Azusa Now

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

May 8, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 15:9: “And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

Now that is some verse isn’t it?  Who are the two parties that there is no difference between?  Was there at one time a difference between the two that has been healed? 

I found a 16-year old newspaper article that appeared on March 4, 2000:

Bob Jones U. drops racial dating ban

The Associated Press

Columbia, S. C.—Bob Jones University stopped its ban on interracial dating Friday, a month after GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush’s visit to the school drew widespread criticism.

‘As of today we’ve dropped the rule,’ Bob Jones III said on CNN’s Larry King Live Friday.

During Mr. Bush’s appearance at the fundamentalist school last month, he told his audience he shared their conservative views.  Mr. Bush later apologized for failing to criticize the school’s anti-Catholic views and racial policies. 

‘I’m pleased that they’ve changed the policy,’ Mr. Bush said Friday in New York.  ‘Right after my speech, I spoke out against the policy.’

The school had said God created people differently for a reason.

‘We don’t have to have that rule,’ Mr. Jones said.  ‘This thing is of such insignificance to us.  It’s so significance to the world at large, the media in particular, why should we have this thing here as an obstacle?’

Sixteen years ago, Bob Jones University not only gave up the racial position of a ban on interracial dating, but it, in reality, destroyed its University.  It gave up the fundamental position of Christendom.  “Thou shall not commit adultery” was now permitted.

Go back and look at what I highlighted and underlined in the article? 

First, notice what the candidate for president of the United States, and later president of the Unites States, said about his visit to Bob Jones University;  he later apologized for not criticizing its positions on:

1. Anti-Catholic views
2. Racial policies

Anti-Catholic views:  the Pilgrims just did a 180 in their graves.  Every one of the Protestant Reformers held very strict anti-Catholic positions.  Some of them had been put in jail, some had had their property confiscated, some had their jobs lost, and some had been executed, and murdered, because of the Roman Catholic stranglehold that was on Britain and other parts of Europe.Some Pilgrims and Puritans advocated that Catholics should not only not hold office, but also shouldn’t even vote. The Geneva Bible’s notes, the Bible the Pilgrims who came to America were using, are very anti-Catholic.  And most, if not all, the Reformation leaders held that the Catholic Church was part of the New World Order.

Racial policies:  Bob Jones University backed down on its policies of forbidding its students from dating any one of another race.  And if they couldn’t even date, they wouldn’t be permitted to marry. 

What do you think will be Bob Jones University’s policy on same-sex marriages?  For the Obama Administration is now fighting the battle over transgender mothers.  They are expanding the alternative sexual lifestyles on the college campus. The Department of Education has launched a website critics say is dedicated to the “shaming” of Christian colleges that follow biblical principles rather than a leftist social agenda.  The “shame list” posted online by the Department of Education features colleges that have sought exemptions to Title IX requirements that provide special treatment to transgenders.  

Second, what did the University do under the pressure of the presidential candidate’s remarks and the Jewish-controlled political correctness?  They gave in. 

They should have stood their ground and continued their practices, for they held the correct position.  The University president’s comments that “This thing is of such an insignificance to us” and why should we have this as an “obstacle” is like the Southern Baptist’s saying that what they believed and taught about racism until 1995 was a lie and of the devil. 

Let us go back to our introductory verse and reason what the meaning of the three pronouns are.  In this verse there are three pronouns which are highlighted and underlined: 

1. “Us” 
2. “Them”
3. “Their”

Who are represented by these three pronouns?  This is the question that leads to the correct or incorrect interpretation of this verse, and chapter and even the entire book of Acts. 

There is an entirely different answer given to this question if you are a Judeo-Christian or a Christian Identity believer.  And those interpretations determine what you believe.

The Judeo-Christian believes that “us” means “Jews” and “them” and “their” represents everyone who is not Jewish, i.e. the “Gentiles.”  This includes people from all the different races of the world—Orientals, Mexicans, Hispanics, Blacks, Polynesians, Mixed-raced, etc. 

