God @ MindSay

"My own faith is rooted in the unshakable belief in God... and an awareness of a constant and holy spiritual presence in all people, all life, and all things." Former vice president, Al Gore

"I am a Christian.... I believe that there are many paths to the same place.... I am a great admirer of our founding charter... and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country.... I think Gandhi is a great example of a profoundly spiritual man who... never slipped into intolerance or dogma." Former Senator, Barack Obama

“Lift us to the level of the universal…. Chant the names of the gods. Start with om:  Om Krishna… Om Buddha…"

"The Buddha said, ‘You are God yourself.’”Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

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Berit Kjos wrote, 

If you have read 1984 by George Orwell, you probably remember Big Brother's mind-changing creed:

"War is PEACE. Freedom is SLAVERY. Ignorance is STRENGTH."

It illustrates the Soviet double-speak used to confuse, transform, and then unify a compliant mass of contented slaves. And now, seventy years after its publication, Orwellian double-speak is spreading this confusion faster than ever. In this upside-down world, wrong seems right, good is called evil, and lies are simply the new convenient truths. Since feelings count more than facts, illusion reigns, oppression spreads, Jihad is justified, and the Bible is banned!

The true God behind our national Thanksgiving celebrations doesn't conform to America's changing values. But other spiritual options are filling the gaps as they sweep across our land. Blinding eyes to His truth, they cloud history, and mock the faith that built honesty, truth, and integrity into America's foundation. Sad to say, that foundation is now crumbling fast. As God warned us,

"...when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them... [then] your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God. ...you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ ...if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods... you shall surely perish." Deuteronomy 8:10-19 

On September 17, 1995, I signed in at Mikhail Gorbachev's well guarded State of the World Conference as an official [amateur] reporter. I wanted a first-hand glimpse of the global plans for the 21st Century. Those earlier signs helped build the foundation for today's rapid change.

 

This was clearly a global event. The former head of the Soviet Union had gathered "nearly 500 senior states-people, political leaders, spiritual leaders, scientists, intellectuals, business executives, artists and youth from 50 nations to begin a process of deliberation on the central question of what priorities, values and actions should guide humanity as it moves into the next phase of development." As Gorbachev announced,

"From the outset I would like to suggest that we consider the establishment of a global Brain Trust [forget representative government] to focus on the present and future of our civilization ... this idea of a Brain Trust can only succeed if endorsed and actively pursued by people who are widely respected as world leaders and global citizens."

The elite speakers and partners in this venture included the elder president George Bush, Carnegie Chairman David Hamburg, Ted Turner, Maurice Strong, the New Age chief of the UN's 1992 environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, and  Zbigniew Brzezinski, founder of the Trilateral Commission (with David Rockefeller), who became a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama thirteen years later.

An elegant Baha'i singer in a flowing white gown set the spiritual tone with a prayer to her universal god:  "O faithful One... O helping one... Source of all being..." The music was her own, she said -- given by the unknowable, compassionate god of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other spiritual avatars throughout time.

 

Her prayer-song fit the conference theme. As Mikhail Gorbachev observed during a dialogue on a new form of democracy. 

"...there was no trace of the futile debate about what is better, capitalism or socialism...We should seek a synthesis of ideas and values that have proven their viability..."

That synthesis abolishes all Biblical absolutes. Again and again, the Communist leader and his hand-picked "council of the wise" or "global brain trust" told the assembly of more than 1000 guests and participants that a new set of inclusive universal values must replace the Judeo-Christian world view.  Familiar terms must be redefined to fit the new global perspective, while the old beliefs and political systems must be abandoned.

Like many other speakers, New Age author Dr. Deepak Chopra repeated the call for synthesis in his evening plenary speech. He challenged his friendly listeners with this question:

"Can you step out of the river of your own conditioning...? For only then is there an opportunity to create... a new world. We cannot do it the way we have done it in the past. It is time to change the whole paradigm through which we view physical reality."

Apparently, these esteemed visionaries had already made that paradigm shift. The conference left little doubt that the chosen speakers and enthusiastic audience viewed reality from a decidedly evolutionary/universalist perspective -- the kind that popular author Dan Brown promoted through his latest book on the philosophy behind Freemasonry and the mystical Noetic Sciences.

The spiritual leaders addressing the Forum taught either pantheism ("God" in all), universalism (all paths lead to the same ultimate reality), or monism (all is one) as the world's new  spiritual foundation. Among them were New Age educator Willis Harman, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, Sonia Gandhi, and revered representatives of Vietnamese, Mongolian, and Cambodian Buddhism. Their input during panel discussion and roundtable sessions left no doubt that Biblical Christianity was marked for decay.

