June 15, 2007

This past week a momentous defeat was served to the intercessory community in the state of Massachusetts, US. What was supposed have to been the final legislative ratification authorizing a ballot measure allowing people to vote on the definition of marriage went down to defeat through the defection of 12 representatives to the pro-gay side. There will now be no statewide vote allowing the people to overturn the judicially mandated definition allowing for “gay marriage.”

Tremendous prayer and fasting including prayer driven activism was concentrated on this matter. I have never seen such concentrated prayer in New England (my own prayers included) over any issue here ever. Yet the church was utterly defeated. Why?

Meanwhile, the gay agenda continues encroaching into the legislatures of New Hampshire and Rhode Island (Vermont went down years ago and is a recognized haven for homosexuals). Of even greater significance is a move now in both houses of the United States Congress to outlaw all “hate speech” against homosexuality. This patently unconstitutional law would be without precedent in American history, and is essentially and ultimately designed to outlaw the preaching of the Christian gospel in America.

But why does all this continue to happen—in spite of the tireless energy of all the intercessory community and all the declarations of prophets to turn back the tide? The more the intercessors pray and the prophets speak, the worst things get. Frankly, if there is no turn around on this, it will soon mean jail time or worse for those of us who dare to reject homosexuality as an acceptable alternative “lifestyle” and are unafraid to preach the truth concerning it. (It has already meant jail for some in Canada, Australia and some European countries.)

The passage of such a law could also be the spark that finally lights the fire of all out civil war in the United States between the opposing parties of the culture war smoldering under US politics. Do not take this as hype. Some 2 ½ years ago, following the 2004 election, well known commentator and former Clinton advisor David Gergen gave a speech at Roger Williams University which I attended. His topic? The culture war and a search for common ground in America. After the speech, I approached him and asked if he could see a parallel to the past historic debate over slavery leading to the first Civil War and whether we might now be in such a plight now. His eyes narrowed into a deep penetrating concern, and he said to me, “Yes, the parallel is there, and if we do not see a change, I indeed fear we are headed for civil war.”  

So I return to the question, why does the intercessory prophetic community in America—and especially here in New England—continue to suffer defeat after defeat against the homosexual agenda?

The burning answer my heart receives from the Lord regarding this issue is that the church is defeated before the homosexuals because the church is wracked with idolatry. Understand this carefully. The Lord tells us that homosexuality in a culture is the end result of one thing: idolatry (read Romans 1.) At the same time, in America, unlike any other country, the culture is particularly reflective of the Christian church. If you put these two truths together, you arrive at this simple reality: The dominance of American homosexuality is due to the excess of American idolatry, and American idolatry is uniquely due to idolatry in the church. The truth is that the American church is utterly ineffective against homosexuality because it is infested with the very germ that drives homosexuality:.

Some examples of this are easier to observe, others take more thought. In the easy category is the participation of the Catholic Church against homosexuality. This so-called “Christian” institution is so riddled with idolatry that its own fabric breeds homosexuality! (Remember all the scandals of just a few years ago? The half was never told!) Yet the prophets, intercessors and other evangelical groups continue embracing this institution as a partner in overcoming the gay agenda in all their prayer gatherings and approaches before state legislators. Fat chance for success there.

But there is a more subtle idolatry that infests the American church leaving it utterly impotent before these hoards from hell descending on Washington and the states. It is the materialism and worldly-focused destiny that drives the American intercessory prophetic, based in a veiled worship of America itself—her history (nostalgically revised), her glorified ancestors, her shrines, her wars, her Statue (read Idol) of Liberty, etc, etc, ad nauseam.

The truth is that the prophetic intercessory church in our land does not take its identity from the Lord as a separated corps of disciples destined for an eternal kingdom, but from America itself. This is idolatry!! So gangrenous is this idolatry throughout the church that the preaching of the actual gospel itself is now almost entirely absent in favor of praying for and prophesying over “America’s destiny and covenants.”

The intercessors and prophets have almost nothing to say about the gospel, and everything to say about America. The love for America has supplanted the love for the only gospel that saves men from sin and an eternity in hell. Not one plea have I read from any intercessory prophetic camp or egroup that has anything to do with praying for the defense and advance of the gospel—the only power of God to salvation.

