Christianity's Crossroads Part 1

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

January 24, 2016

Scripture Reading: Revelation 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Who is told to “Come out of her” [mystery Babylon]?  It is “My [the God of Israel’s] people.”  There is a warning for the covenant people of God to come out of something that is “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” Revelation 18:2.

It says that “all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication….”  And that “all the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” Revelation 18:3.  So, God’s people can be in something that is world-wide, rich, powerful and wrong.  It is so wrong, that our God warns us “to come out of her.”  If we stay in, then we will partake of her sins and receive her plagues. 

In the early part of this past century, my maternal grandmother was a Southern Baptist.  She was taught by the Southern Baptists that Roman Catholicism was the beast system and she was not to be a part of it.  She refused to join and/or to sign the papers for her future children to become a part of this abomination. 

She refused to marry the love of her life, a Roman Catholic, unless he came out of that monstrosity.  He did, and he was disowned by his own family.  He lost his sizeable inheritance, but they lived their lives as Southern Baptists, not Roman Catholics.  He also joined the Freemasons, which about ¼ of all Baptists belong to; ....out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Their nine children didn’t marry any Roman Catholics, but many of their grandchildren did and more of their great-grandchildren did marry one who belongs to this evil church!  The warning of this verse was unknown or totally ignored by most of her great-grandchildren of this age. 

What happened?  It is because most Protestant and non-Catholic churches do not realize that they hold a number of doctrines that originate from Rome; thus, they are rushing back to Rome with its “universal,” one-language and one-speech-ecumenical church doctrines.  Priests, pastors and preachers have joined together teaching these doctrines which are the commandments of men.  Therefore, there is no one teaching that these doctrines are evil.

The elimination of racial differences together with the Law of God is being replaced by the Law of Man.  The “one language” is the law of man.   The God of Israel is not needed nor wanted in the politics, economy, social structure, medicine or religious organizations in the United States any longer. 

“Separation of Church and State” is the cry of every liberal, non-Christ-loving elected official in the nation.  Protestants have lost the reason why they started this nation.  The way that it used to be is now completely reversed.  Here is a little known fact of American History:

“Before the American Revolution, Roman Catholics were barred from voting or holding public office throughout the British colonies…  The basis of Roman Catholic persecution was political.  Catholics owed allegiance to Pontifex Maximus, the Bishop of Rome.  The Bishop of Rome was a foreign ruler who, as a matter of public policy, regarded the British king and his Protestant Church as heretics to be destroyed.  From the American colonists’ standpoint, to allow Catholics to vote or hold office was tantamount to surrendering their colonies to a foreign conqueror.  A crucial part of maintaining personal liberty in Protestant colonial America was keeping Roman Catholics out of government” Rulers of Evil, Tupper Saussy.

Now we have two popes, one retired and the other a Jesuit.  The Jesuits, the counter-reformation movement of the Catholic Church, was established to destroy Protestantism.  The Jesuits have created a lot of universities and high schools, like Xavier University in Cincinnati.  Look how Jesuits beliefs affect the mayor of Cincinnati.

John Cranley, the mayor of Cincinnati, has said that he is committed to:

• Civil rights and equal opportunity that match the values of our Queen City. 
• The effort to ban racial profiling,
• A lead negotiator for the historic collaborative agreement, which has done so much to improve race relations in the City
• The effort to pass the hate Crimes Law after the murder of a person for their sexual orientation.

Cranley graduated from St. Xavier High School and earned degrees (reminds one of freemasonry) from John Carroll University, Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School   He serves on the boards of the Freestore Foodbank, Mercy Hospital foundation and the Jesuit Spiritual Center. 

Do you remember the main question that John F. Kennedy had to answer when he was the nominee for President of the United States?  It was the question about who he would listen to if he became president—would the pope tell him what to do or would he ignore anything the pope discussed with him. 

He convinced the majority of the people of the United States that this would never happen, and he was elected.  He would not have the Pope influence him in his decisions. No longer is this a question of any one who runs for office.  Senators, Representatives, Mayors, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, State Senators, State Representatives, Councilmen, County Commissioners all can now avoid answering that same question, for the answer to most people is that the pope has no influence on them.

See the chart below to review who is now in our federal government; the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Executive, and the Judicial Court:

“The American colonists had adequate reason to mistrust the Catholic hierarchy and deny them political power.  After the ratification of the United States Constitution, the right to hold public office was open even to those who were agents of Pontifex Maximus, the chief enemy of Protestantism.  They soon made their influence felt in national politics by overt and covert means” Charles A. Jennings, Truth in History, magazine, January-April, 2016.