Acts 15:9: “And put no difference between (the Jews) and (all different races of people other than the Jews), purifying (all different races other than the Jews’) hearts by faith.”     

But that presents a problem if one investigates and does a little study on Acts 15.  What is the chapter about?

Even the Schofield Bible states in its heading of this chapter that it deals with “The council at Jerusalem.”  It subtitle is:  “Circumcision questions settled; the legalizers from Judaea.”  Now why would any non-Israelite be in this discussion?  Why would they allow a people from another race to enter this council?  Why would a person from another race even want to be in this discussion? 

For why would a person from Judah say that a non-Israelite needs to be circumcised for him to be saved?  They wouldn’t even believe that any non-Adamic person could be saved anyway.

But he would raise that very question if a former Israelite who is now an Israelite would have to keep circumcision to be saved.  Let me repeat this.  He would raise this question if his brother, who has been an enemy for over 700 years, repented and there was now no difference between the two of them.  No wonder there was no small discussion about this manner at the council meeting.

Acts 15:1 teaches:  “And certain men who came down from Judeae taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” 

Who did Moses instruct to be circumcised?  It was the Israelites—both the House of Judah and the House of Israel--who at that time came out of slavery in Egypt as one unit.  Over the years, the House of Israel became cut off from the covenant and began to not perform all those things that their God had commanded them to do; for example, they did not circumcise.  

For almost 1,000 years the House of Israel was a separate nation who had not circumcised their young boys.  In fact, they became outwardly a nation of evil, idolatrous Baal worshippers. 

It wasn’t until after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that there was “no difference between us and them.” Think of it--after close to 1,000 years they were now God’s people once again.  This is what the Judeo-Christian does not understand or know. 

Most of Israel had been divorced and cut off from the covenant and were not God’s people for over 700 years.  They were without any hope at all.  Over 75% of all Israelites were in a state of being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. 

They were put back in the covenant by the death and resurrection of their kinsman redeemer—Jesus Christ.  All of Israel was united once again.  All 13 tribes were placed into the body of Christ by His death and resurrection.  This great Gospel event happened.  That after almost 1,000 years, there once again became “no difference between them.”  The covenant that God had made with Abraham was kept.

The Judeo-Christians are not instructed of the split of the kingdom of God into two separate nations.  For almost one millennium they were to be separate from each other.  They were not allowed even to eat with one another.  They even became fierce enemies of each other.

They even fought wars against each other.  They were on different sides of which God that they served.  The House of Israel didn’t even worship at Solomon’s Temple.  They eventually were cut off from the covenants of God; divorced by Almighty God for breaking His covenant.  According to the Prophet Hosea, they were to be “scattered”, “have no more mercy” and “not be God’s people.”

But, the Prophet also predicted that they were not going to stay in that condition forever.  Paul explains in Romans, that if a couple are married and one person breaks the covenant, they can be divorced.  But if either of the divorced people remarry, then they are forbidden to remarry each other again. 

The House of Israel married five other husbands, so God could not take them back as his bride.  That is one reason that they had no hope.  But, God did a surprising thing.  He kept His covenant.  He did the one thing that He could do to marry His bride again:  die and be resurrected.  Then He, the risen Christ, was allowed to remarry Israel!

After He did these two things, the Holy Spirit was given to the House of Israel and they were speaking in different languages just like the House of Judah had done on the Day of Pentecost.  It was a manifest sign that Peter learned that “And he (Peter) said unto them (men from the House of Israel), Ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew (from the House of Judah) to keep company, or come unto one of another nation (the House of Israel); but God hath shown me that I should not call any man (from the House of Israel) common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). 

The Apostle Peter testified that when he had preached to the men from the House of Israel, they had received the Holy Spirit in the same manner as they had.  There was no need for them to keep the ceremonial law anymore and be circumcised.  What a glorious thing had just happened.  Judah and Israel were united into one body again.

Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem to have this question on circumcision answered.  For there were many of the House of Israel who were being joined with the House of Judah for the first time in almost 1,000 years.  Some of the men from the House of Judah were raising the issue of “circumcision.”  The question had to be answered in a relatively short time.

Think about this for a minute.  Why would it be such a big deal?  The House of Israel, for over 700 years; that goes back to the 1300’s in our time frame—had been cut off from the Abrahamic covenant.  Now they were back in.  The House of Judah was in a state of confusion and it was difficult for them to believe.    

After a heated debate at the council, Peter got up and said the following:

Acts 15:7-9

7) Men and brethren ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

8) And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us:

9) And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.    

Who does the book of Acts say that Peter went and preached to?  Did he go and preach to the Hispanics?  To the Negroes?  To the Chinese?  To all the different races in the world? 

In Acts 10 it tells of how a special divine meeting that was set up between Cornelius, his kinfolk and his family members and Peter.  Notice what my family Bible (Jamieson, Holy Bible) says about who Peter preached to:

• …That a good while ago…at the beginning of the Gospel, God had chosen him to begin the same work which…Paul was carrying on;
• That the Searcher of hearts had borne witness to His acceptance of believing Gentiles, though uncircumcised, by imparting to them both the ordinary grace and the extraordinary gifts of the same Spirit;
• The yoke of the ceremonial law was a heavy burden even upon the chosen people of God, and would shackle the freedom of the Gospel…

This Judeo-Christian Bible even gives us the clue as to who Peter preached to.  For whoever he preached to, Paul was preaching to them at the current time.  So, who did Paul preach to?

In his defense before King Agrippa, Paul said in his conclusion in Acts 26:6-7: 

6) “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers,

7) Unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God day and night, hope to come.  For which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.”

What was the hope of the promise made of God unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?  Notice that Paul added that the promise was to the twelve tribes, which meant that the ten tribes were now back into the covenant and once again God’s people as prophesied by Hosea.

Hosea 2:23: “And I will sow her into me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.”

And who did the book of Acts say was accusing Paul of believing this “hope of the promise”?   It was the same people who planned, plotted and executed the murder of the kinsman-redeemer of Israel—the Jews. 

Note that the Jews are separate from Israel and Judah.  For it was the Jews who were accusing the Apostle Paul of the hope of Israel.  They wouldn’t be accusing him of that if they were true Israel. 

Cornelius was a Roman centurion, who was not circumcised.  When he and his kinsmen and family believed what Peter preached to them, the Holy Spirit fell on them just like it had the men of Judah previously on the day of Pentecost.   “For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:46a).

What “tongues” did they hear them speak?  Was it an unknown tongue or a known language?  It was a known language.   The men from the House of Israel were speaking in a known language that Peter and certain men from Joppa recognized. 

Peter was even called in question about what happened at Caesarea when he went there to be with Cornelius and his kin.  Certain men of Jerusalem contended with Peter about what happened.  But after Peter explained what happened and how the Holy Spirit fell on the men who were of the House of Israel as it had on the men of Judah, they all “glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles (House of Israel) granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18b).

Now, who are represented by the three pronouns?

1. “Us” means the House of Judah.
2. “Them” means the House of Israel who had been divorced by God for over 700 years.
3.  “Their” means the House of Israel.

Acts 15:7-9:

7)  …Men and brethren, ye know that a good while ago God made choice among the House of Judah, that the House of Israel by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

8) And God, who knoweth the hearts, bore the House of Israel witness, giving the House of Israel the Holy Spirit even as he did unto the House of Judah;

9)  “And put no difference between the House of Judah and the House of Israel, purifying the House of Israel’s hearts by faith.

This led Peter to the following conclusion:

Acts 15:11: “But we [the House of Judah] believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [the House of Judah] shall be saved, even as they [the former divorced House of Israel who were reestablished into the kingdom by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ].”

AZUSA NOW

On April 9, 2016, just last month, on the 110th year of the anniversary of Azusa Street, they had another meeting to simulate the first Azusa Street.  It was named “Azusa Now.”

It was held in the Los Angeles Coliseum.  It was held in the honor of the first meeting that was held in Los Angeles in 1906.  The first Azusa Street, was an earth shattering event.  It broke down the walls of interracial separation in the “church world” that had been in effect for almost 2,000 years.  It has led to Azusa Now.  The meeting lasted for 3 years, never closing at any time.

William J. Seymour was a black man who became a preacher.  The movement started in a black church that soon become an interracial church.

Seymour’s father was a slave and a brick layer.  His son, William, left his home in Centerville, Louisiana. He migrated north to Indianapolis, Indiana and then went to Cincinnati.  He spent some time at “God’s Bible College” in Cincinnati.  This is the school and church that Jim and former members, Lawrence and Jeffrey and their respective wives, attended.  They, their wives and children were at one time members of our church.  They, except for Jim, have gone back to the Judeo-Christian universalism.

While at Cincinnati, William experienced the second work of grace, sanctification, and became friends with a Church of God in Anderson, Indiana.  At Cincinnati, they didn’t drink coffee, wear jewelry or go to popular entertainment.  They were Wesleyan Holiness. 

Eventually William was introduced to Charles Parham in Topeka.  Parham had a Bryan Hall Bible class that was racially segregated.  Seymour had to learn sitting in the hallway.  Parham called Seymour “the most humble man I ever met.”

Seymour was invited to go to Los Angeles while Parham visited Kansas.  Seymour went to Los Angeles to church with only a few black members.  Julie Hutches and eight families joined in worship with William Seymour.  But Seymour was quickly kicked out of the church after what he preached on his view on tongues and his pre-tribulation views.  He was homeless after a very short time.

He was taken into the home of a man by the name of Lee.  The two men turned to prayer.  Lee went to work at the local bank.  Seymour continued to pray.  Others heard of his devotion to prayer and joined him in prayer.  He began praying for 7 hours a day. 

A couple of ladies invited him to hold a prayer meeting.  On April 6 he proposed for all of them to hold a ten day fast.  About eight of them agreed to this. 

After a lot of singing, he began to preach on Acts 2:4:   “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  They began to speak in other tongues. 

And in Acts 2:8: “And now hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”

What was failed to be mentioned was this occurred at Pentecost.  The Israelites were the only nation that kept this holiday.  No black man or other race other than Israelites were there.  It tells of the Israelites that spoke in the different languages of the time—not unknown languages.

Lee began to speak in tongues.  One of the woman who was present was “baptized in the Holy Ghost and fire” as she fell to the floor.  She went to the piano and began to play and sing.  She could not play the piano before.

Several other believers were knocked to the ground.  They spoke in tongues.  The word spread.  People began to come to the house.   The porch became the pulpit.  

In April, it moved to new quarters on Azusa Street.  Over 1300 people were there.  Today, over 600,000 trace their beginning back to Azusa Street.   Within 10 years, that tiny prayer meeting in Topeka spread out far and wide to start the Azusa Street revival under William J. Seymour and the healing ministries of John G. Lake and F. F. Bosworth.

That meeting ultimately gave birth as well to the Assemblies of God, the Church of God, the Church of God in Christ, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Thousands of missionaries went out and Pentecostal churches sprung up in Canada, Germany, Sweden, Norway, England, Scotland, France, Holland, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Venezuela, Chile, Liberia, Nigeria, the Congo, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and even China.

When Miss Nettie Moomau, a missionary to China, heard about the Azusa Street revival, she left China to go to visit Azusa in October of 1906. She was filled with the Holy Spirit and returned to China to start a great healing ministry. She eventually planted churches in Lo Pau, Shanghai, Michow, Toachow, Canton, Yunnan, Siimao, Kansu, Yunnanfu, and Beijing.

All of this was accomplished in 10 years without any formal organization and in spite of the obvious limitations on communication and travel at the turn of the century. These people seemed to have no hesitation to leave everything behind to spread the message that God wanted to pour out His Spirit on all flesh--all nations-- Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, male and female, rich and poor--everyone can come and be filled.

