New Page 1

Barbara Aho Blavatsky

"Theosophy, on earth, is like the white ray of the spectrum, and every religion only one of the seven prismatic colours. Ignoring all the others, and cursing them as false, every special coloured ray claims not only priority, but to be that white ray itself, and anathematizes even its own tints from light to dark, as heresies. Yet, as the sun of truth rises higher and higher on the horizon of man's perception, and each coloured ray gradually fades out until it is finally re-absorbed in its turn, humanity will at last be cursed no longer with artificial polarizations, but will find itself bathing in the pure colourless sunlight of eternal truth. And this will be Theosophia." H.P. Blavatsky.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, commonly known as Madame Blavatsky, was the founder of the Theosophical Movement. She was the daughter of Colonel Peter Hahn, a Russian officer, and was brought up in an atmosphere permeated with superstition and fantasy. As a child, she loved to surround herself with mystery and assured her playmates that in the subterranean corridors of their old house at Saratow, where she used to wander about, she was never alone; claiming she had companions and playmates whom she called her "hunchbacks." She was often discovered in a dark tower underneath the roof where she put pigeons into mesmeric sleep by stroking them.

Once, while riding a horse, she fell from the saddle and her foot became entangled in the stirrup. She claimed that she ought to have been killed outright before the horse was stopped "but for the strange sustaining power she distinctly felt around her, which seemed to hold her up in defiance of gravitation." According to the records of her sister, she showed frequent evidence of somnambulism as a child, speaking aloud, and often walking in her sleep. She saw eyes glaring at her from inanimate objects or from phantasmal forms.

In later years, Mme. Blavatsky claimed visions of a phantom protector whose imposing appearance had dominated her imagination. Her powers of make-believe were so remarkable that she could actually cause hallucinations in playmates by her vivid story-telling. In a nutshell, she possessed great musical talents, had a fearful temper, a passionate curiosity for the unknown, and an uncontrollable craving for independence and action.

At seventeen, she married General Blavatsky, from whom she escaped three months later. She then fled abroad and led a wild, wandering life for ten years all over the world, in search for mysteries. When she returned to Russia, she possessed well-developed mediumistic gifts. Raps, whisperings, and other mysterious sounds were heard all over the house. Objects moved about in obedience to her will. Their weight decreased and increased as she wished. Winds swept through the apartment, extinguishing lamps and candles. She exhibited clairvoyance, discovered a murderer for the police, and narrowly escaped being charged as an accomplice.

In 1860 she had an attack of severe illness. A prior wound below the heart opened and she suffered intense agony, followed by convulsions and trance. After she recovered, the spontaneous physical phenomena about her seems to have disappeared; she claimed that they only occurred in obedience to her will.

Again, Mme. Blavatsky went abroad, and, disguised as a man, she fought under Garibaldi and was left for dead in the battle of Mentana. She fought back to life, had a miraculous escape at sea on a Greek vessel which was blown up, and founded, in 1871, in Cairo, the Societe Spirite. It was a dubious venture which soon died amid cries of fraud and embezzlement.

Her ties to Spiritualism date from her arrival in New York in July, 1873. She first worked as a dressmaker and, after her acquaintance with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott at Chittenden, Vermont, in the house of the Eddy Brothers (famous physical mediums), she launched a career in journalism, writing mostly on Spiritualism for magazines.

"For over 15 years have I fought my battle for the blessed truth," she wrote in The Spiritual Scientist, Boston, December 3, 1874. "For the sake of Spiritualism I have left my house; an easy life amongst a civilized society, and have become a panderer upon the face of this earth."

One could say that the real starting point of her work was the founding of the Theosophical Society in December, 1875. It professed to "expound the esoteric tradition of Buddhism and aimed at forming a universal brotherhood of man, studying and making known the ancient religions, philosophies and sciences, and investigating the laws of nature and developing the divine powers latent in man."

Colonel Olcott was elected as Chairman. He was a tireless organizer and propagandist. His relationship to Mme. Blavatsky was clearly that of the pupil to the teacher. He did the practical, while Mme. Blavatsky engaged in the literary work.

Their joint efforts soon put the Theosophical Society on prosperous footing, but trouble was looming on the horizon. At the end of 1878, a small party of four left, under their leadership, for Bombay; soon thereafter, the Theosophical movement gained impetus from the publicity launched by A. P. Sinnett, editor of The Pioneer, who embraced Buddhism in Ceylon. The publicity, however, had its disadvantages, in that it got the attention of England's prestigious Society for Psychical Research. Dr. Hodgson was sent by the S.P.R. to Adyar, India, where the central headquarters of the movement were established, to investigate the phemomena. The investigation had a disastrous effect for Mme. Blavatsky and a nearly deadly blow for Theosophy.

Dr. Hodgson claims to have found nothing but fraud and extreme credulity on the part of the believers. People who joined Mme. Blavatsky confessed to manufacturing, in conspiracy with her, a large number of the Theosophical miracles and revealed the secret of the sliding panels of the Shrine in the Occult Room through which, from Mme. Blavatsky's bedroom, the "astral" Mahatma letters were deposited. They disclosed impersonation of the Mahatmas by a dummy head and shoulders and declared that the Mahatma letters were written by Mme. Blavatsky in a disguised hand; that they were projected through cracks in the ceiling by means of spring contrivances and produced the correspondence between them and Mme. Blavatsky in proof of their self-confessed complicity.

Dr. Hodgson's investigations lasted for three months. His findings laid to waste a prior report on the Theosophical phenomena, written in the December, 1884, issue of the S.P.R. Proceedings, which had been favorable to Mme. Blavatsky's claims. The conclusions, as published under the heading "Report on Phenomena connected with Theosophy " (S.P.R. Proceedings, Vol. III. 1885) were as follows:

"In the first place a large number of letters produced by Mr. and Mme. Coulomb, formerly Librarian and Assistant Corresponding Secretary, respectively, of the Theosophical Society were, in the opinion of the best experts in handwriting, written by Madame Blavatsky. These letters, which extended over the years of 1880-1883, inclusive, and some of which were published in the Madras Christian College Magazine for September 1884, prove that Mme. Blavatsky has been engaged in the production of a varied and long-continued series of fraudulent phenomena, in which she has been assisted by the Columns. The circumstantial evidence which I was able to obtain concerning the incidents referred to in these letters, corroborates the judgment of the experts in handwriting.

"In the second place, apart altogether from either these letters or the statements of the Coulombs, who themselves allege that they were confederates of Mme. Blavatsky, it appears from my own inquiries concerning the existence and the powers of the supposed Adepts or Mahatmas, and the marvelous phenomena alleged to have occurred in connection with the Theosophical Society,

"That the primary witnesses to the existence of a Brotherhood with occult powers -- viz., Madame Blavatsky, Mr. Damodar K. Mavalankar, Mr. Bhavani Shankar and Mr. Babajee D. Nath -- have in other matters deliberately made statements which they must have known to be false, and that, therefore, their assertions cannot establish the existence of the Brotherhood in question.

"That the comparison of handwriting further tends to show that Koot Hoomi Lal Sing and Mahatma Morya are fictitious personages, and that most of the documents purporting to have emanated from these "personages" and especially from "K.H." (Koot Hoomi Lal Sing) are in the disguised handwriting of Madame Blavatsky herself, who originated the style of the K.H. handwriting, and that some of the K.H. writing is the handiwork of Mr. Damodar in imitation of the writing developed by Madame Blavatsky.

"That in no single phenomenon which came within the scope of my investigation in India, was the evidence such as would entitle it to be regarded as genuine, the witnesses for the most part being extraordinarily inaccurate in observation or memory, and having neglected to exercise due care for the exclusion of fraud; while in the case of some of the witnesses there has been much conscious exaggeration and culpable mis-statement.

"That not only was the evidence insufficient to establish the genuineness of the alleged marvels, but that evidence furnished partly by my own inspection and partly by a large number of witnesses, most of them Theosophists, concerning the structure, position and environment of the Shrine, concerning "Mahatma" communications received independently of the Shrine and concerning various other incidents, including many of the phenomena mentioned in the Occult World, besides the numerous additional suspicious circumstances which I have noted in the course of dealing in detail with the cases considered, renders the conclusion unavoidable that the phenomena in question were actually due to fraudulent arrangement."

