Very welcome news and finally a tangible shift away from the idiotic christianist policies of the Bush 43 administration. This is an area of medical research where the United States should be world leaders, not playing catch up after eight years of a completely medieval stance toward science and medicine.

From the link:

The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it had approved 13 new human embryonic stem cell lines for use by federally financed researchers, with another 96 lines under review.

The action followed President Obama’s decision in March to expand the number of such cell lines beyond those available under a policy set by President George W. Bush, which permitted research to begin only with lines already available on Aug. 9, 2001.

Since that date, biomedical researchers supported by the N.I.H. have had to raise private money to derive the cells, which are obtained from the fertilized embryos left over from in vitro fertility clinics.

With federal money banned from being used in any part of the work on the derived lines, researchers had to divide their laboratories and go to extreme lengths to separate research materials based on the financing source.

“You can imagine what it meant not to be able to carry a pipette from one room to another,” said Ali H. Brivanlou, a researcher at Rockefeller University. “They even had to repaint the walls to ensure no contamination by federal funds.”

In an interview with the German newspaper SPIEGEL, Umberto Eco says that ‘We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die.’ His first answer goes:

The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.

One can see the intellectual footprints of Eco’s work at the Louvre—he’s curating an exhibit about lists—in Reflections on The Name of the Rose, where he discusses the composition and ideas behind The Name of the Rose: “I dug out a huge amount of material (file cards, photocopies, notebooks), accumulated since 1952 and originally intended for other, still-vague purposes: a history of monsters, or an analysis of the medieval encyclopedias, or a theory of lists. . . .” (emphasis added). On page 24, he says that he made “Lists of names and personal data for many characters [....]“

Alas: the interviewer didn’t know about these obscure references and missed the chance to ask about them. Does he perceive his books as an effort to order chaos? Do books bring a certain amount of chaos (intellectual, social) of their own? He describes The Name of the Rose as a text composed of other texts, as all books are to some extent, but how does this metaphor of the web fit with our conception of lists? I could try to answer some of these questions, and do in my mind, but I would like to see the master’s thoughts too.

Granted, maybe my curiosity simply implies I should see the exhibit, but the Louvre is a long way from Tucson. Eco, however, still firmly resides in my mind, and implicitly on the minds of others; over at The Atlantic Andrew Sullivan says that “It’s staggering really that modern American Christianism supports wealth while Jesus demanded total poverty [....]” Maybe Jesus demanded poverty and maybe he didn’t: as Eco says in both Reflections and The Name of the Rose, the “poverty debate” dominated learned circles in 1321, masking a larger debate about power and its deployment. The arguments Eco recounts in The Name of the Rose shows that, if the answer were as simple as Sullivan describes, there would be no debate. But where there is money, and by extension power, there is sure to be a multiplicity of interpretations based on who stands to materially gain—and lose.

As so often becomes the case after one becomes familiar with his work, Eco has already been there.

Two weeks ago the so-called European Court of Human Rights published a decision condemning Italy to remove all crucifixes from public schools classrooms. Meanwhile, a German court has ruled that a High School in Berlin must provide a special room for Muslim praying students which are mainly from a second generation immigration. Last but not least, the European Union is menacing a small country as Lithuania to be expelled on basis of “homophobia”.

If ever proof were needed that EU national governments may no longer legislate in accordance with their own cultural traditions, or enact laws which uphold the Christian understanding of the family, it is now evident.

Astonishingly (or perhaps not), the European Parliament has considered ‘Article 7’ action against Lithuania, which could have resulted in Lithuania’s suspension from the European Union. And all because they have dared to confront what they deem to be insidious homosexual propaganda.

In order to have a full idea of the actual European irrationality, please check this figures [PDF] and verify the total inconsistency and incoherence of an insane European political elite.

ORTHODOXY AND HERESY IN EARLIEST CHRISTIANITY
by Walter Bauer

Second German Edition
ed and supplemented by Georg Strecker
[Copyright J.C.B.Mohr, T&uumlbingen, 1964]

English Translation
ed and supplemented by Robert A. Kraft
and Gerhard Kroedel
with a team from the
Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins
[Copyright Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1971]

Updated Electronic English Edition
by Robert A. Kraft
[Copyright Robert A. Kraft, 25 February 1991]

Note: the original website where this work has been published is this.

Converted to pdf format and uploaded to Scribd to secure it’s availability on line.

Bauer – Orthodoxy and Heresy

Hayek was a very good economist who made the mistake of contradictorily mixing, in his philosophical theory, Hume’s skepticism with Kant’s positivist criticism and religiosity. Ayn Rand was a good novelist who made the mistake of paradoxically mixing the common-sense with “reality”.

In her theory, Ayn Rand started from the “three axioms” ― existence, identity and consciousness. As we all know, as “principle” the axiom does not depend on anything else to exist as such. On the other hand, Ayn Rand refuses any transcendental spiritual dimension; and that is her main contradiction because in a exclusively classical material world, everything should be determined by causality laws and every effect would have a cause.

By definition, a “principle” as for example “the sum of the internal angles of any triangle is 180 degrees”, or that “no fact can be true or real, or no judgment can be correct without a sufficient reason”, both axioms do not depend on anything else to exist as they are― they simply always existed since the Big Bang occurred 120 billion of light-years ago. The truth about those axioms are atemporal, they exist in a atemporal spiritual dimension in which the human reason has its share and takes part of.

Ayn Rand’s biggest mistake was not to clearly distinguish between human reason which was created by evolution and its capacity of participating in the atemporal dimension of truths. There is nothing at all that could be deducted from experience (empiricism) and remain valid eternally, as the atemporal truths do.

Relations between Christians and Hindus appear to have been strained recently, as militant Hindus have accused Christians of making ungodly alliances with Maoists to weaken Hinduism. Dion Forster mentioned Christianity and Hinduism  in a comment on my previous post, and I’d no sooner read that than I came across the following (hat-tip to egregores): U.S. Catholic Magazine: Bishop applauds abolishment of Nepal’s 239-year-old monarchy:

The bishop of Nepal described the recent abolishment of Nepal’s 239-year-old Hindu monarchy as ‘truly a great achievement.’

Catholics, ‘as citizens of the country, deserve to be proud, and we rejoice with the nation and our brothers and sisters. We thank God for his blessings,’ Bishop Anthony Sharma of Nepal told the Asian church news agency UCA News May 29.

Nepal’s Constituent Assembly voted overwhelmingly to abolish the monarchy May 28, a day after its members were sworn in in the capital, Katmandu. The assembly gave the king 15 days to leave office.

e g r e g o r e s: On the Christian-Maoist United Front against Hinduism also posted this:

The article below, by Vishal Arora, originally appeared on the Christian website Compass Direct News (“News from the frontlines of persecution”) in Januray of 2008. It was later taken down when they realized just how embarrassing the article is because of its frank references to the close relationship between Christians and Maoist terrorists in India. The article can still be found in various places on the net if you search on the original title of the article “Maoists Said to Recruit Victims of Violence in India“. The copy below was found at the website of an outfit calling itself “Human Rights Without Frontiers” (they appear to be a thinly disguised advocacy group supporting western based Christian missionaries).

I had linked to the original article in an earlier post on Lies, damned lies, and the “persecution” of Christians in India, but I just today discovered that the link is dead – so I am posting the article in full here.

Now I’m no fundi on Indian and Nepalese politics, and I record these links for information, to see what some people are saying. The main conclusion I draw from them is that Samuel Huntington was right in his “clash of civilizations” thesis, when he suggested that in the post-Cold War era international conflicts would not be between competing ideologies such as capitalism and communism, but rather between competing civilisations based on religion. As things have developed, however, and as these reports illustrate, there is a tendency for religions to spawn ideologies, which, though they are linked to their parent religions, often contradict their values. So Hinduism has spawned Hindutva, Islam has spawned Islamism, and Christianity has spawned Christianism. In parallel to these there is the rise of militant atheism, especially in the West; not entirely unprecedented, of course–in the Stalinist era membership in the League of Militant Atheists in the USSR rose to over 11 million in the 1930s, but fell off in the 1940s when Stalin sought the support of the Church in the Great Patriotic War.

The alleged alliance of Christians and Maoists in India and Nepal would no doubt have been very surprising to people in the Cold War era, and I also wonder if there are any Maoists left in China now.

Apart from noting the existence of militant Hindu, Islamic and atheist movements, there is not much I can say about them, or at least about what can be done about them. That is up to Hindu and Muslim theologians, and possibly atheist atheologians.

But as a Christian missiologist I can say that that growth of Christianism is a cause for concern, and fuels the clash of civilisations. The response of Christian theologians, when they have bothered to think about it at all, seems mostly to be denialist. They tend to deny that there is such a thing as the “clash of civilizations” and say that the aim of Christianity is peace and love, and just hope that the Christianists will go away. But perhaps the time has come to do a bit more theological analysis, and to make it clear that Christianism is heretical. It affects both East and West. The USA may have the so-called religious right, but Orthodoxy has groups like Pamyat.

That is a bit of a digression from where this post started. Catholic bishops supporting democracy in Nepal is a far cry Christianism, and its certainly a lot better than falangism in Spain and Lebanon. It’s a bit surprising if Maoists support democracy, but if they do, bully for them. I don’t have strong feelings for or against monarchies either way. I’m neither a monarchist nor a republican, though if one does have monarchies I have a preference for constitutional democratic ones. But I recognise that many “republics” can be and have been undemocratic as well. But where it does link up is that the situation in Nepal does seem to be developing along the liens of a clash of civilisations, and that is where one needs to be careful.

Via Unreasonable Faith, comes this piece written by an Army Officer and West Point graduate.   Reading this has boiled my blood like nothing in a long time:

During my second year at the West Point, my Squad Leader for summer training expressed disapproval on numerous occasions with my being Jewish, and, during one mission, he grabbed my MRE (a military meal) as we sat down for lunch and handed me another. He ordered me to eat the pork chop and I reminded him that I refrain from pork for religious reasons. He told me that I could eat the pork or eat nothing. One of his peers, a female Jewish cadet, urged me to obey him and not to make him angry; I declined. The next day, my cadet Platoon Leader presented me with a written counseling statement detailing my signs of “anorexia” and a “troubling” refusal to eat which was detrimental to my health and indicative of “incapacity for leadership.” I was filled with righteous indignation. I went through the Cadet and Commissioned Chain of Command and my rebuttal culminated with a conversation with the Active Duty Major in command of the summer training. When I explained the events in detail, he told me that my Cadet Chain of Command was right to be concerned, and spoke words I will never forget: “the Army is not in the business of catering to people like you.” Those words have haunted me throughout my career as an Officer. They were the turning point for me–when I finally understood the message several of my leaders had been expressing to me all along: the Army has no place for people like me: dissidents who stray from the unofficially mandated military religion; conservative fundamentalist Christianity.

