In the past, I wrote a couple blogs about a man named Brandon Barthrop and his Red Letter Ministries. Barthrop claims to have a 7 fold ministry gift of judge, king, apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist, and pastor. Barthrop has released a second online booklet of his proverbs. I wanted to share a few of his proverbs with you and provide commentary on them. I'm posting this because Barthrop has some heavy influence in my local area recently and his teachings are thus worth examining.
"Goodness can be so terrible that it corrupts evil." - Goodness can't be terrible; it's good. Goodness can't corrupt; it's good. Evil is evil, it can't be made corrupt, and certainly not by good. However, good can overcome evil according to scripture. This teaching confuses what is good and what is evil. Just as evil can not make evil better, so goodness can not make evil worse. Such claims are rebuked in scripture and, according to certain scholars, are called blasphemies against the Holy Spirit when aimed at the work of God (Matthew 12:22-31).
"Physical Christ emanating through your pores reveals who you are... A God." - There is only one (1) God. We are humans, not gods. We can never be God. This is made clear in the opening chapters of the Bible when God's eternal nature and man's created nature are revealed. This is also taught throughout the scriptures as people claim there is only one God and it is Yahweh (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or when they declare the great differences between God and man. Even God himself repeatedly makes it clear that he is vastly different and superior to man (Job 38-42). This is heresy in it's greatest form. This is the same type of lie the serpent told Adam and Eve in the garden; that we can be like God (Genesis 3:4). Literally, the oldest trick in the book.
"The Hubble telescope is searching for your spirit." - Actually, the Hubble telescope is a piece of man-made technology from the 1990s which takes pictures of space. That's not a lack of faith either, it's just being reasonable. Nothing in scripture gives us reason to think that such man-made inventions actively search for our spirit. Inanimate objects are never spoken of in this way in the scriptures.
"If you ain't high on God, you're low on the devil!" - If God and Satan (the devil) are in opposition then if a prson isn't high, or filled up to a high level, on God, then how can one be low on the devil? This equation makes it seem like you can get more God by getting more devil; the more Satan in your life then the more God in your life. That doesn't make sense and once again makes what is good evil and what is evil good for it makes them the same thing. Perhaps Barthrop is trying to be catchy here but his wit fails him as he makes God and the devil one in the same.
"Love is God. God is Light. Love is Glory." - Scripture says God is love. It does not say that love is God. There is a difference between the two. To say love is God is to make love an idol that replaces the one true God who is the fullness of love and characterized by his love. Love is an attribute of God but not a god itself. God can be defined by love but love can not be defined as God. To call anything less than God "God" is to displace one's worship.
"If ur drinkin ur winnin, if ur thinking ur sinnin." - The Bible never claims that thinking is a sinful activity. In fact, a lack of thought results in a lack of wisdom and knowledge; two things that scripture puts a heavy emphasis on. The result of not thinking is not righteousness or purity but rather foolishness and then sinfulness. Barthrop is promoting a lack of thinking and thus promoting foolishness. He wants to replace a life of experience, feeling, reason and thought with one of feeling and experience alone. Without thinking (a mental processing of information) there is no discernment and with no discernment no one can call out false prophets, which puts the apostles in a really bad spot since that was something they often did. Being aware of false prophets is something that Christians are taught to be. Brandon Barthrop seems to disagree with this and it makes sense since he is a false prophet and doesn't want to be called out. If he can convince his followers to lack the ability or will to think for themselves and use discernment then he can convince them of anything he desires. This is a classic strategy of a cult leader; he leads them to abandon individual thinking and discernment so that his teaching is the only present reality for the follower and this gains him absolute loyalty from the follower and absolute power/influence over the follower.
There you go, a few proverbs from a man who claims to be a prophet of God. Don't take my word for it though, read his words, read the scriptures, and come to a conclusion (also, listen to the Church at large on these issues since she is the body of Christ on earth who carries out the work of God). Any sober reading of scripture will prove that this man is greatly deceived and greatly deceiving in regards to some very important issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment