Coming elections is a sign

Elections are on the horizon at last. After that the unveiling...The signs are already there

Jesus was rich? Muahhahahahahahah

I wonder how is it that some churches can have teachers who dare to teach that Jesus was rich, not poor. I wonder why some sheep can really live up to their names and be that stupid to believe such teachings. No wonder they get fleeced, metaphorically speaking.

This is their reasoning. He had a treasurer who even stole and keep stealing without anyone noticing the difference. They met in his house. He was presented with treasures from wise men when He was born. His clothes He wore were divided by the guards.

He had a treasurer? Please lahhh, it was the tradition in those days for one person to hold the money for the band of companions. It was not Jesus’ money that Judas held but everyone in the travelling party. Its like when we were young, we went out as friends and we would all give to one person who would then pay the expenses for all.

Did Jesus have any money? Look at Luke 8:1-3 “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” If Jesus was rich, that means he must have been very unprincipled to live off these women when he had money.

He had a house? Big deal! It just means he was not homeless not that he was rich. How big was Jesus' house? How lucrative was being a carpenter? Being a carpenter was more like being a labourer than being a businessman. The rich of Jesus’ time were the businessman merchants and traders. The rest were just labourers.

He was presented with treasures? How much did he get? If Jesus was rich, why would he say the Son of Man had no place to rest his head? Did he wear fine clothes? Really?

 The soldiers tossed lots for his clothes? It was a tradition of that time for the executioners to cast lots for the condemned's belongings much like an executioner's fee. The soldiers were not doing it because they had been squabbling over who gets his rich clothes. Does anyone think that whatever robe Jesus had that perhaos it could even have been the purple robe that Herod draped over him and not Jesus' own.

The clearest evidence is that his parents were poor despite the claims that he got treasure from the Magi. Look at Luke 2:22-24. Jesus’ parents offered a sacrifice of “a pair of doves or two young pigeons”. Look at Lev 12:7b-8, “These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.” Jesus' parents could not even afford a proper sacrifice of a lamb even at his birth. So Jesus’ parents were poor and he was poor.

Please lahhh, Christians, God has given you a sound mind. Don’t embarrass God’s gift to you by not using it.

I wonder???

I wonder as I look into the near future. Will the said-to-be soon-coming National Elections be a sign? What will the sign point to?

Megachurch Pastors Are Only Human

Pastors are human and can be swayed by money, power and sex. So why can't their actions be scrutinised and they be held accountable? To do so can hardly be called 'judging'

Florida megachurch pastors Zachery and Riva Tims ended their 15-year-marriage in late July, two years after it was discovered that Zachery Tims had an affair with an exotic dancer he met in Paris.
Read more... http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/22954-florida-megachurch-pastors-end-marriage

Ukrainian law enforcers on Tuesday formally charged the ethnic Nigerian leader of a hugely popular evangelical Christian church of complicity in bilking his congregation of millions, the Interfax news agency reported. Pastor Sunday Adelaja, senior pastor of Embassy of God in Kiev, Ukraine, was among the ringleaders in an international scheme to attract funds from Ukrainian churchgoers into questionable Nigerian businesses run by friends and relatives, the accusation read in part.
Read more ...   http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/30666-nigerian-evangelical-pastor-sunday-adelaja-charged-fraud-ukraine.html

From its inception the Pentecostal movement has been marred deeply by scandals, as we have documented in our illustrated 317-page book The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: Its History and Its Error. If the movement had the fullness of the Holy Spirit unction and power that it claims, we would not see such an exhibition of the flesh, but in fact moral and other scandals have continued to plague it in recent history. The following are some prominent examples:
Read more...Recent pentecostal Scandals

Bishop Rick Hawkins is described many ways by many people: showman, a charismatic and powerful preacher, founder of the massive San Antonio church the Family Praise Center, as well as a charter school that bears his name, and an accredited bible college that trains evangelicals. But in recent months Bishop Hawkins is best known for a storm of sex scandal. In 2007 his Family Praise Center was rocked when allegations surfaced of Bishop Hawkins sexually harassing church members, having adulterous affairs. Several women charged that he took advantage of women who came for him for spiritual counseling by soliciting them for phone sex. He is reportedly under investigation for using thousands of dollars in church funds to hush up his victims. Hundreds of church members have fled his church.
Read more ... Who is Bishop Rick Hawkins

Financial scandal. Faulty theology. Moral failure. The last few years have shown that the Church and her leaders are not immune to scandal and corruption. The real problem, however, is that no one is holding them accountable. Until now. Charismatic insider and contributing editor to Charisma magazine, J. Lee Grady has been a voice crying out against the abuse of the gifts of the Spirit in his weekly, award-winning column "Fire in My Bones." Though an avid proponent of the charismatic experience, he has observed trends that both distress and anger him. And now he is overturning the money tables.
Read more Respected Journalist Exposes the Scandals of the Charismatic Renewal

Lori Lewis' pastor let her family stay in a church apartment when her husband went to jail. Five months later, the pastor joined her husband behind bars. He was not there for inmate ministry. The Rev. Robert N. Riddle was charged in April with swindling an elderly widow out of more than $100,000. While not personally affected by the scandal, the disappointment stung Lewis. "If you can't trust your pastor, who you can trust?" she said. Churches are learning that the preacher in the pulpit should not be accepted on his word alone. Scandalous stories of bad pastors floating from one church to the next have also made some wonder whether denominations where there is little oversight over congregations are even more vulnerable to clergy abuse.
Read more... Pastor scandals erode trust in pulpit

Jim Bakker Renounces The Prosperity Gospel As A Lie Jim Bakker on Youtube

The music is catchy, the mood euphoric and the message perfect for a material age: believe in God and you'll be rewarded in this life as well as the next. Greg Bearup visits Hillsong Church and learns how faith and finance go hand-in-hand...
Read more ...Praise the Lord and pass the chequebook

Worshippers at Without Walls International Church are accustomed to seeing the offering collected two or three times each service. At services in May and June, worshippers stuffed the offering buckets with cash, jewelry, and hundreds of colorful envelopes filled with checks and credit card numbers. The envelopes identify seven donation designations: tithes, offering, building fund, Without Walls television, benevolence, pastor's gift and Paula White Ministries. With all the money pouring into the $40 million-a-year enterprise, how do those who give know where it all goes? How can congregants be sure their money supports the causes they intended? The answer: They can't.
Read more ...in God's Hands or the Pastors'?

Permission was granted for reprinting what?

City News recently ran an article on “Action taken to Rectify Citation Issues” regarding Kong Hee’s plagiarism of certain articles and infringement of copyright by claiming copyright when he printed them in his books “Renewing your Spiritual…” KH claimed he and others concerned “had taken measures to do what is necessary to put things right”. What caught my attention was the statement, “One such example is portions that were taken from “The Leadership Bible, New International Version.” In March 2010, Kong’s editorial team wrote to publisher Zondervan Publishing House to seek permission to reprint these portions in the Daily Devotion. The Leadership Bible is authored/edited by Sid Buzzell, Kenneth Boa and Bill Perkins. Permission was granted the following month, stating that “since [the request to reprint] falls under our fair use guidelines (you are using less than 500 words), Zondervan is happy to grant permission at no charge”. The article can be read here http://www.citynews.sg/CNnewspaper/cnjune2010p22/

I am a little curious as to the exact nature of their request for re-producing the articles. 1) Did they SPECIFICALLY STATE their request was to print some of the articles/notes from the Leadership Study Bible? 2) Or did they JUST REQUEST TO reproduce from the Leadership Bible? There is a difference depending on how the written request is crafted. If it is the latter request, Zondervan could be thinking the request is to reprint the NIV BIBLE TEXT IN A COMMERCIAL REFERENCE, not for reprinting of the articles. Looking at Zondervan’s above reply, this may be the permission granted Kong’s team. Zondervan’s reply is based on fair use of the NIV text which is freely given. Just look inside any Zondervan-published Bible. Stated in the inside page is “the NIV TEXT may be quoted in any written form…, up to and inclusive of 500 verses without express written permission of the publisher…” They have written fair use guidelines but it is meant for the NIV text and these guidelines are worded very closely in Zondervan’s reply to KH’s team.

The articles/notes in the Leadership Study Bible are however a different thing. In any study/devotional Bible, these are the intellectual property of the person who wrote them, not necessarily the publisher. Just check any study Bible to ascertain this. In the case of the Leadership Bible, the copyright remains with Buzzell & Boa and so Zondervan has no right to grant permission for anyone to re-print them. In mid-March, I did query Buzzell & Boa as to their copyright ownership of the Leadership Study Bible articles. They replied (in their own words) “Zondervan turned the rights to the material over to the authors” (i.e. Buzzell & Boa). So how can Zondervan grant permission in April 2010 (according to City News) to reprint the articles? In fact, the articles/notes from the Leadership Study Bible have already been re-printed by Buzzell & Boa in other books by other publishing houses. KH’s excellent backup team can ascertain this for themselves.

So many questions to ask over what is a simple copyright issue! Did KH’s team SPECIFICALLY ASK to reprint the articles/notes from the Leadership Study Bible? HOW CAN Zondervan grant permission for the reprint of something they have no copyright to? Is the Buzzell & Boa team MISTAKEN in thinking they have copyright to the articles? Has the Buzzell & Boa team’s publishing houses INFRINGED ON COPYRIGHT by printing the Leadership Study Bible articles in the books of Buzzell & Boa?

