Evangelical Alliance, helped to revive the EA through formation of the World Evangelical Fellowship and framed the Lausanne Covenant, is Vice President of IFES—the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which recently moved to the University of Oxford. Lindsay Brown, a close friend of Tal Brooke, the President of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, is General Secretary of IFES. The U.S. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is under the IFES umbrella and affirms the Lausanne Covenant. Lindsay Brown was educated at Oxford and served as President of the Oxford Intercollegiate Christian Union. Remember the ‘Christian Unions’ of the Invisible College, which served as fronts for Rosicrucian activity until their masks came off revealing Masonic lodges!
Is it not interesting that Oxford University in England was founded in the twelfth century by the Ancient Order of Druids? 7. And that Oxford became the center for the Counter-Reformation after John Henry Newman started the Oxford Movement at that university. Today, Rhodes Scholars are educated at Oxford University to become future Anglo-American imperialists. And facilitating the Masonic takeover of Christianity, the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS)—the Study and Research Centre for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians (INFEMIT)—functions as an international hub for the control of theological education. 8.
George Verwer, another personal friend of Tal Brooke, is the founder and director of Operation Mobilization UK and a frequent speaker for IVCF’s Urbana student mission conventions. Verwer also chairs the Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelization’s Mission Mobilization Track—just as C. Peter Wagner, faculty member of Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission, is chair for the LCWE’s Prayer Track. (See photo of good friends, Tal Brooke, Lindsay Brown & George Verwer, at Cambridge University.)
There is a discernible changing of the guard from the Spiritual Counterfeits Project to Evangelical Ministries to New Religions, an outcome of the Lausanne Consultation which oversees numerous cult watch organizations. Although a revolving leadership directs SCP, EMNR, Christian Research Institute (CRI) and Christianity Today (CT), the EMNR manual mysteriously refers to ‘invisible persons’ who direct their organization — and by extension, the others.
EMNR, originally Evangelical Ministries to Cultists, emerged from the Lausanne Consultation on New Religious Movements held at Pattaya, Thailand from July 16-25, 1980. At that venue, Brooks Alexander of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Gordon Lewis of Denver Seminary, Caryl Williams Matrisciana (wife of Pat Matrisciana founder of Campus Crusade’s Christian World Liberation Front in Berkeley which later evolved into Spiritual Counterfeits Project) and Peter Beyerhaus of Diakrisis Institute participated in the subgroup on Reaching Mystics and Cultists. Gordon Lewis would return to the U.S. and work thereafter to found Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) with Walter Martin of Christian Research Institute and Ronald Enroth of Spiritual Counterfeits Project.
At the first Lausanne Congress in 1974, the abovementioned Peter Beyerhaus of Diakrisis Institute delivered a major plenary address — a Biblical Foundation Paper titled "World Evangelization and the Kingdom of God." 9. At this Congress, the Lausanne Covenant was drafted and signed. At the Second Lausanne Consultation in Manila, Beyerhaus conducted a seminar on “Eschatology and World Evangelization”. At this consultation, the Manila Manifesto was drafted and signed. Beyerhaus is a member of the Lausanne Working Group on Theology and has attended most of its consultations.
Peter Beyerhaus’ Diakrisis Institute in Germany appears to be affiliated with Alan Morrison’s Diakrisis International, formerly of the UK, now in southern France. Beyerhaus is a professor of ecumenics at Tübingen University in Germany; he is a contributor to the Helsinki Ecumenical Studies and appears in the Bibliography of the Ecumenism. However, on the Diakrisis International web site, Alan Morrison favorably quotes Beyerhaus as a ‘conservative evangelical’ opposed to the ecumenical overtures of the Pope:
“Prof. Peter Beyerhaus, President of the International Conference of Confessing Fellowships - an umbrella organisation of conservative evangelicals - wrote to the Pope after the Assisi event telling him of his fear that such meetings could trigger off a 'crevasse of syncretism' in many Christian churches.'” 10.
