Tag: austin

Categories
News

Bethel Church Pastor Says Christians Should Take Dominion Over the Actual Air

Joaquin Evans is the Senior Leader of Bethel Austin, part of Bethel Church’s eastern expansion pack. Because he believes the same sketchy theology that Bethelites do, he declared in a recent sermon that as part of the apostolic mission, Christians are supposed to own the airwaves and take dominion over the air.

This is pretty standard charismatic fare, unfortunately. Evans teaches that maladies like depression, sickness, anxiety, fear and confusion travel through the air, and that every time a Christian worships, they bind and lose the demonic through no-fly zones.

Does it make a lick of biblical sense? Not at all, but we’ll let Evans try to explain it.

In an apostolic mission, we’re supposed to own the airways. Now the model that we just talked about the the Roman Armada, in those days, they didn’t have airplanes, and so they probably didn’t, you know, militarily they weren’t worried about the air so much. But in current times, how…many know governments have restricted airspace? Listen if you have governance over a land, part of binding and loosing is what comes through the airwaves.

Binding and loosing- what comes through the airways? Enemy aircraft can’t just fly through your land, that they actually set up perimeters not just in the land, but in the air. And actually, there is a declaration that this is our space.

How many people know that we’re supposed to live in an open heaven? That we under apostolic mission as the body of Christ, that we are supposed to have authority on the land where our feet tread, but also in the air. Come on, thank you, Jesus.

Ephesians 6:12 You’ve heard this before, ‘for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ Or some translations say ‘in the air’.

Really? Name one translation that says “in the air.” Here are 65 or so of the top translations from Bible Gateway. Not one one of them translates it as ‘air’ Even Bethel’s Passion version doesn’t say it. He’s just making stuff up at this point.

That on apostolic mission, we take the land, and we take the airways. Like we have an assignment to own the airways. Listen in Austin, Texas, we have an assignment to own the airways. Over this house, this church ,we have an assignment to own the airwaves. It is part of the reason why worship is so central and so important. That we are breaking through and taking authority over our airways every time we worship.

We’re creating-listen- for the demonic and for the enemy, we’re creating a no-fly zone. Listen, you can’t come through here because we have dominion in the name of Jesus. How many people know the church is supposed to own the airwaves? Not the new age, not witchcraft. This is our land. This is our territory. This is our heavens. This is our airspace.

You can no longer come through here. Depression you cannot fly through here. Anxiety you have no place here. Fear you can’t come through here. Confusion. You cannot come this way. We have dominion over the air. In Jesus name

When you’re at Bethel, bad theology abounds, and this is no exception.

h/t to Salt and Light for the vid and the image cover.

Bonus. Look how awful the Message Bible translates this verse :

ESV: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

MSG: This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

Categories
News

‘Good, Good Mother?’ Woke Church Rewrites Song To make God a Chick

So much to unpack here. Austin New Church in Austin, Texas decided to ignore the Lord’s personal pronouns for their mother’s day service, re-writing the song ‘Good Good Father; with the ostensibly titled ‘Good, Good Mother, with the house band performing the abomination while the congregation listens on.

The name of the church should ring a bell for discernment wonks; it is the name of the church that Brandon and Jen Hatmaker founded in 2008. Hatmaker is the popular I’m-pretending-to-be-a-Christian-but-I’m-actually-a-pagan mommy-blogger and podcaster that is quickly climbing the ranks from “Gadfly False Teacher” to “Arch-Heretic,” while continuing to out herself as a vessel of inhabitation for shifty-eyed swine who’d rather not go off a cliff.

Last time we caught up with her, she was celebrating homosexuality, and being pro-transgender. She also became a woke racial justice warrior by saying, “the center of the church has failed to be black, gay, and transgender, and lamenting the death of notorious pro-abort Ruth Bader Ginsberg, giving her the benediction, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The church describes itself as “a progressive, affirming, gospel-centered community of people driven by inclusion and social justice….We believe community is based on belonging, not beliefs.“

While they are no longer pastors there, it doesn’t take much to see how badly they ran it into the ground.

