This might be too long for the system here. I will see.
The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, most of whom are
still living. Some include Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Tim LaHaye, Grant Jeffrey, John
Hagee, Rick Warren,
Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart,
and Hal Lindsey. Almost all of these Christian celebrities teach the
pre-tribulation
rapture theory, that God has two distinct peoples, the Jews and the Church, that
Christians cannot be Israel and that the Jews, saved or unsaved,
remain the chosen of God. Although
Rick Warren is or was a member of the Southern Baptist denomination, I am not
sure that he teaches the doctrines of dispensationalism. Robert
Schuller has taught other forms of false doctrines and might not be classified as a
dispensationalist.
So the Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for
the present day
widespread
popularity in the Churches of the doctrines of the pre-tribulation
rapture, the radical
separation of Church and Jews, and that the Jews remain God's chosen people.
And - there are a few well known Christian teachers
who do not fit in with the celebrities listed above. For example,
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and especially the Dutch missionary
Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) are famous but should not be classified as
celebrities
because they apparently did not try to cultivate their images. Both
wrote a great many Christian books. Schaeffer is
interesting
because he belonged to the Reformed pre-millenialist camp, but was not into
dispensationalism, though he did not systematically criticize it.
Corrie emphasized forgiveness,
which is not stressed in the contemporary Churches. Schaeffer's
smaller Calvinist group believed that following the tribulation,
Christ would appear the second time, and after that he would bring in
his thousand year reign on earth. They did not believe in the
pre-trib rapture or that God has two different peoples. The larger
number of Calvinists follow amillennialism, which makes the thousand
year reign into a big sweeping allegory of all Christians from all
ages, following Augustine and the Catholic Church. Corrie Ten Boom in
her later years opposed dispensationalism, and pointed out that the
doctrine of the pre-trib rapture left the Christian Church
ill-prepared in times of great persecution, such as in China under
Mao.
Celebrities are the most successful people in the image culture of
television, movies, radio, magazines and newspapers. Many people who
are not celebrities imitate celebrities in presenting surface
appearances
of attractiveness and success. Almost everyone takes part in the
celebrity system - including Church Christians - by allowing
celebrities on TV, in movies, on the radio and in other media to
influence
them in what they think and in the way they act. Celebrities not only
entertain Americans and those
in most other parts of the world, but they also tell us what to
believe and how to behave. National political celebrities are able
to lead people to the extent that the politicians can sell people on
the basis of their images. In our age of deception, it is the
celebrities of entertainment, politics and religion who do much of the
deceiving; and they are able to deceive people because the people are
impressed by their surface appearances. It is very important for
believers to understand the celebrity system - both secular and
Christian - because many Christian celebrities deceive Church
Christians into accepting false
theologies which they promote. Preachers also tend to follow
Christian celebrities and themselves often try to present good images
in order to better influence their congregations.
Before the secular celebrity system spread to politics, sports, the
arts, the military, education,
business and to Christianity, it was confined to Hollywood film stars.
Richard Schickel in his book, Intimate Strangers: The Culture of
Celebrity, 1985, says the celebrity system began in the period of
1895 to 1920 with early Hollywood movie stars. Some of these early
celebrities of film were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas
Fairbanks and William S. Hart.
Like Narcissus, the Hollywood celebrity fell in love with his or her
own image. In Greek, narke, or narcotic, means stupor, a state of not
being very sharp cognitively. In The Christian Celebrity System Part
One I briefly described how very frequent jump cutting and poor story
construction on network TV can cause not only a momentary type of
stupor or suspension of cognitive clarity, but may lead to long term
cognitive deficiencies. The presentation of a glamourous image by
Hollywood celebrities
produces narke, a magic spell, a bewitchment and enchantment. People
who are put into a state of some stupor by a celebrity - and this
includes Christian celebrities - are made more gullible to whatever
message the celebrity is teaching because their critical discernment
has been shut down to some degree.
In presenting their nonverbal appearances, celebrities have learned to
simplify their personality
presentation. In the image culture the perception of another's
personality is reduced down to
his or her surface appearance. Celebrities pick out one or two verbal
expressions to emphasize to others as "themselves." Farrah Fawcett's
wind-blown hair look, big smile, and in the late sixties and seventies
the bra-less image made up a large part of her appearance. Fidel
Castro, though not an entertainer celebrity, presented a simplified
image with is beard, carefully pressed military fatigues, and cigar.
