STEVE LONG OF 'CATCH THE FIRE' TORONTO, AT CITY CHURCH CARDIFF - ELIM'S DETERMINATION TO OFFER "STRANGE FIRE!"

"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, 
and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, 
and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not."

(Leviticus 10:1))

Strange fire. The meaning of the Hebrew word rendered here as "strange" is "unauthorized, foreign, profane." In some way, what these men did was totally improper, and utterly offensive to a holy God. It was an unacceptable action born of the flesh rather than of the spirit, and this episode continues to speak to us today about the rightness or otherwise of our actions and how our Creator views them.

And in modern times there can be few if any examples of "strange fire" more blatant and far-reaching in effect than what became known as the Toronto Blessing, which was in reality a curse of gargantuan proportions, the toxic smouldering of which continues to chronically affect us to this day.

The unrestrained drunken revelry which characterized this supposed "revival" should have been ample proof that the phenomenon had nothing whatsoever to do with the Holy Spirit and everything to do with an alien one, but wisdom and discernment were the two spiritual gifts that hardly anyone seemed to have any interest in exercising. It was party time, and the only thing that was unacceptable to the writhing masses was anyone daring to rain on their parade by telling them the truth about their demonic delusion.

Which brings us to Steve Long, and his imminent visit to City Church Cardiff (which until June this year was known as City Temple). So who exactly is Steve Long? Well, he and wife Sandra have been pastors at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, now re-branded as 'Catch The Fire,' since 1994, when they arrived at John Arnott's church where the Toronto Blessing's "strange fire" had broken out in January of that year. They were then commissioned by the Arnotts in 2006 as the Senior Pastors. Mr. and Mrs. Long also serve as Vice-Presidents of Catch The Fire (World) and Directors of Catch The Fire (Canada).

It must be emphasized that Steve Long came to prominence precisely because of his deep participation in and global promotion of the "strange fire" of the Toronto Blessing, for which he was rewarded by John Arnott personally by being given the leadership of his Toronto church when he stepped down from that position a decade ago. Steve Long is absolutely inseparable from the so-called Toronto Blessing, and this has to be clearly understood when evaluating his ministry.

The Longs' profile (http://catchthefire.com/media/profiles/steve-sandra-long) informs us that they specialize in inner healing, deliverance and physical healing. In this context, it will be more than relevant to here take a little look at a book that Steve Long has written on the subject of healing, entitled 'My Healing Belongs To Me' with a foreword unsurprisingly penned by John Arnott. Most tellingly, it is endorsed by some of the most well-known and utterly unsound ear-tickling "Christian" renegades on the planet, like Bill Johnson, James Goll, Wesley and Stacey Campbell, Rolland and Heidi Baker, and Che Ahn amongst others - of whom we might particularly note two British individuals, namely David Campbell and Kevin Peat, who we'll return to shortly.

With so many false teachers and prophets on board to boost sales  - you need to note the major New Apostolic Reformation connections! - it should really come as no shock to the system to find that the premise of Long's book is quite simply a lie. The ear-tickling pitch is this:

"GOD WANTS TO SEE EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, BECOME HEALTHY."

(Source: http://www.catchthefirebooks.com/myhealingbelongstome/)

The very title of the book is itself an untruth! When Long asserts that "my healing belongs to me" he is simply regurgitating the old Word of Faith deception. Our healing DOES NOT belong to US - it very firmly belongs to GOD, and to Him alone! Period. He is Sovereign, and it is He who decides on such matters, not us. He will grant, or NOT grant healing, as it pleases Him. He alone has ownership of such things, and while we can meekly ask for a dispensation of a measure of His healing grace, the answer is far from guaranteed to be a "Yes!" Even the Apostle Paul met with a firm "No!" when he asked three times for his "thorn" to be removed. Hard as it may be for us to understand, illness and weakness can indeed form an integral part of God's plan and purpose for our lives. And like Trophimus, we too can be left sick (2 Tim. 4:20) or like Timothy have stomach trouble and frequent illnesses (1 Tim. 5:23). Here is the Lord's answer to Paul's request and the Apostle's response to it, words that should really make us stop and think long and hard about these issues:

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, 
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

A little more reading and digestion of the Word will completely blow apart Long's claim that "God wants to see everyone, everywhere, become healthy." John 5 records an incident in Jesus's ministry, when he healed a disabled man at the pool of Bethesda. It should be well noted that this man was the only one in "a great multitude" so healed; all his fellows went home in the same condition in which they had arrived.

