Category Archives: political religion
Joel Osteen Said What? Mormons are Christians
It very obvious that Pastor Joel Osteen can make millions of dollars selling his feel good motivational books, and his ability to fill up an arena on Wednesday nights and Sunday morning with his church members. However, when it comes to his theological soundness and standing on sound doctrine he is seriously lacking. Back at it again with his inability to stand on sound doctrine, Osteen said that Mormons are Christians in his response about Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney a Mormon not being a Christian. He stated Romney is his Christian brother. I hate to tell you Joel, but Mormons are no closer to being Christians than let’s say a Satanist, Wicca, Shaman, Buddhist, and Hindu. We”re seeing a growing trend of ecumenical dance with prominent Christian personalities such as Osteen’s statements that Mormons are Christians, and Christian television networks such as TBN and Daystar broadcasting Glenn Beck (Mormon) as he endorses Mormonism as just another branch of Christianity. Let’s examine the truth and facts from a biblical perspective that Mormonism isn’t Christianity, and never will be. At gcmwatch we followed Pastor Osteen lack of standing on sound doctrinal issues in the past of years(here, here, here).
Mormonism Occult Origins
The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith who was a 33rd degree freemason. He was heavily involved in the occult arts such as astrology, ritual magic, crystal gazing, seer stones, and divining rods (source).Smith was also into spiritualism in which a person is in contact with the dead and with other spirit entities to obtain information or knowledge through the occult.
Joseph Smith claims that an angel Moroni gave him the revelation for the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine of Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. Supposedly Moroni’s father, Mormon, a Nephite historian-prophet,wrote the history of the Jews/Nephites who came from Jerusalem to ancient America in 600 B.C.-385 A.D. Moroni added his words to the book then hid it. Supposedly in these gold plates, it is written that Jesus appeared in America and spent time with the Nephites after his resurrection. Shortly afterwards, the Nephite people were wiped out in a war against the Lamanites (principal ancestors of the Native Americans). After his death, Moroni was resurrected as an angel. In September 21, 1823 Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in New York ,gave him gold plates, and instructed him to translate the gold plates into English. This is the origin of the Book of Mormon.
Ironically the name Mormo is is listed in Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible in the listing page of “Infernal Names.” It states that Mormo is the god of the ghouls, and his followers would be Mormons (source 1/ source).
Mormonism Has Elements of Gnosticism
Mormonism does possess some elements of gnostictism (source/source). In June 8, 1873, while preaching from the pulpit of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah Brigham Young declared:
“The devil told the truth… I do not blame Mother Eve. I would not have had her miss eating the forbidden fruit for anything in the world… They must pass through the same ordeals as the Gods, that they may know good from evil… Through the gift of sin, humanity can achieve godhood (source ; source).”
This is completely contray to what John 8:44 says: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” It calls the devil the father of lies and a murderer. This is because his intent in the Garden of Eden was to spiritually murder both Adam and Eve by getting them to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve died spiritually and that death did not result in them becoming gods as the Devil told them in Genesis 3:5. It was a lie. Brigham Young’s statements and writings regarding the fall of man and the serpent in garden helping Adam and Eve to realize they’re gods mirrors gnosticism. It sees the serpent/Satan as the good guy helping mankind realize the god within themselves (source).
What Mormons Believe
Mormons believe in millions of gods. Mormons long to become a a god. They don’t long to spend eternity with Jesus Christ (source).
Biblical response: Isaiah 45:5-12. G-d said their is no other god, but Him.
They teach that man is a god in embryo, and may attain exaltation to godhood as the heavenly father has(source).
Biblical response: Psalm 51:5. Were born as sinners, not gods.
They believe in an eternal mother who engages in sex with the heavenly father to create human spirits. She is the wife of God (source).
Biblical response: Ezekieal 18:4. G-d is the Creator of all things, all the souls belong to Him.
Mormons believe Jesus was a polygamist who was married to Mary and Martha at the same time. They also believe that God the Father is polygamist (source).
