A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit

Jewish Supremacists Continue to Ignore The Misbehaviour Of Their Leaders

or many years, I was baffled by the abject refusal of Rapture Cultists to factor in the widespread misdeeds of their leaders, as evidence their doctrinal stance was not necessarily on track. When key Cult leaders, such as Calvary Chapel's Chuck Smith publicly boasted the idea someone could be "left behind" was a powerful inducement to upright behaviour, as one who knows better, it became appropriate to impeach such nonsense.

The problem is, challenging such an assertion involves airing dirty laundry, and if there is one thing Christians really dislike, it is telling the truth about the misdeeds of their sacred cows. However, Jesus Christ Himself is the one who plainly stated the fruit was up for "inspection," so some years ago we began to examine the idea the Rapture was a purifying force. After finding actual pastors in Chuck Smith's own non-denominational denomination in sexual imbroglios, I found it a bit difficult to politely describe the impact of church personnel walking in to catch the culprit in flagrante dilicto.

Obviously, the misdeeds are huge, but few "truth seeking" believers even want to be reminded of the high profile scandals of Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, or Paul Crouch -- all of which were embroiled in sexual scandals. However, by refusing to even acknowledge the common denominator that every one of them is (or was at the time) a Rapture Cultist, we end up completely sidestepping the reason Christ told us about the identifying the tree by its fruit principle.

Incidentally, for those younger members of the body of Christ who don't remember the previously mentioned Spiritual spectacles, we could cite the more recent cases of Todd Bentley, "Bishop" Eddie Long, Bob Jones, Mike Bickle (of the so called "Kansas City prophets"), and Paul Cain of the "Latter Rain" movement. All were exposed in sex entanglements (Cain's was homosexual), and yet no-one seems to connect the doctrinal dots.

To be certain, some of the other moral difficulties of Rapture Cultists also involves pants, but it's more along the line of emptying someone else's pockets. Because most Christians eschew the truth when its unsavory, the media allegedly originating in Christendom frequently covers up things like the burgeoning shoplifting problem found at Christian bookstores. or the fact that the Christian divorce rate recently exceeded that of the non-believers.

However, we're concerned here with the leaders, so I'll mention the spiraling numbers of Cult writers caught in plagiarism. One researcher, Dave MacPherson, following just that line of inquiry, found enough cases of outright plagiarism to fill an entire book entitled, The Three R's: Rapture. Revisionism, & Robbery. Predictably, every example he found was a Jewish Supremacist, usually espousing the Rapture doctrine.

Obviously, ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but just imagine if Christ had ignored the hypocrisy of the Pharisees! Never mind that table turning episode with the money-masters in the temple, it's important we remember that whole Woe Unto You, Scribes [read lawyers], Pharisees [read Pastors/Priests), Hypocrites thing! The latter term was drawn from the Greek word for actors -- but in our modern nomenclature, a fair translation would be posers.

In recent times, we've been treated to some juicy scandals involving the so-called Messianic brand of Jewish Supremacists -- as opposed to the Rapture Cult variety. Incidentally, for those of you bereft of Christian Scripture, a Jewish Supremacist is a racist who teaches Jews are chosen based on their skin, even though the New Testament adamantly states the "chosen people" are only included because of their Spiritual relationship with Christ.

Moving away from the Rapture Cult, but staying with the Jewish Supremacist motif, the very popular Messianic teacher Michael Rood has gone from one high profile scandal after another, and in more than one case he's accused his own ministry accountability structure of stealing from him. To maintain some facade of legitimacy, Rood brought in a peer group to examine the data, but then excommunicated them when they told him he was the problem.

Just recently, Lew White, the author of one of the most widely read books on the Sacred Name nonsense (his contribution being a pile of printed manure called Fossilized Customs), was exposed for, shall we say, inconsistencies of his own. Incidentally, the "Namers," as they're called, will tell you with a straight face you've got to spell the LORD's Hebrew name right, or die accursed. They're also well known for the fraud which posits the name JESUS is supposedly derived from Zeus, or the cross is a Satanic symbol, etc. It goes downhill from there.

Turns out legalistic Lew finances his "religious" activities with the proceeds from running the largest head shop in Louisville, a place called Electric Ladyland. As Mr. Hendrix said, we are indeed experienced, but the real Jesus showed us a really better way, so we put away the hash pipe a long time ago. Somehow, when the Apostle Paul recommended earning an honest living by citing his work as a tentmaker, I don't think he had the sales of drug paraphernalia in mind.

Living in America, I suppose we should expect the occasional political moron sending pictures of his jones to prospective female partners, but we had the distinct impression that Christ called us all to a higher standard. For those who refuse to even consider the implications of eating from the poison produce growing in the tree found in the churches, I suppose we should just resign ourselve to the obvious fact that they deserve their collective fate. As for me and my house, although we regularly fall short, we will continue to make a serious effort to serve the LORD.