I have no doubt personally that God can and will accomplish miraculous physical healing if He wishes to. But it is not the norm, and definitely not His focus. His priority is not physical but spiritual healing, through our coming into a restored relationship with Him by honest repentance of sin and our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. This is the most important and fundamental healing of all, compared to which all other types of healing become only of the palest significance. Physical healing is temporal, whereas spiritual healing is eternal.

Let us remember that when by His grace we are saved, the spirit is redeemed but the flesh remains in a state of corruption. We remain subject in the body to the same ravages of disease, decay and death as everyone else in this fallen world. What is corruptible has yet to put on incorruption; what is mortal has yet to put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53-4). And for such glorious and permanent transformation, we have to patiently wait.

Friends, we are not to be fooled by fables, and we are to firmly resist the seduction of what has but an appearance of righteousness. So many, even when they know in their heart of hearts that something is not right, go along with it anyway, rather than make a stand. So many simply have no desire to see the reality, preferring the illusion. There are none so blind as they who have poked out their own eyes, and lead the similarly sightless into the ditch.

Most regrettably, Elim have long had such leaders, men who should have known so much better. Men like Colin Dye and Wynne Lewis of the Kensington Temple, who dizzily danced to the Toronto tune and caused others to delightedly partner with them in the whole unfolding horror story. Men of the moment like the aforementioned David Campbell and Kevin Peat, both of whom are Regional Leaders in the Elim denomination and unashamed and determined error pedlars. For more information on this particular angle, please refer to: http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/rivercamp-2015-elims-accord-with.html

To the list of undiscerning Elim (mis)leaders can sadly be added Steve Ball, the current Senior Pastor at City Church Cardiff, for bringing Steve Long to his church, and also his predecessor Chris Cartwright, who during his tenure hosted Bill Johnson at the City Temple. Johnson - who as we've noted commends Long's 'My Healing Belongs To Me' - was Campbell and Peat's star guest at their Rivercamp Leadership Conference last year, and is one of the unsoundest "Christian" leaders in the world today! Please see: http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/rivercamp-leadership-conference-may.html

City Church Cardiff is playing with fire. And it is "strange fire" that they are playing with. The visit of Steve Long is not to be missed, they enthuse. But the truth of the matter is that anyone who has risen to prominence and power as a direct result of their very active participation in and promotion of the demonic delirium that was the Toronto "Blessing," should be marked and studiously avoided, not courted and connected with!

Dear reader, my hope and my prayer is that Thursday 13th. October will not find you anywhere near City Church Cardiff, supporting this travesty!

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 

and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 

saith the Lord Almighty."

(2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

JUDGMENT MUST BEGIN AT THE HOUSE OF GOD - ANYONE WITH EARS THAT ARE STILL OPEN, LET HIM HEAR: THE HOUR IS LATE!

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"

(1 Peter 4:17)

JUDGMENT - like wrath, Hell and damnation - is a word rarely found in the vocabulary of a professing Christian today. But judgment is precisely what this little piece will major upon, with a particular focus on just where judgment begins. 

Our God is most certainly a God of immeasurable love, mercy and grace; but He is also a God of unfathomable holiness and righteousness, and while slow to anger He is also "great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked." (Nahum 1:3). There are countless examples of wickedness in the world all around us that we could easily refer to, the perpetrators of which will all in due course be held accountable before the Sovereign Creator of the universe for their heinous deeds. But there is one very great wickedness, increasing in intensity with every passing day, which I will speak of here, for the need to do so presses heavily upon me. 

That unspeakable evil is the presentation of a false Jesus, a bogus messiah with forged credentials, a counterfeit redeemer with a fake gospel that cannot save but only seduce men with a shimmering mirage of life-giving water when the grim reality is that there is really nothing there but choking, parched sand. 

