(Necromancy: Communing and interacting with the dead.)

[O]ur departed loved ones are alive, active, and aware. . . . they are aware of times that we need special encouragement.1

[W]e’re surrounded by the saints who have gone before us, and however God chooses to use them to encourage us, you know we ought to be open to it.2 

The words of a necromancing New Age channeler? No, these are the words of Promise Keepers Executive Board member Pastor Steve Berger, who was just announced to be one of the featured speakers at PK’s highly publicized “Daring Faith” conference to be held at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 9-10, 2024.3 

In their 2010 book Have Heart: Bridging the Gulf Between Heaven and Earth, Steve and Sarah Berger describe how their deceased son Josiah appeared at a Wednesday night prayer service at their church and spoke with then assistant pastor, Jim Sterling.4 According to the Bergers, Josiah showed up after guest worship leader, Rita Springer, had prayed before the service and asked the Lord if Josiah could come and worship with them that night.5 (This is necromancy! Deuteronomy 18:10-12) Pastor Sterling, initially convinced, later became convicted through Bible study and prayer that the “Josiah” that appeared before him was demonic and was definitely not the pastor’s son as the Bergers would have everyone believe in their book.6 In Have Heart, with its front-cover endorsement by James Robison, the Bergers go on to describe further communications (“our meetings”7) with Josiah, not just to themselves but to others as well:

We know [Josiah] can see us, hear us, and even be involved, not only in our lives but also in the lives of his friends. We are continually hearing of Siah coming to friends in dreams. . . . We mean no disrespect to the prophets, but the idea of Siah being able to observe the choices we make here on earth is way more motivating as we seek to live for God moment-by-moment. The cloud of witnesses is personal, and we believe it is part of their work in the spiritual realm to cheer on their loved ones still on earth.8

In an online critique of Have Heart, The Berean Call states:

In further attempting to legitimize their experiences (in view of Scriptural prohibitions), they appeal to the “spontaneity” of the “visitations” as the difference between that which is “condemned by God” and that which is “orchestrated by God” This is wishful thinking on their part, not Scripture’s truth.9

Nevertheless, some fourteen years after the initial publication of the Berger’s explicit account of “necromancy”—what the Bible describes as an “abomination unto the Lord”— Have Heart still bears the endorsements of pastors Greg Laurie and James Robison, along with Shack author and self-confessed universalist William Paul Young. Yet, instead of being exposed and made accountable over the last fourteen years, Steve Berger has been progressively elevated in today’s wayward church.

Besides sitting on both the Executive and Advisory boards of Promise Keepers,10 Steve Berger states he is also a Board member of former-Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast11 and was a speaker at one of their large annual gatherings.12 He was also one of Jonathan Cahn’s featured speakers at Cahn’s huge Washington DC “Return” revival rally in 2020 that was attended by thousands in person and watched by millions on livestream.13 And Berger co-hosted a Charlie Kirk TPUSA conference for pastors in Nashville in 2023.14

Berger (a self-proclaimed “prophet”15) and his wife also founded ASI (Ambassador Services International), based in Washington, DC. They have claimed their ministry “influences influencers.” The Bergers work closely with politicians through Bible studies and special events.16 In 2016, Berger prayed before the US Senate and was lauded there by Tennessee Senator Bob Corker as “one of the preeminent spiritual leaders in our nation.”17

We have listed these organizations and people to show that Berger is being embraced and sought after for spiritual instruction and wisdom by many of today’s popular and influential church and cultural leaders. These leaders are introducing Berger to tens of millions of people worldwide, which in turn introduces them to his book and his teachings.

We realize that many of the public figures who are inviting Berger to speak have organizations or ministries that are deeply concerned about the declining condition of America’s culture, which is a rightful concern.However, it is in vain if Christians address cultural issues of the day but neglect to deal with critical spiritual issues within the church itself. The Bible is very clear that God does not look lightly on a mixture of good and evil, truth and error; in fact, this separation of what is from God and what is not is a major theme of the Bible. If we want God to help America, we must be willing to turn away from spiritual deception (e.g., occult activities like necromancy) that are entering the church.