Many people tend to be disturbed by other people who show too many different
appearances and a complex personality. Most people use only a very
few dimensions to picture in their minds the the personalities of
others. This may be why celebrities try to simplify their images.
People are not disturbed
when they are able to make sense out of the behavior of another by use
of a very small number of
dimensions. By dimensions I mean bi-polar opposites like
conventional-unconventional, successful-unsuccessful, strong-weak, or
good-bad.
Celebrities sometimes pay a price for their over-simplification of
their images to fit this tendency of people to become confused or
disturbed by complexity of personality presentation. Richard Schickel
says that "Forced to live within some early role, stars become restive,
even self-destructive, as a result of living up to the lie off
screen." But if a celebrities were to project complex personality
images to their audiences, most in the audiences would not be able to
form an impression of them, and would not like them. Social psychology
says that when a person is complex, others have difficulty in forming
accurate impressions of him or her; some may assume the other is like
themselves, while other perceivers may think the other is the opposite
of themselves. I published a report on an experiment dealing with these topics
in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology in 1965, called "Accuracy of
Interpersonal Perception As A Function of Consistency of Information."
Church Christians tend to be influenced by the teachings of Christian
celebrities and may even copy
the verbal expressions of the celebrities. George Comstock, a TV
effects researcher, says that "It is pretty well established that film
models can be as effective as live behavior models...One impressive
study is that of Bandura and Ritter in which film models were
successful in the desensitization of
phobias over snakes." Christian celebrities acting as role models for
other Christians may not often appear in Hollywood movies, but they do
appear on television, on the radio, in books and now on the Internet.
A celebrity role model can teach Church Christians sound doctrine
from Scripture, and such a celebrity role model can teach man made
theologies which do not agree with Scripture.
In the image culture, it is the image of the writer, or broadcaster in
audio or on TV, which determines, to a great extent, whether his
audience will think he has spoken the truth or not.
When a person using one of the media says something which is
unfamiliar to the audience, they rarely investigate to see if that
statement is true. Rather, they more often look to the person's image
- his or her image of attractiveness and success. If he or she has a
good image and is considered a celebrity, his or her statement is more
likely to be accepted as the truth than such an unfamiliar statement
coming from someone not considered to have a good image.
Daniel J. Boorstein in The Image: Guide to Pseudo-Events in America,
1965, says we now live in a world "...where the image has more dignity
than its original...We have become eager
accessories to the great hoaxes of the age." In the image culture of
movies, TV, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, the image is more
real that what it is supposed to represent. The mass media, and its
celebrities, create our illusions that we live by. Boorstein writes
about the "thicket of unreality" in the American image culture.
The dispensationalists appear to have been caught up to some extent in
Boorstein's thicket of unreality and the image culture with its
Christian celebrities - and as Isaiah 28: 15 predicts "...when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves." The overflowing scourge can be the tribulation, which the
dispensationalists believe they will not have to go through because
they will be raptured before it begins.
On the radio, dispensationalist fundamentalists had been able to buy
their own time and now tend to almost dominate Christian radio
programming. The dispensationalist celebrities also have programs on
their own TV networks. Yet dispensationalist fundamentalists do not
dominate Christian book publishing. But popularized and
sensationalist interpretations of end time prophecy by
dispensationalists have become best sellers, such as Hal Lindsey's The
Late Great Planet Earth or Tim LaHaye's Left Behind.
When I was interested in Christian book publishing from about 1985 to
1995 many Christian publishers did not put out books by
dispensationalists. The few Christian book houses that did publish
books by dispensationalists, other than the big celebrities like Hal
Lindsey, did not also publish alternative points of view to that of
dispensationalism. It became almost as though the dispensatioanlists
believe that there are no Christians who do not follow the doctrine
of the pre-trip rapture, the two house theory of Church and Jews and
Jewish supremacy.