Right from the off, before the canon of Scripture was even completed, the Apostle Paul gave grave and impassioned warning of what was to come:

"For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."

(Acts 20:29-31)

Note well that it is not only external predators who threaten the flock but internal self-seeking spiritual fifth columnists, false brothers and despicable traitors to the cause of Christ, who will proclaim a different Jesus with a different gospel and operate in a different spirit which is very far from holy. 

We might quite rightly call such a thing heresy, apostasy, deception... but let's not get away from the basic fact that the presentation to a lost world of a "Jesus" who is not the Jesus of the Bible - the Logos, the Word made flesh - but an impostor with a twisted message that cheats men out of their coming to a genuinely saving knowledge of the Truth, is quite simply WICKEDNESS of the highest order. And it is a wickedness that brings an inevitable judgment from on high.

Yes, our God is slow to anger, but there comes a point at which His anger will surely erupt. Yes, our God is patient but not infinitely so; there comes a point at which His patience snaps. As it is written, His Spirit shall not always strive with man. (Genesis 6:3). A man may persist in choosing a lie over the truth, as he has been given the free will to do so, but there is an exceedingly high price to be paid for such perversity. Judgment will come, as surely as clouds bring forth rain, and the guilty will not be acquitted. But judgment has a starting point; it begins at the house of God: it begins with the Church.

But what form will this judgment take? God will simply allow people to have the renegade pastors and prophets they crave, parasites who will be permitted to feed for a season until His purposes are accomplished and they are banished to the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude v.13). If the people who claim to be His have itching ears, He'll simply step back and allow them to be tickled. He'll simply say something like, "If that's what you want, then that's exactly what you shall have! If you want to hear what the purveyors of falsehood proclaim rather than what I have to say in my unchangeable Word, go ahead! Follow their hollow "Jesus" if you will, but you've opted to be deceived, you've made your choice. Did I not warn that I would send a strong delusion because you would not receive the love of the truth? So you can trust to Word of Faith fabrications, you can believe in the New Apostolic Reformation's fables, you can lean on any lie you want to; I'm giving you over to it! You can have whatever your fickle and fleshly hearts desire, but what you won't have is ME!"

And it's already happening. Judgment has already begun at the house of God...

"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

The prophets prophesy falsely, 
and the priests bear rule by their means;

and my people love to have it so:

and what will ye do in the end thereof?"

(Jeremiah 5:30-31)

OVER TO YOU, MY FRIENDS. WHAT WILL YE DO?

CHRISTY WIMBER IN WALES AS A STAR GUEST OF NEW WINE CYMRU - THE BITTER FRUITS OF THE VINEYARD MOVEMENT.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: 
because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

(1 John 4:1)

The annual New Wine Cymru (Mis)Leadership Conference is over for another year, and the hundreds of undiscerning and itchy-eared Church leaders from all over Wales have returned to their various equally undiscerning and itchy-eared fellowships, having drunk deeply from the poison chalice.

The special guest at the 2016 Conference, held at Cornerstone Church's Venue 2 in Swansea on the 10th and 11th June, was one Christy Wimber. Mrs. Wimber is Senior Pastor of the Yorba Linda Vineyard in California, and is the daughter-in-law of the late John Wimber, who was a founding father of the Vineyard movement which he led until his death in 1997.

John Wimber's far-reaching influence in evangelical circles cannot be understated; sadly, the seeds that he scattered so widely have steadily grown into tall tares that are choking the good grain. What John Wimber presented to the Church was what has become known as the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit,  a term coined by his friend C. Peter Wagner, a man who has become recognized as the leader of the utterly heretical New Apostolic Reformation.

Back in the 80s, Wimber and Wagner co-taught a course at the Fuller Seminary, entitled "Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth." The core teaching of the Third Wave is what has become known as Power Evangelism, or "Doing the stuff" as Wimber flippantly called it. The premise is that the presentation of the Gospel is now essentially ineffectual unless it is accompanied by Signs and Wonders - notably healing and deliverance - and the movement has in consequence taken a key role in relentlessly bulldozing "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" away from a solid Word-based faith to a subjective experience-based one.

