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Chasing the wrong God? >

Stumbling blocks
Exposing the deeds of darkness, the religion of men and the folly of fools

Chasing The Wrong God?

It's a typical Saturday morning in Portland, Oregon. At 11:00 am. Five city pastors join together to stake out the "gates of the city" (the seven major entry points into Portland). Pastors Don Frazier, Mark Strong, Tom Baker. Bruce Boria and Frank Damazio Bible Temple, prepare to drive around the perimeters of Portland with a van of intercessors. Wooden stakes have been made with Scripture verses carved into them. They have been anointed with oil and prayed over all week.

Now the pastors and intercessors begin to travel to the seven gates of the city. As they do they repent at each stop for the pattern of sin identified with that part of the city, they then drive a stake into the ground as they pray for cleansing and revival. Finally, they serve an eviction notice to the principalities and powers in that area and claim it for Jesus Christ. It takes five hours in the cold Portland rain, but they believe they are making a difference in the heavenlies. These pastors saw themselves as the vanguard of end-time ministry.

Maybe the reader has never heard of Tom Baker or Mark Strong. But rest assured, this kind of religious nonsense is not relegated to the nobodies and the unknowns of Christianity. Pastor Tommy Tenney of "God Chaser" fame is part of this vanguard. He not only encourages Pastors to see themselves as gatekeepers over their cities with power to stake a spiritual claim upon them, he has demonstrated that he practices what he preaches.

The pastors who travel with intercessors and members of their church to their stake location will coordinate using cell phones and broadcast over a local Christian radio station. Over the radio station certain papers will be read, including Isaiah 62:1-9, the prayer proclamation and the stake scriptures. The prayer proclamation will be placed inside the stake. A shofar or trumpet will be sounded and the stakes driven in." David T Jehl, 2/26/98

Who's making up the rules of this game anyway? At least Mr. Tenney's fellow revivalists make an effort to support their error by perverting the Old Testament. He doesn't even bother to say this ritual is Scriptural. Neither does he try to justify it by way of supernatural revelations, visions or words of knowledge. Instead, he turns to the ways of the world for support.

It says that because: (I) unredeemed men drive "stakes" into the ground at the borders of the property they have "taken possession" of, and (2) because the old gold miners would "stake a claim" by writing their names on a stake, the Church can now do the same thing regarding towns and cities.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" 1Thess 5:21