The Roman Catholic Church is the abomination of the earth, because she knows no bounds and her blasphemous abominations are found in practically every country of the world. It is true that any person of the Catholic faith can travel almost anywhere in the world, and find a church or a chapel where the blasphemous mass is being celebrated or where they celebrate the Christ’s-Mass [Christmas] holiday (abomination).  

The “mass” is where the priest says the magical words that change the bread into the actual body of Jesus Christ; and likewise, with the wine.  It is changed, hocus pocus, into the actual blood of the supposed savior of the world. This is one of their most “holy” sacraments.

And the leader of this false church is worshiped throughout the world!  “The crowds cheered, choirs sang, dignitaries offered accolades, and women cried while the news media was enthralled at every move and every word spoken by Jesuit Pope Francis while on his historic visit to America last year. 

In a personal meeting with the President and a crowd pleasing speech before a joint session of the U. S. Congress, the Pope was acknowledged by the blasphemous title of ‘Holy Father.’  John the Revelator describes the Roman Papacy as ‘with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication' (Rev. 18:2).

Listen to part of the Pope’s speech that he gave on the south lawn of the White House that advocates religious pluralism and tolerance.  He is described on a large poster at the Heritage Bookstore at the airport as being the “…most important, active and transforming religious figure.”  The most important?  The most active?  What is he transforming? 

This faker of being Jesus Christ’s representative said:

“Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah.  These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world.  For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths.  This, however, should be the very concept which unites us as people, as nations, and as a world bound by faith. 

Together, we can bring about an unprecedented age of peace, all we need to achieve such a state is respect each other’s beliefs, for we are all children of God regardless of the name we choose to address him by.  We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now.  No longer shall we slaughter our neighbors over differences in reference to their God” (Truth in History, Charles A. Jennings, January—April, 2016, page 2).

This is Rome’s attempt to form a one-world religion.  To do this they have to make the words, “My people Israel” mean something different.  They have to change “Israel,” from a race of descendants from Jacob/Israel to “Church,” which includes all other races.  They have to vary every doctrine to fit this concept.  The prime change that is made is to change the meaning of “Israel” from one of race to mean one of belief. 

But this can’t be based on what we read in Acts 13:30-33:

30) “But God raised Him from the dead:

31) And He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people.

32) And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers [of Israel:  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob],

33) God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou are my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

This is a genetic, racist statement.  It is not hateful.  It is the truth.  This has not changed, even after Pentecost.  But the Roman Catholic Church says that it was genetic in the Old Testament, but now it is universal in the New Testament.  But they have no answer for Acts 13:30-33; they just ignore it.  And they have no answer for “When exactly is it supposed to have changed from Israel to all races?”

Who was the first non-Israelite who received the promises made to Israel’s fathers?  And after that question is answered then, why did the disciples go only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel?  When did the first non-covenant peoples receive the promises that were made to the fathers of the Israelites?

Leviticus 20:26: “And ye shall be holy unto me:  for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.”

When God severed Israel from the other races, there is no indication that this severance was for any limited period, in fact the opposite is shown.  The separation is a racial separation.  Racism is what God taught. 

It is not what the Southern Baptist Convention proclaimed:  “Racism is a sin.”  Who is correct?  God or man?

Deuteronomy 4:7-8:

7) “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8) And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

What nation was so great?  It was Israel that these two verses are talking about.  The statutes and judgments that God gave to His covenant people do not apply to other races.  Even the Ten Commandments were given to Israel alone.  God’s Law contained racist beliefs.

Deuteronomy 4:13: “And He declared unto you [Israel] His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.”

The Old Covenant was made with Israel as a nation ALONE, even if there was a “mixed multitude” there with Israel at that time.  The issue here is not the Law as a total but the covenant made to the congregation of Israel in isolation from the mixed multitude journeying with them.

Deuteronomy 4:37-38

37) “And because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose [elected] their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with His mighty power out of Egypt.

38) To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.”

Questions:

•  Who does it say that God loved?
•  Who does it say that God elected?
•  Who does it say that He will drive out so the people in question 2 can inherit their land?
•  So how does this show that He loves all races equally? 

The Roman Catholic Church says that everyone is a brother.  One person is equal to another person; one religion is equal to another religion; one culture is equal to another culture, and so one. 

Deuteronomy 7:6: “For thou art a holy [separate] people unto the LORD thy God.  The LORD thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”

The Bible says that Israel is a “special people.”  Israel is unique.  Israel has something that all the other races do not.  And we have to ask if this is still true?  And if it isn’t, what happened to this special race?  When did the doctrine change to the belief that God:

• No longer requires Israel to dwell alone,
• No longer allows Israel to intermarry with other races, and
• No longer allows Israel to keep God’s Laws and Feast Days.
• No longer allows Israel to have a non-Israelite person to rule over them.        