What is being propagated is the lie that people have to SEE in order to believe, which contradicts the Bible's clear teaching that people have to HEAR in order to believe. For as it is written in no uncertain terms:

"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

(Romans 10:17)

It cannot be emphasized enough that the Gospel has to be orally preached and aurally received; the reality is that it is a visual presentation that is ineffectual. Conviction of sin and the need for repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit accomplished via the EARS, not the EYES! Third Wave adherents have majored on the wrong sensory organ entirely. It is no wonder then that this very basic but enormous error has spawned the likes of the Toronto Blessing, actually one of the vilest Hell-designed curses ever to have been inflicted on the Body.

Let's consider this passage:

"Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."

(John 10:31-33)

Did SEEING miracles convict these people that He was the Messiah, and cause them to accept His message of salvation? Absolutely not! They didn't deny the miracles, but they still denied who He was, and to them the Gospel was certainly not confirmed by their witnessing of Signs and Wonders. Again, in the story told by Jesus of the rich man and Lazarus, He made it crystal clear that "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:31). Would not such a thing be the ultimate in Signs and Wonders? But the Lord Himself here affirmed that even this would be insufficient to cause a man to turn from unbelief to belief! 

In a nutshell, signs FOLLOW belief; they do not PRECEDE it! (Ref. Mark 16:17)

Jesus made a very sobering statement about those who would focus upon such things:

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign."

(Matthew 16:4)

It has to be said that the fruits of the sign-seeking Vineyard are bitter indeed. The Third Wave/Signs and Wonders movement in essence denies sola scriptura - the sufficiency of Scripture, and determinedly ventures into extra-Biblical practice and revelation. When John Wimber could find no Scriptural validation for the kinds of things he was becoming actively engaged in, he was undeterred, and with his reckless hand on the tiller the Vineyard was steered into very dangerous waters, to be at the forefront of a seismic shift in evangelical Christianity's historical (and correct!) emphases. The Word was no longer to be the essential reference point by which all things are tested and proved or disproved; experience was in itself to become its own unchallengable "proof" of what God was (supposedly) doing; if it felt right, then it was right. In a vigorous shifting from a Western mindset to an Eastern one, mysticism and occult practices were accordingly embraced without question or pause. In a movement so intent on promoting the gifts of the Spirit, the gifts that no-one had any interest in exercising were wisdom and discernment! In this way, hosts of unclean and counterfeiting spirits were enabled to swarm into the Church, where they have made themselves very comfortably at home and become ever more brazen in their diabolical deceptions.

The Word of God is immutable. It houses all Truth, and is our protection against all UNtruth! When its vital importance and relevance is downplayed, we are in serious trouble. EXTREMELY serious trouble! The Satanically-inspired swapping of Word for experience, and the exchange of an EAR-received faith for an EYE-received fallacy, has contributed immeasurably to the Falling Away which the increasingly neglected Word warned would come in the Last Days before the Lord's return.

But Wimber's wilful betrayal of the Faith once and for all time delivered went even further than that! We should also carefully note that he was of a heavily ecumenical persuasion, and thought nothing of sharing a platform with Roman Catholics. His pro-Vatican stance is breathtakingly illustrated by his declaration that "the pope, who by the way is very responsive to the charismatic movement, and is himself a born-again evangelical, is preaching the Gospel as clear as anyone in the world today." Say what???!!! That his daughter-in-law shares such cockeyed veneration for the Vicar of Rome is evidenced by this following Tweet:

Christy Wimber @ChristyWimber 24 Sep 2015

I love this  Pope! I love how he breaks protocol: no limo, visits the nuns, eats with the homeless and causes world leaders to cry.

Let's say it as it is. To love the Pope is to love the spirit of antichrist. Period.

While on the subject of her Tweets, here's another real eye-opener:

Christy Wimber @ChristyWimber 22 Oct 2015

I think u accidentally blocked one of my friends @billjohnsonBJM He's very safe, I can vouch for him! Lol

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Not only does this desperately discernment-devoid lady love the Pope, she also declares that Bill Johnson of all people is not just safe but VERY SAFE, and she can vouch for him! Again, let's say it as it is. Bill Johnson is one of the UNSAFEST "Christian" leaders on the planet, with his Bethel, Redding "church" being an End Times epicentre of all things apostate!