On what he was told once after refusing to bow his head in participation with involuntary group prayer:

My Commander explained that, by not bowing my head in blatantly Christian prayer with the others, I was sending a message that I “want my Soldiers to die.” These words penetrated my core. What leader can imagine a worse accusation? Who wouldn’t doubt herself or himself when confronted with this message? The threat of being relieved was completely overshadowed and, again, I was an outsider, incapable of leadership because I refused this unconstitutional perversion of Christianity synonymous with the Command.Could I not, would I not be an effective combat ready officer/leader/warrior without first very publicly and repeatedly demonstrating my singular loyalty to Jesus Christ? Could I not lead brave military women and men into combat for my country without being an avowed fundamentalist Christian? I stopped practicing my own religion; I disassociated myself from Soldiers who were similarly persecuted; I lost hope.

I later contacted the Equal Opportunity Office to make an official anonymous report about the noxious, compulsive Christian, command climate. Shockingly, the NCO I filed the report with wasted no time in contacting my Battalion Commander directly, in complete violation of the privacy regulations and guarantees of protective anonymity attendant to such hyper-sensitive filings. I later became a member of an Installation Inspector General Team and observed firsthand the impotent, incapacity of the IG to affect any meaningful change. The difference between lower enlisted Soldiers and myself is this: they suspect that they have nowhere to turn in order to escape this unbearable religious persecution–in contrast, as an officer, I do not suspect. I know.

Read the whole thing here.

Your Thoughts?

Being intellectually choked by the present political situation here in Madagascar, I decide to go back into Religion for a while by reading the Bible; it’s not a last resort as most people may think but just a source of knowledge to get clues on how we are living today, as these same situations had already been experienced in the Bible’s ancient time. So I read and stumbled on Luke 17:32-37 which says:

On that night, I tell you , there will be two people sleeping in the same bed : one will be taken away, the other will be left behind.Two women (…). Then the disciples asked him: “Where, Lord ?” Jesus answered: “WHEREVER THERE IS A DEAD BODY, THE VULTURES WILL GATHER.”

I tried my best to understand the meaning (without the help of a minister) . It’s a bit different from all the warnings like “Watch your back”, “Keep on guard” when Jesus talked about the coming of the Kingdom. In the previous verses he stressed on the story of Noah and Lot and how they had managed to fly away from the flood and fire. And the scripture above is more related to this final flood but following a more logical understanding. Noah is said to built the Ark following God’s advice, gathering all the animals( all kind) and his own family and be prepared for the flood. When I asked my fellow Christian friend on how it be possible for Noah to gather all couple of animals knowing that the Ark itself is limited in size ? He replied, God gave Noah knowledges to put them all in the Ark as God gave him technical knowledge to build it. Weird! I agree if it were only a Lion couple, Bear, Zebra, Horse and big mammal animals but what about the ants, grasshooper, snake…; the lemurs in Madagascar especially the Aye-Aye (clic here to visit Madagascar) and the Panda in China .

There is what we call animal instinct, the ants know when it about to rain, the elephant knows when the earth is about to shake and other clear explanations on another species. The ark is not a ship but a construction on the top of a mountain (not Kilimanjaro nor K2), the animals know beforehand what will happen and join the mountain in right time just as few people apart Noah’s family who noticed the sign. The crux is to recognize the sign God sends to us through natural phenomenons that we should all understand when the time comes. The quotes above taken from Luke follow the same scope, people are too busy in working, amassing wealth, get entertained that in the haste their own insight betray them. Rather than to go in a safe place the will rush to the place of death where “the vultures gather”. Yet that doesn’t explain the word “taken away” because the other guy is taken not decided to go there by his free will. And I’m still searching for the right answer ….

Updated on 27/08/09:

Vultures arrive at the scene after death has taken place, or the animal is already irreversibly dying, is already “dead meat.” Vultures are a post factum sign that an event (an animal’s death) has already occurred. In that case, the proverb about vultures fits Jesus’ purposes perfectly in Luke 17,20-37. Jesus has responded to the Pharisees that the final Reign of God will not come with advance signs subject to human observation (17,20).Thus, when the signs of the Parousia do come, human reaction to it will already be so late that no one can prepare for the Parousia itself.

// <![CDATA[//

by David J. Stewart & Andrew Friedman

At Benny Hinn’s crusades—he dazzles the crowds, plays captivating music, and manipulates the emotions of the audience; BUT, he is not of God.  What is happening is not of God.  Benny Hinn is a master con artist, who fully understands the human psyche.  I was watching one of Benny Hinn’s crusades the other day on TV.  At first impression, Benny Hinn appears as a man of God.  He has that curious and distinguishing look that mesmerizes the crowds.  Benny Hinn comes across as an extremely interesting character, with the power to hypnotize the masses with his charm, music, and exploitation of the Bible.

As I watched Benny Hinn perform on stage, it reminded me more of a rock star in concert.  There were many thousands of people in the audience, and no doubt, millions more on TV..  Just as rock-n-roll fans, the audience was in the palm of the performer, Benny Hinn.  Hinn never mentioned the word “sin,” never mentioned the word “Saviour,” but just kept talking about how wonderful Jesus is.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  We read in Acts16:16-18, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.“  Just as the demon possessed woman in Acts 16:17 who spoke the truth while also serving the Devil, so does Benny Hinn speak of Jesus Christ while serving the Devil.

Hinn’s money comes mostly from people in TV land, who are foolishly conned by what they see on TV.  It couldn’t be more obvious that Benny Hinn has hired a top-notch group of manipulators to work with him.  One of the camera tricks which Hinn employs is to zoom in on certain audience members who look like they’re having a religious experience.  Seeing someone having such an uplifting experience, while hearing the emotion-producing music, and listening to Hinn ramble on with religious lingo, easily mesmerizes the viewer.  As I watched Benny Hinn, he told the audience to get ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.  Next, hundreds of people towards the front, dressed differently than the people in the back, all fell backwards to the floor.  It was apparent to me that the event was staged.  Then came the alleged healings.  During the healing period of the crusade, several dynamic, sharp-looking, and trained people bring forth the alleged recipients of Hinn’s healing power.  To no surprise, as is COMMON to self-proclaimed faith-healers like Oral Roberts, ALL of the healings are unable to be substantiated.  A small boy was brought up on stage, allegedly deaf in one ear since birth, but now able to hear.  Another woman in a wheel-chair was wheeled up to the platform, allegedly crippled from diabetes, then she walked on stage.  Another man was claimed to have been deaf in both ears from birth, but now was healed.  Then Hinn prompted the man to speak in an attempt to confirm the healing, and he did speak.  So when did the man learn to speak if he was deaf his whole life?

I’d like to see someone with no legs receive their legs back.  Why doesn’t Benny Hinn ever go into a hospital and empty it out of all it’s sick patients?  Why only on stage, behind the camera, while asking for money?

Benny Hinn ministries took in over $100,000,000 last year alone.  Again, I ask, why doesn’t Hinn ever use his alleged power to heal the sick people in hospitals?  The reason is abundantly clear … Hinn is a fraud.  Hinn, like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and so many other false prophets, EXPLOITS Christianity and God’s Word to gain wealth, prosperity, control, influence, and popularity.  God’s power is not for sale.  Do you really think God would allow anyone to exploit his power on stage, for money, and to a false prophet who praises the cult of Catholicism?  Satan is working relentlessly through today’s false prophets to UNITE Christianity with false religion, which is APOSTASY!  When Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of Roman in 380 A.D., it led to total apostasy, and the beginning of the formal Roman Catholic cult.  Don’t be deceived, Benny Hinn and Billy Graham are false prophets who are leading ecumenical churches into the New World Order (the beast system of antichrist).  Satan knows that the easiest way to deceive people is to obscure and blur the truth of God’s Word.  This is why we see so many watered-down Bibles nowadays.  This is why we see Protestants praising Catholics, and Catholics protecting homosexual priests, and homosexuals twisting the Bible around to claim that Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was only a lack of hospitality.  The Word of God is under attack!

The Bible teaches that the gift of healing ended with the Apostles.  The sign gifts were only to validate the message of the Apostles.  This is evidenced by the Biblical fact that the Apostle Paul, who had once been healed of a deadly snake bite, couldn’t find relief for his thorn in the flesh later in 2nd Corinthians 12:7.  2nd Timothy 4:20 also states that Paul couldn’t heal his friend Trophimus,

“…but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Paul spoke of Timothy’s “often infirmities” in 1st Timothy 5:23, but he couldn’t heal his friend Timothy either.  Clearly, the “gift” of healing had ceased.  If you want to read an excellent in-depth Biblical examination of tongues, healing, and gifts, then please read FACE TO FACE WITH TONGUES by Pastor Max D. Younce.

In Benny Hinn’s crusades, he sings, he praises the name of Jesus, he places his hands on people and they fall to the ground; BUT, it is not of the Holy Spirit.  I’d like to see Benny Hinn cry one time.  I’d like to hear Benny Hinn expose the demonic Catholic religion.  Benny Hinn is a fraud!  According to a Dateline investigation in December of 2002…

Where does world-famous televangelist’s money go?

Benny Hinn has millions of believers and millions in donations

NBC News

Dec. 27, 2002 - Maybe you spotted him while you were channel surfing one night
or maybe you were already tuned in. Either way, he's hard to ignore. Benny
Hinn - televangelist, faith healer, and appointment viewing for millions of
believers. His popularity and his wealth are matched only by the devotion he
's shown by his followers, many of them desperate for help. Their stories
and his ministry play out almost every night in made-for-TV mini-dramas. But
there are other stories, other scenes that reveal much more about Pastor
Benny, caught on Dateline's hidden cameras. Correspondent Bob McKeown
reports.

   HE ALWAYS ARRIVES onstage when they begin to sing the hymn, "How Great
Thou Art."

    And whether you measure success in his TV ratings, attendance at his
live services or crusades around the world, or the money he raises, he is
unquestionably one of the most popular and successful televangelists in the
world today. His television show is available around the globe. He attracts
capacity crowds at arenas and stadiums at home and abroad. And scenes like
this one in his TV studio are a big reason why:

    Benny Hinn: "Yes Lord. A lower back is being healed. Thank you Lord.
Emphysema is being healed. We rebuke it in Jesus' name. Somebody's legs have
just been healed."

