A few weeks back at Church service a guest speaker goes by the name " Bono " and introduced his rather unorthodox ways of preaching through some music mixed with rock n roll and new age themes. I left the service within the start of the first 5 minutes, went home and wrote to my Pastor: (Original Copy Below)
Dear Greg:
I would like to voice my opinion about the evening service we had tonight. I hope I will not give you any sense of judgement because what I am about to write I write out of love for all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
I would also like to make clear I'm not a legalist, nor a stuck up traditional Christian who has no room in my heart to explore new ways or avenues to worship God. I'm into Praise and Worship.
Though I'm a Baptist, but I don't regard myself associate with any denomination, technically speaking because I believe all denominations, or perhaps religion, only serve as vehicle as mean but not an end to reach God.[/background]
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That said, the first thing that struck me tonight is the cover page of the evening itinerary. It has a Yin Yan symbol on it. The symbol represents Taoism in Chinese culture and they are considered a religious sect. In other words, the symbol is closely tied with occultism. [
Please open attachments:
Then open the link: http://www.thewatchman.co.za/More%20Symbols.html
The service started with some Rock N Roll music, which is fine in my opinion but when I started to sing the lyrics, I find the meaning of the song highly questionable. Somehow in my heart I felt unease. But when our "Guest Speaker" started playing the second song,
Grace is a girl...
trying to jump out of Karma, Karma, Karma......
Footnote* Christians don't believe in Karma
Footnote2* Try to read between the lines in the lyrics. There is some fishy connotations.
I started having goose bumps and my spirit tells me to leave immediately. Never had I experienced such discomfort in your church in my many years of attendance. I knew my spirit of discernment was in red alert. I walked out and went across the street trying to think over what happened and what went wrong. Am I being paranoid ? I ask myself. Then I saw one of your deacon came out and jumped into a taxi (without naming anyone in specific). Then a father of two walked out and I had this urge to approach them to ask if they were too having a difficult time coping with the night's worship. He said to me " Every time I set foot and started worshiping there was this feeling of joy and excitement but not tonight". I asked no more because I didn't want to be a whistle blower but just want to see if people who walked out share the same feelings as mine. My heart was not at peace until I prayed for forgiveness to Jesus
In my humble opinion Greg, you may agree to disagree, but I think we have invited a guest in tonight that preached the Gospel not of God of our Bible, not Yahweh nor the Great " I AM", but of a different god or entity. I don't have a theology degree but I have been prepared and kept up to date on the subject of spiritual warfare and I truly pray that I am wrong, if not, our guest speaker may have brought along some unwelcome spirits into our Church.
I am in no position to propose but may I share with you what others would do in a different church if such an incident would have occurred. The leader would lead a team and pray for forgiveness and use the authority God has invested in them through Jesus and cleanse the church for anything left behind unclean. I think I have said more than enough. Please accept my sincere apology if I sounded dogmatic or a little too unorthodox. But withholding information is just as guilty as spreading the wrong information. I trust you would know what's best.
In Christ
First of all, I googled the group "Bono" and there were plenty of articles, half accuse him of spreading the wrong gospel and half were for it. These articles were just references to let me see who I am dealing with. My judgement was not depended on rumors or testimonies from a few groups of critics but rather my fist hand witness in his service of ministry that night.
Long story short my pastor return an email, " Bono is very well known in the Christian community and even was commended by Billy Graham.
The service left me rather conflicted but most of those conflicts were resolved by his very clear sermon that exalted Jesus Christ."
*My thought*
"Watch out that no one deceives you, For many will come in my name...and will deceive many."(Mat 24:4-5).
"For false Christ's (messiahs) and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible" (verse 24).
So how does one discern a false prophet ? Can't answer you because everyone has different tricks up their sleeves. They could start quoting scriptures on spiritual warfare but fail how to unlock the secrets of how to applying them in real life. As for I, I will look for inconsistency in one's preaching. My first sign of warning was noticing this band using an occult symbol on the evening service itinerary, second, there were many new age themes such as Karma, using strange metaphors like 'Grace is a girl' in music lyrics regardless if the name Jesus was in it as well, third, I felt no joy in his preaching, last but not least, the feeling of my spirit in distress, yearning to get out from the hall. I've been in many churches but never had I felt and hear so clear from the Holy Spirit that this is not right! Make no mistake, I did not trust my feelings but by the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I was partaking a worship that is not aiming toward the Almighty.
What I learned: I read many books and read a good many scriptures of how wolves dressed in sheep's' skin but nothing is more precious than on a practical field trip. Unpleasant but it was a privilege Jesus had prepared for me to open my eyes to see how meticulous the enemy is and how they launch an assault in subtlety to our churches.
FYI: Feedback from the Pastor: 75 attendee that night and 15 left the service prematurely.
Blessings