At that time Christian book editors appeared to follow certain
formulas which they thought would lead to the books they accepted
becoming best sellers and making a lot of money. One of the formulas
for success was prosperity doctrines. And at about this time a new
formula was introduced into Christian book publishing, the promotion
of the self psychology of Carl Rogers and A.H. Maslow. These ideas on
self-esteem, self love and self-actualization undermined the Biblical
doctrines saying we should not have pride and that we should dislike
our sin and repent from it. In 1970 Zondervan published what was
perhaps the first in a long series of Christianized self psychology
books, Love Is Now, by Peter E. Gillquist. A number of other
Christian book houses put out books on Christian self psychology,
including Harvest House, Eerdmans, InterVarsity, and by 1982 Word,
Inc of Waco, Texas got into the Christian self love act by publishing
Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, by Robert Schuller, certainly a
Christian celebrity.
Bringing in self love, self-esteem and self-actualization into
Christianity amounted to introducing a new more blatant form of pride
and worship of the flesh. But the Christian buyers of books had
itching ears and wanted to read this kind of stuff.
It was very hard to get the Christian editors to publish on new topics
then, and this rigidity is probably just as bad today. But fewer
Church Christians read books in 2011, compared to 1985 to 1995. I
wrote a manuscript on the counterculture in 1984-1985, and in a few
letters I exchanged then with Francis Schaeffer, we discussed this
manuscript. I remember in about 1984 I sent a version of the
manuscript to one of the Christian book houses that tended to publish
more conservative books. The editor did write a response back to me.
saying the Church was not concerned with the counterculture. At that
time the counterculture was not a topic included in the formula for
success in Christian book publishing. But even then the counterculture
was spreading into the broader American middle class culture with its
Hippie and drug movement anti-Christian messages, which soon led to
some drop in church membership among college educated young people and
perhaps to further departure from the Gospel of Christ by the
Churches.
Authorial image is what sells books, Christian book editors believe.
And so they will accept very few books by writers who do not - for the
editors - have good images of success and attractiveness. And the
editors also followed their lists of formula topics for success in
publishing. For example, the editors of the more conservative houses
went in for sensationalist and comic book versions of
dispensationalist end time prophecy, because millions and millions of
Church Christians believed in the prte-trib rapture theory and would
buy books making this theory part of the "thicket of unreality" in
interesting ways.
Over the years the Christian book publishers have helped to teach
Church Christians that image is all important in Christian leaders.
This is a development which helps prevent them from discerning truth from
false doctrines. Being led by Christian celebrities who cultivate
their images does not teach Church Christians to love the truth, as II
Thessalonians 2: 10-11 says, "And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:"
The Christian book houses have helped to teach Church Christians that
good image - image of success and attractiveness of one's person - is
somehow truth, and that what a Christian celebrity says on TV, on the
radio or in writing can never be false doctrine coming from man's own
version of the Gospel of Christ. This is the central danger of the
Christian Celebrity system - and by 2011 we are seeing the fruits of
that system more fully manifested.
The false prophets that Christ warned would appear in the end times
are found in the ranks of the Christian Celebrities, because they can
get their messages out in the secular and Christian media. The image
culture makes it possible for them to deceive Church Christians into
believing their messages. "And many false prophets shall rise, and
shall deceive many." (Matthew 24: 11). False prophets can more easily
deceive Christians in an age of deception.
"That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will
not hear the law of the LORD:
10. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy
deceits:" Isaiah 30: 9-10
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears" II Timothy 4: 3
In II Peter 2: 14 the false prophets or false prophet Christian
celebrities belonging to the Second Beast of Revelation 13:11-18 are
described as "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin." Many of the false prophet celebrities are carnal, and love
money and sex.
Paul writes "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of
these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of
disobedience." Ephesians 5:6. "Vain words" are empty words, words
that sound good and are well delivered by attractive men - and
sometimes by attractive women preachers - but which are futile
because the words are not true to Scripture.
Titus 1: 10 says "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:" Unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers is from anupotaktoi mataiologoi
kai phrenapatai, or lawless and empty mind deceivers. The deceiving
false prophet Christian celebrities use impressive sounding words, but
which are really empty of spiritual meaning. And they promote a
mingling of the Gospel of Christ with man's religion, a false copy of
the true Gospel. This mingling arrives at number eight of the six,
seven, eight cycle. Number six is man, since man was created on the
sixth day. God sanctified the seventh day. Number seven is to be in
God, in his rest. Number eight is going out of number seven, in God,
to a mingling of God's rest with man's religion. False man-made theologies
move Church Christians out of number seven to number eight
The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, most of whom are
still living. Some include Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Tim LaHaye, Grant Jeffrey, John
Hagee, Rick Warren,
Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart,
and Hal Lindsey. Almost all of these Christian celebrities teach the
pre-tribulation
rapture theory, that God has two distinct peoples, the Jews and the Church, that
Christians cannot be Israel and that the Jews, saved or unsaved,
remain the chosen of God. Although
Rick Warren is or was a member of the Southern Baptist denomination, I am not
sure that he teaches the doctrines of dispensationalism. Robert
Schuller has taught other forms of false doctrines and might not be classified as a
dispensationalist.