Also on his Diakrisis web site, Alan Morrison enthusiastically recommends the Spiritual Counterfeits Project because he “knows Tal Brooke personally”; yet he does not warn his readers about the snare of the Lausanne Movement with which SCP is well-connected. Is Alan also a covenanted member of Lausanne? See: Diakrisis: Discernment or Deception?.
Firstly, there is no mention in “The World Christian Movement” of the Evangelical Alliance, founded in 1846, and renamed the World Evangelical Fellowship in 1951. Nor does the author, Al Dager, inform his readers that Anglican theologian and Cambridge graduate, John Stott—who drafted the historic Lausanne Covenant—was formerly president of the Evangelical Alliance and also "provided a biblical outline of the threefold purpose of WEF" as stated by W. Harold Fuller, vice-chair of the WEF International Council in his article, "From the Evangelical Alliance to the World Evangelical Fellowship." 11.
Since readers of “The World Christian Movement” are never informed that the Evangelical Alliance/WEF is the source of Lausanne, it would never come to their attention that the Evangelical Alliance was founded at the United Grand Lodge of England/Freemason Hall in London! This huge fact is documented in several archived resources at the World Evangelical Fellowship and Billy Graham Center, but is universally ignored by researchers in the so-called discernment ministries.
Harold Fuller's article documented Freemason Hall as the venue of the Evangelical Alliance's founding meeting in a footnote. 12. David Howard, former International Director of the World Evangelical Fellowship, wrote in "The Dream That Would Not Die: The birth and growth of the World Evangelical Fellowship 1846-1986":
“It was an impressive sight. 800 Christians, who had gathered in Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, London, in August, 1846, were standing to shake hands and sing the Doxology. They had just voted to establish what has been called 'a new thing in Church history—a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches… They called it 'The Evangelical Alliance…'" 13.
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the headquarters of International Freemasonry. This monumental fact identifies the secret societies, and specifically International Freemasonry, as the source of the ecumenical movement and current apostasy. Little wonder that the World Evangelical Fellowship—which today represents 160 million evangelical Christians—also serves as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status with UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). 14.
Why did Al Dager fail to identify the true source of Lausanne, whose Covenant is a binding contract between Evangelical organizations and the one world religion? “The World Christian Movement” stops short of identifying the true conspiracy because Mr. Dager based his report on information compiled by Nancy Flint, one of the many researchers controlled by the ‘discernment ministries’ whose intelligence connections are well-documented. See: The Discernment Ministries and Antipas: Another Jesus Revolution?
The secret societies cover-up and intelligence factor explains the extensive connections of the discernment, cult watch and apologetics ministries’ with the Lausanne Movement. Jewel van der Merwe of Discernment Ministries was an EMNR Conference speaker in 1994 and 1996. Dave Hunt also spoke at the 1996 EMNR Conference. Arnold Fructenbaum, director of Ariel Ministries, served as coordinator of the Lausanne Consolation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE) for seven years. Sandy Simpson of Deception in the Church is a full-time missionary with Liebenzell Missions, a member of the Lausanne-connected Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA). The Evangelical Alliance Mission and U.S. Center for World Mission are also members of IFMA.
Other speakers at EMNR conferences include "cult apologists" J. Gordon Melton and Douglas Cowan of the cult apology organization, CESNUR, the Center for Studies of New Religions. Besides co-founding and directing the American branch of CESNUR, J. Gordon Melton is president of the American chapter of a *vampire* association, the Transylvanian Society of Dracula! According to Webster’s, an apologist is “one who speaks or writes in defense of a faith, a cause, or an institution.” Cult apologists defend cults — in courts, in halls of government, and in religious forums. CESNUR exists in part to provide legal protection for cults such as Scientology and the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, which are a criminal element of society. Another mission of cult apology orgs like CESNUR is to mainstream the cults.