Biblical response: The Bible never states that Jesus was married to Mary and Martha. This is a gnostic doctrine. G-d the Father creates. He does not procreate.
Mormonism holds the belief that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. Both are the elder brothers of heaven and were produced by God through a sexual union (source, source).
Biblical response: John 1:14 and John 3:16. Jesus is the only begotten son of the Father.
Mormons don’t believe in virgin birth of Jesus Christ. They believe Mary had sex with God the Father. They believed Mary was married both to God and Joseph (source).
Biblical response: Matthew 1:23 and Isaiah 7:14. Marry was a virgin that gave birth to Jesus.
They believe God was once a man of flesh and bones and that someday we can become a god over our own universe (source).
Biblical response: John 4:24. G-d is spirit, we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Mormons believe that some sins are so bad that the blood of Jesus can’t atone for sins. Instead, a person must shed their own blood for atonement (source).
Biblical response: Matthew 26:28. Only Jesus’ blood was shed for remission of all sins and it marks a new covenant.
Baptism of the dead is another doctrine in Mormonism. A Mormon can be baptized in place of their dead ancestors or friends so that these dead friends or family members can become Mormons (source).
Biblical response: Hebrews 9:27. Man is appointed once to die, then the judgment. The Bible doesn’t speak about karma or purgatory.
Study to Show Yourself Approved
The Christian Church of America has to beware of entering into ecumenical movement towards a one world church. If a religious institution does not line up with the overall authority of ”The Word of God,” then flee. Don’t allow yourself to be seduced by evil spirits into false doctrine. And please, don’t make covenants with Mormons.
Jonathan Capehart’s gay media religion
You probably have never heard the term gay media religion so here’s a brief definition. It when a gay media pundit gets religion for a quick minute in order to make a media point about religion when it deals with gays.
Enter Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capeheart. Capeheart drudged up his inner religion to shoot at/throw stones at “conservatives” who don’t want to jump with wild abandon on the gays-are-the-best-thing-since-the-invention-of-the-toilet-paper wagon. To people like Capeheart, anything less than total acceptance of homosexuality, is tantamount to desecrating the Auschwitz memorial.
In his opinion piece, He cites a bunch of polls to prove that homosexuals are the creme de la creme of American society. Perhaps that’s why they released the “study” which advanced the theory that having a gay marriage improves your health.
“Trying to exclude loving gay and lesbian families [is there such a thing as unloving gay families?], especially those with children, is a wasted effort. “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families,” a November 2010 report by the Pew Research Center found that “63% say a gay or lesbian couple raising a child is a family.” That’s certainly less than full acceptance. But it’s still a majority of Americans.
A June 2010 Gallup survey put support for marriage equality at 52 percent. Among men it was 53 percent. And among Catholics, a stunning 62 percent. Those numbers were reconfirmed by a March 2011 Washington Post-ABC News poll that showed support for same-sex marriage at 53 percent of Americans, 53 percent of men and 63 percent of Catholics. That last percentage was a jump of 8 points since the question had been asked in February 2010.”
Capeheart’s media spasm is really aimed at attempting to minimize the truth that homosexuals can change. So he dutifully does his part to shoot it down by setting up “conservatives” as the strawman. Capeheart’s razor-thinly disguised arrogance at other people’s freewill and inalienable Constitutional rights to differ with him and o
ther homosexual activists can be summed up with three main points:
1. All conservatives are gay-obsessed. That’s a favorite smoke bomb of those with religion du jour. The phrase “gay obsessed” is intentionally undefined because if were, the fallacy of Capeheart’s argument would quickly turn on him and his dear leader, the SOTUS. In fact, if you judged solely by the actions and policies and religious beliefs of Mr. #44, gay obsession would be a mild term.
2. Gays hate, hate, hate reparative therapy whether its the secular brand or the more comprehensive religious brand. We get that. You want to stay homosexual all your life to prove the point that no one can change from being homosexual. We get that. We get it that you want to ensure that all the trumped up policies and laws you have engineered based on a fallacious assumption that “sexual orientation” is immutable dont get wiped off the books by thinking people.
