Watch Out For Fake Rolexes
Years ago, when I lived just outside of NYC, my wife and I received a lot of visitors. One of our favorite things to do was to take our guests into the city to see the sites. Usually, included in this tour was a trip to Chinatown. The food was great and our guests always enjoyed the unique gift shops we found there.
Without a doubt, the most popular gift item was always the ten-dollar Rolex watch. Virtually all of our guests went home with at least one. They looked real, so long as you didn’t look too closely. But you couldn’t rely on one to keep accurate time. Not even close. As far as watches go, they weren’t worth the ten dollars.
These fake Rolexes (Fauxlexes) are big sellers for one reason: somewhere, other than in China Town, there are real Rolexes. If there weren’t real ones somewhere, there wouldn’t be a market for the fake ones. These knockoffs owed their very existence to the public’s desire for the original.
Jesus warned His followers that there would be no shortage of false prophets in the world. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are wolves in sheep’s clothing in the Church, and we certainly shouldn’t allow them to cause us to question the truth of the Gospel.
Charlatans exist because the real thing exists. Forgeries are never made of forgeries. They are not the truth, but they are proof of the truth.
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (Matthew 7:15).
Holy Pens Guarantee Passing Grades
The Huffington Post reports:
A Zimbabwean pastor has reportedly convinced his congregants his holy pens can make students pass their exams - and the more you pay for one, the better grades you'll get.
Prophet Sham Hungwe of House of Grace International Church in Harare is selling the pens, which cost from $1 up to $20.
According to News24Zim, the prophet told his congregation those sitting exams only needed faith and one of the special pens to pass.
"They are anointed and I declare passes when your children sit for exams. They are said to work for anyone who is sitting for any test," he said.
According to Nigerian Watch, one parishioner testified: "My son is not very bright and I think this will help him. With the knowledge he has acquired and this pen from the man of God, I think it is going to work."
One student said he scored highly in his A-levels last year after using the pen he was given by the prophet, reports Amebo Book.
There is perhaps no other time when we are more vulnerable to deception than when we are told something we really want to believe. It doesn't matter how outrageous the claim, or how obvious it is that the messenger is motivated by greed. If it's what we want to be true, we swallow hook, line and sinker.
"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear" (2 Timothy 4:3).
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
The Cult of Prince Philip of England
No doubt you’ve heard of Baal worship, ancestor worship, nature worship, even demon worship, but I bet you’ve never heard of this one—Prince Philip Worship!
Yes, the one and the same Prince Philip who is husband to Elizabeth, Queen of England. Just ask Albi Nagia of Island of Tanna in Yakel, Vanuatu, who regularly prays to the British royal, awaiting his “return” to establish a new world order in which “fish will leap from the sea and life will become eternal.”
Albi is not the only Vanuatu to worship him. Several hundred others on the small, primitive island of Tanna in the archipelago of Vanuatu in the South Pacific do, as well. "Here in Tanna, we believe that Prince Philip is the son of our God, our ancestral God who lives up in the mountain," says islander Nako Nikien.
Albi and Nako are both members of an active cult known as the Prince Philip movement, which began the 1960s, gaining a real boost in popularity in 1974 when Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth visited the island aboard their royal yacht. In 2007 the two men were among a small group from Tanna who were flown to England by the British reality show Meet the Natives, during which time they were personally introduced to the prince. ”Meeting him was just wonderful," says Joseph. "It's just like being in a spiritual world."
Though the prince (as of this writing in 2015) is now in his mid-90s, the movement’s followers have not lost hope in his return, saying that if he dies, he can still return in spirit and grant them eternal life.
It seems incredible that anyone could be so simple-minded as to embrace such off the wall theology. Lamont Lindstrom, an anthropology professor at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma agrees, saying, "The [Tanna] people believe in everything and nothing,” explaining that storytelling and prophesying are key to advancing one’s stature in their society.
Many of the Tanna are devotedly following a baseless, ludicrous, utterly fabricated belief system.
Perhaps you might think they are simply gullible, having never had exposure to the truth of the Gospel.
No so.
Christian missionaries have been on the island for decades. In fact, it is thought that the growth of this cult, and others like it, was a backlash against Christianity, as tribal elders fought to maintain tribal customs and spiritual autonomy from the church.
In other words, the Tanna would rather believe what they know to be fully fabricated fantasy rather than submit themselves to the authority of the Gospel.
They will believe "everything and nothing" with one exception--they will not believe the truth which they suppress in the hardness of their hearts.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18, NASB). … “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen” (Romans 1:25).