On the basis of Dr. Hodgson's findings, the Committee of the S.P.R. declared: "For our own part we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished and interesting impostors in history."

In many ways, it can be said that the joke was on the S.P.R. The Theosophical Society grew to become a world-wide movement, with thousands of followers. To this day, the Theosophical Society represents -- although not in her former glory -- a driving force of esoteric insight.

The publication of the report which followed the printing of the Coulomb letters in the Madras Christian Magazine, created an immense sensation. The first result of the exposure was that Colonel Olcott, whose honesty was not impugned by the report, banished Mme. Blavatsky from Adyar. The proofs of her guilt were overwhelming. The defense was built up with great difficulties. "Dark Forces" in the "Beyond" tending to discredit the Theosophical Society had to be called in for explanatory purposes and the case looked almost hopeless.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Annie Besant, who became Mme. Blavatsky's successor, and A. P. Sinnett valiantly met the task. Dr. Hodgson answered and insisted on his conclusions. In the literature that followed, a book, written by Solovyoff, in 1892, shortly after Mme. Blavatsky's death, is the most interesting, as it claims that Mme. Blavatsky acknowledged her fraudulent practices to the author.

Despite this barrage of insults and claims of fraud, Mme. Blavatsky succeeded in living down every attack during her life, continued her work, gained many new adherents to Theosophy and published a stupendous work, The Secret Doctrine, which was mostly written in a supernormal condition.

Whatever views the researchers had of Mme. Blavatsky, she was a most remarkable woman, who did possess psychic powers, even though they may have fallen short of the miraculous feats she constantly claimed for herself.

Having said this, I must state that much honor and recognition for the Theosphical Society's growth must be given to Annie Besant. It was she -- along with Charles Leadbeater -- who was very instrumental in promoting the wealth of insight given in The Secret Doctrine. Without her devotion and tireless efforts, I believe the Theosphical Society would have died a quiet death many years ago.

It is unfortunate that most of the phenomena surrounding Mme. Blavatsky were produced under circumstances wide open to suspicion. Furthermore, the phenomena was of a different order from those of the traditional Spiritualist medium.

There has generally been a rather wide gap between Theosophy and Modern Spiritualism, one which still seems to separate the two. Spiritualists tend to disregard Theosophy, while Theosophists tend to exhibit a condescending attitude towards Spiritualists. To me, this is very sad. As a longtime and avid student of both schools of thought, I find that, together, Theosophy and Spiritualism offer great insight into life's many mysteries; one really does complement the other very nicely.

To me, traditional Modern Spiritualism falls short of revealing esoteric truth, while Theosophy tends to shut the door on Spirit contact and communication. Each lacks what the other offers.

The story of Mme. Blavatsky is both very wondrous and very sad. Regardless of what one feels about her or about the movement which she founded, Mme. Blavatsky refused and still refuses to be ignored.

Books written by Mme. Blavatsky include: Isis Unveiled, 1877; The Secret Doctrine, 1887-1897; The Key to Theosophy, 1889; The Voice of the Silence, 1899; Gems from the East, 1890; From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, 1892; Nightmare Tales, 1892; The Theosophical Glossary, 1892; and A Modern Panarion, 1895.

Ruckmanite Barbara Aho subscribes to a form of the channeling ideas pioneered by the Blavatsky tradition in her embrace of the 'guided writing' claims of Ruckmanite authoress. Although Riplinger was debunked as a fraud when the CRI journal who proved she could not even read Greek, it has made no difference to Aho. Who needs to know biblical languages in writing a book on translations when you are "spiritually guided"?

The technique, claiming supernaturally guided letter patterns, is cabbalistic and is used by gnostics and mystics, which is most peculiar given Aho's disdain for things Jewish as many of Aho's beliefs are plainly from the racist Identity Movement. Who is the Ruckmanite spirit guide? Some might say it is same one who guided Helena Blavatsky.

What is the Ruckmanite cult?