3. Religion is like toilet paper. You use it only when you are trying to clean yourself up. That’s why out of 66 books with 1189 chapters and over 31,000 verses, the moderately intellectualized Capeheart has only seen two. And those are via Brent Childers of the gay religious organization Faith in America.
Romans 14:13 — Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another….
Ephesians 4:2 — Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Capeheart cited the two partial verses from Faith in America. Guess what their motto is: “Religion-based bigotry is the No. 1 impediment to equality and full human dignity…Help us end it!” How ironic.
I dont get why anti-bible homosexuals want to make the bible gay friendly. Let’s face it, its not and it never will be. They claim King James was a “flaming homosexual” . If that is true, its really proof that God, not man controls the content of the scripture. King James could have easily excised every single mention of homosexuality in the bible, but he didnt. He left it as is. 100% of the scripture in the bible that mention of homosexuality —save one— is irreconcilably condemn homosexual behavior. So unless, they rewrite it in their own image and likeness, it will continue to be as is.
And just for the record, the “save one” is when the Apostle Paul states with flourishing joy that there were ex-homosexuals in the Corinthian church. And such were some of you.
Red letter lies: How Tony Compolo colors the bible
Its possible you’ve heard of the “Red Letter Christian” theological conglomeration. Its a strange religious concoction which attempts to make the so-called red letter passages of scripture (the quote-unquote words of Jesus) more important than other passages in the bible. Not that the bible itself places this kind of emphasis on the quoted words of Jesus, but its a progressive postmodernism gimmick used by liberal religious leaders to counter what they see is too much emphasis on things like sin, sexual immorality, holiness, repentance and hell. Additionally, RLC have a political axe to grind with the social conservative movement which is opposed to homosexual rights and abortion. Thus, they attempt to leverage the socio-political playing field by narrowing what scriptures are applicable to the aforementioned issues.
For the record ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim 3:16). Nothing in the bible tells us or even implies that some scripture is more important that other parts —even the words of Jesus. That’s because the scripture is one, complete and harmonious system of doctrine and God-inspired logos. Scripture does not contradict scripture and one part doesn’t cancel out other parts without proper exegetical integrity in interpretation. But the Red Letter Christians have found a way around that.
Framers of the Red Letter movement include Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners magazine; Richard Rohr, a well-known Catholic writer; Brian McLaren, an Emergent Church leader; and Tony Campolo, a popular speaker and author of Red Letter Christians: a Citizen’s Guide to Faith and Politics.
The group chose the name for a couple of reasons: first, to stress that its political philosophy is based on Jesus’ teachings—a “What Would Jesus Do?” approach to governmental policy. Second, to appear apolitical—the appellation “Red Letter Christians” avoids the political connotations of labels such as “liberal” and “progressive,” and it facilitates the group’s claim that it transcends politics.
Red Letter Christians resent what they see as the religious right’s fixation on abortion and homosexual rights. Since Jesus did not deal with those two issues, they say, we should not make them more urgent than other issues. Instead, Red Letter Christians focus on political policies affecting poverty, global warming, racial discrimination, the role of the military, capital punishment, foreign aid, and public education. [source]
Having a faulty premise to begin with can only lead one into further error and that’s exactly how lead framer Tony Campolo has devolved. In his quest to make things right politically for homosexuals, he realized there was a fundamental problem. Not only were so-called religious right against homosexuality but there existed a much more formidable enemy. Campolo had to chop up, dissect, diminish, disconnect and reorder the truth of scripture so that his political assertions would have some sort of theological support system. So he created the red letter lie manual.
We’ve reported on Campolo before. Like most gay affirming religious figures, the cover of youth is very convenient for them to seed their lies about sexuality. Campolo is nearing completion of his master’s degree in red letter deception. In an interview on his Red Letter Blog he immediately drops the youth issue as justification for his own errors.
