Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16).
Stephen Green is supposedly a "Christian" conservative activist and national director of Christian Voice, a far right UK based lobby group. Green is former Chairman of the Conservative Family Campaign who converted from Anglicanism to Pentecostalism. According to Wikpedia, Green attends an Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. {1}
Stephen Green is supposedly a "Christian" conservative activist and national director of Christian Voice, a far right UK based lobby group. Green is former Chairman of the Conservative Family Campaign who converted from Anglicanism to Pentecostalism. According to Wikpedia, Green attends an Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. {1}
The Assemblies of God (AG) is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. The AG has spawned many false prophets and questionable TV evangelists, including Benny Hinn, Morris Cerullo, Jim Bakker, Paul Crouch and Jimmy Swaggart to name but a few. Not least of their problems is that the AG are a member of Churches Together in England, which puts them firmly on the ecumenical bandwagon of false unity both with apostate Christian denominations and with non-Christian religions via the closely connected inter-faith agenda. {2} Considering the central tenet of Christianity is Jesus' claim to be the only way to the Father, the AG is completely out of step with the scriptures. (John 14:6).
Green is infamous for voicing strong judgements about moral decline and ungodly government which he describes as his "prophetic duty". Christians are called to preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15), as lambs in the midst of wolves (Luke 10:3). We should warn those involved in all kinds of sexual immorality and other sins, but nothing positive can be achieved by engaging in ad hominem attacks upon gay celebrities, or by verbally abusing individuals publicly as Green has done repeatedly in the past. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:5-6). Is Green's behaviour likely to cause conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, or alienation and hostility? If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3). God's kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Christians have no business judging those outside the church: For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Corinthians 5:12). Even Jesus Christ did not come to judge the world. (John 12:47-48 cf. 2 Timothy 4:1).
Green holds a position somewhat analogous to dominion theology:
"Christian Voice is a ministry for those Christians who have had enough of secularist politicians imposing wickedness on the rest of us. We are not even satisfied with trying to get ‘Christian influence in a secular world’. That’s because we know ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein’ (Psalm 24:1). So by God’s grace we are praying for national repentance and working for godly government. If you have had enough of the way things are and want instead to lift high the Crown Rights of the King of kings, you have found the right place!" {3}
God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4). However, in reality only a few will be saved. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:14). The call for "national repentance" is entirely unbiblical. God calls individuals from all nations, He does not call nations!
Green holds a position somewhat analogous to dominion theology:
"Christian Voice is a ministry for those Christians who have had enough of secularist politicians imposing wickedness on the rest of us. We are not even satisfied with trying to get ‘Christian influence in a secular world’. That’s because we know ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein’ (Psalm 24:1). So by God’s grace we are praying for national repentance and working for godly government. If you have had enough of the way things are and want instead to lift high the Crown Rights of the King of kings, you have found the right place!" {3}
God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4). However, in reality only a few will be saved. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:14). The call for "national repentance" is entirely unbiblical. God calls individuals from all nations, He does not call nations!
The Assemblies of God issued a statement officially condemning the deviant teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation in 2000. However, an appalling situation exists where the practice of many autonomous AG churches contradicts these guidelines, effectively rendering the whole denomination completely impotent in upholding truth!
This statement was adopted by the General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God on August 11, 2000:
"Kingdom Now or Dominion theology. The thought that God’s kingdom can come on earth with a little help from humankind is intriguing to those who advocate this approach to impacting society. Rather than scoffing at the promise of Christ’s imminent return (2 Peter 3:3,4), this errant theology says that Jesus will not return until the Church takes dominion of the earth back from Satan and his followers. By taking control, through whatever means possible, of political, ecclesiastical, educational, economic, and other structures, Christians supposedly can make the world a worthy place for Christ to return and rule over.6 This unscriptural triumphalism generates other related variant teachings." {4}
"Kingdom Now or Dominion theology. The thought that God’s kingdom can come on earth with a little help from humankind is intriguing to those who advocate this approach to impacting society. Rather than scoffing at the promise of Christ’s imminent return (2 Peter 3:3,4), this errant theology says that Jesus will not return until the Church takes dominion of the earth back from Satan and his followers. By taking control, through whatever means possible, of political, ecclesiastical, educational, economic, and other structures, Christians supposedly can make the world a worthy place for Christ to return and rule over.6 This unscriptural triumphalism generates other related variant teachings." {4}
The scriptures are emphatic that the world will continue to decline and that the end times will correspond to the days of Noah.. just as it was in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26). The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5). Matthew 24 indicates that there will be increase in lawlessness, culminating in the man of lawlessness, aka the Antichrist who will take his seat in the temple of God. (Matthew 24:3-15). Dominion theology denies futurism and the return of Jesus Christ to a godless world that will gather to make war against Him, and yet this is the plain teaching of the scriptures.( Revelation 19:19). The scriptures tell us that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36).
Christian Voice has called for British law to be based on the Bible: "Her Majesty the Queen promised in her Coronation oath on 2nd June 1953 to 'Maintain the Laws of God and the True Profession Reformed Religion established by Law.'” {5} I find it bizarre that Stephen Green should put any confidence in the Queen's oath (James 5:12), or to expect the government to maintain biblical standards. In a previous post I wrote that the Queen was initiated as a Welsh Druid in 1946 when she was Princess Elizabeth, and that her religion is probably more akin to Freemasonry than Christianity! {6} "Every Prime Minister since Edward Heath has been a Bilderberger, and they (Freemasons) have controlled the leadership of the Conservative party since the late 1960's." {7}
God Hates Hypocrisy!