Ruckmanites are a neo gnostic cult following the beliefs of Peter Ruckman. Ruckman (a three times divorced and remarried white supremacist who refers to Blacks as "niggers"), like his followers and as with most cult leaders has no formal training or expertise in the matters he pontificates about. Ruckman and his followers hold the 1611 edition of The King James Bible as authoratative and infallible instead of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and maintain that KJV additions are "further revelation".

Not all KJV advocates are Ruckmanites, Many, if not most, KJV advocates accept that God gave His Word infallibly in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek autographs, and the KJV is a translation. Some Ruckmanites claim to be only following his teaching and not following him. It is not an institutional cult with a formal organization, but a network of mini cults sharing common heretical beliefs and paranoidesque delusions. Ruckmanites are essentially 'conspiracy theorists' who seek to mix secular conspiracy theories (complete with an unbalanced and nearly paranoid style of speculation and conjecture they treat as factual) with Christianity. Ruckmanites combine their heretical view of the KJV as the directly inspired bible instead of being a translation, with racist ideologies often including white supremacy and more commonly, anti semitism, frequently borrowing their views from British Israelism, The Identity Movement, and in some cases Neo Nazism, neo facist Patriot militia groups, and The Ku Klux Klan. They draw their textual arguments from the debunked home economics lecturer Gail Riplinger (discredited by the Christian Research Institute as being illiterate in Greek, and whose outlandishness is rejected by more scholarly defenders of the KJV such as The Trinitarian Bible Society).

The British Israelite (Armstrongism)influences of Ruckmanism are found in the belief in the purity of the English language in scripture as opposed to Hebrew or Greek languages, because of their anthropologically and theologically abject assertion that the Anglo-Celtic nations are the lost tribes of ancient Israel in accordance with the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong and his 'World Wide Church of God' cult. While drawing on the influence, some Ruckmanites would deny being British Israelite.

Like all gnostics , Ruckmanites claim a special revelation only the initiated can comprehend.; others are viewed as in deception. Like the followers of Origen in ancient Alexandrian gnostic heresy, Ruckmanites claim a special gnostic revelation about scripture and try to represent this by a convoluted system of manuscript comparison as Origen did with his hexalpa, except that Ruckmanites usually can't even read the original texts. This gnosticism is evidenced in Riplinger's kabbalistic style textual jigsaw 'revelations'(very similar to the 'bible codes' arguments of Michael Drosnin, Paul & Jan Crouch, and Yacvov Ramsel) which she claims to have arrived at by means almost identical to what New Age ascended masters call 'spirit guides'. Another example is Ruckman's own doctrine that further additions to the 1611 KJV not found in original Greek or Hebrew manuscripts are new inspired revelation which only Ruckmanites have.

THE WATCHMEN WHO ARE NOT WATCHMEN

What Ever Happened To Matthew 24?On Your Walls O Jerusalem I Have Appointed Watchmen; All Day And All Night they Will Never Keep Silent. You Who Remind the Lord Take No Rest For Yourselves (Isaiah 62:8).

THE PROPHETIC WATCHMAN OF JERUSALEM AND JUDAH, THEN AND NOW
It was Isaiah who first prophesied God would raise up watchman concerning the forthcoming events in the history of the Hebrews generally, and their country Judah specifically, with special reference to their capital Jerusalem, where the Temple and Holy Ark were located - God's presence with them. As the events prophetically predicted by Isaiah unfolded we indeed see God calling the Prophet Ezekiel as the definitive watchman in the scriptural usage of the word (Ezekiel 3:17, 33:7), and it is Ezekiel that biblically most demonstrates what a watchman is and what he does.

But first we must note that it is not a term found in the New Testament, it firstly was an office for the ancient Hebrews. Therefore, although there are without doubt those functioning as 'watchmen' in the church, in order to grasp their raison d'etre we must first grasp their Old Testament nature exemplified in Ezekiel (the only individual specifically called a 'watchman'). We need to understand some of the differences between Old and New Testament prophets (which despite the license that cessationists effectively issue themselves to pronounce passages of scripture not to their liking null and void, still do exist in the church - eg. 1 Corinthians 12:29 & 14:32).