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)

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. (Psalm 66:18)

Reaching Out to Promise Keepers

In 2023, a number of concerned people began contacting Promise Keepers, asking them why a man openly advocating interacting with the dead was sitting on two of their boards and speaking at their conferences. The then CEO Ken Harrison replied to at least one of those contacting him by sending a letter saying he was “stunned” by the accusations and that he had purchased a copy of Berger’s book. He concluded his letter by saying, “We will do all we can to ensure that the issue with Steve is resolved.”18 That communication from Harrison was almost a year ago, and his only public response that we know of since was to feature Berger as a speaker at their 2024 PK conference in St Petersburg, Florida (where, ironically, Berger spoke about repentance19) and to now have him speak this coming August at their conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ken Harrison, the present chairman of the PK Board, recently surrendered his CEO reins to evangelist Shane Winnings. 

In June of 2023, Spiritual Research Network director Chris Lawson sent a detailed letter via e-mail to Ken Harrison at Promise Keepers regarding Berger and his book. Also in June, former New Age follower Doreen Virtue interviewed Lawson on her YouTube podcast where they discussed Steve Berger, Have Heart, and necromancy in the church.20 In July, Chris spoke on the phone with a PK office worker who told Chris the board had watched the YouTube interview. Chris also received an e-mail response from Ken Harrison saying that Ken would contact Chris when they made a decision regarding Steve Berger. Also, in the summer of 2023, Pastor Pete Salas (a Berean Call board member) had a 45-minute phone conversation with Ken Harrison regarding the matter. Harrison promised to get back with Salas in a timely manner with a follow-up response. However, four months later, having still not heard back from Harrison, Salas passed away in December. And Chris Lawson never heard back from Harrison either.

At the February 2024 Promise Keepers event in St. Petersburg, Florida, Steve Rusk (a local minister) approached new CEO Shane Winnings to ask him about Berger’s occult baggage. When Rusk tried to hand him a booklet written by former New Age follower Warren B. Smith titled Dead Men Talking: Necromancy in Today’s Church (that addresses Berger’s book), Winnings indicated he was familiar with the booklet and told Rusk to be patient and that changes were being made.21 Now, four months later, Winnings has announced that he and Ken Harrison will be speaking with Steve Berger in Tulsa along with Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, Charlie Kirk, and others. No changes were made. The concerns that had been issued over the last year about PK’s support of Berger were obviously dismissed and disregarded.

Promise Keepers has been given every chance to deal biblically and responsibly with this situation—and they have not. Promise Keepers and all those supporting, defending, and elevating Steve Berger are in effect supporting, defending, and elevating his unbiblical beliefs. This is symptomatic of a church that is heading further and further into apostasy. As The Berean Call’s Q & A stated:

In our day, when biblical discernment is practically nonexistent among most who call themselves Christians, to emphasize the experiential, as the Bergers do throughout their book, is playing right into the hands of the Adversary. Tragically, they call such supernatural experiences with their deceased son “God Nods” and encourage their readers to seek their own: “Be on the lookout for God Nods in your own life.”22

Dangerous Implications

In Warren B. Smith’s book, The Titanic and Today’s Church, Smith explains the New Age implications of what Steve Berger is introducing into the church:

New Age author James Redfield followed up his mega best-selling novel The Celestine Prophecy with another popular novel titled The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision. When the book’s New Age seekers are desperately looking for secret knowledge that can save the world, Rachel, one of the main characters, suddenly finds herself having “a real interaction” with her deceased mother. . . . She said:

“All we have to do is use more of our power to tune in and have a conversation. It’s never too late. And there is so much more they want to tell us. In fact, my mother said they desperately need to speak with us, right now, at this crucial point in history. They know the real Plan for the human world, and it’s time for us on this side to understand.”23

Smith continues:

In The Light That Was Dark, I describe how I was seduced into the New Age by a ball of light that suddenly manifested over my head in a psychic reading. I was told by the psychic that the ball of light had appeared to let me know I had a lot of help on the “other side.” When I asked what she meant by “the other side,” the first thing she told me was: “Family and loved ones who have passed away.” [emphasis added] She added that “angels and other spirits” were also interested in helping me with my life. All I had to do was ask for their assistance. So I did. And the spirit world was more than willing as they seduced me further and further into spiritual deception. . . . The amazing thing is that the Bible has thoroughly warned us about all this spiritual deception and how it will play out in these latter days.24

There is a related element in this situation that may provide some insight into Berger’s propensity to connecting with the deceased. In Have Heart, the Bergers state:

Multiple times over the last fifteen years, we have read a very compelling book entitled My Dream of Heaven by Rebecca Ruter Springer [originally titled Intra Muros in 1898]. In this fascinating little book, Springer relates her vision of what Heaven is like and details the kinds of activities she witnessed there after she was transported to Heaven during an extended life-threatening illness. . . . One of the most emotional impressions the book left on us was Springer’s idea that saints in Heaven go on “invisible missions” to earth.25

Springer’s book is a partly fictionalized account of encounters between deceased loved ones and those still alive. Berger has made it very clear that this book had a powerful impact on his life. In his own 2014 book, Between Heaven and Earth, he says of Springer’s book:

I bought it and read it, and her story floored me. It still floors me today. . . . The book challenged me with concepts I’d never known, and provided practical insights that I could share with others who needed help and encouragement.26

Worth noting, Spiritual Research Network director Chris Lawson discovered that Rebecca Ruter Springer and her book that Steve Berger was “floored” by is listed in William C. Hartmann’s Who’s Who in Occultism, New Thought, Psychism, and Spiritualism published in 1927 by the Occult Press.27

Steve Berger’s book with its false teachings on having “meetings”28 with the dead have been circulating in the church for over fourteen years, yet church leaders have ignored the warnings issued by discernment ministries and in the books, booklets, and articles that have attempted to bring this situation to biblical light. The dangerous implications of this disregard for something as serious as necromancy within the church cannot be ignored. Have Heart pushes aside the Bible’s admonitions and warnings29 and in so doing has opened a window to the spirit world that if not closed may bring in alleged “new revelation,” supposedly from deceased loved ones, that will redefine what we have known as biblical Christianity. There seems to be little doubt that Berger and others in the church are redefining and trying to normalize necromancy in order to make allowance for interaction with deceased loved ones. This is occult. This is New Age. This is everything the Bible has warned us to watch out for.

Christian leaders have a unique responsibility and an obligation to lead with biblical integrity along with willingness to repent when they have gone astray; otherwise, they are not really Christian leaders at all but rather those who sorely misrepresent truth and the Lord they claim to follow. Promise Keepers (including each and every board member) and any church leader who has ignored this open window to necromancy has a biblical obligation to stop ignoring what is so obvious to many and close that window once and for all by publicly renouncing Have Heart and Berger’s false teachings. Let us not forget the sober warning Scripture gives us:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. (1 Timothy 4:1)

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To order this booklet, click here for SRN or here for LT.

Endnotes:

1. Steve and Sarah Berger, Have Heart: Bridging the Gulf Between Heaven and Earth (Grace Chapel, August 2010), pp. 98, 100.

2. Video by Steve Berger titled “Heaven: What’s Going on up There?” (August 16, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4HN18vYiNY), mm. 2:19-3:24.

3. https://www.daringfaith.org/

4. Steve and Sarah Berger, Have Heart, op. cit., pp. 98-100.

5. Ibid. pp. 99-100.

6. Phone call between Jim Sterling and Warren B. Smith.

7. Have Heart, op. cit., p. 100.

8. Ibid., pp. 104, 107.

9. The Berean Call, Questions and Answers (January 1, 2012, https://www.thebereancall.org/content/january-2012-q-and-a-1) citing page 102 of Have Heart.

10. https://promisekeepers.org/about-us/our-leaders.