“What’s happened overall in the last few years is that a younger generation is emerging with different values. Consider the homosexual issue. Recent studies indicate that older people tend to be opposed to gay marriage and younger people, while still conservative on the issue, do not consider it a defining issue for Christians. While conservative in their thinking, they put in an emphasis alongside of their concerns about the environment, their opposition to war, their concerns about human trafficking and, most of all, their concerns about poverty. I’m in the middle, closer to the younger.”
With a nonchalant shrug, Campolo goes on to say that he doesn’t “approve” of homosexuality. Does the bible really care that Tony Campolo approves of homosexuality or not? Hardly, especially when he circumvents the truth by insisting that talking about homosexuality isn’t something contemporary should be concerned about. After all, people are hungry, wearing second hand clothes and cant get the latest version of the Ipad. So what’s the big deal about homosexuality? What’s interesting is that false teachers almost always downplay serious issues like homosexuality, but then spend a majority of their time talking about it. They want YOU to be quiet so they can dominate the discussion with their lies.
Campolo is being disingenuous when he says he doesn’t approve of homosexuality. His attendance as a speaker at a gay christian conference is sufficient evidence to that regard. How could a person disapprove of something, but then voluntarily attend an event put on by people who engage in what you allegedly disapprove of? According to the gay christian network (see adherents) Campolo “does not support attempts to “convert” gays into straights; rather, he advises gay people to pursue celibacy.” Thats a political way of saying that homosexuals can’t change. That’s not biblical (reference 2 Cor 5:17) , but of course its a convenient caveat for the red letterers.
The red letter movement is closely associated with the emergent church movement. Both groups have cultivated a facade of being caring, tolerant and concerned but the reality is that they are part and parcel of those who teach doctrines of devils. False teachers come in all colors. Even red. For more information about Campolo’s emergent church heresy, check out Apprising Ministries writeup here.
NAACP speaker out of sync with Baptist convention theme
Are Baptists circumventing their own theme?
Based on his past activities supporting homosexual rights, NAACP director Benjamin Jealous doesn’t have solidarity with the National Baptist Convention’s theme “Solidarity with the Savior”. Any person who claims that homosexuality is not a sin, isnt in solidarity with Jesus or the Bible either. So its ironic that the NBC would invite Jealous. In order to be in solidarity with the Savior (Jesus) wouldn’t you also have to be in agreement with his word?
The nation’s largest black religious organization is planning to have Jealous speak at a mission event during its upcoming conference in Orlando. Asked by the Daytona Times about “formally recognizing” deceased Orlando Pastor Zachery Tims, Morris Tipton, the denomination’s director of media made a passing allusion that the NBC wouldn’t do so because Tims died in an unrepentant state. [source]
“We also fully believe what the Bible says in 1 John 1:9; ‘If we confess our sins (to Him), He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’,” he continued.
The events have instead scheduled a full list of other activities, with NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous holding the task as the keynote speaker at the Annual Home Mission Board “Mission Train” Awards Luncheon.
The central theme of the Assembly will be “Solidarity With the Savior.”
Tipton said, “Our goal as a Convention and as individual Christians should always be in harmony with the will of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, every ministry and program that we involve ourselves in as a body of believers is to be in solidarity with the Savior.”
While it seemed to disavow Tims because he was “not in solidarity”, the NBC misses the same problem with Jealous. In Matthew 19:3-6, Jesus upheld and strengthened Old Testament laws which condemned any sexual activity other than covenant marriage between a man and a woman.
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
If you’d like to test it on homosexuality, play the role of the pharisee and rephrase the question. It would probably look something like this:
“Is it lawful for a man to have another man as his sexual partner for any cause”?
Jesus’ answer:
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
If you notice, the answer remains the same.
Black is the new gay?
Ready for the NAACP to be co-opted by a National Association for the Advancement of Gay People? Some are already heralding that blacks are a yesteryear minority and that gays are the new minority du jour. In other words, if you want to score points as a civil rights crusader, you would need to take a trip through the homosexual community first. And with white homosexuals desperately seeking to rain money into the depleted coffers of the NAACP, Jealous is the perfect fit.