One difference is not that Old Testament prophets had to be always right (Deuteronomy 18: 20-22), but since 'we prophesy in part', New Testament prophets could be part right and part wrong. Such perversions of 1 Corinthians 13 out of all reasonable context is the justification people in the Vineyard Movement invented to justify proven false prophets such as Mike Bickel, Paul Cain, Gerald Coates, and Rick Joyner to still be considered prophets after they made God's people trust in a lie (Jeremiah 28:15-17). There is nothing in the grammatical construction of the Greek text warranting such a wild concept and nothing in the context even in an English translation. Like their cessationist opposites, these too pervert the text.

A prime difference between Old and New Testament prophets is that to have a prophetic ministry today even to Israel (or to any nation) one must be a saved believer whether Jew or Gentile, there were no saved believers in the New Testament sense before the Messiah. Additionally, Corinthians tells us prophetic ministry can also be to the church, which did not exist as such in the Old Testament. New Testament prophecy moreover may be purely for exhortation, edification and consolation (1 Corinthians 14:3), and may but need not necessarily contain a 'watchman' element in the Old Testament sense. Israel's prophets warned and called the people back to the Torah in repentance as well as encouraging etc.

The most essential difference however is that Old Testament prophets wrote the canon of Old Covenant scripture as the Apostles wrote the New Testament. Even the Hebrew prophets warned and called the people back to the Law, and predicted on the basis of things written in the Hebrew canon before them (Daniel 9:2); but the entirety of the bible had not yet been written, so there was further doctrinal revelation. Now that the canon is complete there is no new doctrinal revelation (Revelation 22:18-19), only a clearer understanding in the Last Days of what is already in there (Daniel 12:4). As we read in the prologue of the Epistle To the Hebrews 1:1 'God in times long past spoke to the patriarchs in prophets in many ways, but in the Last Days He has spoken to us through His Son'. Thus any predictive prophetic ministry in the form of warning as in a 'watchman's' function will need not only be in character with the prophetic watchman of ancient Israel such as Ezekiel, but be in accord with what is already revealed in both the New Testament and in the Old Testament as the Old Covenant is interpreted and fulfilled in the New Testament revelation in and of Christ.

Looking at the biblical character and nature of watchmen however we see that so much of what is being promoted as 'Watchman Ministries' are actually the mere devices of men out of character with the biblical model. Again, in the bible as we saw with Ezekiel, the watchman ministry often had particular although not exclusive reference to Jerusalem and Judah. It is therefore no coincidence that the first major example of New Testament prophetic ministry was by Agabus specifically concerning the plight of the believers in Jerusalem and Judah (Acts11:27-30). As we note, when God commissioned the watchman, he was also to be an assayer of the people. Ezekiel called the people to repentance and denounced the lunacy and deceivers who misled the nation. Thus understood biblically any watchman in Jerusalem today will be in that character - calling the Jewish nation to repent and accept Yeshua as Messiah and warn against the lunatics and deceivers for which Jerusalem is a virtual magnet. Today however there are unscriptural organizations sucking large sums of mission support from Jewish and Arab evangelism and the local Israeli congregations refusing to preach Jesus in Jerusalem to His own people. These include 'Bridges For Peace' (when biblically there can be no peace without 'the Prince of Peace') and the so-called International Christian Embassy with its notorious history of infighting and heresy and in one case violence perpetrated against an Israeli Messianic Jew while he was preaching the gospel by the embassy's Jim Schutz and threats by embassy personal on another occasion, that included hostility towards believing Jewish children during their 'Feast of Tabernacles'. God's Word of course teaches the only Christian ambassadors in Jerusalem are those who preach Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and no other.

A major Christian magazine, itself known for its endorsement of hyper charismatic extremism, exposed Ruth Hefflin's group on the Mount of Olives who displayed footage of women with "miraculous gold dust in their hair". A metallurgical analysis however revealed it was plastic based stationery glitter. Hefflin's miracle gold was exposed as bogus. Yet her followers seem to claim a prophetic calling in Jerusalem! Perhaps the saddest excuse for a watchman in Jerusalem has become Lance Lambert who teamed up with the most extreme example of Toronto style 'charismania' ever captured on video in the person of Mahesh Chavada. The antics of shirtless people yodelling and swinging swords in church yelling 'Prepare For War' in a manifest sons style ritual was the most bizarre demonstration of charismatic chaos imaginable. Chavada has in the past been associated with the Christian Embassy ( who have imported a variety of heretics into Israel including Morris Cerullo), but despite the protestations of many of his friends, Mr. Lambert joined his colleague Chavada in the Cranbourne fiasco. Biblical watchmen in Jerusalem, as assayers of the people, tried to protect God's people from lunacy and deception. While Mr. Lambert is misrepresented as a watchman in Jerusalem, far from protecting God's people from deception and lunacy he in fact joins forces with it. Whatever Lance Lambert may be, he is certainly no watchman.