The Doctrine of Balaam

Almost all denominations hold the doctrine of Balaam without knowing it, so we can understand why it is practically never taught.  Probably few know what this doctrine is, but all should know about it if Jesus holds it against them.

2 Peter 2:15: “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;”

This verse indicates that the people who believe the doctrine of Balaam have gone astray and forsaken the correct way.

Jude 1:11: “Woe unto them!  For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah].”

In this verse in the New Covenant [Testament], it says that those who believe in the doctrine of Balaam are in error.

What was the error of Balaam?  What did Balaam do anyway?  In Numbers 25 we have the punishment of God on the Israelites that committed the sin of Balaam.  One thousand leaders and 23,000 other Israelites were commanded to be executed because of their sin of having sexual relations with “strange flesh.” 

In Ezra 10:10-11, we have Ezra pronouncing unto all those of Israel, many of whom were priests, who had married strange wives to separate themselves from their spouses and mixed-blood children.  And they did.

In Nehemiah 13:23-27, we have Nehemiah facing the same situation.  He confronted his brethren who had married racial strangers.  He asked them the question:  Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? (Nehemiah 13:27).      

When did this situation change in the Bible when God’s covenant people were forbidden to marry anyone of another race?  What is the situation in the New Covenant (Testament)?

To Whom Was God's Word Given To?

Psalm 147:19-20:

19)  “He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.

20) He hath not dealt so with any nation:  and as for His judgments, they have not known them.  Praise ye the LORD.”

No other nation on earth (i.e. China, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Canaanites, Egypt, Assyria, Kenya, etc.) ever received any revelation of God, but only Israel did.  It was through the Israel nations alone, that all the revelations of God came to the nation of Israel only.  The Bible is only ABOUT ISRAEL AND ISRAELITES. 

These two verses (Psalm 147:19, 20) are both limiting and specific and relate exclusively to Israel as a race. The Scripture would have to contradict this Scripture if it said that God’s Word was given to all the races, for it says that “He hath not dealt so with any nation.” 

Acts 10:36a says that “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel.”  This was after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ:  why didn’t it say that “The word which God sent was unto all the different races of the world.”  It is because it would contradict what was said in Psalm 147:20, “He hath not dealt so with any nation.”    The denominational Churches and almost all the non-denominational Churches deny this by ignoring verses like these.  They totally ignore what Psalm 147 says.

“Racism is a sin,” cry the modern-day Southern Baptists.  But there are a multitude of racist verses in the Bible.  We cannot ignore the relationship between Israel, “our fathers” and the people being addressed.  They are the same race!

Acts 13:32: “And we declare unto you the glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children.” 

Was this said to all the races of the world?  Absolutely not.  It is strictly a genetic statement.  This prophetic promise was made only to Israel.

The Roman Catholic Church's Conquering of the Protestant Churches

The Roman Catholics and the Jews have made great progress in the former Protestant land of the United States of America.  They have gone from no voting rights and holding of federal offices to controlling this former great nation.

Romanists and Jews control almost a half of the Senate and House of Representatives and control the entire Supreme Court.  The Jews control the Executive Branch of the United States.

The killing of babies in the mother’s womb is approaching 60 million in the United States, more than the number of men killed in battle against enemy forces in wars.  And it just keeps on happening.

Women have lost their place in society, and now they find that they are put in the front line of battle in the military.  They are bosses of men; they are pastors; they are college students; and we have the highest rate of divorce in history.

Professional baseball used to be all male and white, until 1947; the United States Armed forces used to be almost all male and white, until World War II; most colleges were almost all male white; the majority of churches were almost all white; etc.  Were we better off then or now?

Southern Baptist Convention and National Baptist Convention Presidents Joined Together

Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd and National Baptist Convention President Jerry Young are featured in a January 24th New York Times article on their continued efforts to bring racial healing in the United States through the Gospel of Christ.  They both delivered joint keynote addresses at Mission Mississippi’s racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center November 4th.

Still working on goals, the two Baptist leaders established in November 2015 at “A National Conversation on Race in America” in Jackson, Mississippi.  The men sat down with New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein to discuss their hearts’ desire to heal wounds that, for some, run as deep as the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1845 founding to uphold the rights of slaveholders.