In lieu of a sermon, Samantha Beach Kiley, one of the pastrixes there, invited her mother Nancy L. Beach to share and teach together. Beach is best known for becoming the first woman ordained as a teaching pastor at Bill Hybels’ multi-site megachurch Willow Creek. They spent their time reframing the Lord as a woman while saying stupid things like:

“When we observe the Sabbath, we are responding to the whisper of our mother god who longs to stroke our hair.”

For more of the sermon, see below:

h/t to Woke Preacher TV

Categories
Charismatic Nonsense Featured Heresies Money Grubbing Heretics

Bethel Patrix Tells Congregants to just ‘Make Up Prophecies’ if they Don’t Hear from God

Bethel Church Pastrix Renee Evans, overseer of their Austin campus, has a novel approach to prophecy; hang out and practice prophesying over each other, don’t to worry if you prophesy falsely (as it doesn’t mean you’re a false prophet) and if you don’t hear from God, just make up a prophecy, as that’s probably what God is saying anyways. From their July 11 service:

So there are some people out there who hold the office of a prophet, but every single person has been given the gift of prophecy. That’s the difference. The prophetic is for every person and every personality type. Its not just for the extroverts, it’s not just for the people who feel comfortable speaking to strangers, it’s for every single person, whether you like people or not.

I’m going to invite some of my friends to come up. We have a high value for the prophetic as I have said, and I teach every now and then a Prophetic 101 Equip Class and if you’ve gone through this class and you’ve gotten an invitation to be further equipped or to participate in a group of us who just get together and we just practice prophesying.

We just have a lot of fun practicing the prophetic. We are growing our gifts, we are working those spiritual muscles and we just prophesy over each other and it is a ton of fun.

And guess what? Sometimes we get it wrong. I know! I know. And that does not make people a false prophet. It means we’re practicing, and who knows when my three children learnt to walk when they took two steps and fell over I was like’ oh you fell over again!’

Of course not right? As parents were like ‘oh my gosh you took two steps’ and we celebrate the progress. So that’s what we do in this group, we celebrate the progress, we champion one another and we just practice prophesying over each other.

This is an exceedingly low and goofy view of what prophecy actually is, with the notion that we can just practice and play around with direct messages that the Lord is supposedly giving.

“We need to tell Austin or Canada wherever you’re from, we need to tell the people around us that God is available. That he cares for them that he knows everything about them and he has a future and a hope for them. We owe ..the world an encounter. We do! It is easy, we got to keep it simple.

That’s not the gospel at all. We should be telling people around us that they are a sinner in need of a savior, and tell them about repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, not that “God is available” and “he has a Jeremiahic hope for a plan and a future to proper them.” As is the case with Bethel, however, that explicit message is rarely given. She continues:

I want you to close your eyes for me. I want you to ask Holy Spirit to give you a word for someone. It can be a single word, a sentence, a scripture, a picture that you’re seeking. Just ask him for a word, if you’re not hearing one, make one up.

You think i’m joking but I’m not. If you have the mind of Christ then he can work through your mind and your thoughts line up with his thoughts. Okay I don’t want to give you too much time because I don’t want you to overthink it, but I want you to stand up and I want you to find someone and I want you to give them that word. That’s awesome. It’s cool.”

h/t to Salt and Light for the video, as well as the idea for the pic.

Categories
News

Bethel Pastor Claims Christians Have Doppelganger ‘Angel Twins’ that Buy Strangers Pizza

As if you didn’t need more proof that the crazy-as-rats-in-a-coffee-can charismatics at Bethel church have lost their minds and are routinely teaching bizarre and perverse doctrines, one of their pastors is now claiming that Christians have doppelganger “angels twins” that look just like them that flitter throughout the world doing random acts of kindness and benevolence. [Great, does that mean I don’t have to? -Ed.]

Eddie Tait, Associate Leader of Bethel Austin, told the congregation during a May 2 service:

I’m sitting in Nebraska, we’re at a pastor’s meeting, and this woman comes up to me at lunch and she says, ‘I just want to let you know how much your church has blessed us.’