Why are the apologetics and discernment ministries collaborating with the cult apologists? Check out Facilitators of Lausanne in our Global Prayer & Missions Movement database to discover more connections of the deceptively named discernment ministries with Lausanne and other interfaith organizations working toward a one world religion — connections which go a long way to explain why these ‘ministries’, which should be exposing the cults as ‘false religions’, are involved in an image campaign to recast them as ‘new religions.’
The latest EMNR crusade is the promotion of Mormonism as a quasi-Christian religion in a fashion similar to the reimaging campaign orchestrated by the Christian Research Institute on behalf of the Worldwide Church of God. The implication is now bandied about in apologetics forums that the Mormon Church is changing for the better — especially through dialogues arranged with Evangelical apologists. These facilitated discussions, which have a predetermined outcome, are part of a blatant pattern that we are seeing more and more.
The American Family Foundation
(AFF), a secular organization comprised of psychologists and psychiatrists,
comes highly recommended by the Christian Research Institute and EMNR. Craig
Branch, the EMNR board member who co-wrote the aforementioned EMNR manual, works
for AFF as the head of American Family Foundation’s Clergy Relation Committee.
Paul Martin, who runs the highly acclaimed Wellspring Retreat (for
counseling ex-cult members), is a member of the AFF’s Cultic Studies Journal
advisory board. Paul Martin was listed in the Christian Research Institute CRI
JOURNAL as contributing editor from 1992 to 1996. The same holds true for
Ronald Enroth, who is on the AFF’s Cultic Journal Studies advisory board and was
listed on the Christian Research Institute’s CRI JOURNAL masthead as
contributing editor from 1991 to 1994. Ron Rhodes and Paul Carden, who
are board members of Apologia (an organization affiliated with EMNR), have both
attended AFF conferences; one of these was AFF’s conference to dialogue with the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), on which they reported
in the ‘Apologia Report.’
What is not brought out by any of these
organizations—Christian Research Institute, EMNR or Apologia—is that the
American Family Foundation served as an inter-locking advisory to the old
Cult Awareness Network (CAN) before its take-over by the Church of Scientology
[1996-1997 through a series of lawsuits] which now claims the name new
CAN/Cult Awareness Network. After the old CAN was bankrupted by the
Church of Scientology, several new groups emerged (with the same old CAN
people) to resume their work; yet AFF still remains as the advisory
organization. Who is the American Family Foundation? The old CAN (with
their inter-locking AFF advisors in the background) advised the FBI and the ATF
in the Waco confrontation with David Koresh and is directed by people associated
with Tavistock Institute, the CIA, MK Ultra and the Anglo-American Wall Street
foundations. Why would EMNR and CRI work with and share personnel with a secular
group that whose leadership is problematical, to understate the
situation?
More recently much ado is being made about the American Family Foundation and the Church of Scientology possibly ending their years-long battle with the help of CESNUR, whose U.S. contact is vampire Gordon Melton and UK contact is Eileen Barker of the Fabian Society-founded London School of Economics. As previously mentioned, Gordon Melton was a recent speaker to the EMNR 2002 Conference. CESNUR’s headquarters are located in Italy where its president, Massimo Introvigne, directs the Italian chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (Melton being the US director). Who else is behind these organizations and the people who run them?
Inserting their money into Lausanne’s inter-religious dialogue at every juncture are the corporations and foundations, which seem determined to recreate the Evangelical mind in their own image. The unwashed will hopefully begin to understand that the Rockefeller Foundation, Pew Trusts and the myriad other foundations which fund Christian institutions are not even remotely philanthropic, much less Christian, but exist as tax-exempt schemes of funding the nefarious agenda of their sponsors. John Marx Templeton, a benefactor of many projects involving the apologetics “ministries”, does not just finance the merger of world religions, but funds organizations and projects to facilitate the merger of science and religion as well. Under Templeton Foundation patronage a horde of Evangelical ‘scholars’ are paid to sell the precious pearls of the Christian faith for a Masonic delusion of alchemical transcendence through cloning, the medium being ‘dialoguing’ of course. As long as they are casting our pearls before swine, why not invite the Darwinists into the pigpen?