It has indirectly led to the organization of the Vineyard Church, Four Square Gospel Church, Calvary Chapel, Jesus People, Cornerstone Church, etc.  According to Rushdoony, in his “The Institutes of Biblical Law” he states that Pentecostalism was “the logical outgrowth of antinomian theology.  If the law is denied, how is man then to be sanctified?  The answer of the Pentecostal movement was an attempt to fill this lack.  Protestant theology left man justified but without a way to be sanctified.

The holiness movement, with its belief in the instant perfection of all believers, ran so clearly counter to common sense.  Any observer could see that the holiness people were and are extremely far from perfection!”

HERESIES OF AZUSA NOW

Azusa Now is the brain child of renowned heretic Lou Engle.  Lou is a prominent member of the New Apostolic Reformation and is a Mason. This group decided one day in the late 1990’s that God was reforming the apostles and lo and behold--it was them!  Submitting to no authority but their own, this band of liars and false teachers declared themselves prophets and apostles.

God showed us, Lou commented, in a dream that the calling of Azusa was for:

1.  The healing of the races
2.  The uniting of the denominations
3.  The final outpouring of the Holy Spirit

If you google “Azusa Now” you will find a YouTube that shows the entire celebration that lasts about 11 hours.  In it, you should notice that there is something missing.  No preacher has a Bible—at least I didn’t see one.  I didn’t watch the entire 11 hours, but I didn’t see one read from the Bible.

I saw hours and hours of music.  Rock and Roll, women preachers, the telling of dreams and the misinterpretation of Holy Scripture was rampant.  There was so much heresy at this meeting that it was overwhelming.  Here are a few of them:

1. Roman Catholicism Unity:  One of the persistent pushes for Engle has been ecumenicalism. This is the path that leads to the one world religion that Revelation warns us about.

   Doctrine? Not so much. We saw this come full circle at Azusa Now when Engle lay prostrate on the stage to kiss the feet of a representative of the Roman Catholic Church, who then reciprocated. Engle then told the 100,000 in attendance, mostly young impressionable kids, that the division between Christians and Catholics was a “diabolical sin” and that Jesus “doesn't care” that we disagree on doctrinal matters.

   “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Romans 16: 17).

2. Native Indian Unity:  They had a singing and dancing group of Native Americans from Alaska who first testified that entire villages had come to their “Christ.”  Then this group, all dressed up in their feathers like they were doing a war dance, beat the drums and danced and chanted for about 15 minutes.  This, I guess, is a new hymn!
3. The Black Unity: Blacks came out and did what they do.  They sang and talked of the unity between the two groups—black and white.  Same old, same old.
4. Clairvoyance Unity:    Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church, one of the sponsoring churches, had one of his compatriots, Shawn Bolz, engage in either clairvoyance or outright fraud by pretending he was receiving “words of knowledge” for people in the audience, which he was reading off of his cell phone for some reason. This cold reading technique is often employed by psychics and mediums. It also is the scheme of the formerly exposed fraudster Peter Popoff.

5. Heretics Unity:  Next up is false prophetess Heidi Baker. Heidi likes to babble incoherently, pretend she is drunk or stoned in the spirit, laugh uncontrollably, roll around on the ground, and claim to have seen the dead raised. She is a mystic of the highest order, and at Azusa Now she was praying for the fire of God to fall. Not sure if she really understands what she is asking for.

   Joining her at Azusa was General Cindy Jacobs, a proven false prophetess. Jacobs has routinely “prophesied” things that simply never come to pass.

   Jacobs introduced one of the newer false teachers in Todd White. Todd was integral in the immensely heretical Holy Ghost movies. At Azusa, White prayed that a “prophetic mantle” be released upon everyone and had the crowd scream out--“it's mine!” This is not Christianity. It is delusion and trafficking in the demonic, pure and simple.