      On television or at his crusades, Benny Hinn promises that wherever
he goes, miraculous healing will follow.

    Benny Hinn: "In the name of Jesus, I rebuke the allergies out of you.
Touch! - The glory of God is in the studio. We are having a visitation in
the studio today as we have been taping these TV programs."

    Those miracles, Hinn says, can cure injury and illness - even
terminal disease.

    Benny Hinn: "The healing may happen instantly, and may happen
gradually but
 surely as God is God, your legs will work again, and your body
will be healed again."

    And according to Benny Hinn, it gets even more miraculous than that.

    Benny Hinn: "On the program today, you are going to see a clip of
this man who was raised from the dead."

    Those dramatic claims - and his dynamic preaching style - have
attracted millions of devoted followers, like Carlotta Moore.

    "When I go to a crusade, I'm going because I need to be refreshed. I
need to be renewed. I need to be revived in my spirit," says Carlotta Moore.

    Moore says she also watches Benny Hinn's TV show everyday.

    "The Bible speaks of spiritual fathers," says Moore. "That is my
spiritual father. He's a
 leader. And he is a mentor."

EVANGELIST AND FUNDRAISER

    And he is a master fund raiser as well, so along with that devotion
comes money - a lot of it. Though pastor Benny denies it, estimates of total
ministry revenue exceed $100 million a year.

    Benny Hinn insists his only mission is to preach the gospel, save
souls, and heal the sick. But is there
 more than that to the man they call
pastor Benny?

    "Dateline" looked at the ministry of pastor Benny Hinn, who claims
miraculous power flows from God through him. We'll take a closer look at all
his healings and at all the money that goes into his collection buckets.

     Hinn was born in the Middle East, raised in Canada, and modeled
himself after a faith healer, the legendary Katherine Kuhlman. Hinn started
a church in Orlando, almost two decades ago. By 1999, he'd left Florida,
building his ministry's administrative headquarters in Dallas and his TV
studio in southern California where he now lives.

    Hinn's claims of miracles have made him immensely popular, but those
healings, combined with his ministry's enormous wealth, have also triggered
scrutiny of a different kind.

      "I say he's in the business of raising money and spreading his own
celebrity," says Ole Anthony, who heads the
 Trinity Foundation - a Christian
watch-dog group that examines the workings of television ministries. The
organization operates on donations, grants, and sales of its magazine and
tapes.

    Ole Anthony himself has been highly critical of television preachers
who don't divulge the details of how they raise and spend their money -
especially Benny Hinn.

    "We've gotten most of the complaints lately from Benny's organization
and Benny's followers," says Anthony. "That became our focus, we've been
following him intently since 1993."

    "Dateline" asked the Trinity Foundation to provide access to, among
other things, documents and videotape it's collected about the Hinn
Ministry. We reimbursed the foundation for its costs.

    And we also went looking for some answers ourselves. For almost two
years, "Dateline" sought permission to videotape Benny Hinn's crusades, to
see how this affluent
 television ministry really works.

    Eventually we were allowed to bring our cameras to a crusade in
Atlanta. But the ministry made it clear we were only permitted to tape the
first hour or so. Then after Hinn's entrance, a few hymns and some saving of
souls, we were told to stop.

VIEW FROM A HIDDEN CAMERA

    So, in order to try to find out what really goes on behind the scenes
of the Benny Hinn Ministry, we attended a number of other crusades and
walked in right though the front door with everybody else. Only this time,
the cameras were hidden.

    At least once a month, somewhere in the U.S., 50,000 or 60,000 people
attend one of Benny Hinn's two-day crusades. Over the past two years, we
followed pastor Benny around the country to Hampton, Virginia; Las Vegas;
Buffalo, and a few cities in between.

    At each of the crusades we attended, the faithful began to arrive
hours before
 the service. And so did we with our hidden cameras.

    But even when you get there early, the best sections are already
taken - reserved for major donors, church VIPs and, at the back, for the
disabled and those in wheelchairs.

    In Buffalo, we found our seats high up in the bleachers and we began
recording the service in the middle of that noisy crowd with a hidden
microphone and camera.

    What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.
 What brings the faithful out to see Benny Hinn is the healing. The
expectation that sometime tonight they're going to see, or perhaps even be -
one of those people who arrive desperately ill and leave miraculously cured.

      The script - Benny Hinn's tried-and-true formula - was always
 the
same. And it always started with the music. There's an orchestra, a heavenly
host of local church choirs, and an all-star cast of Christian headliners.
The crowd's emotional temperature seems to rise, as they anxiously wait for
pastor Benny.

    "It's organized more closely than a political convention," says Ole
Anthony, of the Trinity Foundation.. "There's the repetitive music, there's
the mood lighting, there's this whole arrangement of waiting and waiting and
waiting until he comes on stage. The band is playing, "How Great Thou Art"
and then the process starts."

    Once he arrives onstage, pastor Benny preaches, prays and spiritually
tends his flock.

    Benny Hinn: "If you mean business with God, he means business with
you."

    At a Benny Hinn crusade, you can't
 help but notice the faith of his
followers and how much they appear to believe in him and his healing
message.

    The impression one gets being among that crowd is that whatever's
happening down there on the stage, however it may or may not be
choreographed, these people have come because they truly believe.

    "There's no question that the people that are there have strong
belief or a strong want-to-belief," says Anthony, "and so they respond."

THE TENSION BUILDS

    In fact, all evening, throughout the arena, the tension keeps
building because everyone here knows what's going to happen next.

    Benny Hinn:
 "There's power here, people. Lift your hands and receive
it."

    According to pastor Benny, that "power" will soon lead to miracles:

    Benny Hinn: "By moving those legs that have been crippled for all
those years."

    This is from a highlights tape we bought from the ministry's Web
site.

    Benny Hinn: "You're tired of all the pills you've taken, and all the
needles they put in your body and all the pain you felt. Well, I'm here to
tell you, you will be healed tonight!"

      After the preaching, there's the passing of the collection buckets.
And then comes the moment when Benny Hinn makes his
 much-anticipated
announcement - God is speaking to him, he says, revealing a multitude of
miracles, actual healings now taking place throughout the arena, some of
them very specific.

    Benny Hinn: "There is a young man named George. George has HIV. But
my brother George, the holy ghost is burning it out of your body!"

    At all of the evening crusades we attended, it was about 10 p.m. when
Hinn announced God was speaking to him.

    Benny Hinn: "Another arthritis has been healed."

    Benny Hinn's ministry says that in order to verify the miraculous
healings that have taken place, it screens those who claim they've been
healed before they get up on stage.

    First, Hinn staff members talk to the people who get in line. This
screener is even a
 doctor and he evidently thinks this woman is a good
candidate to announce her healing up on the platform with pastor Benny.

    Doctor: "No pain? Great job. You couldn't do that before? (As she
moves her head around.) That is neat. Yeah, take her up there."

    The people selected by the screeners are then introduced to Benny
Hinn and the capacity crowd. Those who've been healed, and others who attend
each service, are given a blessing by pastor Benny with his own personal
touch. And whether he blows or flicks or waves his hand, the faithful are
strewn across the floor like bowling pins. So what exactly is at work here?

RELIGION OR HYPNOSIS?

    "They'd fall down," says Michael Cohen. "They'd fall backwards. He'd
blow on them. They'd fall over. And I thought these were actors that came in
and they paid them so much. And they had a string and they pulled them
 down."

    Even some who were skeptics at first soon became believers, like
Michael Cohen.

    "And when I finally went up there, I ended up falling down," says
Cohen. "I closed my eyes but I knew that Benny didn't push me. I knew I wasn't
 pulled or tugged. I knew that was God touching me."

    But Ole Anthony says he thinks it's a phenomenon that has much more
to do with mass hypnosis than religion.

    "And they watch him on television over and over and over for years,"
says Anthony. "And they see it, they expect it, they see other people
upstage are falling over right and left. Sometimes Benny falls over the
place. It's a circus. It's like professional
 wrestling."

    Bob McKeown: "But in fact he's been on the record time and time again
saying he is not a healer."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "It's God who heals."

    Ole Anthony: "Of course."

    Bob McKeown: "He's just the vessel that's been chosen."

    Ole Anthony: "What's the reason that people come to the crusades?
What's the main thing that happens onstage? That's his attraction. He
promotes himself as a healer, as a healing ministry."

    But according to former Hinn insiders, there's a great deal more to
Benny Hinn's crusades than what you see on television - and what we've found
supports that. A woman who worked at crusades said she was instructed to
look particularly for those standing in front of their wheelchairs.

    Benny Hinn: "Look at all the empty wheelchairs here in Las
 Vegas,
people!"

    Empty wheelchairs apparently imply there's been a lot of healing
going on. But for every one of the people declared healed by pastor Benny on
stage and on TV, many more leave the arena still sick or disabled.

    "Desperate people, the really desperate ones, the ones that break
your heart are at the back on the crusade, they won't let them up in the
lines," says Anthony.

    The broadcasts of Benny Hinn's crusade in Buffalo did not include
what our hidden camera captured. This man was escorted from his seat by
security guards after crying out for pastor Benny to touch his apparently
ill son. "I wanted to take my son up there and get prayed. That's all I
wanted," he said.

    So not everyone who wants to get up on stage is allowed to.. But what
happens to those who are called up on the platform to be touched by pastor
Benny? To try to find out, we attended a crusade in
 Las Vegas, and we did
our best to keep track of each and every one of the miracles Benny Hinn
proclaimed. By our count, there were 56 of them in all - many of which ended
up on this videotape we purchased through the ministry.

    This little boy said his damaged vision was cured: "And as soon as
God healed me, I could see better."

    According to one woman, her cancer was gone. Hinn said God told him a
demon had caused the cancer, and he cast it out.

    Benny Hinn: "Go out of her! It's gone!"

    One woman said she had a diseased lung.

    Benny Hinn: "The lord is asking me now to ask him to give you a new
lung."

    According to pastor Benny, she got that new lung, right there on
stage.

    Benny Hinn: "That's why she's coughing... that's why she's coughing."

    And there was this woman, who said she was cured of lung cancer. She
says: "She had cancer in the lungs. She don't have it now!"

HEAVYWEIGHT HEALING

    In his 25 years of healing, there have been thousands of similar
stories from Hinn's followers - none of them more famous than this one. At a
crusade in 1994, Benny Hinn came to the aid of the former heavyweight
champion of the world. Evander Holyfield had lost his boxing license because
a medical test had revealed a serious heart
 ailment.