11. Michelle Bachmann is a co-chair of Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast. On Berger’s website, he states he is a board member: https://steveberger.org/book-steve.

12. https://www.facebook.com/reel/219670397537032.

13. https://thereturn.org/thereturn-washingtondc.

14. https://churchleaders.com/news/452155-one-of-the-largest-pastor-gatherings-of-its-kind-a-recap-of-tpusa-faiths-pastors-summit.html.

15. Stated by Steve Berger on November 2020 at the Council for National Policy (the Policy Counsel Speeches) in Washington, DC. (https://cfnp.org/policy-counsel/november-2020). Scroll about halfway down the page to see Berger’s comments (or use your keyboard, click Ctrl and the letter F; then type in Berger in the search box that pops up).

16. From Steve Berger’s website in 2023: https://web.archive.org/web/20230327144948/https://steveberger.org.

17. “Corker Welcomes Tennessee Pastor Steve Berger as Guest Chaplain to U.S. Senate”: June 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYmAvE_QXSs.

18. This letter is on file.

19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRVHLFqFO3Q.

20. Doreen Virtue with Chris Lawson, “Pastor Talks to the Dead! Mediumship Apostasy in the Church” (June 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzy1Q1TZImM).

21. Steve Rusk conveyed this scenario to Spiritual Research Network and gave his permission to reprint it.

22. The Berean Call, op. cit.

23. Warren B. Smith, The Titanic and Today’s Church (Mountain Stream Press, 2020); also from Warren’s booklet, Dead Men Talking: Necromancy in the Church (Roseburg, OR: Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2021, https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/new-booklet-dead-men-talking-necromancy-in-todays-church). The quote is from James Redfield, The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision (New York, NY: Grand Central publishing, 2011), p. 179.

24. Warren B. Smith, The Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace (Magalia, CA: Mountain Stream Press, 1992, 2005), pp. 16-17.

25. Steve and Sarah Berger, Have Heart, op. cit., pp. 88-89.

26. Steve Berger, Between Heaven and Earth: Finding Hope, Courage, and Passion Through a Fresh Vision of Heaven (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2014), p. 21.

27. Compiled and edited by William C. Hartmann (founder of The Occult Brotherhood), Who’s Who in Occultism, New Thought, Psychism, and Spiritualism (Jamaica, NY: Occult Press, 2nd edition, 1927), pp. 193, 238. Chris Lawson of Spiritual Research Network (https://www.spiritualresearchnetwork.org) discovered Rebecca Ruter Springer’s name in Hartmann’s directory. His website has extensive research and information on spiritually deceptive practices and beliefs.

28. Steve and Sarah Berger, Have Heart, op. cit., p. 100.

29. As a reminder of what Scripture has to say about necromancy consider the following two points:

• The Old Testament in more than one occasion exposes the error of consulting with the dead and provides an unquestionable warning against it, identifying it as an abomination to God, where it says, “There shall not be found among you any one [i.e., without exception] that . . . [is] a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Also see Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Ecclesiastes 9:5, Leviticus 20:27 (uses word “wizard,” which in Hebrew means necromancer).
• In the New Testament, Jesus clearly negates the practice of speaking/consulting with the dead in His account of Lazarus and the rich man (see Luke 16:19-31). In this account, the rich man (now deceased) speaks to Abraham pleading that God would send someone from the dead to communicate with his family to warn of his torments in Hell: [I]f one went unto them from the dead, they will repent” (v. 30). Jesus declares this as an impossibility with the words, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead,” (v. 31). Jesus placed a bit of irony into this account because those who “hear not Moses” are the very same who practice necromancy forbidden in the above quote from Deuteronomy.

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To order this booklet, click here for SRN or here for LT.

Related Articles:

Interview With Chris Lawson: “Pastor Steve Berger’s Mediumship Practices”

Pastor Talks to the Dead! Mediumship apostasy in the church – YouTube Video

​“Promise Keepers and Necromancy” by Chris Lawson of Spiritual Research Network

“Normalizing Necromancy” by the late Pastor Larry DeBruyn

Steve Berger and Other Church Leaders Calling for “Repentance” and “Revival” May First Need to Repent Themselves

(The image above of the vintage graveyard is taken from the cover of Dean Men Talking. The original image is from alamy.com; used with permission.)