I sincerely hope this article will be helpful to KH’s team to make the necessary clarifications. After all, they should try to be sure so as to avoid more legal complications of infringement of copyright should they reprint “Renewing your Spiritual…”

Singapore needs RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

Does Singapore need a SG version of RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act? Under US Federal law, RICO enables the law-enforcement officials to take action by providing stronger penalties against organizations that have displayed ongoing criminal activity over a period of time. Wikipedia states that “Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes like tax evasion, bribery, money laundering, embezzlement, theft, fraud, etc. within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering under RICO. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of ‘racketeering activity.’ RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.”


Currently, those found guilty of such crimes mentioned above are still sentenced as if they have committed the crime individually. This is applied even if it is a group of people who conspire to commit the same crimes like embezzlement and fraud over a period of time. Simply put, racketeering is a group of people working together to carry out a criminal enterprise over a period of time. RICO provides for heavier penalties.


Imagine the charities industry in Singapore. It has to be an industry because of the potential to raise enormous funds by tugging at people’s heartstrings. Imagine a group of people with marketing savvy, organizational acumen and slick PR who are able to address a mass need in society. This could be a need like helping children with vision disorders. After all, who wants a young child to go blind? Or how about children’s cancer since Asians especially cannot bear the thought of children dying. Use emotional appeals through pictures and film which tugs at people’s hearts to give. Why shouldn’t people give? It plays on their guilty conscience since they are healthy while others are sick/dying. Slicker marketing each year, better PR and the money snowballs humongously. Don’t have to take my word for it. Just consider the news on charities for the last five years.


Another need is to be assured of what will happen to you in the afterlife, i.e. salvation. The group addresses the need with slick marketing like ‘giving sacrificially’ and give examples of people who have experienced exponential increase in income after giving until it hurts. They may play on your fears by claiming only such acts of sacrifice will prove you are a real child of God. There may be peer pressure also indicating you are not being faithful if you don’t give playing on your fears of whether you will go Heaven or otherwise. In return, the group offers therapeutic messages and music that make you forget your sorrows or massage your ego for just a little while each weekend and sometimes on a weekday. With slick marketing and PR and more emotional manipulation, the group continues to draw more devotees over the years. And the racket increases in income because they have more people who are giving more and more over the years. After all, everyone is interested in their eternal destiny. Offer it to them on a platter; make it easy for them to believe and soon your devotee numbers increase. Look at the spiritualism (not just Christianity) industry worldwide. Just Google religious scandals and see what happens.


That is why SG also needs a RICO. This will prevent the charity industry from falling into wrong hands such as a charity that commits serial plundering of the funds raised and available for the leadership group’s use. Its not just crime but organized crime since it a group of like-minded criminals out to fleece the people who trust them and get their hands on the charity dollars. I hope the SG government earnestly looks into this.

IS THIS REALLY TRUE!

A poster on KH's blog said this "City News this week explains at length points which show the imbalances in the writeup by both the Straits Times and certain bloggers about Pastor’s devotionals... the publishers had given their permission for the reproduction of the content concerned in the devotionals. So rather than go to the publishers who were the correct people to seek clarifications from, bloggers went straight to the authors (wrong party to look for) and sought their own conclusions from there. Nice one. Shouldn’t the paper and the bloggers therefore apologize as well then, at least for their oversight?"

My response is are the reps of KH still claiming they had permission to reproduce the plagiarised articles? City New is CHC's mouthpiece right? I'd be happy if someone can post the article link here! Why not rebut the papers' reports directly then instead of in your own handouts? That would have a wider circulation and lead to total vindication. Why not show CONCRETE PROOF such permission exists? In fact, I am very interested to know HOW MANY ARTICLES they willingly admit to 'lifting from external sources." I sure would like to know if their number of 'permission-granted' articles correspond with the number of copied articles I have found. Furthermore, if KH, his publishers, etc had permission to print PRIOR TO presstime and circulating online the plagiarised articles, that would have been their first arrow in their salvo against the claims of the bloggers and the press. But has it been? Frankly speaking, I would be happy to apologise if such proof is forthcoming. It gives me no pleasure to find that a man of God (as claimed by his devotees) has fallen short of the standard required. 

So perhaps now KH's reps can claim this word for word copy of Ken Boa's article is also 'permission-granted' for then to reproduce? Call me a legalist if you want to but perhaps it is time to walk the talk and glorify God with action and now with words.

Like someone posted on that same page, "denial is not a river in Egypt."