Thanks again to Pastor Wayne Edwards from the USA for sending in another impactful collection of the latest articles from around the world, illustrating the desperate times in which we live. His latest sermon will be published tomorrow, God willing, along with all the the articles. The article below is so outstanding I publish it as today’s feature. Jim Fletcher truly grasps the damage Darwin’s theory of evolution has done to the Western world, just as Vladimir Lenin’s version of Marxism destroyed Russia and is destroying you today. Am I really my keeper’s brother?

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The following article is a MUST READ for today’s pastors, and those who want to know the origin of the LAODICEAN CHURCH in America. Pastor Wayne.

Connecting the Dots – Apostasy in the Church: A Spiritual Plague

By Jim Fletcher – September 2021

It has been said that as World War 1 launched, the Germans unleashed a plague on Russia. They sent the Land of the Czars one Vladimir Lenin.

The story goes that Lenin, having thoroughly studied Marx, was put on a special train in Switzerland and hurled at Mother Russia. It was the deadly poison that eventually spilled over into other parts of the world, dooming people in Asia, Latin America, and it now threatens America. The point is, sometimes people slip unnoticed into a culture and work their diabolical magic.

That happened in America in 1882. “America’s Preacher” of the day, Henry Ward Beecher, brought Herbert Spencer to the US from England, in order to help the British sociologist (and friend of Darwin) market evolution to the masses.

It worked. Beecher’s own theology trended toward emphasizing only the love of God (though, curiously, de-emphasizing the ultimate act of love, sending Jesus to die for our sins). Beecher essentially rejected every orthodox doctrine and paved the way totally for modern apostates like Rob Bell.

Linda Hall has written, about this subject: http://writerhall.com/about-me/

“Beecher merits inclusion as a Scientist of the Day because, in the 1880s, he accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution, thought that it was perfectly compatible with Christianity, and in 1885, delivered a series of eight sermons on Evolution and Religion, which he would then publish under that title later that year. The first sermon was delivered on May 24, 1885, and the last just eight weeks later, on July 10. We do not have the sermons in the library but I found the first seven online, and read a few of them, especially the second one of May 31, where he set out to explain evolution to his congregation. He did a decent job, not shying away from including humans in the evolutionary story. Since Beecher’s fundamental tenet in all his sermons was ‘God is love,’ it is not surprising that he could accommodate a loving God to an evolving world. It is also not surprising that he failed to discuss Darwin’s somewhat ungodly evolutionary mechanism, natural selection.”

His rejection of Scripture doomed countless congregations to poor teaching and absolutely laid the groundwork for today’s plague of Bible ignorance. I disagree with the following first sentence of Hall’s further thoughts, but she is absolutely correct that his “erosion” of belief in the Genesis accounts was lethal:

“Beecher failed to convince the theologians, but that was never his goal. He took pains to distinguish theology from religion. Religion was what you felt in your heart, and whether the world was 6000 years old and static, or millions of years old and always changing, God’s love, and our love for God, was unaffected. And apparently his congregation agreed with him.”

And you have to understand, Beecher was the forerunner of a series of preachers that came after him. Another writer has noted: “Harry Emerson Fosdick would comment that whenever we preach freely to sympathetic audiences the social gospel…, we are building on foundations that Mr. Beecher helped to lay.” Fosdick was the apostate from the middle of the 20th century, and gave way to Norman Vincent Peale, who gave way to Robert Schuller, who gave way to Rick Warren. That’s what I find remarkable. The poison brought to the US in the late 19th century has seen an unbroken chain of preachers that embraced godless worldviews. It is a huge reason we have every manner of apostate teachings in the Church today, from Word Faith to Emergent (liberal) theology. 

About Jim Fletcher

Jim Fletcher is an author, speaker, and activist, specializing in Bible prophecy, Christian apologetics, and support for Israel. He is a member of the executive committee for the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), director of Prophecy Matters, and he blogs weekly for WorldNetDaily (“Writer’s Bloc”); Beliefnet (“Is it the End of the World?”); and RaptureReady (“Israel Watch”). He lives with his family in the beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.