Under Jealous, the NAACP is fervently ramping up its homosexual coalition building efforts more than ever before.
Last year the NAACP came out against California’s Proposition 8, the recently overturned ballot initiative banning gay marriage. And in July, at its annual national convention, the NAACP rolled out an LGBT Equality Taskforce, a seven-member committee designed to stay on top of justice issues within the gay community.
But it seems as if these activities may have been merely preludes to the upcoming One Nation Working Together march. Led by the NAACP, the Oct. 2 event will find President Jealous and his colleagues stepping out with more than two dozen LGBT partner organizations, an unprecedented showing of public support for gay-rights activists of every stripe.
Homosexuality makes strange bedfellows.
Government run school endorsing gay churches?
WILMINGTON, NC – Perhaps the liberal religious left is abandoning their cult status belief in “separation of church and state”. Or maybe the so-called “separation of church and state” has only been something they used when it was of advantage to their causes. This seems to be the case at a government run school in North Carolina who has taken upon itself to recommend gay affirming churches to its student body.
When a department chair at the University of North Carolina Wilmington suggested that the school’s staff could send a list of “gay-friendly” churches to the school’s students, she ignited a heated debate on the separation of church and state.
“I was really ticked,” said criminology professor and TownHall.com columnist Dr. Mike Adams during an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday.
Adams openly criticized the school’s LGBTQIA Resource Office, a diversity office that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex students, in his Aug. 15 column for spending government time and money on locating and endorsing certain churches over others based on their view of homosexuality.
The list of five churches is part of a bigger resource guide which was initially circulated last month to the school’s staff by Amy Schlag (pictured, left), the LGBTQIA Office Program Adviser. But when Dr. Kimberly Cook, chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UNCW, got a hold of it, she said it could be passed on to students as well.
“It might be useful for you and your students,” she wrote in the email to other staff members. “Use as you deem appropriate.”
Adams, who is an atheist-turned-Christian, recalled that in 2009 he sent an email to students that mentioned that they were “endowed with a purpose by their Creator,” which Cook then sent to the school’s dean in protest.
Now she’s allowed a list recommending churches to students to be passed out, and that outrages Adams.
He says that there are, undoubtedly, people on campus at UNCW that agree that the school should not endorse specific churches. But, he says, “no one will speak up at all because it’s the gay movement, and everyone is terrified of speaking up against the gay movement.”
Adams says that he is currently in the middle of a court battle with UNCW over a promotion that the school denied him five years ago due, in part, to his controversial column and his criticisms of diversity. In April, he won a unanimous decision for his first amendment rights in front of a circuit court of appeals.
He originally wrote his latest piece, he says, because he saw the list of churches as an opportunity to “expose the hypocrisy of how the separation of church and state ‘card’ is sort of played by the academic left.”
If the separation of church and state is indeed a legitimate barrier to the government endorsing religious beliefs over another, then the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is in grave violation. Dr. Kimberly Clark and Amy Schlaga should be terminated immediately. They didn’t just send a little smiley note to inquiring homosexual students, they sent the list out to the entire student body. It reeks of the liberal political groupthink syndrome so prevalent in today’s institutions of higher learning. Aren’t college students mature enough to select their on their own a place to practice their religious beliefs without the official prodding of a paid government representative?
As Dr. Adams pointed out in the story, when any religion they deem in opposition to their “enlightened” view of the world wants to be recognized, its a cardinal sin and a egregious crime. But when its the religion du jour aka homosexual churches, well put out the sweet tea and pancakes. All is well.
Contact UNCW and register your complaint:
Chancellor Gary Miller [email] [910.962.3030]
Amy Schlaga schlaga@uncw.edu [910-962-2114]
Dr. Jose Hernandez Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion [910-962-2947] hernandezj@uncw.edu
Breaking! Barack Obama comes out of the closet
Surprised? Shocked? Upset? You shouldn’t be. The signs have been there all along. The neon evidence glaring to anyone who had even the slightest measure of spiritual discernment. America’s 44th president is casting off his political downlow status and has come out of the closet on gay marriage.