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "The Lord is telling me right now he is
repairing Holyfield's heart completely."

    Reportedly, Holyfield promised Hinn a check for $265,000, and before
long, he got a clean bill of health, and won the world title back.

    But Benny Hinn doesn't only minister to the rich and famous.

    Bob McKeown: "And you needed a miracle."

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, did I."

    Bob McKeown: "You and your son."

    Belva Ventura: "Yes."

      We met Belva Ventura at a crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts. She
and her son had both been diagnosed with cancer. Both had been told it was
terminal. Before long, she and her son were on stage in front of 14,000
people, right next to pastor
 Benny.

    Bob McKeown: "And what did Pastor Hinn say to you?"

    Belva Ventura: "Oh, he hugged us. And he put his arm around me. And
he couldn't believe all the cancer in one family. And he said we're gonna
get this cancer out of this house right now. It's not gonna bother you no
more. And we came home, we were happy. I was healed. I know I was."

    The question is, despite all the claims, how does anyone really know
if Belva Ventura or any of the others was indeed miraculously healed at one
of Benny Hinn's crusades?

    So we asked pastor Benny to help us follow up on some of the people
we saw on his stage. Then we did some following up of our own.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't."

   Benny Hinn: "But as surely as God is God - your legs will work again,
and your body will be healed again, and your lungs will breathe again, and
your eyes will see again!"

PROOF OF HEALING?

    At all of his live crusades, Benny Hinn proclaims a breath-taking
litany of miraculous healing. Pastor Benny has said that everyone who gets
up on his platform has been checked by a doctor. His ministry also claims
 it
has a follow up process with people afterwards that it describes as
"exhaustive" and "thorough," and that medical information it collects is
reviewed first by a nurse, then by a doctor.

    So we wanted to find out how that process works and which of those
claims of miracles actually can be verified. We thought a good place to
start would be with the ministry itself. Last year, we asked Benny Hinn to
help us confirm the 56 healings we counted at just one of his crusades - the
one in Las Vegas.

      By the time we asked, dozens of those "miracles" had already been
broadcast around the world on his TV show, including the woman who Benny
Hinn said had grown a new lung right there on stage.

    Woman: "Feels like something in there, like someone was reaching in
my heart, in my lung."

    Benny Hinn: "I want you to
 go back to your earthly doctor, have him
give you an X-ray. I want to hear about it. I want a full story."

    But if Hinn knows the full story about who was healed in Las Vegas,
he's not sharing it with us. In a letter from its lawyer, the ministry
refused to provide proof of any of those healings to "Dateline."

    So since the ministry wouldn't give us any information, we did some
checking of our own about Las Vegas, and other reported healings.

    Remember the woman we met in Las Vegas who said she'd been cured of
lung cancer? With our hidden camera, we were able to go back stage to her
follow-up interview.

    Hinn staffer: "Now, what happened tonight that makes you feel God
touched you?"

    She did speak to a Hinn staff member, but it's hard to know how from
this conversation alone he could have known
 whether she was cured of cancer,
or even if she had it in the first place.

    Staffer: "That primary tumor can be one cell."

    She was asked a few questions, but it didn't appear to us that there
was any medical examination.

    Staffer: "Keep trusting God. Follow it up with your physicians. Thank
you so much. The Lord bless you all."

    Unfortunately, there's one thing we were able to determine about this
woman without the ministry's help. She died two and a half months after the
crusade. The cause was lung cancer.

    And then there was Evander Holyfield's heart ailment - which seemed
to disappear after that crusade in 1994 - touted as one of pastor Benny's
greatest healing successes.

    When Holyfield then won his world title back, it seemed a storybook
ending - except for one problem. According to the Nevada Athletic
Commission, two different clinics determined that Holyfield
 had been
misdiagnosed. His doctor had been given incomplete information about his
condition. In other words, there was nothing seriously wrong with Holyfield'
s heart in the first place. But three years later, pastor Benny was still
claiming credit for the champ's miraculous healing.

    On the "Larry King" show with Pastor Benny, he was aksed: "Evander
Holyfield credits you with curing his heart problem, although doctors said
that maybe it was misread in the first place."

    Hinn: "God healed him in one of our crusades, yeah."

    Evander Holyfield had no comment through his lawyer.

STILL DYING OF CANCER

    And remember Belva Ventura, who said Benny Hinn cast out cancer from
her and her son?

      A few weeks after that crusade in Worcester, Massachusetts, Belva's
son died of cancer. When we visited several months later, she said she hadn'
t had a follow-up call from anyone in the Hinn organization.

    Bob McKeown: "As far as you know, the ministry has no idea whether
your cancer is still there or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Whether you're alive or not."

    Belva Ventura: "No. No. they don't. Otherwise, they would have got
hold of me. Nobody did."

    Her physicians evidently were not convinced of her claims of healing.

    Bob McKeown: "What do your doctors say?"

    Belva Ventura: "They laugh. They look at me and they laugh. They don'
t believe me."

    Belva
 still believed apparently until the end. A month after our
visit, she died. The cause, her doctor told us, was cancer.

    Bob McKeown: "If Benny Hinn, by whatever means, can give people like
that hope, is that not a good thing?"

    Ole Anthony: "Then why don't we just - why doesn't the FDA approve
snake oil? And we could have snake oil salesmen run around offering and
saying, "This little tube of water here, cost you $1,000. And if you take
it, you'll be cured of cancer." It's the same thing except he's doing it in
God's name, which makes it terrible, terrible. He's lying. False hope has to
always be exposed. It must be exposed."

    Benny Hinn says it's possible for someone to be healed at one of his
crusades only to have the illness or injury return later. Here's how he
explains it:

    Benny Hinn: "This is your Day Vegas... My
 Friend, hear this well. The
reason people lose their healing, is because they begin questioning if God
really did it."

    That, says Ole Anthony, only makes matters even worse for those who
are desperately ill.

    "Now they're twice as bad off as they were before because now,
according to Benny, they've done something wrong," says Anthony.

    After repeated requests to verify healings - specifically the 56 we
saw at the crusade in Las Vegas - Benny Hinn's ministry sent us details of
what it said were five irrefutable and medically proven miracles, but none
was from the Las Vegas crusade we were asking about.

    The cases they gave us ranged from a herniated disc, to heart
problems, cancer and Lou Gehrig's disease. When we called them, all five
people insisted they had been healed, but four of them wouldn't or couldn't
provide their medical records, and we could not speak to their
 doctors.

    As for the woman who said she'd been healed of Lou Gehrig's disease,
for which there is no known cure, we did speak to her neurologist, who said
he suspected she didn't have Lou Gehrig's disease in the first place.

    Though the ministry says publicly that the medical information it
collects is reviewed by a nurse and a doctor, in a letter to us from its
lawyer, the ministry acknowledged to us that it is ".... Impossible to
investigate and substantiate each and every one" of the healings proclaimed
at pastor Benny's crusades.

    But with our without absolute proof of the miracles, millions of
followers keep coming to the crusades, and continue to donate millions to
his ministry.

    But now, people who've worked inside the Hinn organization are
raising questions about where some of that money has gone.

Part two: Former insiders question what happened to some of the church
 money

Benny Hinn (at his crusade): "Only those who have been giving to God's work
will be spared."

    The money starts pouring in at Benny Hinn's crusades, thousands of
people filling hundreds of pastor Benny's collection buckets at every
service we attended.

    Chris Hinn: "One side cash, one side checks."

    A 1994 security tape shows Hinn staffers and volunteers counting the
collection money at a crusade.

    For three years in the mid-1990s, Mike Estrella says he was one of
those responsible for counting crusade collections in his capacity as Benny
Hinn's head usher.

    At the time, Estrella says, he was a devoted follower, and
 still
credits pastor Benny with curing his heart condition.

    Bob McKeown: "In cash, what was the biggest night you counted?"

    Mike Estrella: "In cash? Well, one night I counted $420,000."

    Steve Brock: "A dollar a day. Everybody say it with me - a dollar a
day."

    It may sound like they start out small, but the numbers soon get very
big. According to documents provided by the Trinity Foundation, and
published reports - Benny Hinn has more than 100,000 people who promise to
give him a dollar-a-day. If they keep that pledge, that would add up to at
least $3 million a month - $36 million a year.

    The people on this list seemed to be even more generous than that -
it appears some of them pledged or gave more than $100,000 apiece last year.

    Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to
give to the work of God."

    On TV, and at his
 crusades, Hinn promises that not only will God
improve your health, but your financial life as well - perhaps by getting
you out of debt with an unexpected financial windfall. But first, you have
to give money to his ministry. Hinn calls it "sowing the seed."

    Benny Hinn: "Amen. So expect a financial harvest but you have to sow
a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today. Our 800
number is on the screen."

    Hinn follower Carlotta Moore told us she sows a seed of $12,000 a
year with pastor Benny, and that she expects to be financially rewarded.

    Carlotta Moore: "Because the Bible say [sic] what you sow, you gonna
reap. Now if you sow good things, you
 gonna reap good."

    Bob McKeown: "But might that mean that if you give money, you get
money back?"

    Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money back. You will get money
back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will come from somewhere. You go to
put on a dress or something, or take out a pocketbook up there in the
closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah,
woah. Thank you, Lord.' You understand?"

    And the money Benny Hinn's ministry gets is not only in the form of
donations.

    "He sells his books, he sells his tapes, he sells everything, and is
just a money machine, and money pours in," says Ole Anothony. "He's one of
the most successful money raisers in history."

    In recent years, the Hinn ministry's total annual income has
increased dramatically from $50 million in 1997 to the latest estimates -
that the ministry says are inaccurate - of more
 than $100 million a year.
And because the ministry is registered as a church, all that money is
tax-free and Benny Hinn is under no legal obligation to make his finances
public.

    Bob McKeown: "Is there any way to know how much Benny Hinn makes?
Whether he's personally benefiting or not, and where the money goes?"

    Paul Nelson: "There really isn't, and that's why an organization like
ECFA has been formed."

    Paul Nelson is president of ECFA, the Evangelical Council for
Financial Accountability. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and the Salvation
Army are among its 1,000-plus members who voluntarily disclose to potential
donors more financial information than the law requires.

    "We believe that most people would like to know that the charities
that they give to are governed responsibly, that they practice disclosure of
their finances and other activities, they willingly answer questions,
 and
that they raise funds with integrity," says Nelson.

    Members release audited financial statements, including the salaries
of their ministers.