Lighthouse Trails stands against any form of racism because we know that God loves all people and tells us to love all people, and the color of one’s skin should make no difference in how we are to treat others and regard them. That said, Manning Johnson uncovered the exploitation of black people by those who pretended to care about them. That was over 60 years ago, but we see the same thing happening today.

*Publisher’s note: To preserve the integrity of the original text, Manning’s use of the term “Negro” has been maintained in his book and is never used within the book as a derogatory term. photo: (1907-1959) Manning Johnson died at the age of 58, one year after his book was first released.

“Red Plot to Use Negroes” (Chapter 3)

By Manning Johnson

Stirring up race and class conflict is the basis of all discussion of the Communist Party’s work in the South. The evil genius, Stalin, and the other megalomaniacal leaders in Moscow ordered the use of all racial, economic, and social differences, no matter how small or insignificant, to start local fires of discontent, conflict, and revolt. “Who could tell which of these issues could start a general conflagration” that would sweep across the former Confederate States from Maryland to Texas?

Black rebellion was what Moscow wanted. Bloody racial conflict would split America. During the confusion, demoralization and panic would set in. Then finally, the Reds say:

Workers stop work, many of them seize arms by attacking arsenals. Many had armed themselves before . . . Street fights become frequent. Under the leadership of the Communist Party the workers organize Revolutionary Committees to be in command of the uprising. Armed workers . . . seize the principal government offices, invade the residences of the President and his Cabinet members, arrest them, declare the old regime abolished, establish their own power. . . .1

The only fear of the white Communist leaders was that as a result of their efforts, this black rebellion would break out before they were ready in the decisive industrial cities of the North.

What if one or five million Negroes die in an abortive attempt to establish a Negro republic? Is not the advance of the cause worth it? A Communist is not a sentimentalist. He does not grieve over the loss of life in the advancement of Communism.

This plot to use the Negroes as the spearhead, or as expendables, was concocted by Stalin in 1928, nearly ten years after the formation of the world organization of Communism. Prior to this time, the periodic Moscow gatherings did little more than pass resolutions. Any credit for the change belongs, in the main, to a handful of Negro lickspittles like James W. Ford, Harry Haywood, Otto Hall, Lovett Fort-Whiteman, and Otto Huiswood, to mention a few.

They were the ones who, again and again, begged their masters in Moscow to force the white leaders of the Communist Party in the United States to organize and use the Negroes. They were the ones who got in on the ground floor of the conspiracy. They are the ones that history may well record as the political Uncle Toms who plotted with a diabolical alien power the moral decay, physical slavery, and spiritual death of their own race.

The perfidy and frustration of these Negro Reds is all the more infamous when one reads from the pen of a top Negro Communist who wrote:

Prior to the Sixth Congress, white chauvinism [race prejudice] . . . made progress in Negro work well-nigh impossible. . . . White chauvinism manifests itself . . . in open or concealed opposition to doing work among Negroes. . . . The tendency . . . was to ignore the leading Negro comrades when formulating policy. . . . As punishment for their opposition . . . the older Negro comrades were refused support [financial] . . . in getting out the weekly news service which was being sent out to some three hundred Negro newspapers. . . .

[A] Negro comrade was disciplined for his insistence in bringing before the Conference the tabooed question of Negro work.2 (emphasis in original)

The above Red author gives James W. Ford credit for bringing this matter to the attention of the White Fathers in Moscow which resulted in immediate action. Negro Communists were given jobs in the apparatus. Most of them were given professional revolutionary training in the United States and Russia under direct orders from Stalin. As a result, Negro Reds began looking to Moscow. Stalin became the great and just “Father” who could be relied upon to settle the many differences between white and Negro Communists.