Very ironically, while Christy Wimber is dedicated to continuing to promote her late father-in-law's  theology, in one key area of her life is to be found a very conspicuous contradiction. John Wimber was a complementarian, that is to say that he believed in a traditional (and Biblically sound) understanding of men and women having God-given complementary roles in matters of marriage, family and ministry, with men having the headship; he did not approve of women holding positions of church leadership.

Yet Mrs. Wimber is herself the Senior Pastor of the Yorba Linda Vineyard, actually having a higher degree of authority than her husband Sean!

In an area of the Faith where John Wimber to his credit did not deviate from orthodoxy, his daughter-in-law has no problem with such a departure. So what was this leading lady teaching the attendees of the NWC Leadership Conference? No prizes for guessing... it was on how to lead effectively! Only in a gathering of an apostate Church could she have got away with that... an apostate Church that has Tippexed out the Spirit-inspired words of the Apostle Paul:

"But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, 

but to be in silence."

(1 Timothy 2:12)

But then, is not one Sarah Richards a leader of New Wine Cymru, and a senior leader of Cornerstone Church in Swansea whose Venue 2 facility was where this Conference was held? Is not "Women Who Lead" one of their other major events? Is not Sarah also part of the Pioneer leadership team and on the Board of Willow Creek UK, "helping to bring leadership training to leaders and churches across the UK?" Truly, error begets error, and as Biblical teachings are abandoned, apostasy ever accelerates.

These are wretched days indeed. Days of unquestioned compromise and cultural conformity. Days of church growth, where that growth proves to be a malignant tumour. The Body is dangerously diseased, and doesn't even know it. Blissfully ignorant people are being offered a gospel that's claimed to be the real thing when it is but a worthless counterfeit. Recently I was shown a forged banknote, so well done that you'd have to be really clued in to know the difference. When we're dealing with spiritual fakes, we have to be similarly equipped to be able to spot what's right and what's wrong. And how do we get so equipped? The answer is very simple, yet most folks now seem to find it incredibly hard:

"Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read."

(Isaiah 34:16)

We desperately need to blow the thickening dust off our Bibles, and feed upon the Heaven-sent bread of life contained within its covers. It's the only thing that will sustain and nourish us, and fill us so full of wholesome Truth that any delusion - however delicious-looking it might be! - becomes a complete dietary no-go! The junk food of experiential Third Wave "Christianity" that's being served up by the bargain bucketful needs to be completely consigned to the waste bin where it belongs. Only then can the Body be truly healthy.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, 

and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, 

and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

(2 Chronicles 7:14)

* * * * * * *

Some further reading:

John Wimber's false teachings:

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/wimber/general.htm

What is theThird Wave?:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Third-Wave-movement.html

* * * * * * *

DON MACGREGOR - PAYING LIP-SERVICE TO THE NICENE CREED WHILE HIS BISHOP AND ARCHDEACON SIMPLY STAND IDLY BY!

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: 
for whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap."
(Galatians 6:7)

Subsequent to my last posting on 4 May 2016 concerning Pembrokeshire's "New Age" priest, Rev'd. Don MacGregor, I wrote again the next day to both the Bishop and the Archdeacon of St. David's, as follows:

Dear Sir,

I hope and pray that you will spare a few moments of your time to read and reflect upon this article, and to seek God's face on these most serious issues.

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-new-age-priest-don-macgregor-bishop.html

I would be very pleased to receive any observations you might have.

Sincerely, in Jesus our Lord and Saviour,

Rob Thomas

Unfortunately, Bishop Wyn Evans seems to have been quite unable to spare a few moments; he has not seen fit to grace me with so much as an acknowledgement. The Archdeacon, however, did dash off a quick reply within a few hours, but it seems that he too had no time to consider the issues:

Dear Mr. Thomas
I acknowledge receipt of your note. I shall.not be sending observations to you. I receive many emails of this type and other urgent priorities. I have also replied in relation to the matter in your subject.
Blessings on you brother
dennis

Sadly, it seems that Dennis Wight's "urgent priorities" do not include contending for the Faith. One wonders why, if he's getting so many similar emails, he's not sitting up and taking some notice of such an occurrence...