So the Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for
the present day
widespread
popularity in the Churches of the doctrines of the pre-tribulation
rapture, the radical
separation of Church and Jews, and that the Jews remain God's chosen people.
And - there are a few well known Christian teachers
who do not fit in with the celebrities listed above. For example,
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and especially the Dutch missionary
Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) are famous but should not be classified as
celebrities
because they apparently did not try to cultivate their images. Both
wrote a great many Christian books. Schaeffer is
interesting
because he belonged to the Reformed pre-millenialist camp, but was not into
dispensationalism, though he did not systematically criticize it.
Corrie emphasized forgiveness,
which is not stressed in the contemporary Churches. Schaeffer's
smaller Calvinist group believed that following the tribulation,
Christ would appear the second time, and after that he would bring in
his thousand year reign on earth. They did not believe in the
pre-trib rapture or that God has two different peoples. The larger
number of Calvinists follow amillennialism, which makes the thousand
year reign into a big sweeping allegory of all Christians from all
ages, following Augustine and the Catholic Church. Corrie Ten Boom in
her later years opposed dispensationalism, and pointed out that the
doctrine of the pre-trib rapture left the Christian Church
ill-prepared in times of great persecution, such as in China under
Mao.
Celebrities are the most successful people in the image culture of
television, movies, radio, magazines and newspapers. Many people who
are not celebrities imitate celebrities in presenting surface
appearances
of attractiveness and success. Almost everyone takes part in the
celebrity system - including Church Christians - by allowing
celebrities on TV, in movies, on the radio and in other media to
influence
them in what they think and in the way they act. Celebrities not only
entertain Americans and those
in most other parts of the world, but they also tell us what to
believe and how to behave. National political celebrities are able
to lead people to the extent that the politicians can sell people on
the basis of their images. In our age of deception, it is the
celebrities of entertainment, politics and religion who do much of the
deceiving; and they are able to deceive people because the people are
impressed by their surface appearances. It is very important for
believers to understand the celebrity system - both secular and
Christian - because many Christian celebrities deceive Church
Christians into accepting false
theologies which they promote. Preachers also tend to follow
Christian celebrities and themselves often try to present good images
in order to better influence their congregations.
Before the secular celebrity system spread to politics, sports, the
arts, the military, education,
business and to Christianity, it was confined to Hollywood film stars.
Richard Schickel in his book, Intimate Strangers: The Culture of
Celebrity, 1985, says the celebrity system began in the period of
1895 to 1920 with early Hollywood movie stars. Some of these early
celebrities of film were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas
Fairbanks and William S. Hart.
Like Narcissus, the Hollywood celebrity fell in love with his or her
own image. In Greek, narke, or narcotic, means stupor, a state of not
being very sharp cognitively. In The Christian Celebrity System Part
One I briefly described how very frequent jump cutting and poor story
construction on network TV can cause not only a momentary type of
stupor or suspension of cognitive clarity, but may lead to long term
cognitive deficiencies. The presentation of a glamourous image by
Hollywood celebrities
produces narke, a magic spell, a bewitchment and enchantment. People
who are put into a state of some stupor by a celebrity - and this
includes Christian celebrities - are made more gullible to whatever
message the celebrity is teaching because their critical discernment
has been shut down to some degree.
In presenting their nonverbal appearances, celebrities have learned to
simplify their personality
presentation. In the image culture the perception of another's
personality is reduced down to
his or her surface appearance. Celebrities pick out one or two verbal
expressions to emphasize to others as "themselves." Farrah Fawcett's
wind-blown hair look, big smile, and in the late sixties and seventies
the bra-less image made up a large part of her appearance. Fidel
Castro, though not an entertainer celebrity, presented a simplified
image with is beard, carefully pressed military fatigues, and cigar.