—

During the three decades which have elapsed since the Sixth World Congress in Moscow, the American Communist Party has conducted many campaigns and formed and infiltrated a large number of organizations among Negroes. From the bloody gun battles at Camp Hill, Alabama (1931) to the present integration madness, the heavy hand of Communism has moved, stirring up racial strife, creating confusion, hate, and bitterness so essential to the advancement of the Red cause.

One may recall organizations formed, directed, controlled, and led by Reds and fellow comrades such as: American Negro Labor Congress, League of Struggle for Negro Rights, International Labor Defense, National Negro Congress, Sharecroppers Union, the Civil Rights Congress, Negro Labor Victory Committee, Southern Negro Youth Congress, Negro Labor Councils, etc., ad infinitum, that exposed millions of Negroes to Communist ideas.

The list of sponsors, officers, and contributors reads like a Who’s Who in the Negro intellectual, professional, labor, and religious circles.

Through the aforementioned organizations and many others, Negro institutions of higher education like Howard University were penetrated to subvert teachers and students and thus politically contaminate the intellectual stream of Negro life.

White leftists descended on Negro communities like locusts, posing as “friends” come to help “liberate” their black brothers. Along with these white Communist missionaries came the Negro political Uncle Toms to allay the Negro’s distrust and fears of these strangers. Everything was inter-racial, an inter-racialism artificially created, cleverly devised as a camouflage of the Red plot to use the Negro.

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LTRP Note: Johnson’s book is an eye-opening and rare testimony and has many similarities to what is happening today. We encourage you to read it. If you cannot afford to buy a copy, please write to us at P.O. Box 307, Roseburg, OR 97470 and we will send you a free copy.

Related Reading:

Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention, and a Marxist “Solution” That Will Not Work

“A ‘source familiar with Trump’s security detail’ previously told The Federalist that Trump’s “detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS.” (from The Federalist, 7/14/24)

By Russ Jones
The Epoch Times

As gunshots rang out during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, Secret Service agents quickly formed a protective circle around the former president and escorted him off the platform to a waiting vehicle.

The shooter, who was killed immediately after the attack, was a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles south of the rally site in Butler. He had positioned himself on a factory rooftop approximately 130 yards from the Butler Showgrounds and fired a number shots at President Trump, with one bullet grazing Trump’s right ear.

A former fire chief who was attending the rally with his family was killed in the shooting. Two other rally attendees were also critically wounded. Click here to continue reading.

Photo from 2022; from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission

Related Articles:

“‘God bless Trump’: Israeli politicos react to assassination attempt” (Jewish News Syndicate)

Do Democrats, Corporate Media Have Blood On Their Hands In Trump Attack? (The Federalist)

Major Media Outlets Refuse To Call Attack On Trump’s Life An Assassination Attempt (The Federalist)

Democrats Started Trying To Strip Trump’s Secret Service Protection Just Months Before Shooting (The Federalist)

(Illustration by The Epoch Times, AP Photos, Shutterstock, Google Earth; used in accordance with the US Fair Use Act)

In this July 2024 mailing, we will be mailing out the following two booklets:

The Chosen and the Bible: Serious Considerations That Can’t Be Ignored

Neglecting to Test the Spirits—A Tragedy of Enormous Proportions

Note: These mailings cost you or your pastor nothing. However, if you have just added your pastor to the list and would like him to receive, in addition to this current batch and future batches, some of the booklets we have sent out previously, you might wish to purchase one of our 15-booklet Pastors Packs. If you do buy any of those packs, you can put your pastor’s name in the ship-to section of the online order form or our mail-in form. We will send you the receipt and send him the pack(s). Your name will not be included unless you request it. Your name will also remain anonymous if you e-mail us to add your pastor’s name to the free booklet mailing list.