God Hates Hypocrisy!
In 2005 Green condemned the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles:
"Colonel and Mrs Parker Bowles should have been divorced for adultery, but they weren't because that would have been too embarrassing," he says. "So in the eyes of God they are still married." He likens Christian Voice to John the Baptist who preached against the incestuous marriage of King Herod. "We're saying to the Prince of Wales: 'You cannot have your brother's wife.' This woman is still married to someone else." {8}
Ironically this situation also applies to Green who has himself broken the seventh Commandment: You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14 cf. Matthew 5:27). Green's adulterous remarriage to a Kenyan Pentecostal woman some 25 years his junior in 2010 puts him in exactly the same position as Prince Charles and Camilla! (Romans 2:1). Green has made homosexuality his particular hobby horse, and yet adulterers are mentioned in the same sentence as homosexuals in 1 Corinthians 6:9.
"In January 2011, Green's former wife, Caroline Green, accused him of repeatedly physically assaulting her and their children, including one incident where he allegedly beat her with a weapon until she bled, and another in which their son allegedly required hospital treatment after having been beaten with a piece of wood. The couple subsequently divorced." {9}
The scriptures are explicit - remarriage is prohibited on all grounds except adultery!
And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:9).
Green's facade is almost convincing at times, he often rightly identifies sin.. BUT in practice if you have do not have love you are just a resounding gong. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1 cf. 1 Peter 3:7).
{1} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Voice_(UK)
{2} https://www.cte.org.uk/Groups/234772/Home/Contacts/Member_Churches_list/Member_Churches_list.aspx
{1} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Voice_(UK)
{2} https://www.cte.org.uk/Groups/234772/Home/Contacts/Member_Churches_list/Member_Churches_list.aspx
Further Reading:
What a fascinating - I almost said spellbinding - article! Treena, I love the way you include the Word in your well-written compositions - and they remind me of Psalm 138:2 which says that "thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." Phil. 2:9 says that Jesus is "a name which is above every name." Putting all this together, we see that the Word of God is higher than even the name that is higher than all other names - a Sword that can defeat all other swords!
ReplyDeleteAll these bible verses come flooding to me when I am writing Irv - we can't say anything better than Him can we? Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; 2:12,16. God bless.
ReplyDeleteA most interesting read! Excellent article.
ReplyDeleteGod's word IS a "hammer" Jeremiah 23.29, "it shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isaiah 55.11. In the case of Elijah, God was in "the still small voice." 1 Kings 19.11.
Green's theology is contrary to Scripture, when I read and study my Bible, it is clear to me in no uncertain terms, as you say above, that wickedness will increase culminating in the arrival of the man of sin (Antichrist) himself. As Christians we are to be witnesses (Acts 1.8) in obedience to the great commission in Matthew 28. So, we cannot "stem the tide", we are powerless to do so! All we do is say "get off the ship, it is sinking and board the lifeboat (Christ)!"
As a 'young' believer I was more naïve and almost tried to 'force' people to believe, strangely enough it had the effect of hardening, rather than softening their hearts! We can be over the top in our militant zeal, and Green certainly is. We need to have an intelligent grasp of what God's prophetic word says, and it says that He is calling/taking out "a people for His name" Acts 15.14. I used to be a member of Christian Voice for one year, until I learned the truth of pre-millennial eschatology. As you say, it is bizarre that Green puts any confidence in the Queen, so many have been conned by HM!
The world will ONLY be Christianised when Christ Himself destroys the image (Daniel 2.35). True believers will ever decrease until His return (Luke 18.8) they are being increasingly marginalised.
That great 19th century pre-millennial Bible expositor J.C.Ryle said;
I believe the world will never be completely converted to Christianity, by any existing agency, before the end comes. In spite of all that can be done by ministers, members, and churches, the wheat and the tares will grow together until the harvest; and when the end comes it will find the earth in much the same state as it was when the flood came in the days of Noah.
I believe that the widespread unbelief, indifference, formalism, and wickedness, which are to be seen throughout Christendom, are only what we are taught to expect in God's word. Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love waxing cold, are things directly predicted. So far from making me doubt the truth of Christianity, they help to confirm my faith. Melancholy and sorrowful as the sight is, if I did not see it, I should think that the Bible was not true.
And he wrote this some 140 years ago!
It has been said that pre-millennialism is a "pessimistic theory". How so? for do we not look forward to the "morning without clouds" 2 Samuel 23.4?
God bless.
Thank you Colin. You have confirmed my own insights about this supposed "ministry".
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Received this from Christian Voice yesterday (26/03/2019):
ReplyDeleteDear Mr & Mrs Ford,
A Franciscan friar from rural Kenya has won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.
Campaigning homosexual Andrew Moffat, who has enraged parents at Parkfield Community School, also made the short list for the £1 m award.
Only last month I said: 'My heart is with the science teacher from Kenya, but you make up your mind who to pray for.'
Psalm 66:19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. (KJV)
Yours in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Stephen Green,
National Director, Christian Voice.
Green's heart is with a Franciscan friar? There you have it!