    Benny Hinn is not an ECFA member. He wouldn't tell us his annual
salary, but five years ago he acknowledged it was then between $500,000 and
$1 million a year.

    And Hinn won't specify how his ministry's money is spent, except to
say he doesn't personally benefit from any of it.

    Benny Hinn: "Every dollar you give this morning is going to the work
of the Lord."

    What Benny Hinn does tell his followers is that all their donations
are spent on God's work - for example, the expenses of his TV show and
crusades, the salaries of his staff, supporting churches and orphanages
around the world and more importantly.

    Benny Hinn: "So everything you give this morning is going for souls.
Is going for what?"

    The crowd repeats: "Souls."

    And many of his faithful, like Carlotta Moore, say they have no doubt
that's true.

    "We're not giving it to Pastor Benny, we're giving it to the ministry
to do the work the Pastor Benny has been entrusted to do," says Moore.

    But this former Hinn ministry staff member says he has reason to
question pastor Benny's sincerity.

    "And Benny was laughing and joking and saying, 'Hey guys watch how
much money I make tonight,'" says Michael Cohen.

    For years, Michael Cohen and his wife were church members. He also
belonged to Hinn's security detail, traveling the world with
 him. Cohen
recalls an incident after a service at the church where he says pastor Benny
bragged about his financial conquests.

    "Like one little grandmother one time came up and cried, I think she
said, this is my last $5. And we got back in the Green Room and he said,
'Ha, I got her last $5, guys,'" says Cohen.

    The ministry says the incident never happened.

    As for his lifestyle, pastor Hinn has explained that some of the
perks he has enjoyed like custom-made suits and expensive cars have been
paid for by his personal income, including the royalties from his many
books.

    While that may be true and legal, it's only part of the story.
According to the Trinity Foundation, the biggest customer for pastor Benny's
books is pastor Benny's own ministry. Trinity says the Hinn ministry buys
thousands of the books for which Hinn apparently collects the royalties.

    The ministry then
 offers them for sale at crusades and on its Web
site, and gives them away to donors.

    According to Paul Nelson of ECFA, that kind of business deal is too
close for comfort, and wouldn't be allowed if Hinn belonged to his
organization.

    "Our standards prohibit the royalty in that case going to the
individual," says Nelson. "The royalty must go for the benefit of the
ministry."

    The Hinn ministry also spends a great deal on pastor Benny's
lifestyle when he's on the road. These records show hotel suites for well
over a thousand dollars a night and transatlantic flights on the Concorde -
at more than $8,000 round trip. That is, before pastor Benny began flying in
a multi-million-dollar private jet.

    But Hinn contributor Carlotta Moore says that use of money given to
Hinn's church for God's work is just fine with her.

    "I'm pretty sure NBC's man that owns NBC probably got his own
 jet and
multimillion dollars," says Carlotta Moore. "Probably got houses here,
houses there, and this that and the other. And I believe that the preachers
of the gospel, I believe they should live better than even NBC's president."

    But Benny Hinn's followers may not know about how all of their
donations are spent. For example there's Hinn's palatial new home, now being
built for $3.5 million in an exclusive gated community overlooking the
Pacific Ocean.

    The plans call for more than 6,000 square feet - 7 bedrooms, 8
bathrooms and a basement garage with enough space for ten cars. Who's paying
for that? Not pastor Benny. That mansion on the Pacific is considered the
Hinn ministry's church residence or "parsonage," and the ministry is picking
up all the expenses for land, construction, even property taxes.

    The ministry says the house is a good investment, but Paul Nelson of
ECFA says Benny
 Hinn should be concerned about the perception of that house
deal. He says the expenditure of millions of dollars of church money on a
house for it's leader, is almost unprecedented.

    Bob McKeown: "Are you aware among your membership of any church
residence, parsonage, that is worth $3 million?"

    Paul Nelson: "I am not aware of that."

    Bob McKeown: "Not Billy Graham's..."

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so. No."

    Bob McKeown: "...residence? Pat Robertson's?"

    Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so."

    However it managed to pay for his house. Benny Hinn's ministry has
apparently had problems finishing other special projects.

    Since February of 2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting
donations for a new orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico
City saying it would be finished "soon.."

    But when we checked in Mexico, more than a
 year-and-a-half later, we
could find no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising
that construction would be finished in, "a few short months."

    That was news to the local official in charge of construction in the
town, who told us the Hinn ministry hadn't even been issued a building
permit yet.

    What we did find, however, was this sign - curiously not in Spanish,
but English - attached to a house the ministry called it's 'temporary
orphanage,' which appeared to be empty. The Hinn Web site continued to
solicit donations.

    And then there was pastor Benny's most ambitious project - his $25
million healing center to be built in Texas.

    Benny Hinn: "And the Lord said to me to build a healing center that
people can come to 24-hours a day, any day of the week to be prayed for and
get
 healed."

    That was Benny Hinn raising funds for the project in 1999, but this
was Benny Hinn on a Christian telethon a year later: "Many of our wonderful
friends have called and said, 'What's with the healing center?' and
basically what the Lord has said to me is to wait for his voice."

    Hinn announced that God had told him to postpone construction, so he
said he was going to spend that money on other things.

    Benny Hinn: "I am putting all the money we have in the ministry to
get out there and preach."

    According to ECFA's Paul Nelson, that kind of unilateral diversion of
funds would simply be unacceptable.

    "They're creating a backlog of funds and they're not really released
to spend those funds on anything else,"
 says Nelson.

    But now apparently, pastor Benny has changed his mind again and says
the money raised for the healing center is being held in special ministry
accounts until the time is right.

    Benny Hinn: "The day will come, I am in no hurry, neither is God. The
day will come I will fulfill that vision."

    Remember Mike Estrella, who was the head usher at Hinn crusades? He
says one night, the ministry's chief executive officer offered him a wad of
cash taken from the collection.

    How much money? Mike Estrella says thousands.

    According to Estrella, the man who took that money from the
collection buckets was pastor Benny's righthand man, CEO Gene Polino.

    "I just push it back," says Estrella. "One day he told me
 these
words, he says 'Mike, if you follow me and listen to me, I guarantee one
thing, you never have to work again.'"

    After that Mike Estrella says, he began to watch Gene Polino more
closely.

    Estrella: "One time, Polino says give me all the hundreds and all the
fifties. And I did that. And many of them went to his pockets."

    Now how does he know that? "Because I saw him doing it," says
Estrella.

    In a telephone interview, Gene Polino, now retired as Hinn's CEO,
denied those claims.

    Gene Polino told "Dateline" he has "no problem" with Mike Estrella,
but that the former head usher sometimes got "confused." But two years ago,
in a deposition given under oath, Benny Hinn's 's brother Christopher, who
worked in a crusade counting room, testified he too saw Gene Polino
regularly stuff $50 and $100 bills into a bag. Christopher Hinn also
testified that the ministry CEO told
 him "...don't worry about it." Hinn and
Estrella both say they don't know if Polino kept the money they described
seeing him take.

    But Gene Polino told us none of it happened, insisting he never took
any money from the collections.

    Bob McKeown: "You categorically deny that?"

    Gene Polino: "Surely."

    Polino was never charged with any crime and the ministry says he did
not engage in any wrongdoing while employed by the church.

    Christopher Hinn and Mike Estrella both say they told Benny Hinn what
they saw, and we wanted to ask him about it. Through his lawyers and
spokesmen, Hinn repeatedly turned down our request for an interview. We
finally approached him outside his hotel after a crusade in Buffalo last
year.

    Bob McKeown: "Pastor Hinn, I'm Bob McKeown from 'Dateline, NBC.'
Could we have a word with you? We would like to arrange an interview. As you
know,
 we've been trying to contact you."

    Benny Hinn: "I'm so tired right now. I'm worn out."

    Bob McKeown: "Well, we would be pleased to do it at any time you'd be
available."

    Benny Hinn: "Alright."

    Bob McKeown: "In the near future. But as you know, we've been trying
to do this for several months now."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I've been so busy."

    Bob McKeown: "And we haven't had much luck with you."

    Benny Hinn: "No, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey, gentlemen, please."

    Bob
 McKeown: "We seem to be having a bit of a problem with your
security detail here."

    Benny Hinn: "I know, I'm sorry about that."

    We did eventually get a final answer from Benny Hinn to our interview
request - it was still "no."

    Benny Hinn's brother Christopher has left the ministry after a
dispute with his brother, and the church says it has had no further dealings
with him.

    As for those other former Hinn insiders, head usher Mike Estrella and
security man Michael Cohen, they say that when they tried to complain to
pastor Benny about abuses in his organization, they were fired.

    In another letter from its lawyer, the ministry says Mike Estrella's
allegations are "unfounded and
 unsubstantiated," and that he was "... Acting
irresponsibly, maliciously or suffered from some impairment when making the
charges."

    As for Michael Cohen, the ministry says, "he is motivated by a
misguided personal vendetta against pastor Hinn and the church..." and
called him an "...unstable and unreliable source."

    Bob McKeown: "What would he say about you now, and the things you're
saying about him?"

    Michael Cohen: "He may tell people that haven't been around for
years, that I'm a disgruntled employee. The fact is, when I first started
working for him, for two years, I wouldn't even take a paycheck."

    Bob McKeown: "Do you believe that he has healed people? "

    Michael Cohen: "No."

    Bob McKeown: "Or that people are healed because of him?"

    Michael Cohen: "No. I don't. I believe that people have been healed.
It's God's power, it's not Benny's. Benny, in the
 last couple of years,
wields this power around likes it's his power."

    Cohen and Estrella maintain they were true believers, who put their
faith in a man they thought could bring hope and healing to millions.

    "What I saw was a big business rolling millions of dollars every
year, many people getting rich," says Mike Estrella. "And the rich getting
richer, and the poor getting worse."

    But then, there's Carlotta Moore, a pastor herself, who like millions
of others says she still believes in Benny Hinn.

    She says, "Pastor Benny's job is the work that God has called him to
do, to be that mediator, that channel for that anointing that God has placed
on his life, the work that God has called him to do, to carry that work out
here on Earth."

    Benny Hinn (at a crusade): "Stand up, lift your hands, and
 receive
from heaven, in the name of Jesus!"

What more information do you need?
Benny Hinn is a manipulator who EXPLOITS the Gospel and Christianity.

You are a false prophet, a liar, & a misled snake in the grass who has no truth in him. It’s a shame, really. you ought to read my testimony of miracles that occurred in my life when Jesus Christ made Himself known to me, in 11/06/2006. Typically, many pagans lack the courage to view my testimony in it’s entirety, but hopefully, you’re not as cowardly as the rest of your type usually is.