So much then for the Diocesan leadership. But what of the man himself? Does he personally have anything to say about the matter? Indeed he does! And here is his comment, as posted on the article of 4 May 2016:

Don MacGregor to myself, 1 June 2016:

Dear Mr. Thomas, such a shame that after 4 weeks your article has received no comments, so I thought I might add one. You seem to be under the impression that everyone who is a Christian is a literalist and fundamentalist, which seems to be your position. I am deeply offended by many of your comments, as I am an active Christan  priest, yes with some challenging new interpretations of the tradition, but there is nothing I am saying that has not already been said many times in the past, often by famous and even sainted Christians of former days. I find the tone of your comments, and your pursuit of all sorts of other issues on your blog to be very un-Christian, judgemental and downright insulting. So I do not want to get into a dialogue with you, as I do not think it would change your mind one iota. And, to correct one thing, I can say the Nicene Creed quite happily in full belief of the tradition we inherit, in its context and culture.

My response:

Dear Mr. MacGregor,

Thank you for your comment. The sad irony is that you accuse my writings of being very unChristian, when the whole issue here is that your own writings run so completely contradictory to "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" - the faith that we are exhorted to earnestly contend for! (Jude v3).  Mr. MacGregor, I would respectfully point out that unless a person is indeed "a literalist and fundamentalist" then they are not truly a Christian, but only someone who deceives both themselves and others by claiming to be one. You declare that you can say the Nicene Creed quite happily; saying it is one thing, but believing it is quite another. And your own writings give ample testimony to the fact that you do not believe it, sir. As it is written concerning such a thing:

"This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." (Matthew 15:8)

Mr. MacGregor, you say that things I've said offend and insult you. Might I observe that things that you've said on your own blog and elsewhere undoubtedly offend and insult the Most High? You are playing fast and loose with the things of our Almighty God, preaching "another gospel" that is no gospel at all, and I most sincerely hope that you come to realize the abject folly of this while there is yet time to repent. Eternity is a long time for regrets.

In Him, 

Rob Thomas

BELOW IS REPRODUCED THE NICENE CREED, WHICH IS MANDATORY FOR ALL ANGLICAN PRIESTS TO UPHOLD.  REFERENCE TO DON MACGREGOR'S OWN WRITINGS CLEARLY SHOWS THAT WHILST HE CAN SAY THE CREED "QUITE HAPPILY" HE NEITHER BELIEVES IT NOR UPHOLDS IT, AND ALL THE WHILE HIS DIOCESAN SUPERIORS PLUG THEIR EARS AND TURN A BLIND EYE TO HIS HERETICAL "NEW INTERPRETATIONS" OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE FAITH! PLEASE SEE:

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-new-age-in-church-in-wales-case.html

THE NICENE CREED

WE BELIEVE in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

(Source: http://anglicansonline.org/basics/nicene.html )

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

(Romans 1:21-22)

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."

(1 Corinthians 3:19)

THE "NEW AGE" PRIEST DON MACGREGOR, THE BISHOP & THE ARCHDEACON OF ST. DAVID'S, AND A CERTAIN NUISANCE FLY!

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

(Galatians 1:8-9)

On 8 January 2016, I published an article entitled 'The New Age in the Church in Wales - a Case Study' which can be found here:

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-new-age-in-church-in-wales-case.html

So serious were the concerns highlighted in this article about the openly "New Age" spirituality of Rev'd. Don MacGregor, the Priest-in-Charge of the five parishes that form the North Dewisland Benefice in Pembrokeshire, that after careful consideration I thought it right and proper to bring them to the personal attention of his ecclesiastical overseer. An email was accordingly sent to the Right Rev'd. Wyn Evans, the Bishop of St. David's, on 14 January 2016, as follows:

FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE RT. REV. WYN EVANS

Dear Sir,

I write to you as a Bible-believing Christian having grave concerns about the extremely unorthodox beliefs held and openly expressed by Rev. Don MacGregor, the Priest-in-Charge of the North Dewisland Benefice. It is evident, by reference to his own writings, that he holds to a theological position which is very far removed from Biblical Christianity and in blatant contradiction of the Nicene Creed which is mandatory for him as a priest to adhere to. I regret to observe that his beliefs clearly violate his Declaration of Assent as an Anglican priest to uphold the historical Faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures.

