Some of the most ardent and strident merchants of fear in society these days are not who you would expect. They are the “watchmen” of the internet, those prophetic types who fancy themselves in the Biblical role of the watchman on the wall. They constantly beat the drums about how God’s judgment is upon the land, and catastrophe is always just around the corner. They fuse their own doctrines with scripture to captivate and hold hostage the attention of undiscerning Christians. They imply that the only way to respond to the unfolding global crises is to stay tuned to their broadcasts because they alone have the ‘revelation’ about what’s next to come. They alone have opened up this channel of communication with the Holy Spirit, through acts of their own righteousness, and that channel is not available to the rest of us mere fleshly mortals. Some seem to have this running conversation going on with the Holy Spirit, who always seems to give the next piece of revelation to them just in time to fit their broadcast schedules, and always it seems to relate to something in the current news. In their world it seems that the Holy Spirit is entirely focused on current affairs.
It is fear of the unknown that some of these endtime preachers capitalize on. They tell you they have the source of information you require for survival. They prey on man’s desire to know the future. Pretty soon you have one man, and his teachings, leading many followers down his particular path of political and survival ethics. These groups are fueled by paranoia, not faith in the Lord.
They use current affairs to project future events. Sensationalism is always added to the mix of today’s headlines, and the result is a potent brew of fear. During last year’s Gulf Oil Spill crisis, there were the following headlines on a prominent watchman’s website:……”Gulf Spill Syndrome – The New Plague!” ……..”Prepare to see the Poisoning of the Water!……Gulf Oil Spill is God’s judgment!……Their broadcasts were trumpeting the danger of the “huge methane gas bubble” that they claimed the Holy Spirit told them had formed under the surface and was liable to explode at any moment and take out much of the Gulf shoreline. I think what we know now indicates that it was probably human error that caused the Gulf spill, but of course they turn everything that happens into an example of God’s judgment on America. They use whatever crisis is in the news at the time to stir up the fear. Of course, when that crisis eases, they simply move on to the next one. They piggyback on the news of the day to show how fearful we should all be. They call it “righteous fear of the Lord“. The watchman at this website proudly declares he is a fear-monger, and says it is doing God’s work to spread the fear, but is this true?
Many of the events happening around the world clearly point to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told about this in Matthew 24. Of course as Christians we need to be aware of these events. It is not a matter of putting our heads in the sand and being blissfully unaware, but it is a matter of responding to crisis in the way the Lord taught us. Looking carefully at the Bible, we see that the Lord is very much against fear-mongering. When the great storm came when Jesus and the apostles were on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus first dealt with the issue of fear: (Matt. 14:27) But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Then Peter walked upon the water to meet Jesus on faith, but sank when the fear of the reality of the situation overcame him. Jesus strongly rebuked him for his fear and doubt. The fear of the reality of today’s troubles is what will cause us to sink, when that fear becomes stronger than our faith in Jesus to overcome all danger.
The fears we have of coming events can only be overcome through placing all of our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is too great for the Lord to help us through. No amount of listening to watchmen proclaim the doom can give us peace. They put stumbling blocks in our path so that we do not fully trust in who He is. We know from Scripture that worse economic times are on the way, with global wars, earthquakes, etc. All these things increase in intensity as the coming of our Lord nears. This does not mean that the Lord does not care about these things that we have to endure, but it is with grace and faith that we must endure. We will endure with a living hope in Jesus Christ that regardless of what we have to go through He will see us to the shore safely.
Giving ourselves over to the spirit of fear means we do not trust that the Lord is enough to see us through. People who proclaim that fear should be in our hearts are conditioning all of us to doubt God’s sovereignty. Rather than holding our heads and becoming paralyzed in fear and hopeless in despair, we should feel an urgent call to cheerfully fulfill our assignment to go and spread the good news of the gospel everywhere, as we await the glorious return of the Savior of mankind. Why should we bow to fear as our master? Why should we put our time and resources in something that has no reward, here or in heaven, like these doom and gloom ministries?
Revelation 21:8
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Here we see from the Bible how harmful it is to live our lives in fear. The fearful will be cast into the lake of fire. That’s how serious it is, for us to say “God is not enough. I need to listen to these people, they will tell me what to do.” God is in control, and He is more than enough, without the fearsome words of men. The type of fear of the Lord that the Bible talks about is a reverent humility before our Maker and Redeemer. Prov. 1:7 – “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”;……..This is not the same thing as fearing that God is causing an oil spill, or destroying our economy. That is twisting Scripture to meet the needs of the prophet.
Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Hebrews 13:6
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
We must not be afraid to die for our faith. Do not fear the NWO, and the orchestrated world economic crisis, these are the works of men. Do not believe the lie that everything that happens is because God’s hand of judgment is on the land. We reap the crop that we have sowed. Much that is unfolding is the result of not sowing righteously. And how should we respond? Turning away from God’s protection and heeding the words of man is the worst response we can give. Christ’s teaching about events in the last days in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 2 is about hope, redemption, and victory. Does this sound like the message we are hearing from these internet ministers?
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Isaiah 12:2
Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
May God bless and keep you……………………………JD Ellis
Endtime Delusion - 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11 
Great message here, thanks for that Ben. I especially like his attitude of genuine humility, which is strikingly lacking in all of the false internet ministries. He speaks openly about his past mistakes, and proudly proclaims the gospel and what it has done in his life. This is true evangelism: showing the world what God has done in our life, and inspiring others to want this too.
The best part was where he says the greatest sign of pride is secular humanism. So true. So many think they have control over their lives, because they have achieved a measure of worldly success. All of that will be burned to ashes. These secular humanists don’t recognize that they would not live to see another day if not for the will and the power of the Creator.