And I’m thinking, ‘oh that’s awesome. Shane and I were speaking, we must have really blessed her in this meeting, that’s great,’ and she’s like, ‘about a few years ago…I was in Amarillo, Texas, I was at a prophetic conference, and during the break for dinner a group of people from Bethel Austin came up to me and said ‘we’re kidnapping you and taking you to dinner.’

And she’s like, ‘Why?’ They’re like, ‘God highlighted you.’ And she said they took her to a pizza place; she’s a vegetarian…and the person asked, ‘Hey, what do you want to eat?’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m a vegetarian,’ and they’re like, ‘Great we’re going to eat what you’re eating because we want to honor you.’

And so she goes, ‘I’ve never felt more loved and honored by a group of people…and I wasn’t at church I was with people at a pizza place.’

I was like, ‘Wow, do you know any of, you recognize the name of anybody?’ She goes ‘well the one was Joaquin…’ So I call him, and I relay this story and he says, ‘Uh I haven’t been in Amarillo since 2004.‘ Like, she said this was like two or three years ago.

We start talking and he says, ‘You know, last week I was praying about my angel that used to be seen, and I was telling God I haven’t had that happen in a while.’

I want more of those stories. And I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna find out if this was his angel.’ So I hang up with him and I pull up a Facebook, and I go over and I say, ‘Hey, is this the guy?’ And she goes, ‘Oh yeah, that’s him. That’s Joaquin.’

Not content to share one lie, he gives a few more examples, but not before telling the congregants to “not try to use the word of God to discredit an encounter of God” by telling them to approach his stories with openness, “Come at it with a heart to disprove instead to receive.”

Of course, there are so many questions. Do we likewise have evil demonic twins doing random acts of chaos and mischief? What if our angels get caught on CCTV at the scene of a crime? Do they have the same fingerprints we do?

The fact that this pastor is teaching that it’s completely normal for gangs of angels that look just like their human counterparts to be engaged in these activities is more of the same nonsense, and more of the same poisonous fruit coming out of Bethel church.

h/t to Salt and Light for the video

Categories
abortion Featured

Austin City Council Cuts Police Funding by $150M, Shifts Portion of Money to Fund Abortion

(CBN News) The City of Austin, Texas is doubling down on its stance as a sanctuary city for the abortion industry while simultaneously going woke with plans to defund the police. 

The city’s 2021 budget, approved unanimously by the all-Democrat Austin City Council on Thursday, cuts $150 million from the Austin Police Department, or roughly a third of their funding. Millions of dollars will be redirected to other public services, and the city council feels that should include subsidizing abortion access.

“Today I hope that the community feels hope,” said Councilmember Greg Casar.

The council’s move makes Austin the first of Texas’ four biggest cities to drastically cut police department funding. The share of the police department budget that was cut is among the largest percentage decreases in the nation this year, according to the Texas Tribune. 

Last year, the Texas Legislature passed a law prohibiting state and local governments from using taxpayer dollars to support abortion businesses and their affiliates. 

However, as CBN News reported, the City of Austin circumvented this law by including a line item of $150,000 in the city’s budget for abortion logistical services. While the funding cannot pay for the abortion procedure directly, this money is earmarked for expenses related to abortion, including transportation to the appointment, lodging, childcare, and legal services. 

The city contracted with Jane’s Due Process, a pro-abortion organization that’s been accused of exploiting underage girls by showing them how to obtain abortions without their parents’ involvement. Pro-Life Austin residents have since sued the city, however, their 2019 lawsuits have been pending in county courts for almost a year.

Abortion Access Earmarked as ‘Social Services’ 

In setting the budget for 2021, Austin reaffirmed their commitment to killing unborn children with taxpayer dollars by increasing the funding allotted for “abortion access” to $250,000. The approved budget starts by taking $21.5 million from the Austin Police Department’s funding and shifting that money to pay for social services, community resources including response to the coronavirus, mental health aid programs, violence prevention, victim services and food, housing, and abortion access. 

“But abortion is not health care. Abortion does nothing to…

To continue reading, click here

Editor’s note. This article was written by Steve Warren and originally posted at CNB News, Title changed by Pulpit & Pen.