I respectfully bring these concerns to your attention as his overseeing Bishop. I quite appreciate that you are a busy man, and I would not take this step and intrude upon your time if it was not for the fact that these are very serious issues indeed. May I ask if you would please read the following carefully researched article, in which the issues should become all too apparent to you?

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-new-age-in-church-in-wales-case.html


I would be most grateful, sir, if you would advise me if you consider Rev. Don MacGregor's views to be acceptable within your Diocese, the Anglican communion at large, or indeed the wider professing Church of Jesus Christ who uphold the whole of Scripture as being the authoritative and utterly unalterable Word of God?

I look forward to hearing from you, at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely, in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour,

Rob Thomas


Quite remarkably, only five days after sending this email to the Bishop, he was to be found officiating at a special service in St. Peter's Church in Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, to inaugurate a new Diocesan partnership and swear in its ministry team. And who is the leader of this team? None other than Rev'd. Don MacGregor! In one fell swoop, with the Bishop's blessing, the "New Age" priest's sphere of influence in Pembrokeshire's Anglican communities increased by a whopping 300% - from five to FIFTEEN parishes! 

Pencaer Partnership inauguration service, 19 January 2016.

The event was reported in the local newspaper as follows:

"FIFTEEN parishes in north Pembrokeshire have pledged their mutual allegiance in the new Pencaer Mission and Ministry partnership.

This ninth local ministry area to be created in the St Davids Diocese was inaugurated in a special service in St. Peter's Church, Goodwick, on 19 January before the Bishop, Rt Rev Wyn Evans.

The new ministry team, led by Rev Don MacGregor, priest-in-charge of the Llanrhian group of parishes, was also sworn in."

(Source: County Echo and St Davids City Chronicle)

A fortnight on from dispatching my email, and with confirmation from the Bishop's Secretary of its receipt but nothing forthcoming from the Bishop himself, a second email was sent on 28 January 2016, expressing an increased sense of urgency and disquiet due to the events of 19 January as recorded above, whereby Don MacGregor's profile and influence in Pembrokeshire's Anglican communities had been greatly increased. That email concluded with this plea:

May I respectfully ask if you would give your most careful consideration to the concerns about Rev. Don MacGregor, for the sake of the integrity of the Christian witness in Pembrokeshire?

This missive did prompt the following brief response from Wyn Evans the next day:

Dear Mr Thomas

Thank you both for your email and your reminder. I am looking into the matter and am consulting colleagues. I take it that you are a parishioner of his?

Bendith

+Wyn St Davids

Having clarified to the Bishop that I am not one of Don MacGregor's parishioners, but a Bible-believing Christian whose concern is for the upholding of the Faith as revealed in the immutable Word of God, another month passed silently by. On 6 April 2016, I emailed the Bishop again, to politely ask whether he could update me on progress, receiving this reply the following day not from Wyn Evans but from the Archdeacon of St. David's, the Venerable Canon Dennis Wight:

Dear Mr. Thomas
The Bishop has replied to you regarding Mr Macgregor by stating that we were looking into the matter. You gave us information about him for which we thank you. However, this is now a matter between us and him. It is being addressed and it would not be right for us to enter into discussion about it. We treat these matters as confidential.

Again, thank you for your original note and we are sorry that we have been unable to get back to you sooner.

With all good wishes

Dennis

I wrote back to the Archdeacon on April 11, with the following observation:

When you say that this is now a matter between the Diocesan leadership and Rev. MacGregor, may I respectfully observe that as he is a practicing priest with not a private but a very public ministry and profile, then his personal radical reinterpretation of the historic Faith - resulting in undeniable failure to adhere to both the Creed and his Declaration of Assent - cannot realistically be seen as a confidential matter? Rev. MacGregor certainly does not keep his position private, so why exactly is it deemed by yourselves to be wrong to enter into a discussion about that position? There are certainly matters in which I would be in full agreement that confidentiality is correct and proper, but this is not such a matter. When a practicing priest responsible for properly shepherding the flock believes in and teaches "another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11:4) this is an issue of very public concern indeed!