According to you & your pride, Jesus Christ is “fake”. but you just keep telling yerself that, & when you begin to beg Him for yer eternal life at the end of time, yer gonna look back at every single time He tried to send one of us your way to try to get you to see the truth about who He is, & the miracles that He could have performed in your life, but out of all that worldly garbage pride you people so covet, you chose not to. So be it. It’ll be your loss, & you’ll have no one else to blame for your getting tossed into hell, but yourself.

I hope that you will come to your senses, my main man. the test for you at this time is this: Do you have courage? Are you that eager to avoid an eternity writhing in agony in hell? Let us see, if you are brave, or if you are a sorry sucker of Satan. Y would you wanna side with an eternally- condemned deity (Satan) who will do nothing but get inside your head to fuck with yer health, both physically & spiritually? Surely you cannot be that much of a sorry sucker, are you? Or is it that you’re just plain weak? Because anyone who has either heard of an extensive story of miracles that Jesus Christ the King of peace performs in one of our lives, or if one of you have read one of our extensive testimonies of the miracles that He’s done in our lives but refuses to give Him a chance anyway, is nothing more than a sucker, & a coward — PERIOD.

Don’t you know that Satan is nothing more than a permission boy? He’s just some bullshitter & a chicken shit, who every time he hears the name of Jesus Christ, he runs like one. Oh & just so you know my man … we as the born again Christian have power over witches & warlocks. So getting cute with us will only get the fire returned back to you, alrghty then? Hahahaha …

Keep in touch, my main man.

Sincerely,

Andrew Friedman

http://delta-flt1189.xanga.com/703169840/miracles-that-actually-happened-to-me-on-the-night-of-11062006/

DELTA_flt.1189@yahoo.com

This is an audio file that i found in a p2p network, i think this can be useful and interesting to someone.

Regards.

Francisco.

Les Sources Chrétiennes De L’Antiquité Tardive – Canal Académie.mp3

The Mystery of the Bride

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29

” Sectarii, plătiţi de masoni să ne strice dreapta credinţă şi originea noastră de popor ortodox ! ”

Părintele Arsenie Boca spunea să nu ne punem mintea cu sectanţii, pentru că nu reuşim cu ei… ne amintea mereu ” Cuvântul e mai ascuţit decât sabia… ”… !

Cum să ne purtăm cu sectarii : AICI

Parintele Ilie Cleopa despre adventisti, baptisti, iehovisti si alti sectanti.. , către Părintele

“-Fratilor, unirea Bisericii nu este lucru omenesc ci dumnezeiesc. Nu-i în puterea noastră. Iată cum văd eu: să punem post si rugăciune către Dumnezeu si cînd va veni Duhul Sfînt să ne găsească ca Sfintii Apostoli. Asta e lucrarea Duhului Sfînt. Iar dacă va veni Duhul Sfînt cînd îl cerem cu post si rugăciune, cînd va veni la toate mintile arhiereilor catolici si ortodocsi, va fi aceeasi gîndire: Hai să ne unim că n-au fost la început două Biserici ci una singură. Deci asta să cerem de la Dumnezeu, că El poate face unitate de vederi în toate privintele… Iar dacă este vorba să se creadă, să se facă unitate de credintă, atunci numai Domnul stie… Noi, nu.”

“Ati văzut la primi voievozi crestini ai românilor, de cînd sunt cele trei tări române, Moldova, Muntenia si Ardealul, toti au fost ortodocsi… Stefan cel Mare nu a fost baptist! Mircea cel Bătrîn nu a fost evanghelist sau adventist! Alexandru cel Bun nu a fost martorul lui Iehova; nebunii ăstia au venit acum. Nici o sectă nu exista în tara noastră pe atunci. Acestia vin din străinătate, plătiti de masoni, să ne strice dreapta credintă si originea noastră de popor ortodox (…). Să tineti credinta care ati supt-o de la piepturile maicilor voastre! Să tineti credinta pe care o avem de două mii de ani! Nu vă luati după slugile satanei care vin din Apus cu milioane de dolari. Ei cumpără pe prosti si pe nelămuriti în credintă, să rupă unitatea în sufletul poporului român si vor să facă cele mai mari erezii si nebunii în tara aceasta. Păziti-vă de acestia! Au case de rugăciuni dar acolo e casa satanei. (Ortodoxia si internationalismul religios, ed. Scara, 1999)

Toti cei care s-au convertit la aceste mari rataciri provenite mai ales din America [SUA} singuri s-au auto-anatemizat conform Sfintelor Canoane ale Bisericii lui Hristos, Sfinte Canoane in Care ei nici nu mai cred, sub motivul ca sunt prea vechi si ruginite si nu sunt adaptate modernismului diavolesc actual!

http://www.crestinortodox.ro/

Articol preluat de pe :

http://cleopasihastria.wordpress.com/Din “Călăuză în credinţa ortodoxă”
Editura Episcopiei Romanului 2003