“I can't do anything about what happened in 1845, but I can do a lot about where we are today in 2015,” said Floyd, senior pastor of the multisite Cross Church in northwest Arkansas. “My church has a lot of people that are not white. We live in the homeland of Walmart, J. B. Hunt, Tyson Foods and the University of Arkansas. And with the growth of those companies, our whole region has changed. And in order for us to reach our region, we have to be able to reach all people.”

“I do understand the history, and I understand the pain of the past,” said Young, who pastors New Hope Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi. “But what I’m also quite clear about is, if the Gospel does anything at all, the Gospel demands that we not only preach but practice reconciliation.”

“I am convinced that if we don’t get this racism issue right in the church, I don’t think there’s any way we can do it in the culture,” Young said. “The church has a checkered past, even now, with racism, no question. And that’s not just white racism. It's racism period.”

Floyd has described the Mission Mississippi event as historic.

“I want to remind all of us here today, this meeting is somewhat historic,” Floyd said at the November event, “not simply because we have people from all ethnicities talking about this issue, but these are called men of God, leaders of local churches and ministries, who’ve come together in the common name of Christ, and we are representing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is a fresh wind to this conversation in the United States and far, far, far overdue.”

Also this past November, the two men voiced their passion for racial reconciliation in a CNN editorial.

“As religious leaders charged with shepherding the faithful, we are resolved to address this tragedy together,” the two men said in the joint CNN editorial. “Now, as ever, pastors across America must stand before their congregations and call racism for what it is: ugly, unwarranted and un-Christian in all its forms.”

My Visit to Crossroads

Last Saturday, January 23, 2016, I went to Florence Crossroads Church.  The service began at 5:30 PM.  I knew that I was going to do a sermon on them because they are the 2nd largest church in the area; the first being the Roman Catholic Church.

I went, taking a small notebook with me to write down what I saw and heard.  When I entered the auditorium, there was a four man band playing very loud, very loud. 

They played for 20 minutes.  There were 3 electric guitars and one drummer.  The drummer was beating the drums very loudly and the one of the three electric guitar players did the singing.

There were 2 large screens on either side of the stage which the cameras projected real live pictures of them playing and singing.  The songs were not hymns at all.  They were rock and roll.

Every once in a while, the lead singer (Hispanic) asked the congregation to join with him in singing a repeating verse.  One verse was:  “You, you are my first, you are my last; you are my future, you are my past.”  This was sung several times in succession.

Then they showed a short video on the two side screens.    After which, Brian Tome (head pastor of Crossroads) came out and talked about the Super Bowl that would be held in two weeks.  They needed volunteers. 

He also talked about “Go Cincinnati” on May 14th and the last Wednesday of each month, this Wednesday, would be a Bible study.  Then they passed the offering plate; while another video was playing that talk about their work in “New Orleans.” 

When all this was done, the introduced their main speaker, who appeared on tape on three screens, as a big screen dropped down in the middle portion of the stage.  It was Chuck Mingo; the black preacher from Philadelphia.  The topic was:  “Anything is Possible, part 3, When we pray.”

As a budding sales star with Procter & Gamble in the early 2000s, Chuck Mingo was obsessed with money. He had always been that way.  “Money was a way that I was measuring up,” Mingo says. “It was really about approval. Power. I think in many ways, God kind of freed me from what probably would not have been the best career path for me, even though I probably would have made good money.”

Now, the 36-year-old Pleasant Ridge resident finds his treasure in serving God as the teaching pastor at Crossroads Community Church, where he has ministered for seven years, the past 2 ½ as senior pastor Brian Tome’s right-hand message giver.  Before that, though, it seems that Mingo was tailor made for P&G. He interned four years in his native Philadelphia while attending Duquesne University, and was offered a job before his senior year.

When Mingo arrived in Cincinnati in 2000, he was “all about the P&G fast track.” Just like that, he shot up the ladder to ultimately overseeing $500 million in sales and developing sales strategy and programs for more than 300 employees.

But he started feeling God’s tug in 2002 when he first considered joining Crossroads’ staff. He stayed at P&G then, but in 2005, he could no longer resist.  He had no religious schooling. 

“I had just gotten to a point where I realized I was getting more and more passionate about teaching, about what God was doing at Crossroads,” Mingo says. “The one thing that would keep me from doing it was the fast-track at P&G, the promises of what that would mean financially and some of those dreams that I had. I really just decided to trust God with that part of life and go with something I was passionate about. It was a calling, but it was also a wooing over time.”

So he left one of the world’s biggest companies, and the prospect of riches (“I made more than I thought I’d ever make”) on a leap of faith, saying, “It was a head turner for a lot of people, because I was right on the cusp of going to the next level at P&G, so that’s not a time when people typically walk away.”