This, my final missive to the Diocesan leadership, concluded as follows:

Are Pembrokeshire people to be kept in the dark about all this? With all due respect, I believe they, and indeed the Body at large, have the right to know what - if anything - is to be specifically done to address these very real and very grave concerns.

A few hours later, I received the Archdeacon's (dare I say curt) response:

Mr. Thomas
I acknowledge receipt of your note.
Yours in Christ
Dennis

So there we have it. Stonewalled, I think, is the operative word... and all the while Rev'd. Don MacGregor continues to preach "another gospel," unchecked and indifferent to Paul's dire declaration about such a thing in his Epistle to the Galatians which headed this article.

THIS WOULD SEEM TO BE THE BISHOPRIC'S FINAL WORD ON THE MATTER. I'M SORRY, GENTLEMEN, BUT IT'S REALLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH! YOU CAN SWAT ME LIKE A NUISANCE FLY IF YOU WANT, BUT ONE DAY WE WILL ALL HAVE TO ANSWER TO GOD FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE - AND ALSO WHAT WE HAVE NOT. THE BALL REMAINS FIRMLY IN YOUR COURT. PLEASE PLAY IT WISELY!


EPILOGUE

While we might well note that Rev'd. Don MacGregor remains, among other things, Area Dean for Dewisland and Fishguard in the Archdeaconry of St. David's under Dennis Wight, there is unfortunately more to this whole sad saga of compromise and complicity with an utterly false spirit in the St. David's Diocese that needs to be recorded. 

On 15 March 2016, the Cathedral hosted the 'Sri Chinmoy Oneness - Home Peace Run' during its tour of the UK and Ireland. These runners are the disciples of the Indian Hindu guru who initiated this Peace Run. "What's the problem?" many might say. "Anything that promotes peace in the world has to be good, right?" Absolutely wrong! While any truly Bible-believing Christian should know full well that there is no peace outside of the Prince of Peace, these purveyors of pantheism were warmly welcomed by the Dean, the Very Rev'd. Jonathan Lean, and the Rev'd. Canon Dorrien Davies, in blithe and blatant disregard of the Scriptural warnings about such a travesty. (See 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

The Sri Chinmoy runners carry a flaming torch as a symbol of harmony, passing it from hand to hand. Both the Dean and the Canon took and ran with the torch. Is this such a big deal? Yes, it most certainly is, for in so doing they expressed their "oneness" with the pagan runners. 

Photos of this most regrettable event can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0315/1549/

Video footage (St. David's segment from 4:53):
https://youtu.be/FrGIEUMlt0k

Disturbing photos of the runners teaching Eastern meditation to impressionable young children in Carmarthen the previous day can be found at:
www.peacerun.org/gb/news/2016/0314/1552/

Christianity and pantheism in accord? They are diametrically opposed to each other! The "peace" promoted by the Sri Chinmoy devotees is quite simply the false peace of Antichrist...

"And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; 

and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by PEACE shall destroy many."

(Daniel 8:25 - my emphasis)

"THERE IS NO PEACE, SAITH MY GOD, TO THE WICKED."

(Isaiah 57:21 - my capitalization)

* * * * * * *

FOOTNOTE: The 15 parishes forming the Pencaer Mission and Ministry Partnership, under Rev'd. Don MacGregor's leadership are:

Fishguard (St. Mary's)
Goodwick (St. Peter's)
Granston (St. Catherine's)
Jordanston (St. Cawrda's)
Letterston (St. Giles')
Little Newcastle (St. Peter's)
Llanfair Nant-y-Gof (St. Mary's)
Llanrhian (St. Rhian's)
Llanwnda (St. Gwyndaf's)
Llanychaer (St. David's)
Manorowen (St. Mary's)
Mathry (Holy Martyrs)
Pontfaen (St. Brynach's)
Puncheston (St. Mary's)
St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas')

* * * * * * *