Many people tend to be disturbed by other people who show too many different
appearances and a complex personality. Most people use only a very
few dimensions to picture in their minds the the personalities of
others. This may be why celebrities try to simplify their images.
People are not disturbed
when they are able to make sense out of the behavior of another by use
of a very small number of
dimensions. By dimensions I mean bi-polar opposites like
conventional-unconventional, successful-unsuccessful, strong-weak, or
good-bad.
Celebrities sometimes pay a price for their over-simplification of
their images to fit this tendency of people to become confused or
disturbed by complexity of personality presentation. Richard Schickel
says that "Forced to live within some early role, stars become restive,
even self-destructive, as a result of living up to the lie off
screen." But if a celebrities were to project complex personality
images to their audiences, most in the audiences would not be able to
form an impression of them, and would not like them. Social psychology
says that when a person is complex, others have difficulty in forming
accurate impressions of him or her; some may assume the other is like
themselves, while other perceivers may think the other is the opposite
of themselves. I published a report on an experiment dealing with these topics
in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology in 1965, called "Accuracy of
Interpersonal Perception As A Function of Consistency of Information."
Church Christians tend to be influenced by the teachings of Christian
celebrities and may even copy
the verbal expressions of the celebrities. George Comstock, a TV
effects researcher, says that "It is pretty well established that film
models can be as effective as live behavior models...One impressive
study is that of Bandura and Ritter in which film models were
successful in the desensitization of
phobias over snakes." Christian celebrities acting as role models for
other Christians may not often appear in Hollywood movies, but they do
appear on television, on the radio, in books and now on the Internet.
A celebrity role model can teach Church Christians sound doctrine
from Scripture, and such a celebrity role model can teach man made
theologies which do not agree with Scripture.
In the image culture, it is the image of the writer, or broadcaster in
audio or on TV, which determines, to a great extent, whether his
audience will think he has spoken the truth or not.
When a person using one of the media says something which is
unfamiliar to the audience, they rarely investigate to see if that
statement is true. Rather, they more often look to the person's image
- his or her image of attractiveness and success. If he or she has a
good image and is considered a celebrity, his or her statement is more
likely to be accepted as the truth than such an unfamiliar statement
coming from someone not considered to have a good image.
Daniel J. Boorstein in The Image: Guide to Pseudo-Events in America,
1965, says we now live in a world "...where the image has more dignity
than its original...We have become eager
accessories to the great hoaxes of the age." In the image culture of
movies, TV, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, the image is more
real that what it is supposed to represent. The mass media, and its
celebrities, create our illusions that we live by. Boorstein writes
about the "thicket of unreality" in the American image culture.
The dispensationalists appear to have been caught up to some extent in
Boorstein's thicket of unreality and the image culture with its
Christian celebrities - and as Isaiah 28: 15 predicts "...when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves." The overflowing scourge can be the tribulation, which the
dispensationalists believe they will not have to go through because
they will be raptured before it begins.
On the radio, dispensationalist fundamentalists had been able to buy
their own time and now tend to almost dominate Christian radio
programming. The dispensationalist celebrities also have programs on
their own TV networks. Yet dispensationalist fundamentalists do not
dominate Christian book publishing. But popularized and
sensationalist interpretations of end time prophecy by
dispensationalists have become best sellers, such as Hal Lindsey's The
Late Great Planet Earth or Tim LaHaye's Left Behind.
When I was interested in Christian book publishing from about 1985 to
1995 many Christian publishers did not put out books by
dispensationalists. The few Christian book houses that did publish
books by dispensationalists, other than the big celebrities like Hal
Lindsey, did not also publish alternative points of view to that of
dispensationalism. It became almost as though the dispensatioanlists
believe that there are no Christians who do not follow the doctrine
of the pre-trip rapture, the two house theory of Church and Jews and
Jewish supremacy.