Capitolul 40

DIALOG CU SECTANŢII

Motivul care m-a determinat să pun această lucrare sub forma unui dialog cu sectanţii a fost următoarea: nu de mult m-am pomenit în chilie cu un sectar de la Gârcina, care până mai ieri nu credea deloc în Dumnezeu şi femeia lui se chinuia să-l tragă la biserică. La stăruinţa femeii, vine la mine împreună cu un predicator baptist, să-mi arate adevărul de credinţă.
Înţelegând de la soţia lui pricina venirii lor, am început discuţia în cele ale credinţei cu predicatorul, de faţă fiind şi moşneagul cu soţia lui. În cele din urmă, după o discuţie cu întrebări şi răspunsuri, predicatorul a răspuns: „Eu nu am cu cine vorbi aici, că nu sunt înţeles”.
Aducându-mi aminte de multe din întrebările puse de omul cel rătăcit, m-am gândit ca, în cele ce urmează, să răspund măcar mai pe scurt, atât lui, cât şi la alţi sectari, sub forma unui dialog între preot şi sectant, aşa cum se va vedea mai departe:
Sectarul: Bună ziua!
Preotul: Bună ziua! Dar de ce aţi venit la noi, fraţilor?
Sectarul: Am venit să vă arătăm adevărul!
Eu i-am zis un cuvânt mai puţin politicos:
Preotul: Mi se pare că ai venit să înveţi pe popa carte!
Sectarul: Da!
Preotul: Bine. Să vedem! Care adevăr să-mi arăţi mie, dacă adevărul este la noi? De unde mai scoţi dumneata un alt adevăr, că unul este adevărul? Adevărul este o singură linie. Ce zice Hristos? Eu sunt calea, adevărul şi viaţa!
Sectarul: Dumneavoastră staţi aici în mănăstire şi nu ştiţi nimic. Eu am studii în Anglia, în Elveţia, am cutare, cutare…
Preotul: Da? Cine te-a adus aici? Tu ai auzit că aici este o stână? Şi eu sunt ciobanul; dar şi câinii stau de pază la aripă. La stână mai sunt şi câini; iar voi sunteţi lupi îmbrăcaţi în piei de oi. Aţi intrat în stână, dar nu ieşiţi cu blana sănătoasă de aici… Să vedeţi acum ce păţiţi cu câinii noştri.
Sectarul: Cum dar?
Preotul: Stai, stai! Eşti predicator?
Sectarul: Da! Eu am doctoratul la Londra, am…
Preotul: Da? Bine! Câţi ani au fost de la Adam până la potop?
Sectarul: Cred că au fost 1500 de ani.
Preotul: Prost ai răspuns, doctorandule! De la Adam până la potop au fost 2262 de ani!
Sectarul: Unde scrie?
Preotul: Nu căuta Biblia! Eu am rădăcina Bibliei. Biblia este un măr care a crescut în pomul Tradiţiei. Dar eu nu cred numai în măr; eu cred în rădăcină şi în copac; că rădăcina Bibliei este Sfânta Tradiţie. Dar câţi ani au fost de la Adam până la Avraam?
Sectarul: Parcă au fost 3700.
Preotul: Greşit ai răspuns. Au fost 3678 ani!
Sectarul: Unde scrie?
Preotul: Ţi-arăt eu în Hronograful lui Gheorghe Chedrinos, în care scrie istoria lumii de la început.
Ia să-mi spui tu mie câţi ani au fost de la potop până la zidirea turnului Babel, când Nimrod, fiul lui Hus, a zidit turnul Babel, care a împărăţit 52 de ani în Babilon, când li s-au amestecat limbile? Câţi ani au fost?
Sectarul: Parcă au fost 300!
Preotul: Prost ai răspuns! Au fost 642 de ani! Şi câţi ani au fost de la potop până la Avraam?
Sectarul: Cutare, cutare!
Preotul: Au fost 1416 ani şi cu 430 de ani, cât a stat poporul evreu în robia Egiptului fac 4108 ani. Unde era Biblia scrisă atunci? Unde era sâmbăta voastră? Cu ce s-a mântuit lumea timp de 4108 de ani înainte de a se scrie Biblia? Că în Biblie nu s-a scris totul. Căci evanghelistul Ioan spune: Sunt încă şi alte multe, care, dacă s-ar fi scris una câte una, nici în lumea asta nu încăpeau cărţile. S-a scris numai un rezumat al Sfintei Tradiţii, care formează Biblia sau Sfânta Scriptură.
Dar să-mi spui mie câţi feciori a avut Adam?
Sectarul: A avut trei: Cain, Abel şi Set şi alţii fără nume.
Preotul: Dar Biblia spune că a născut feciori şi fete. Câţi au fost de toţi?
Sectarul: Or fi fost 30, 40.
Preotul: Eva a trăit 950 de ani, mai mult decât Adam cu 20 de ani, şi a născut 50 de perechi de gemeni, băieţi şi fete, adică 100 de copii. Scrie în Hronograful lui Chedrinos. Şi se luau fratele cu sora. Auzi ce spune Biblia: Cain a luat în căsătorie pe sora sa Milada; şi a luat Set pe sora sa Teax. Se luau fratele cu sora. Aşa s-au înmulţit la început.
Sectarul: Dar se puteau lua neamuri în căsătorie?
Preotul: Da, căci până la Avraam n-a fost interzisă spiţa de rudenie. Se luau neamuri! N-a ţinut Avraam pe nepoata sa? N-a luat Isaac pe nepoata lui Avraam, pe Rebeca? Nu vedeţi? Că nu era pusă legea de neamuri. Dar să-mi spui tu mie câţi ani avea Set, când s-a răpit la cer şi a învăţat astronomia şi scrisul de la îngeri?
Sectarul: Nu scrie nicăieri.
Preotul: A fost Set de 40 ani, când s-a răpit la ceruri, şi a stat în cer 40 de zile şi a învăţat astronomia şi scrisul. Set a trăit 912 ani! Primul om care a scris din lume şi care a învăţat astronomia şi mişcarea astrelor, a fost Set, fiul lui Adam. Zice şi Sfântul Vasile: „Astronomia este de origine îngerească”; îngerii l-au învăţat pe Set.
Dar să-mi spui mie când s-a născut poporul uriaş şi cât a ţinut împărăţia uriaşilor, înainte de potop?
Tăcea predicatorul.
Preotul: Vezi că nu ştii? Biblia spune: Când s-au amestecat fiii lui Set cu fiii lui Cain s-a născut poporul uriaş; neam vestit din veac. Atât! Dar nu spune câte sute de ani au stat împăraţii uriaşilor şi câte urgii au făcut ei pe pământ.
Sectarul: Cine erau fiii lui Dumnezeu şi fiii oamenilor? Noi zicem că fiii lui Dumnezeu erau îngerii, care s-au pogorât din cer şi au păcătuit cu fetele oamenilor.
Preotul: Nebunie! Dacă cugeţi după capul tău, te duci în fundul iadului. Ai văzut ce spune? Cât a trăit Set, 912 ani, nu s-au amestecat fiii lui Set cu fiicele lui Cain. Că fiii lui Set se numeau fiii lui Dumnezeu, iar fiii lui Cain, fiii diavolilor. Iar după moartea lui Set, au uitat fiii lui ce le-a spus tatăl lor; căci spune Scriptura: Şi s-au rănit fiii lui Set de frumuseţea fiicelor lui Cain şi le-au luat loruşi de soţii.
Deci atunci când s-au amestecat „fiii lui Dumnezeu” cu fiicele oamenilor, s-a născut poporul uriaş.
Sectarul: Dar voi de ce vă închinaţi şi faceţi cruce, că crucea a fost măciuca şi spânzurătoarea pe care a murit Domnul Iisus?
Preotul: De ce săriţi voi de la un subiect la altul? Aşa faceţi mereu când discutaţi cu cineva, ca să-l ameţiţi. Iată ce spune Sfântul Apostol Pavel: Crucea pentru cei pieritori, nebunie este, iar nouă, celor ce ne mântuim, Crucea este înţelepciunea şi puterea lui Dumnezeu. Vezi că Sfânta Cruce nu-i măciucă? Este înţelepciunea şi puterea lui Dumnezeu!
Aţi auzit ce-i crucea, voi, sectanţilor, care înşelaţi oamenii şi-i duceţi în iad? „Şi va veni o sectă la sfârşitul lumii – zice Sfântul Andrei al Cezareei –, care nu va face cruce, căci le va pune Antihrist pecetea pe mâna dreaptă şi n-o vor ridica la frunte”, că fruntea este partea raţională a sufletului, adică mintea.
Am avut mai demult câteva femei baptiste de la Abrud –Alba. Una a zis: „Părinte nu fac cruce!” „Fă cruce! îi spun”. „Nu fac! Eu nu pot ridica mâna la frunte!” „Ţi-a pus diavolul pecetea, de aceea n-o mai ridici! Fă cruce femeie şi vei vedea puterea lui Dumnezeu!” „Nu, că nu pot ridica mâna!”
Şi eu îi iau mâna dreaptă şi-i fac cruce de trei ori pe faţă.
„Valeu! Valeu! Vai, tare mă simt uşoară!” „Da! Acum s-a dus dracul de pe mâna ta!” Aşa a fugit de la dânsa diavolul care o stăpânea. Apoi am mărturisit-o şi s-a întors din nou la Biserică. Vedeţi puterea Sfintei Cruci?
Sectarul: Bine. Dar de ce vă închinaţi la idoli, că Dumnezeu a zis la Deuteronom: Să nu-ţi faci chip cioplit, nici asemănarea vreunui lucru din câte sunt în cer, sus, pe pământ, jos, în apă şi sub pământ. Să nu te închini lor, să nu slujeşti lor.
Preotul: Ce sunt acestea?
Sectarul: Icoanele la care vă închinaţi voi!
Preotul: Ia să-ţi spun eu! Cine a făcut prima icoană?
Sectarul: !!!
Preotul: Dumnezeu a făcut pe om după chipul şi asemănarea Sa. Sfântul Ioan Damaschin spune că prima icoană o face Dumnezeu, adică pe om, după chipul şi asemănarea Sa.
Sectarul: El a făcut, dar nouă ne-a poruncit să nu facem.
Preotul: Iată, citeşte la „Ieşire” (23 – 29). Vezi în Biblie că tot ce este în biserică este făcut cu porunca lui Dumnezeu. Şi icoanele şi catapeteasma şi sicriul Legii Domnului şi heruvimii slavei şi veşmintele preoţilor şi mitra arhiereilor şi cădelniţele şi sfeşnicul cu şapte lumini, toate.
Nu i-a zis Dumnezeu lui Moise? „Moise, ia şi fă o ladă de salcâm şi o poleieşte toată cu aur! Moise, fă doi drugi de salcâm îmbrăcaţi cu aur, şi lada să aibă verigi, ca să bagi drugii şi să ridici sicriul Legii. Moise, pune în lada aceea Tablele Legii, pe care ţi le-am dat Eu pe Muntele Sinai. Pune şarpele de aramă, pe care l-ai făcut când îi mâncau şerpii în pustie, pune toiagul lui Aaron, care a înfrunzit când a rezemat de sicriul legii cele 12 toiege – căci al lui Aaron în noaptea aceea a înfrunzit şi a făcut migdale –, şi cupa cu mană – o cupă de aur. Mana era ca pâinea uscată, din care au mâncat evreii în pustie 40 de ani. Astea nu erau lucruri de mâini omeneşti?
Sectarul: Bine, dar locul de-a dreapta şi de-a stânga Prea Sfintei Treimi este predestinat, că spune …dar a şedea de-a dreapta şi de-a stânga Mea nu este al meu a da, ci se va da celor pentru care s-a pregătit de către Tatăl Meu. Matei 20, 23.
Preotul: Nu este adevărat! Mântuitorul zice: A şedea de-a dreapta Mea sau de-a stânga Mea nu este al Meu a da, ci celor pentru care s-a pregătit, căci aceste două locuri sunt rânduite Maicii Domnului şi Sfântului Ioan Botezătorul de către Tatăl. Cine este Ioan Botezătorul? Cel mai mare om născut din femeie. Iar Maica Domnului cine este? Ce spune psalmul 44? De faţă a stătut Împărăteasa, de-a dreapta Ta, îmbrăcată în haină aurită şi preaînfrumuseţată.
Dacă a născut pe Fiul lui Dumnezeu din Duhul Sfânt, a fost „cămara Duhului Sfânt”, L-a purtat în pântece şi L-a alăptat. Cine poate fi mai mare decât ea? Ea este Împărăteasa Duhului Sfânt, Împărăteasa Heruvimilor şi a Serafimilor! Toţi sectarii şi păgânii, în ziua judecăţii veţi vedea voi atunci cine este Maica Domnului, când va străluci peste ceata Heruvimilor. Vai de capul vostru! Veţi merge împreună cu satana în focul gheenei, toţi care huliţi pe Maica Domnului!
Vedeţi că Hristos era pe Cruce răstignit şi scuipat şi biciuit, însă nici atunci n-a uitat pe Maica Domnului. O arătă Sfântului Ioan Evanghelistul, zicând: Fiule, iată mama ta! Adică, ia-o în primire! Şi a luat-o. Şi către ea zice: Mamă, iată fiul tău! A dat-o în stăpânirea celui mai cinstit apostol şi a mai trăit 15 ani până la mutarea ei la cer.
Sectarul: Da, pentru că Ioan era într-adevăr fiul Maicii Domnului.
Preotul: Nu este adevărat! Sfântul Ioan Evanghelistul era fiul lui Zevedeu. Era cel mai tânăr ucenic al Domnului nostru Iisus Hristos. Nu ai văzut tu în Evanghelie? Ioan şi Iacov erau fiii lui Zevedeu, nu ai Maicii Domnului! Că Maica Domnului, n-a mai avut copii. Ce zice Scriptura: Şi n-a cunoscut-o pe ea, până când n-a născut pe Cel întâi născut.
Sectarul: Da. Dar de aici se înţelege că după aceea a mai avut şi alţi copii.
Preotul: Cuvântul „până când” înseamnă veşnicie. Întoarce-Te, Doamne, până când…, sau Iată, Eu sunt cu voi până la sfârşitul veacului. Ce? După sfârşitul veacului nu mai este Hristos cu ei? Şi Mica, fata lui Saul, zice: N-a născut copil până n-a murit. Dar ce, a născut după ce a murit? Cuvântul „până când” înseamnă veşnicie. Nu că a cunoscut-o cândva alt bărbat înainte ca să mai nască.
Sectarul: În Apocalipsă se spune de pecetea lui Antihrist, 666, care este puterea lui.
Preotul: Tu crezi că numărul 666 se ia aşa după slovă? Aceşti trei de şase simbolizează trei patimi cumplite care vor stăpâni lumea în vremea de pe urmă, şi anume: Pofta fără de minte, adică desfrâu şi beţie cum n-a mai fost niciodată pe pământ; Mânie fără judecată, adică ură între oameni, războaie, răzbunare, crime de tot felul, ceartă şi tulburare între creştini, între părinţi şi copii, aşa cum scrie la Sfânta Evanghelie; şi al treilea şase înseamnă închipuire pripită sau imaginaţie pripită, care duce la secte, dezbinări de tot felul, boli sufleteşti, vrăjitorie, deznădejde şi sinucidere;
Toate aceste patimi, care sunt simbolizate prin numărul 666 stăpânesc astăzi tot pământul, până când va veni sfârşitul lumii şi judecata de apoi. Atunci fiecare va lua după faptele sale.
Sectarul: Dar acest număr este vizibil şi trebuie evitat.
Preotul: Păi voi credeţi că o să fie o pecete cu numărul 666? Prostii! Dacă tu ceri tu 666 la Apocalipsă, eu îţi cer ţie să-mi spui ce este „jivină gândită” şi „cal galben” şi „cal roib” şi „cal negru”, şi „cetatea care naşte”. Cetatea se face femeie şi naşte. Cele şapte cupe ale mâniei lui Dumnezeu, cele şapte trâmbiţe. Ia să-mi spui tu mie ce-s acelea?
Sectarul: Nu ştiu!
Preotul: Păi spune, măi! Toate acestea sunt simboluri în Sfânta Scriptură. Deci răul din draci aceasta este: poftă fără minte, mânie fără judecată şi închipuire pripită. Asta înseamnă 666!
Sectarul: Copiii mici de ce trebuie să se cureţe prin botez, că ei sunt curaţi, n-au nici un păcat?
Preotul: Pentru ca să se spele de păcatul strămoşesc, cu care ne naştem toţi. N-ai citit tu în Psaltire: Căci întru fărădelegi m-am zămislit şi în păcate m-a născut maica mea?
Sectarul: Da, dar copilul când este mic nu are credinţă şi Biblia spune: Cine va crede şi se va boteza, acela se va mântui.
Preotul: Voi ştiţi câte botezuri sunt? Aţi citit Dogmatica Sfântului Ioan Damaschin?
Sectarul: Nu.
Preotul: Sunt nouă botezuri până la sfârşitul lumii: Primul botez a fost potopul, pe vremea lui Noe. Al doilea botez a fost trecerea poporului ales prin Marea Roşie. Al treilea botez a fost botezul leviţilor, adică tăierea împrejur. Al patrulea botez a fost botezul lui Ioan Botezătorul, numit şi botezul pocăinţei.
Al cincilea botez a fost botezul prin apă şi prin Duh, botezul nostru creştin dat nouă de Hristos şi de Sfinţii Apostoli. Al şaselea botez este botezul Spovedaniei, instituit de Mântuitorul îndată după Înviere, când a dat Apostolilor puterea de a lega şi a dezlega păcatele oamenilor: Orice veţi dezlega pe pământ, va fi dezlegat şi în ceruri şi orice veţi lega pe pământ va fi legat şi în ceruri. Al şaptelea botez este botezul pogorârii Duhului Sfânt; când S-a pogorât în chip de limbi de foc şi i-a făcut pe Apostoli să vorbească în toate limbile de sub cer. Al optulea botez este botezul sângelui, al muceniciei. Al noulea este botezul de la sfârşitul lumii, botezul cu foc, care nu mai este mântuitor, ci chinuitor pentru veacul veacului.
Sectarul: Părinte, mi-am dat seama că eu nu sunt înţeles aici. Eu nu pot să mă lepăd de credinţa pe care am aflat-o, chiar dacă mi-aţi răspuns la întrebările mele.
Preotul: Într-adevăr, toţi aceia care nu se supun Bisericii Ortodoxe, celei adevărate, rămân fracţiune eretică şi nu se vor îndrepta, că zic Sfinţii Părinţi aşa: „De la tot păcatul se întoarce omul uşor, dar de la eres, foarte greu!” Şi aceasta pentru că se întunecă partea raţională a sufletului şi degeaba îi spun eu că aici este alb, că el vede negru. Şi atunci foarte greu se întoarce. Aşa rămân toţi sectanţii, care s-au rupt de la dreapta credinţă!