Israel and Jewish ministry are breeding grounds for every assortment of 'kooks' imaginable, including false watchmen. Genuine messianic bible teachers explaining the original Jewish context of the scriptures like Arnold Fruchtenbaum and Dwight Pryor must contend with the competition from proven heretics like Joseph B. Goode and Peter Michas (who deny the Tri-unity of the God Head as One God in Three Persons). They are heretics who are ignorant of Hebraics and Rabbinics, yet represent themselves as Messianic Bible Teachers teaching Hebrew Roots, and are likewise seen by their followers as watchmen, but aren't. Perhaps the most notorious false watchman of this category has been Michael Brown of the Brownsville Assembly of God clone of the Toronto deception in Pensacola. At a Jerusalem messianic conference several years ago Brown interpreted the national disaster of forest fires destroying nearly a quarter of Israel's reforested land as emblematic of 'God pouring out His Spirit'. Brown then had people up half the night awaiting a second Pentecost in Jerusalem! Nothing of course happened, and not surprisingly Brown wound up a 'watchman' in Pensacola.

Finally, watchman were most of all as Isaiah stipulated, 'to remind the Lord' of His covenant promises to Israel and give themselves no rest in the process. The Covenant promise of course is the New covenant promised to Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31:31). The emphasis of a real watchman in Jerusalem will always be prayer and intercession reminding the Lord of His promise to save Israel (Romans 11:25). Some of the counterfeit watchmen today are influenced by the 'identity movement' deceptions related to the myth of British Israelism, such as are propagated in Northern Ireland by Elim's Jim McConnell at Whitewell in Belfast. Such nonsense of course is void of any serious biblical or anthropological merit and in certain cases its proponents are clearly anti Semitic. As such, these 'would be' watchmen are given to the doctrinal errors of supercessionism or replacement theology and the hideous notions of such teachers of error as the late Charles Alexander (other more moderate reformed preachers like Charles Spurgeon affirmed the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the Jews as did the Puritans). Therefore such people must automatically divorce 'watchman ministry' from its biblical context, which is first of all largely Judaic. This is simply not scriptural. Even when we apply the watchman ministry to the church, the same principles seen for example in Ezekiel must still apply or they cannot be legitimate watchmen.

The preachers who cried 'wolf!'
Another contemporary category of watchmen who are not watchmen is more painful to describe. These are not all necessarily wilful deceivers, false prophets, hyper charismatic lunatics, religious con artists, anti Semites, or heretics. On the contrary, most are sincere believers, genuine in their motives, and often people otherwise gifted for a valid ministry - which they should stick to instead of trying to play a role God has plainly not called them to fulfill. In the aftermath of the Y2K foolishness, we speak of course of 'The Preachers Who Cried Wolf'. These are true brethren who are naïve, lacking in discernment, and in certain areas deficient in spiritual wisdom and Christian maturity. Above all they proved themselves as not having the depth of doctrinal and theological grasp of scripture they imagined they did. I am not prepared to judge them or their motives. If their open folly was a matter of pride, ignorance, or just plain gullibility or some combination of these things I am not prepared to say. Yet, as we read in 1 Thessalonians, such crazy things created problems in the apostolic church at the close of the First century. This precise kind of foolishness continued throughout the church age from the Montanists at the close of the Second Century to Pope Sylvester's hollow parousia at the close of the 10th century when the second Julian millennium began, to the Munster Anabaptists at the close of the 16th century, to the Shakers at the close of the 18th Century, to the Millerites at the close of the 19th Century. Is it any surprise it has occurred again at the close of the 20th century? As Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said; "If we fail to learn the lessons of church history we are doomed to repeat the errors". Thanks to the watchmen who are not watchmen, we have.