At that time Christian book editors appeared to follow certain
formulas which they thought would lead to the books they accepted
becoming best sellers and making a lot of money. One of the formulas
for success was prosperity doctrines. And at about this time a new
formula was introduced into Christian book publishing, the promotion
of the self psychology of Carl Rogers and A.H. Maslow. These ideas on
self-esteem, self love and self-actualization undermined the Biblical
doctrines saying we should not have pride and that we should dislike
our sin and repent from it. In 1970 Zondervan published what was
perhaps the first in a long series of Christianized self psychology
books, Love Is Now, by Peter E. Gillquist. A number of other
Christian book houses put out books on Christian self psychology,
including Harvest House, Eerdmans, InterVarsity, and by 1982 Word,
Inc of Waco, Texas got into the Christian self love act by publishing
Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, by Robert Schuller, certainly a
Christian celebrity.
Bringing in self love, self-esteem and self-actualization into
Christianity amounted to introducing a new more blatant form of pride
and worship of the flesh. But the Christian buyers of books had
itching ears and wanted to read this kind of stuff.
It was very hard to get the Christian editors to publish on new topics
then, and this rigidity is probably just as bad today. But fewer
Church Christians read books in 2011, compared to 1985 to 1995. I
wrote a manuscript on the counterculture in 1984-1985, and in a few
letters I exchanged then with Francis Schaeffer, we discussed this
manuscript. I remember in about 1984 I sent a version of the
manuscript to one of the Christian book houses that tended to publish
more conservative books. The editor did write a response back to me.
saying the Church was not concerned with the counterculture. At that
time the counterculture was not a topic included in the formula for
success in Christian book publishing. But even then the counterculture
was spreading into the broader American middle class culture with its
Hippie and drug movement anti-Christian messages, which soon led to
some drop in church membership among college educated young people and
perhaps to further departure from the Gospel of Christ by the
Churches.
Authorial image is what sells books, Christian book editors believe.
And so they will accept very few books by writers who do not - for the
editors - have good images of success and attractiveness. And the
editors also followed their lists of formula topics for success in
publishing. For example, the editors of the more conservative houses
went in for sensationalist and comic book versions of
dispensationalist end time prophecy, because millions and millions of
Church Christians believed in the prte-trib rapture theory and would
buy books making this theory part of the "thicket of unreality" in
interesting ways.
Over the years the Christian book publishers have helped to teach
Church Christians that image is all important in Christian leaders.
This is a development which helps prevent them from discerning truth from
false doctrines. Being led by Christian celebrities who cultivate
their images does not teach Church Christians to love the truth, as II
Thessalonians 2: 10-11 says, "And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the
love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:"
The Christian book houses have helped to teach Church Christians that
good image - image of success and attractiveness of one's person - is
somehow truth, and that what a Christian celebrity says on TV, on the
radio or in writing can never be false doctrine coming from man's own
version of the Gospel of Christ. This is the central danger of the
Christian Celebrity system - and by 2011 we are seeing the fruits of
that system more fully manifested.
The false prophets that Christ warned would appear in the end times
are found in the ranks of the Christian Celebrities, because they can
get their messages out in the secular and Christian media. The image
culture makes it possible for them to deceive Church Christians into
believing their messages. "And many false prophets shall rise, and
shall deceive many." (Matthew 24: 11). False prophets can more easily
deceive Christians in an age of deception.
"That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will
not hear the law of the LORD:
10. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy
deceits:" Isaiah 30: 9-10
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having
itching ears" II Timothy 4: 3
In II Peter 2: 14 the false prophets or false prophet Christian
celebrities belonging to the Second Beast of Revelation 13:11-18 are
described as "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin." Many of the false prophet celebrities are carnal, and love
money and sex.
Paul writes "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of
these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of
disobedience." Ephesians 5:6. "Vain words" are empty words, words
that sound good and are well delivered by attractive men - and
sometimes by attractive women preachers - but which are futile
because the words are not true to Scripture.
Titus 1: 10 says "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:" Unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers is from anupotaktoi mataiologoi
kai phrenapatai, or lawless and empty mind deceivers. The deceiving
false prophet Christian celebrities use impressive sounding words, but
which are really empty of spiritual meaning. And they promote a
mingling of the Gospel of Christ with man's religion, a false copy of
the true Gospel. This mingling arrives at number eight of the six,
seven, eight cycle. Number six is man, since man was created on the
sixth day. God sanctified the seventh day. Number seven is to be in
God, in his rest. Number eight is going out of number seven, in God,
to a mingling of God's rest with man's religion. False man-made theologies
move Church Christians out of number seven to number eight