In contrast to preachers like this, the first sign I notice when listening to a false teacher is a marked lack of humility. They speak to us as if they are giving us something vital we need for our souls that God has not already spoken to us through his word. They put themselves on a pedestal, as “special annointed” ones, and expect our loyalty and reverance. (and of course, our donation money, to keep their shows on the air, so we can keep hearing what God needs us to know.)
In regard to sermons I listen to, I just go to Sermonaudio.com. I am of the reformed bent, so I just enter a search for reformed theology, and instantly I have hundreds of great sermons from many churches to choose from. You can even search by topic, which I find very useful. Also, a great inspiration for me is the radio program archive of Abounding Grace radio, located at agradio.org. This site has hundreds of 15 minute shows of Bible commentary by Pastor Chris Gordon, a reformed pastor in the San Diego area. I listen to a show on my way to work, and another show on my way home.
May God richly bless you,
JD Ellis
Sounds very Gnostic to me. I mean Jesus accomplished the disarming of the powers and authorities already through his ministry, death on the cross and bodily resurrection from the dead –disarmed the powers of darkness- Col 2:15. We don’t need a bunch of super-man Watchmen
ALL Christians have the SAME authority through the power of the cross and Jesus’ shed blood.
Great article
Hi, Are you the JD Ellis with pentecostal in Ohio?
No. I have no affiliation to nor affinity for the neo-Pentecostalist movement. They have done tremendous harm to the body of the church in the past half century or so.
Scripture stands alone as God’s complete revelation to us. Pentecost was a one time event that is not repeatable, nor are the gifts that were poured out on that day repeatable. The offices of prophet and apostle are now closed, as the foundation of the church has been laid down, and the Canon is closed. If the prophets are for today, it means scripture is not closed, and continues to be written on a daily basis. We know from scripture itself that this is untrue.
I hope to be able to complete a series of articles on this topic in the coming months, God willing.
Blessings,
JD Ellis
Amen Linda. All those who elevate themselves to these lofty offices of modern-day prophet or watchman are doing so out of their own ego and pride. This is a me-centered gospel they preach, not a Christ-centered gospel.
Blessings,
JD Ellis
Hey JD. Sorry to post a comment that’s off topic, but do you mind giving me your opinion of the role of the sabbath for Christians?
I certainly don’t agree with the claims of SDAists, but I’ve come across a reformed Christian that makes claims for the Lord’s Day (Sunday).
My early opinion has always been that we rest in Christ.
Thanks for any assistance you can give 🙂
This is a very complex issue, and even within the Reformed church there are varying positions. For me, Sunday is the day to come together for worship, because that is when the apostles came together, as frequently stated in the New Testament. It is called the Lord’s Day. The principal behind sabbath keeping was always to have one day of rest out of each week.
Have a look at R.C. Sproul’s take here: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/defining-debate/
Blessings,
JD
Thanks JD 🙂
Love this site. Ignorance of the Bible will lead people to hell, and those who just follow the blind!
Thanks for visiting the blog. We need to hold fast to biblical truth as this is the weapon we have to defend against the wiles of the devil. Its a shame how many Christian leaders feel free to add whatever they wish to the pages of the scriptures, and subtract whatever makes them feel uneasy or makes them unpopular.
All blessings in Christ,
JD Ellis
I was looking up on l.a. marzullia being a fear monger because I used to listen to him and he always had a saying on his radio show that “if your afraid of the supernatural what he is talking about then your not saved because a true christian would not afraid of the supernatural or demons because they would know they can rebuke them in jesus name plus fear is a sin.” this is not his exact saying but a paraphrase because I don’t remember exactly how it went though.
he would go really deep into the supernatural realm like people being abucted by aliens, gargoyles as really happening, genies is demons and there real happening in the muslim world, bigfoot is real but he is a demon and has supernatural powers and etc. other crazy stuff like this. he scared me of something he talked about on his show and I quit listening him because I thought he was fear monger and still believe this to this day. I believe in people being abducted by aliens but the aliens are demons but I believe you don’t need to go into depth with it though.
I was thinking about listening to him again only for the nephilim part because I believe nephilim will return in the last days agains and repeat genesis 6 experience all over again. I believe the antichrist might be a nephilim or human who has supernatural powers and controls the nephilims. I was going to listen to him only for his research but leery of him scaring me again. I heard l.a. marzulli has done very good research on the nephilim and listen to him for the research and that is it but don’t believe everything he says though. I just read this article and thought I should share my experience on here about l.a. marzulli to yall.
You state that he said something to the effect of the following: ““if you’re afraid of what he is talking about then you’re not saved because a true Christian would not be afraid of the supernatural or demons because they would know they can rebuke them in Jesus name plus fear is a sin.”
If he indeed said that, it would be utter nonsense. None of us gets to simply state what the rules are on who is saved and who isn’t. Scripture is our guide. “Fear”, even specifically fear of supernatural things, is nowhere in the scriptures given as a reason for being excluded from the kingdom of God. I would give this guy a wide berth, and stay far away from his teachings.
On top of that, it is not Christian doctrine that we rebuke the devil by simply uttering the word “Jesus” or “invoking” the power through utterance of the name. That is more akin to magical incantations than to a biblical practice. He needs to read about the sons of Sceva. Acts 19:13-16 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
As Christians we pray to God for protection from evil spirits. The apostles had the power to invoke the name of Christ in casting out demons, because it was given to them by God to authorize them as the ones laying down the foundation of the true church. I get so weary of people who set themselves up as teachers of Christianity, and assume full New Testament apostolic power belongs to all who call themselves Christian today. We can no sooner use our own power of “vocal incantation” today to cast out evil spirits than we can raise the dead.
All blessings in Christ,
JD Ellis