Obama’s short two year tenure in the White House has been marked by a stunning succession of gay culture worship, meetings, parties, homosexual proclamations, deceptive tactics about his true intentions, multiple appointments of homosexuals in his administrations and the passage of more homosexual rights laws than all his predecessors combined.
In contrast, he has done little to nothing for African Americans who are suffering under staggering unemployment figures, poverty, crime and the loss of their once prominent place as a respected minority. But then again, the perceived savior of black America never really pretended to be black. He just cunningly used black [church support] as a convenient prop while he went about replacing them with the homosexual community.
With mammon from his chosen people, SOTUS led the charge to strike down laws that kept our collective sanity in place. He instituted mild anarchy with a wry smile.
His tenure has also presided over a rolling succession of natural disaster phenomenons all across the country (floods, tornadoes, fires, heatwaves, winter storms, etc), each of them breaking all previously set disaster records. Death tolls from these disasters have similarly broken all previous records. But with a teleprompter-induced laugh and a joke, Obama is unfazed as he presses forward to achieve his crowning victory.
Based on his unprecedented affinity for homosexual rights, the gay community will have in Barack Hussein Obama its ultimate hero: the first openly homosexual president.
Emboldened by the passage of same sex marriage in New York, Obama announced his support to overturn the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) a law prohibiting federal recognition of same sex marriage. It is also the last line of defense for some 30 plus states that use DOMA as its “states rights” justification for banning same sex marriage. Hearings on the law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman are scheduled for this week.
From the Christian Post [source]
President Obama is “proud to support” the Respect for Marriage Act, the White House announced Tuesday.
“The president has long called for a legislative repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which continues to have a real impact on the lives of real people, our families, friends and neighbors.”
The Department of Justice defended DOMA in federal court for two years before announcing in February that it would no longer assert the constitutionality of the law.
DOMA was passed by both chambers of Congress by huge margins and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Black Christian News Network’s headline screamed today: “President Obama, Who Is a Christian According to His Own Testimony, Takes One Step Closer to Officially Endorsing Same-Sex Marriage, Yet He Acts Flabbergasted that This Country Is Catching So Much Hell from Every Direction”
But Obama is neither a Christian nor is he flabbergasted about the rapidly degenerating state of this nation. He has been one of the architects of its demise. Like his spiritual father, he uses a form of godliness, a facade of religiousity, generous flatteries, just enough to appear as an angel of light and a savior to certain segments of the population. He set the stage for his own coming out party and no natural disaster, no death toll, no country on the brink of financial disaster, no overseas war was going to stop him from achieving his goal.
The handwriting was on the wall. It said “The election of Barack Obama is a signal of my judgment upon this nation. You will have the independence from me you desire. And you will bear the burden of his wickedness which reflects the wickedness in your own hearts”
Edward Whelan, who currently serves as president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, testified earlier this year that Obama is knowingly playing political games when it comes to appearing to at first defend DOMA. Whelan expressed doubt that the president who is versed in constitutional law could change his stance on gay marriage 180 degrees because a Massachusetts judge chose to rule in favor of gay couples in two DOMA-related cases.
“This is yet another step in President Obama’s stealth campaign to promote same-sex marriage,” Whelan wrote in a statement to The Christian Post.
Indeed, the closet door has come off at the hinges, and the monster we all knew was lurking in its shadows has emerged.
Types and foreshadows
Don’t be deceived, this is another trial run orchestrated by the spirit of the antichrist which, according to scripture, is currently at work in the earth. Daniel prophetically declared what the end run will look like. Obama is but one of a long line of antichrist foreshadows who come to precondition the people (with the help of the apostate church) to accept this false image of Christ.
And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. Daniel 11:32-35 KJV