In many ways, he’s still experiencing the thrill of working at the top of his field, as Crossroads is the P&G of churches, with one of the largest congregations (24,000) and outreach capabilities in the nation. 

Procter and Gamble’s world headquarters is right across the street, one block to the east, from the Cincinnati Freemasonic Temple.  Procter and Gamble is a freemasonic company.  Almost all of its higher up officers are Masons.

“The culture of Crossroads’ staff is a very aggressive culture. There is a lot of that still in my job, big things we’re going after. It’s not (sales) numbers I’m trying to hit, but at the same time, we feel a call to change the city  and it’s exciting to be part of team going after those big things within the context of this thing called the ‘Kingdom of God’”

Now he couldn’t be happier with his new life with his wife of 10 years, Maria, and his sons Nathan, 3, and Samuel, 7 months.

Brian Tome, the head pastor of Crossroads, talked about a situation that happened a month or two ago.  It was about the major shooting here in Cincinnati and 5,000 people showed up for a prayer service. I, Brian Tome, didn’t speak. The person who spoke was Chuck Mingo, who is our campus pastor and his ministry is one of racial-reconciliation.  That’s not my ministry; it is his.

Racial-reconciliation!  Isn’t that what the pope is pushing?  Isn’t that what the Southern Baptist Convention says is NOW correct?  Isn’t that what is happening NOW in South Africa?  Isn’t that what major league Baseball NOW teaches?  One question:  How can the races have a reconciliation if they never had a relationship before?

Chuck Mingo's Sermon

But Chuck Mingo’s sermon was not about racial-reconciliation.  It was about how prayer could change things.  He said that he was going to enter the “Mingoman Triathlon” this year.  He was going to have to work on his long distance swimming, that he had never mastered.  But with a name such a “Mingoman”, he would definitely have to get the T-shirt for this Triathlon! 

His three main points were:

•  Say “Thank you”
•  Pray with others
•  Use Your Words

But there was something that he said before he talked about the three categories of prayer that caught my ears.  He told of a story that explained a little known history of Crossroads Church.

He said that before the group of 11 former Procter & Gamble employees who were meeting in one of their member’s, (the Bechtold’s), Hyde Park home decided to become a church, there were a cloister of nuns that lived in Hyde Park. 

One of the nuns, Sister Mary Columba, told Brian Wells, one of the 11, that the Catholic Church was slowly losing members in their church.  Sister Mary Columba, had been praying for years that God would bring spiritual revival in Cincinnati. 

When Crossroads Church began, they shared their offices in the building where the cloister of nuns lived.  When Sister Mary Columba heard about this fledging church, she organized a prayer chain of her order that went around the world praying for Crossroads.   This cloister of nuns’ order prayed that Crossroads Church would become the means to provide a revival in Hyde Park and the surrounding Cincinnati area.  This is the real reason Crossroads is where it is at now, rather than the creative, smart human involvement; it was the prayers of the cloister of nuns.

What!  The Roman Catholic Church prayed, through Sister Mary Columba’s order of nuns, for the success of the Crossroads Church?  The Roman Catholics prayed for and blessed Crossroads Church at its beginning.  The universal, anti-Christ Church prayed, and Chuck Mingo said that that was the major reason for Crossroads Church’s amazing success!

Why would the nuns around the world pray for Crossroads Church to have success unless it taught its doctrine?  Its universalism; racial-reconciliation.  Why?

If we heard that a cloister of nuns were praying for our success, we would immediately check what we were preaching.  The nuns would be praying for our failure, not our success.  For we teach the opposite of what the Roman Catholics teach; they are Universalists and we believe that only the covenant seed of our fathers have the possibility of entering the eternal city.

The Roman Catholic and the Freemasons are behind Crossroads Church.  They all three agree with the main doctrine that they are teaching:  universalism.

The world has basically accepted the racial-reconciliation doctrine.  Many of our people have married a person from another race or adopted children from another race: that it is not important news anymore. 

David Bowie, died this past week, and he left ½ of his massive fortune to his wife of almost three decades—a famous black model.  This was his second marriage.  If you think that David Bowie is your hero, then go ahead and believe racial-reconciliation.  If you believe the God of Israel, then know that He has a people who He loves and who He has saved many times in the past. 

It is like the presidential candidates this year:  a communist jew; a billionaire, very pro-jew; a Canadian mixed-blood whose wife works at Goldman Sachs; another a mixed blood Hispanic; and a jewish woman who may be indicted, in fact, she should be in jail.  None of them are qualified to be president according to God’s Law. 

May God have mercy on our souls.

More in Part 2.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.