Beware of Joseph Farrah and Joe Kovacs

Over the past few years there has been an individual providing me information about Joseph Farrah and Joe Kovacs and the Armstrongism heresy.  I get lots of bits and pieces, but collecting it all and making a cohesive article would take too much time since I have no real background knowledge.  I asked the individual if he would consider writing a guest article with all the information he has, and he said he would consider it sometime.  I know he’s busy so I don’t expect anything anytime soon!  At any rate, today’s weekly email from Don Veinot of Midwest Christian Outreach included the item below, which I think gives enough information about these guys to be able to mark and avoid them.  Oh, and I dropped WND as a news source years ago because I found them to have too much sensationalism.

Shocked by WND’s Heresy?

Joseph Farrah of WorldNetDaily (WND) represents himself to be a Christian, and to be honest I have no idea whether he is or not.  The attempts to contact him in the past to discuss concerns went unanswered but it appears that he is fine promoting and endorsing heresy if it nets him a financial profit.  Farrah’s Executive News Editor is Joe Kovacs, who also writes religious columns as well as books such s Shocked by the Bible and Shocked by the Bible 2 which WND promotes and sells.  Kovacs’ views are firmly in the camp of Armstrongism.  In a recent “WND Exclusive: Shocking Bible secret hidden in ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,’” which talks about Shocked by the Bible 2 he claims that films like Willy Wonka are being used to convey biblical truth. Willy Wonka is a Christ figure and:

The children in “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” are being tested by the maker of the goodies, just as the potential children of God in real life are being tested by the Maker of all things good, says author Joe Kovacs in “Shocked by the Bible 2.”

“This is exactly how Jesus operates, examining the hearts and minds of His own children and studying their actions to determine who is worthy of the astonishing reward of eternal life as members of God’s very own family,” writes Kovacs in “Shocked 2.”

Notice how clearly he states that salvation is something that is earned.  It is a reward given to those who are found “worthy of the astonishing reward of eternal life.”  There is very little in these books which would be recognizable s sound biblical teaching of the historic faith delivered once for all to the saints, but will no doubt net a fair profit for Joe Kovacs and Joseph Farrah.

Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

Horrible news this morning.  Thrivent Financial Services, which is the financial services for Lutherans (LCMS, ELCA, and WELS) has been funding Planned Parenthood!!!! [link gone by 7/14/18]  I’ve used Thrivent for life insurance for almost 30 years (from when we were still Lutherans, and it was originally Aid Association for Lutherans), and still have 12 years left on my policy.  I’m sort of stuck, since I can’t afford to start a new life policy at my age, but it you are participating in Thrivent and are able to drop them, do so!

The United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society still thinks abortion is okay is some circumstances, [link gone by 7/14/18] yet the circumstances they claim have been denied to exist for the most part by the medical field.  They talk of “reproductive justice” as if it is “justice” to murder the unborn.  Oh, they have the same lies and excuses promoted by the “pro-choice” (pro-abortion) crowd, so why do they claim to have a Christian view?  They are just like Democrats with a platform promoting “access to modern contraception” — as if there is anyone without access to contraception? (Like don’t have sex?)  And of course there is that demand for sex indoctrination in the government school system.  The UMC leadership has no concept of the value of life.  Apostasy, pure and simple.

Elizabeth Prata has a pretty good article about modern mystics who have “visions” from God; you know who they are— the “usual suspects.”  She also has a good article about the right kind of Jesus to worship, and He isn’t the sissified boyfriend version so many false teachers promote.

More supposed Christian colleges bow to the homosexualists.  Two Mennonite colleges will now employ “married” homosexuals (which is an oxymoron, since two people of the same sex aren’t married).  More apostasy.

Neil explains the problem with “affirming churches” — those who think we should forget that homosexual behavior is a sin.  It is really amazing how many “Christians” are  apostatizing FOR homosexuality!  Why don’t they do the same for fornication and divorce and adultery and prostitution, etc?  OH, wait, they already did!  Which is how homosexuality left Pandora’s box.

Mormons are always trying to get real Christians to “pray” about the Book of Mormon so we will supposedly get a “burning in the bosom” from the “Holy Ghost” telling us it is true.  But should anyone pray about the BOM?  Of course not; and here’s why.

Joe Kovacs is an editor at Joseph Farah’s World Net Daily, a Christian Internet news source, but he is also a promoter of the teachings of heretic Herbert W. Armstrong.  The problem is that WND has long promoted Kovac’s books, which mislead many who follow the site.  In 2012 The Berean Call reported on the situation, and reports now that there is no improvement in that WND still promotes Kovac’s material.  A sad thing is that when Joseph Farah was alerted this week by James Kieferdorf, Farah’s response was to denigrate The Berean Call and claiming the issue is just “guilt by association”!  Then he pulled the old “follow Matthew 18” for charges, which, of course is abusing that passage.  What is the problem with these media people that they can’t just acknowledge that they’ve erred in promoting false teaching they were unaware of?!?  So be careful of theology you find at World Net Daily!

Hip and Thigh has part 2 of their review of “Which Bible Would Jesus Use”?  Very interesting stuff, demonstrating the lengths to which KJV Onlyers will go to stand by their cultic teachings.

Lastly, Doug has an excellent article summarizing the history and some of the false teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist cult.

Thomas Nelson Publishers - Heresy for Fun and Profit?

The following article was included in yesterday's weekly e-mail letter from Midwest Christian Outreach apologetics ministry.  This information definitely needs to be spread around.

===============================================

Several were surprised last week as they read about the seeming lack of discernment at Thomas Nelson Publishers. I have said for a long time that one of the most spiritually dangerous places a Christian can go to is Christian bookstores. It isn't because the bookstore owes are evil but because there is an underlying belief that the books which are published by so-called Christian publishers and sold in Christian bookstores have been reviewed and approved as theologically sound. It ain't the case. In addition to the ones mentioned last week, Thomas Nelson has published WND author Joe Kovacs' book, Shocked by the Bible. Kovacs is a follower of Herbert W. Armstrong and as such is anti-Trinitarian, holds to a non-physical resurrection and  the God Family wherein we become of the same substance and stuff as God. WND in What's the most astonishing fact of the Bible? proudly quotes Joe Kovacs in an interview:

“I think the most important thing is the destiny of human beings,” said Kovacs. “A lot of people are aware that the Bible does promise eternal life for people who obey God; but the Bible does go well beyond that to tell us about an incredible, fascinating, fabulous future that we can barely conceive of and it uses the phrase ‘children of God’ and ‘sons of God’ and ‘daughters’ of God and it says that we will be above the angels, judging angels and judging the citizens of this world, and sitting down on the throne of Jesus Christ as the children of God.

“So that we will actually be born into the spirit world, not composed of flesh and blood anymore, but looking like yourself, composed of spirit just like God the Father and Jesus are composed of spirit, and be members of the actual Family of God; where yes, we’ll be immortal; and yes, we’ll be judging angels; and yes, we’ll be ruling from Christ’s throne. This is exactly what the Bible says and it calls us the children of God. God is having children. God is reproducing Himself after the God kind.”

Obviously Thomas Nelson can publish anything they want and if profit takes priority over orthodoxy at least they should be honest about that. WND though, is in the same boat. Joseph Farrah has been contacted on this issue more than once but has taken no steps to correct the problem.