For our readers’ information, below is a list of the booklets we have sent out so far:

2016
10 Scriptural Reasons Jesus Calling is a Dangerous Book (Smith)
5 Things You Should Know About Contemplative Prayer (Yungen)
Rick Warren’s Dangerous Ecumenical Path to Rome (Oakland)
Setting Aside the Power of the Gospel for a Powerless Substitute (Dombrowski)
Is Your Church Doing Spiritual Formation? (Editors)

2017
The Shack and It’s New Age Leaven (Smith)
Yoga and Christianity: Are They Compatible? (Lawson)
A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer (Yungen)
The New Missiology: Doing Missions Without the Gospel (Oakland)
Shack Theology: Universalism, TBN, Oprah, and the New Age (Smith)

2018
Israel: Replacing What God Has Not (Oppenheimer)
D is for Deception: The Language of the “New” Christianity (Reeves)
Mindfulness: What You May Not Know and Should Have Been Told (Kneas/Putnam)
Lectio Divina: What is it, What it is Not, and Should Christians Practice it? (Editors)
A Course in Miracles: The New Age Book That is Redefining Christianity and Fooling the World (Smith)
Oprah Winfrey’s New Age “Christianity”: Neale Donald Walsch, “God,” and Hitler (Smith)
The Jews: Beloved by God, Hated by Many (Pearce)

2019
Eugene Peterson’s Mixed Message: Subversive Bible for a New Age (Smith)
The New Evangelization From Rome or Finding the True Jesus Christ (Oakland)
Transgenderism and Our Children (Kneas/Putnam)
The Dangerous Truth About the Social Justice “Gospel (Danielsen)
The Big Picture: How the World and the Church Are Being Deceived (Smith)
Dominionism, Kingdom Now, and What Does the Bible Say? (Oppenheimer)
The New Age, Meditation & the Higher Self (Yungen)
Butterfly Illusions (Reid)
Broken Vessels for Christ (Ironside)

2020
The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? (Putnam)
Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention, and a Marxist “Solution” That Will Not Work (Editors)
S is for Social Justice: The Language of Today’s Cultural “Revolution (Danielsen)
Three Vital Questions on Navigating Discernment (Ironside/Proctor)

2021
The Titanic and Today’s Church – a book (Smith)
Six Questions Every Gay Person Should Ask (Michael Tays Carter)
Yoga: Exercise or Religion—Does It Matter? (Yungen)
Beth Moore & Priscilla Shirer: Their History of Contemplative Prayer (Lanagan)

2022
The Chosen Series: 10 Critical Concerns (Editors)
Drugs, Meditation, & “A Fully Developed Spirituality” (Dombrowski)
All for One and Theft for All—The Fallacy of the Social-Justice Movement (Teichrib)
Calvinism, Catholicism, or Blessed Assurance: Which One Will It Be? (Dombrowski)
My Conversion and My Journey Out of “the Holiness Movement” (Ironside)

2023
An Epidemic of Apostasy: How Christian Colleges Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to Become Accredited (Editors)
Global Revival or Global Deception: 10 Critical Warnings From the Titanic to the Church (Smith)
10 Scriptural Reasons Jesus Calling Is a Dangerous Book (Smith)
The Cross and the Marijuana Leaf (Nathan)
Israel: A Burdensome Stone to the Nations and the Apple of God’s Eye (Oppenheimer)
The Truth About Energy Healing (Yungen)

(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)

LTRP Note: The following news story is posted for informational and research purposes.

By Jonathan S. Tobin
Jewish News Syndicate

For some observers worried about the widespread perception of American weakness abroad, President Joe Biden’s shocking performance in last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump provided an easy explanation for the country’s problems. The disasters on his watch—from the disgraceful rout of the Afghanistan withdrawal to the war in Ukraine and the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel facilitated by American appeasement of Iran—have left American foreign policy in ruins and a world in chaos. Thus, the evidence of Biden’s diminished capacity on display during the 90-minute verbal wrangle can be seen as a reason why the nation’s enemies have been emboldened during the last three-and-a-half years.

But even if Biden is a liability, to the United States as well as the Democratic Party, the problem goes deeper than the president’s apparent decline. Click here

The following is from Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman’s book Trapped in Hitler’s Hell. Anita was a young Christian Jew in Germany when World War II began. It was her faith in Christ, and the Lord’s mercy, that sustained her during the war years, but she (along with all other Jews in Germany at that time) was stripped of something that most North Americans have always had … freedom.