Răspunsuri duhovniceşti: Patimile care vor stăpâni lumea: desfrâul, beţia, închipuirea şi ura între oameni

Ce ne puteţi spune despre pecetea lui Antihrist, 666, despre care se vorbeşte în Apocalipsă?

Frate, tu crezi că se ia aşa după slovă, 666? Aceşti trei de şase simbolizează trei patimi cumplite care vor stăpâni lumea în vremea din urmă, şi anume: poftă fără de minte, adică desfrâu şi beţie cum n-a mai fost niciodată pe pământ; închipuire pripită sau imaginaţie pripită, care duce la secte, dezbinări de tot felul, boli sufleteşti, vrăjitorie, deznădejde şi sinucidere; şi al treilea şase înseamnă mânie fără judecată, adică ură între oameni, războaie, răzbunare, crime de tot felul, ceartă şi tulburare între creştini, între părinţi şi copii, aşa cum scrie la Sfânta Evanghelie. Toate aceste patimi, care sunt simbolizate prin cifrele 666, stăpânesc astăzi tot pământul, până când va veni sfârşitul lumii şi judecata de apoi. Atunci fiecare va lua după faptele sale.

Păi voi gândiţi că o să fie o pecete cu cifrele 666?

Prostii! La Apocalipsă, dacă ceri tu 666, eu îţi cer ţie „jivină gândită“ şi „cal galben“ şi „cal roib“ şi „cal negru“ şi „cetatea care naşte“. Cetatea se face femeie şi naşte. Ia să-mi spui tu mie ce-s acelea? Cele şapte cupe ale mâniei lui Dumnezeu, cele şapte trâmbiţe, ce-s acelea? Păi spune, măi! Cea mai blestemată sectă din lume, care ne ameninţă, este secta iehoviştilor. Ce hule grele aduc ei împotriva dumnezeirii! Ei nu cred în Hristos. Este o sectă politică iudaică, care luptă împotriva creştinismului şi încearcă să atace dogma Preasfintei Treimi, căci despart pe Tatăl de Fiul şi de Sfântul Duh. A fost vreodată Tatăl fără Cuvânt ? Hristos este Cuvântul Tatălui. A fost vreodată Tatăl fără Duh? Ce spune în Psalmul 12: „Cu cuvântul Domnului cerurile s-au întărit şi cu Duhul gurii Lui toată puterea lor“. A fost vreodată Tatăl fără Cuvânt sau fără Duh? N-ai văzut la facerea omului? „Să facem om după chipul şi asemănarea noastră“. Cu cine se sfătuia Tatăl, dacă nu era Fiul şi Duhul Sfânt? N-ai văzut la amestecarea limbilor: „Să ne pogorâm, să le amestecăm limbile“. Sfânta Treime de la început se descoperă în cele mai tainice Scripturi. Deci răul din draci acesta este: poftă fără minte, închipuire pripită şi mânie fără judecată. Asta înseamnă 666! „Şi va veni o sectă la sfârşitul lumii, zice Sfântul Andrei, care nu va face cruce şi le va pune Antihrist pecetea pe mâna dreaptă şi n-o vor ridica la frunte; că fruntea este partea raţională a sufletului, adică mintea“.

Am avut mai demult câteva femei baptiste tocmai de la Abrud-Alba. Două au făcut cruce. De 30 de ani erau baptiste. Una a zis: – Părinte, nu fac cruce!

- Fă cruce!, îi spun.

- Nu fac, nu pot ridica mâna în sus!

-Ţi-a pus diavolul pecetea, de aceea n-o mai ridici! Fă cruce, femeie, şi vei vedea puterea lui Dumnezeu!

- Nu, că nu pot ridica mâna! Şi eu îi iau mâna dreaptă şi-i fac cruce de trei ori pe faţă.

- Văleu! Văleu! Acum am putut-o ridica! Aşa a fugit de la dânsa diavolul care o stăpânea.

- Vai, tare mă simt uşoară!

- Da! Acum s-a dus dracul de pe mâna ta!

Apoi am mărturisit-o şi s-a întors din nou la Biserică. Vedeţi puterea Sfintei Cruci? (Ne vorbeşte părintele Cleopa, vol. 3)

http://cleopasihastria.wordpress.com/

Sfaturi si îndemnuri ale Parintele Arsenie Boca :

- Va lua tara foc din Prislop [e vorba de “focul” Duhului Sfânt: Lc. l2, 49]
- Nu va putea avea omul pace pe pamânt de nu va avea pace cu Dumnezeu! (I Tesaloniceni 5, 3; Luca 21, 55; Isaia 139, 11). Asadar în numele lui Hristos va rugam ca si cum Dumnezeu v-ar ruga prin noi: împacati-va cu Dumnezeu (II Corinteni 5, 20).
- Sa bagam de seama ca nu cumva crestinismul sa se ia de la noi. Pe simplul motiv ca noi, crestinii, nu aducem roadele acestui crestinism: oameni dupa chipul lui Iisus.
- Mântuirea nu se câstiga cu o fapta razleata, ci presupune o fata sociala; nimeni nu se mântuieste singur; de mântuirea sa se mai leaga o multime de oameni.
- Mântuirea noastra nu e numai un dar de la Dumnezeu, ci si o fapta a libertatii noastre.

“Marturii din Tara Fagarasului despre parintele Arsenie Boca”, editura Agaton, 2004

http://www.agnos.ro

“Când fărădelegile vor încleşta mintea şi inima oamenilor şi-i vor sălbătici aşa de tare, încât vor zice că nu le mai trebuie Dumnezeu şi Biserică şi preoţi, încât va fi sălbăticirea şi nebunia urii (Lc. 6, 11) peste tot pământul, atunci vine sfârşitul. – Pentru o alunecare a omului de la nume la număr, au să dea seama toţi înzestraţii lui Dumnezeu, cei cu daruri, cu răspunderi, cu măriri, cu puteri şi cu tot felul de haruri. Regele David, înzestrat deodată cu darul stăpânirii şi cu darul proorociei, a căpătat o straşnică pedeapsă, numai fiindcă a îndrăznit să numere poporul (II Regi 24). Darul proorociei i s-a luat o vreme, iar din popor i-au murit 70.000 de oameni – şi doar el greşise, nu poporul (II Regi 24,17). Deci, înaintestătătorii şi deţinătorii puterii au să dea seama, chiar de venirea sabiei după dreptate. “   ( Arsenie Boca )

Sibilla

informaţii preluate de pe sursele precizate

imagine preluată de pe google.ro

Ésta es la Noche de San Juan, cuando las hogueras se abren paso en la noche intentando atajar al sol que, ya gastado, irá lentamente apagándose hasta llegar al solsticio de invierno.

Mucho se ha dicho sobre esta noche, mezcla de paganismo y cristianismo; como todas las celebraciones rituales, esconde en su interior un simbolismo puro: los días se acortan, comienza el invierno cósmico, y es tiempo de renovación y de riesgos y de saltos en el vacío. Representa un nuevo comienzo.

It’s Saint John’s Night, the Summer Solstice. And in this magic night, fires are lightned up to help the dying sun reach the Winter Solstice.

It’s a mix of Paganism and Christianism as well as many other calendar festivities. And, like others, keep inside its truly treasure: days are getting narrow from tonight; the cosmic winter is starting by now; and it’s time to renewal, to take risks and to jump into the unknown and to reach a whole new life. It’s a night of new beginings, and that’s why we burn up the old us on these flames, looking for this new earth, this whole new life that wait inside us, inside our own true time.

Giờ lễ chiều CN, một số nhà thờ :