The World Evangelical Fellowship, which evolved from the UGLE-founded Evangelical Alliance, appears to be the shadow government to the Lausanne Movement. Could it be that the Lausanne—with its roots and far-reaching connections into the UK—is an extension of the ‘invisible college’? Is there a stealth operation of the Royal Society within the U.S. on the vanguard of ushering in the New Atlantis via Christian colleges and universities? Members of the Baconian Circle, such as Sir Walter Raleigh who was imprisoned and executed for treason by King James I, envisioned America as the ‘New Atlantis’ promised for centuries by the secret societies.
The Templar’s Revenge
Emanating from the kingdom of the cults are appeals for recognition and respect accompanied by plenty of guilt-projection toward Christians. At a time when ‘new spiritualities’ are infiltrating Christianity through a counterfeit revival, those who should be exposing the cults are calling for ‘dialogue’ with them as ‘new religions’. Will the next stage be to assimilate the cults into the mainstream of a mystical form of Christianity? In fact, Annie Besant, a president of the Theosophical Society, threatened the extinction of Christianity unless it returned to its “mystic and occult teachings.”
“Is Christianity to survive as the religion of the West? Is it to live through the centuries of the future, and to continue to play a part in moulding the thought of the evolving western races? If it is to live, it must regain the knowledge it has lost, and again have its mystic and its occult teachings; it must again stand forth as an authoritative teacher of spiritual verities, clothed with the only authority worth anything, the authority of knowledge. If these teachings be regained, their influence will soon be seen in wider and deeper views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like mere shells and fetters, shall again be seen to partial presentments of fundamental realities.” 15.
Prophetically, Besant summons the ‘churches’ to teach their children how to receive instruction from devils…
“Will the Churches of today take up the mystic teaching, the Lesser Mysteries, and so prepare their children for the re-establishment of the Greater Mysteries, again drawing down the Angels as Teachers, and having as Hierophant the Divine Master, Jesus? On the answer to that question depends the future of Christianity.” 16.
The transformation would occur in stages, Besant continues — first as Esoteric Christianity, i.e. dabbling in mysticism, and afterward as ‘Occult Christianity’— the Luciferic initiation:
“First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the ‘Holy Place’, in the Temple so that all who are capable of receiving it may follow its lines of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will again descend into the adytum, dwelling behind the veil which guards the ‘Holy of Holies’, into which only the Initiate may enter…” 17.
The reverse side of this agenda becomes obvious when the cult apologists use the term "religious groups" along with loaded words like *abusive* and *terrorist*. The changed terminology (cults—>new religions), while reimaging the cults as kinder and gentler "new religions", is also intended to radically change the perception of Christian churches to *abusive cults* and *authoritarian sects*.
The inflammatory rhetoric typical of many so-called discernment and apologetics organizations portends that Christian churches will soon be classified as *abusive religious groups* and be dealt with accordingly. In other words, abusive religious groups = churches = terrorists. Of course, the cult apologists do have a point about the churches, which have been transformed into Masonic lodges through infiltration of their membership, governing boards and institutions.
An exhibit of this ubiquitous agitation propaganda is the following excerpt from an article on “Religious Terrorism” written by EMNR President, John Morehead and published on the Apologetics Index web site. This is supposedly an orthodox Christian website which provides information exposing the cults, but is in fact pro-EMNR, pro-Lausanne, and pro-cult apology organizations such as the American Family Foundation and the old Cult Awareness Network (CAN) which are possibly fronts for Tavistock Institute:
“…Admittedly, not every new
religious group or movement should be considered a domestic terrorist threat to
the U.S. Most do not exhibit violent tendencies or incorporate a eschatological
emphasis (the theology of ‘last things,’ including the supernatural climax of
human history) upon an apocalyptic vision which could be used to justify
terrorism in a self-fulfilling prophecy of doomsday. But the real possibility
for religious terrorism by a few such groups has not escaped the notice of those
grappling with the challenge and complexities of national security. Michael
Osterholm, state epidemiologist at Minnesota's Department of Health stated,
‘There is a growing number of millennium cults who believe the year 2000 could
be the end of the Earth and should be the end of the Earth, and are actively pursuing ways to bring that
about.’
”Osterholm's words are echoed by Jessica Stern, a
former chemical and biological weapons specialist with the National Security
Council: ‘These kinds of groups might turn to extreme violence and weapons of
mass destruction because they believe Armageddon is coming. They want to hasten
the appearance of the Messiah.’
”Even former Defense Secretary William
Cohen said, ‘Regional aggressors, third-rate armies, terrorist cells,
and even religious
cults will wield disproportionate power’ through the
possible use of weapons of mass
destruction [emphasis added].”18.
The EMNR report sounds ominously similar to the 1999 FBI Project Megiddo Report which implicated the mainstream Evangelical community—in particular those who believed in the literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy—as warmongers and a potentially seditious element of society. 19. As the Mid East war escalates into World War III, pre-millennial dispensationalists will be accused of supporting Israel and such agitators as the Temple Mount Faithful and Land of Israel movement. The day is rapidly approaching when, along with the Muslims and Jews, the war on terrorism will be turned on Christians, who will be classified a *terrorist cult*. Dagobert will have his revenge when the tables are turned on Christians, who have historically kept the 'Kingdom of the Cults' and their leaven of Gnosticism in check.
A New Thing
“It was an impressive sight. 800 Christians, who had gathered in Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, London, in August, 1846, were standing to shake hands and sing the Doxology. They had just voted to establish what has been called 'a new thing in Church history—a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches… They called it 'The Evangelical Alliance…'" — “The Dream That Would Not Die”
“For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” Acts 17:21
The Apologetics Research Center is directed by EMNR founder Craig Branch. The quarterly publication of ARC is called the Areopagus Journal. The editor of this journal is Steve Cowan, who holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy. A similar organization, Areopagus II America (AIIA), according to the Apologetics Index, is “a contemporary adapted construct of the original Areopagus. Like its ancient counterpart, AIIA offers information and perspective on various worldviews and thought forms.” 20. Anton Hein of AI assures his readers that AIIA is a Christian “missionary outreach to America.” We have to wonder, however, why a Christian outreach would be named ‘Areopagus’, considering the pagan origins of the Areopagus of ancient Greece:
“Ares was the God of War in Greek mythology… Areopagus is Greek for ‘hill of Ares’ [Mars] and was an actual location where the god stood trial for murder. Ares was acquitted, but the proceedings were said to be the first judicial gathering ever to take place. The Areopagus itself is a rocky hill, 370 ft (113 m) high, northwest of the Acropolis in Athens it is famous as the sacred meeting place of the city's prime council. This council, also called the Areopagus, represented the ancient council of elders, which usually combined judicial and legislative functions from the beginning.” 21.
Francis Bacon was believed to have been a member of an Areopagus Club, as well as a Rosicrucian and Freemason. 22. Moreover, we find in The Book of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry Containing Instructions in All the Degrees, that the 19th through the 29th degrees are the Historical and “Philosophical” Degrees of the Areopagus!!
“The Eleven degrees of the Areopagus...most beautifully unfold the errors and frailties of humanity, and most thoroughly instruct us how to overcome them and advance toward that most perfect state hoped for by mortality.” 23.
When Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, encountered the philosophers who assembled in the Areopagus of ancient Greece, he rejected the wisdom of these lost men whose ‘dialogues’ invariably led to some type of compromise—probably termed ‘consensus’ or ‘unity’. Concerning the fruitless exchange of ideas that took place daily in the Areopagus, Paul remarked:
“For all the Athenians and strangers which were [in the Areopagus] spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” Acts 17:21
The Bible never sanctions an ‘exchange of ideas’ between Christians and pagan, as though false religions had some ‘new thing’ to offer Christianity. Christians dialoguing with cults would instead present opportunities for reverse evangelism!
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” - I John 1:9-11
Paul did not dialogue, but confronted pagans with their ignorance and superstition, and preached Jesus Christ to them:
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” – Acts 17:22-3
The message of the gospel is “Christ crucified” and the modus operandi of the evangelist must be the “foolishness of preaching”-- never dialoguing:
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” - I Cor. 2:18-25
Apparently, the ‘foolishness of preaching’ worked for Paul…
“And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” – Acts 17:32-4
Spiritual Counterfeits Project
Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
American Family Foundation & CAN
ENDNOTES
1. Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Routeledge, 1972, pp. 184-85.
2. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Temple & The Lodge, NY: Touchstone, Rockefeller Center, 1998, pp. 144-45.
6. Antony Sutton, Phoenix Letter, October, 1996; cited in “Bohemian Grove & Global Elite”, Suzanne Bohan: http://www.mt.net/~watcher/bohemiangrove.html
7. A Chronology of Major Movements: http://watch.pair.com/chronology.html#oxford
8. Transformation of the Church Database, The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies: http://watch.pair.com/toc-oxford.html
9. Billy Graham Archives: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/053.htm
10. “The Trojan Horse in the Temple: The Hidden Agenda of the Ecumenical Movement”, Alan Morrison, Diakrisis International, http://www.diakrisis.org/Trojan.htm
11. “From the Evangelical Alliance to the World Evangelical Fellowship: 150 years of unity with a mission,” W. Harold Fuller, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, October, 1996. W. Harold Fuller is vice-chair of the WEF International Council and author of the updated history of the EA and WEF, People of the Mandate (Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996). [Can be purchased for $2.95 from the Northern Light Special Collection: http://library.northernlight.com/GG19970923030009906.html?cb=0&sc=0#doc or contact Watch Unto Prayer for full text of article: taho@watch-unto-prayer.org
13. "The Dream That Would Not Die: The birth and growth of the World Evangelical Fellowship 1846-1986," David, M. Howard, The Paternoster Press, 1986, ff. p. 7. [See: Billy Graham Center Archives: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/guides/484.htm ] David Howard was President of the Latin America Mission, as Missions Director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Director of the Urbana conventions, as International Director of the World Evangelical Fellowship.
14. United Nations NGO Database: http://www.unog.ch/ess_mission_services/ngo/ngo/ngosearch.asp [type in World Evangelical Fellowship]
15. Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity, Theosophical Publishing House, 1901, pp. 26-27.
18. “Religious Terrorism: Apocalypse Now: Armageddon Enters the New Age of Terrorism,” John Morehead, Apologetics Index: http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/t22.html
19. Project Megiddo & The Next Revolution: http://watch.pair.com/revolution.html
20. Areopagus II America: http://christiananswers.net/AIIA/home.html
21. The Internet Areopagus: Greek Mythology, subjective and uninhibited: http://www.areopagus.net/areopagus.htm
22. “Compeers by Night,” Mather Walker, Nov. 2001, http://www.sirbacon.org/mcompeer.htm.
23.
Notes from
The Book of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry Containing Instructions in All the
Degrees, from the Third to the Thirty-Third, and Last Degree of the Rite, by
Charles T. McClenachan, 33' (Revised and Enlarged Edition, Macoy
Publishing
and Masonic Supply Company, 45-49 John St., New York, 1914). [University of
Delaware Library, HS 770.M3 1914] http://www.freedomdomain.com/freemasons/mason02.html