From Trapped in Hitler’s Hell

“They’re here!” I gasped as I burst through the door. “The passports and visas are here.”

“Oh, thank You, Jesus,” Mother exclaimed softly. Even my sister, Hella, showed unusual emotion. Mother tore open the envelope and looked at the enclosed official forms, but her wonderful anticipation diminished as she read them. Her joy turned to a painful realization that only one of us had received a visa and a passport.

“Only Hella’s papers are here,” Mother sighed. “But they insist that your’s and mine will be here by the end of August. At least Hella can go free, Anita. We must rejoice for her and trust God some more for you and me. We can meet Hella in London.”

“Mother, Jesus won’t let us down,” I replied. “Pastor Hornig says we please Him the most when we have faith in Him. See what an opportunity we have to have faith in Jesus, Mother?”

The corners of her mouth smiled weakly as she set Hella’s paper aside. “I’m learning to trust Him, Anita.”

Since Hella would leave on August 31st, we frantically made preparations for her departure. Pastor Hornig gave her some money, surely taking food away from his family’s table. We wondered if God was delivering Hella first because her faith was so small that she could not endure any more waiting.

A faint signal on our radio from an underground station told us Hitler was on the move and might invade Poland any day. During the week, we’d been having mock blackouts in Breslau, which according to Mother spelled war. Without a doubt there would be a countdown from freedom for us before the war began. Only our trust in Jesus kept us calm.

August was slipping away so quickly, with no word yet. Each day’s mail brought only disappointment. Thus, the day of Hella’s departure produced a mixture of emotions: We were happy for her, but also conscious that our own papers had not arrived. As we bid her farewell, our tears of joy for Hella were mingled with tears of fear and confusion.

“Hella, you must thank Jesus for your freedom,” I insisted. “He has worked a miracle for you.” Hella nodded, but her heart had not mellowed toward Christ.

“We will meet you in London soon,” Mother said as she embraced Hella, “and our prayers will be with you every day. Pastor Hornig’s contact in London can be trusted. You do whatever they say, but don’t send any mail to us here in Germany. We’ll probably meet you within a month.”

The antiquated train gave a sharp whistle. Our goodbyes were short, for we were sure we would soon be reunited. Pushing forward to board the train were hundreds of frightened, fleeing people–people thankful for a new lease on life, but riddled with fear for loved ones being left behind–sometimes their whereabouts being unknown.

We all embraced one more time, and Hella turned and boarded, waving an enthusiastic goodbye to us. I took Mother’s hand as we watched the rest of the crowd board. A few minutes later the train jerked forward, then it chugged away until it was out of sight, but we could see its thick, black smoke dotting the horizon.

The next day Germany invaded Poland. Also on that day the German borders were closed, and Germany thereafter refused all mail from England. Our visas and passports were to come from England; they were in the mail but never made it to us. Two days later, on September 3, 1939, England and France declared war on Germany.

Mother and I were trapped in Hitler’s hell. But the trap had begun to close for us six years earlier, when I was a small child. . . .

The dance was beautifully performed by six-year-old Anita Dittman. Her skill and grace at ballet far exceed her years. Nevertheless, we Germans no longer wish to be entertained by a Jew.

Mother read the review to me from a morning paper she had found lying on the street. Her words, though spoken in hushed tones, reverberated throughout the house. They fell on my unbelieving ears and caused an instant flood of tears–tears of a child too young to grasp the meaning of such a word as anti-Semitism. All I knew was that my dream of growing up to become the world’s best ballet dancer had just been shattered. It didn’t matter that we didn’t understand why we were being persecuted. Jews, along with communists and other anti-Nazis, were not allowed to question it. Soon we would have only one freedom: to die. (taken from chapter one, Trapped in Hitler’s Hell)

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Anita passed away in 2020 at the age of 93. For many years, she spoke to groups throughout the U.S. about her experience during the Holocaust and about her faith in Jesus Christ.