Astronomer Carl Sagan showed us pictures of our tiny blue planet in the midst of a vast galaxy in an infinite universe --- then scolded those who still viewed minuscule individuals as significant pieces of the cosmic puzzle.

Had they forgotten the horrors of collectivism -- and the environmental devastation -- spawned by the Communist ideology that Gorbachev never renounced?    

Richard T. Ritenbaugh said that perhaps the most famous line from the quill of American patriot Thomas Paine is the sentence that opened his pro-revolution pamphlet, The American Crisis, No. 1: "These are the times that try men's souls." We are not living in the same kind of revolutionary period, despite the rebellious rumblings coming from Americans who vehemently disagree with the radical transformation of America envisioned by the Obama administration. Yet, we do live in soul-trying times—in fact, these days rank high on the list of periods in which men's souls, if you will, are at their greatest spiritual risk.

As Herbert Armstrong often said, this is a time of great religious confusion, and it has only become worse since his death in 1986.

There are literally thousands of different Christian churches and hundreds of denominations. Beyond that, the religious seeker must contend with the crusading fervor of Islam, the enduring presence of Judaism, the growing influence of Buddhism and other Eastern belief systems, and the persistent appeal of New Age and occult "spiritualities." There is also a rather militant, activist advocacy of atheism to contend with, along with its secular partners, the isms of relativism, multiculturalism, feminism, socialism, and the like, which are simply intellectual and/or political religions—idolatries of the ungodly.

Where is a person who is truly seeking God to turn?

Jesus Christ tells His disciples in Matthew 16 ". . . on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades where the dead are, the grave shall not prevail against it." This is both a prophecy and a promise, and it is based on the authority, power and faithfulness of God. In this first mention of the Christian church in the Bible, Jesus informs us of its source and foundation: Himself. He is the Rock on which the church rests, and the whole structure built atop it is also His. That is why nothing, not even death, can hope to defeat or destroy it. The church will continue until it has accomplished its purpose—which means that the true church of Jesus Christ is still in existence on the earth, and it can be found.

Of course, one cannot simply decide on one's own to seek it and find it. Many think they can, but they have deluded themselves on this matter. Jesus says very clearly in John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." No one! Currently, He is working through a small body of people called "the elect," who are firstfruits of His Kingdom as mentioned in Revelation 14:1, 4-5 and James 1:8.

Students of the Bible know that "many are called and few are chosen" Matthew 20:16, 22:14. As the Parable of the Sower and the Seed Matthew 13:1-9 depicts, God casts the gospel far and wide, but only those on "good ground" produce results. These are the chosen, the elect, the little flock (Luke 12:32) of true disciples of Christ. These few are the church or ekklesia ("assembly," "those called out") of God.

The church of God then, is not necessarily found in one human organization or denomination; instead, the church is a spiritual organism composed of individual true Christians, wherever they may be.

So it was in the first century, when the twelve apostles and Paul scattered over the face of the earth to spread the gospel, raising up congregations everywhere. Whether under Peter or Paul or John or another apostle, the truly converted members were all united in the spiritual body of Christ despite having little or no contact with each other and working within different organizations. Revelation 2-3 more than suggests that the end-time church members will be similarly scattered among at least seven "churches." Whether these are real church organizations or spiritual designations in the mind of God, we cannot say for certain. Nevertheless, to consider only one physical church organization to be the only true church ignores biblical reality.

Even so, there are larger church organizations in which true disciples of Christ congregate. In Romans 8:14, Paul gives us the most important clue concerning how to find the true church: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons ( and daughters) of God." True Christians are those who show by their words and behaviors that God is directing them. God, through the prophet Isaiah, speaks of His people, "'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD, ‘and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He'" Isaiah 43:10.

This puts a great deal of pressure on church members to represent Him properly before the world.

Perhaps the simplest test to find members of the body of Christ is one spoken by Jesus just before His crucifixion: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" John 14:15. In other words, Christ's true disciples will be keeping God's commandments—all of them. They will not pick and choose which ones they will keep; they will in faith follow all of them to the best of their abilities.

Obviously, a search for the true church of God will not be an easy one—like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. It takes a great deal of study on the part of the seeker to know what God's true disciples believe and teach, and it is likely such a person will go through many worldly churches before He finds one of God's churches. However, if God is indeed drawing the individual to Christ, He will put him on the path to make contact with the true church.

I believe there are a few true Christians who have been "called out" right here on Mindsay. One or two of the remnant exist right here.

They have been filled with God's truth. They do not desire to argue or cause division, they love you, and sharing how they received that love and new life is all that concerns them. Their desire is that you come to know the one true God but at least that you see and hear enough to decide if you believe or not.

If God has called a few of the "elect" to Mindsay, then you are important to Him, more than you can ever know in this lifetime.

Just listen, consider carefully, see if God is not drawing you to Christ and a new life for you.