Todd Bentley has a long night ahead of him, resurrecting the dead, healing the blind, and exploding cancerous tumors. Since April 3, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous "supernatural healing revival" in central Florida. To contain the 10,000-plus crowds flocking from around the globe, Bentley has rented baseball stadiums, arenas and airport hangars at a cost of up to $15,000 a day. Many in attendance are church pastors themselves who believe Bentley to be a prophet and don't bat an eye when he tells them he's seen King David and spoken with the Apostle Paul in heaven. "He was looking very Jewish," Bentley notes.
Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read "Joel's Army." They're evidence of Bentley's generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that's gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other "hyper-charismatic" preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.
"An end-time army has one common purpose -- to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion," Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. "The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel's Army. ... Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God's kingdom on earth."
Joel's Army followers, many of them teenagers and young adults who believe they're members of the final generation to come of age before the end of the world, are breaking away in droves from mainline Pentecostal churches. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they base their beliefs on an esoteric reading of the second chapter of the Old Testament Book of Joel, in which an avenging swarm of locusts attacks Israel. In their view, the locusts are a metaphor for Joel's Army.
Now anybody who has ever visited this blog is undoubtedly aware that I am not a religious person. But I HAVE read the bible. As well as the I-Ching, the teachings of Buddha, the Tao Te Ching, and many other religious books.
There is no way that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament would EVER have condoned this kind of aggressive, military-like behavior.
These people are not true Christians. When people started learning of the radical extremists in the Muslim religion, many Christian churches called for the leaders in the Islamic religion to stand up and denounce the aggressive behavior of these extremists.
Now it is time for the Christian leaders to follow their own advice. It is what Jesus Christ would expect from them. And if you doubt that, I think there is a book you should probably read.
Greetings Gryphen, I just clicked over after reading at I Eat Gravel. I like your blog.
ReplyDeleteWhy would a group like Joel's Army surprise you?
Lets see, they pick up on disaffected youth who want to change the world, but feel divine justification is necessary. Sounds to me like another bunch of Jihad seekers. Sadly this is the same modus operandi of every other crackpot, terrorist, or cultist out there.
The warm fuzzy part is that they should remain harmless until after the rapture and by then they will have seen the light.
Peace
Griff
To answer your question, no. Most "christians" don't know who Jesus was or what he was trying to teach us.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm starting to get weirded out here.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second time in 24 hours that I've heard of dominionists - and the first time was in relation to Sarah Plain being involved in that movement.
(Not Joel's Army but dominionism)
I wikiied the term and learned a bit.
(Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism)
I knew she was a fundi, but this is a bit much.
"There is no way that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament would EVER have condoned this kind of aggressive, military-like behavior." (-Gryphen)
ReplyDeleteUm, how bout Matthew 10:34 where Jesus is written as saying "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
OR
Luke 21:22 "For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! for there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this people. 24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
AND
Luke 22:36 Then said he unto them, but now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one."
Jesus was obviously no prude when it came to describing what it would require to fight a war. But as much as He may have meant his words literally, we never heard of him comin out swinging a sword in the physical, which leads us to believe he meant his words to be most revered in the metaphorical sense. And this is how it seems that "Joel's Army" approaches issues, as well. Not once do we hear of them physically accosting situations, but they are very much preparing for battle in the most spiritual of situations, just as we hear Jesus speak about. They that truly resort to violence go against what Jesus demonstrated, but he was no whimp when it came to infiltrating the negative with the sword of righteousness (wisdom) and spiritual command (belief beyond site). Who are we to say that Joel's Army is not doing just that, as well?