But there is an even more insidious idolatry beneath the church’s impotence before the homosexual agenda. It is the “sensualization” of God Himself. You must get this at all costs. Paul said that in the last days, men would be “lovers of pleasure” more than lovers of God. Homosexuality is the final perversion of a culture that has given itself over to pure sensuality and self-gratification as its purpose for being. Yet if you look at the intercessory prophetic church, guess what you find? Relationship with God has been removed from a truth / commitment basis to a basis in “experiencing the Presence of God.” The truth of the gospel has all but vanished from the pulpit in favor of “The Presence.” The “love of God” has come to be redefined virtually entirely in terms of God’s pleasurability. God and His Pleasurability have come to be equated, thus legitimizing the Love of Pleasure as God. (“I love God because He makes me feel good.”) This is nothing but stark sensuality (which I call Passionism). And it is the same germ that drives the perversion we know as homosexuality!

As long as the intercessory prophetic community bases its love for God in the sensualized terms that mark Baal-worship at the expense of commitment to His Word; as long as the intercessory prophetic community expresses idolatrous affection for America in place of devotion to Christ’s gospel; and as long as the intercessory prophetic community allies itself with those who openly flaunt idolatry of statues, saints, beads, popes and Mary in their own worship, the homosexual force in America will only continue to grow until it will indeed become criminal to preach the gospel that saves through repentant faith in Jesus Christ.

Prophetic intercessors, wake up! When you look at homosexuality, you are looking at yourself! Homosexuality is the reflection of your own idolatry. You will never ever be able to stand against this giant until you get rid of your idols.

I close with this final observation. Paul tells us that if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. We can either judge ourselves now for our idolatry. We can repent. And God will in turn lift this curse (and that’s what homosexuality is—a curse) from off our land. Or we can continue on with our half-wit praying, fasting, weeping and prophesying in our idolatry against homosexuality, while God lets the curse grow and grow and grow until we are finally judged by it, taken to jail all over the country for daring to say “we love the homosexuals in their sin”—taken entirely captive as Sampson was by the Philistines. Mark this well. If we do not repent, God will use the curse of homosexuality to shut us all down and send us all to jail. And there, rotting in America’s jails, perhaps we will come to our senses and maybe our hair will grow back.

Frankly, I am sickened by this curse, and I intercede for my children who will have to face the next generation of this development on the order of Sodom. I am also reconciled to the possibility of jail should ever the Lord put me into a direct confrontation with the Sodomites and this becomes law here. (If you sit back thinking, “This legislation will never pass because Bush will veto it, or the Supreme Court will strike it down,” you are an idiot** and have no prophetic sense at all. And if you are looking for Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Rick Joyner or any of the culture prophets to come out with another “magic prophetic word” that will save us all, you are equally an idiot.)

What then is my only hope of protection? It is this, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”  Right now, my only prayer any more in the face of this monstrous agenda is, “Lord, I repent of idolatry. And Lord, if it will do any good, I repent for idolatry on behalf of the intercessory prophetic community—my own people.” Please get this straight. I have no axe to grind against my brethren. I am not your enemy. But I have a commitment to the Spirit of Truth that exceeds my commitment to you in your inability to hear basic gospel truth. We are to turn from idolatry to the worship of the Living God. And if we don’t, the uncircumcised “gay” Philistines will take us captive. We will go to jail. 

Are you prepared for that?

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

6/07

[**I wish I could apologize for the use of this word, but unfortunately do not have the liberty to do so. After releasing this commentary, an earnest reader wrote with concern because of the possibility I was violating the Lord’s severe admonition against calling others “fools” (Mt. 5:22). While I appreciated the concern, two points must be seen to put this in context. First, I have not directly called anyone an “idiot.”  I have only marked a condition that would qualify one to be so called. Second, in its entire context, the Lord’s admonition is qualified by the words “without a cause.” That the Lord’s admonition is qualified and not absolute regarding the word “fools” is also seen because He Himself proceeds to call others fools (idiots) elsewhere, both in parables and directly (“O fools and slow of heart to believe…”) Be assured, my use of  “idiot” is not rash, but purposely intended. And if it applies to you, it might just be what you need to wake up. And if so, then it is entirely redemptive. Enough said.]