6. Messianic Unity: The Rabbi of the Messianic Jewish faith said that Ruth was a gentile Moabite.  She had married a Jew, who died.  She then went back with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Jerusalem where she fell in love with Boaz, a Jewish man.  She entered in a covenant relationship with the Jewish man, Boaz, and received all of his inheritance. 

   He said that the kingdom of God cannot be birthed unless Jew and Gentile come together. When we unite in the gospel we become an unstoppable force.  It is time for us to divide the schism in the church:  Jew and Gentile.

   I have to say something about this.  Ruth was not a Gentile and Boaz was not a Jew.  Ruth and Boaz were both from the tribe of Judah living in the Kingdom of Judah.  Nothing is said about the fact that he was the second in line as her kinsman redeemer.  

   Then how could Ruth not be of the same tribe as Boaz?  If Boaz was second in line as her kinsman redeemer, then he had to be of the same tribe as she.  For the kinsmen redeemer had to provide children for a brother who had died, if he was qualified.  If he was able to marry, he had to marry his brother’s widow, if they had no children.

   And, since when were the Jews ever in the Church, except to destroy it.  I guess that is what the Rabbi is doing now.

7. Arab Unity:  Isaac and Ishmael are coming back together in unity.  They forgot to mention that the Bible says for Abraham to eliminate Ishmael from his household and that he is not to receive his birthright and inheritance.  It is to go to Isaac.

8. Hispanic Unity:  There was a Hispanic preacher who said in the meeting:  “In Acts 15, praise the Lord, just give it up for the Lord (applause).  In Acts 15, the Bible says that the Lord decided to include the Gentiles.  Ask the people of God, not making any difference between Jew and Gentile.  There is no difference between them before the Lord.  We are one body before the Lord.  We are one nation under the Lord.  We are one body before the Lord.  So, are you going to pray for the unity amongst every race, especially for the Hispanic with the other races?   Father we bless. We bless for the unity amongst all the races, O Lord.  We are one body before you.  We are one body, one baptism, one Holy Spirit, one heaven, Father.  So, we just proclaim the unity that we are before your throne.  We are just this one crystal city before you, Lord.”

   This was what the Hispanic preacher said at the 9 hour 30 minutes of Azusa Now.  He said that Acts 15 taught that there was no difference between Jew and Gentile.  He implied that since the Hispanics were Gentiles, they were the same as the Jews.  And not only the Hispanic, but all races of people were now the same as the Jews.   

   But Acts 15 says nothing about all the races of the world become just the same as the Jews.  It tells of the Jerusalem Council that decided that the House of Judah and the House of Israel were no different after the death and resurrection of their Savior.  The Jews, Edomites, were the same evil, hatfeul people who wanted to kill them both.

CONCLUSION

“Our research confirms the fear that the church (or the people in it) may be part of the problem in the hard work of racial reconciliation,” says Brooke Hempell, vice president of research at Barna Group. “If you’re a white, evangelical, Republican, you are less likely to think race is a problem, but more likely to think you are a victim of reverse racism. You are also less convinced that people of color are socially disadvantaged. Yet these same groups believe the church plays an important role in reconciliation. This dilemma demonstrates that those supposedly most equipped for reconciliation do not see the need for it."

We went to a movie yesterday, and in the theatre there was a huge billboard that advertised the ministry of a Bishop White and his pastor wife.  They were the leaders of the church “The Church Without Walls.”  They both were Black.

The Southern Baptist Convention has changed its ministry to “Racial Reconciliation.”  Even the YWCA’s new mission is to eliminate “Racism.”  Most of the churches in our land now have a “Racial Reconciliation” Ministry.  Cornerstone Church has a “Racial Reconciliation” minister. 

Now you can see what the Azusa Now ministry is all about.  It is about giving the world its New World Religion. A religion that is the absolute opposite of the truth of God’s Word.  Which God will you serve?  The god of all the races of the world; or the God of Israel?

Acts 15:9:  “And put no difference between (the House of Judah) and (the House of Israel), purifying (the House of Israel’s) hearts by faith.”

May God have mercy on our souls.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.