It is no coincidence that many of these 'self proclaimed instead of God ordained' watchmen, such as Morris Cerullo advocate Grant Jeffrey, similarly went with the Bible Codes absurdity, and other such groundless fads. The real problem however is not as much with the watchmen who are not watchmen, but with those who continue following these fads. Sadly, this fad-to-fad pattern exactly mimics the behavior of the people who still follow false prophets with failed prophetic predictions of Revival from Kansas City to Toronto to Pensacola (the latest is Wykoff, New Jersey and some little town in Missouri) even though they know they were wrong the last time (Jeremiah 5:30-31). Concerning things like Y2K, there is in the secular world a certain unstable and insecure personality type identified even by secular psychiatric medicine with an almost paranoid predisposition to conspiracy theories. They piece together odd bits of vaguely related data and conjecture a grand conspiracy theory which they become convinced is fact and it becomes their obsession to alert everyone. I do not hold much belief in secular psychology, but this is indeed a compulsive disorder. This is not to belittle the kind of deception that exists in the world of global politics. Many very knowledgeable people never doubted the American government for instance conspired to cover up essential facts about the Kennedy assassination involving dubious activity by the intelligence community. This however was born out of forensic investigation and investigative journalism, not wild speculation.

The problem for the church comes when these kinds of people become Christians and retain their paranoid concoctions, repackaging them under the eschatological guise of end times biblical prophecy, and call it a 'watchman ministry' of some description. The Internet is literally loaded with such irresponsible rubbish. It is the devotees of such silly rambling that swallowed the Y2K foolishness.

I do not doubt that Freemasonry is demonic, influenced by Felix Weisshaupt's illuminism and is something no saved Christian should ever be a member of. Many of the most pivotal figures in the sphere of international finance, law and politics are Freemasons. But to argue vociferously as some do that a Masonic conspiracy exists to seat the anti Christ in control of the global economy is unwarranted. There are clearly plans of Satan afoot today with de facto conspiracies to reunite Christendom under the anti Christ institution of the Roman Catholic papacy. But this view is not based on conjecture, but rather published and substantiated fact. So too are plans to ramrod Great Britain into a federal Europe at the expense of sovereignty and some would say political liberty without what many people would consider democratic process. Events in Europe and the Middle East today are of tremendous prophetic significance and there is much going on of a conspiratorial nature. But investigating such things requires both a sound biblical position, and sanctified journalistic skills.

There are those such as Christian journalist David Dolan or University journalism lecturer Bill Alnor whom God has called to review current events with a biblical eye. But God has rather called Chuck Missler to biblical exposition and Barry Smith to evangelism. For me it has been a personal tragedy to see, among others, two such outstanding brothers make public fools of themselves, discredit their ministry, and eclipse much of the good they have otherwise achieved with a preposterous level of unfounded, badly researched, and unbiblical alarmism that only a low grade tabloid would publish. Their videos have gone out, and now the world is laughing at us, and Moriel is being deluged with complaints of people who feel misled by ministries we endorsed. In fact, Moriel promoted Dave Hunt's book on Y2K calling it 'mass hysteria'. While I felt no need to do so personally, I do not fault those who picked up a few cases of long shelf life food and extra batteries as a precaution. But Jesus said not to be anxious about what we eat etc., yet in open defiance of His command there were those preachers going around to churches delivering seminars promoting anxiety.

A watchman on Zion's walls would blow a clear series of notes with his trumpet that sounded a proper alarm (Joel 2:1,Jeremiah 4:5, Hosea 8:1, Amos 3:16). A cacophony of mixed notes tells no one anything but only generates further confusion (1 Corinthians 14:8). People look to leaders for clear, unmixed signals. Instead today they are getting mixed signals only compounding the confusion. When David Pawson's followers looked to him for a clear biblical direction on the last days deception of the Toronto Experience he wrote a book entitled: 'Is the Blessing Biblical?'. It gave just such a mixed signal, saying that the light was neither red nor green, but yellow - and concluded telling people to proceed into Toronto with caution. The light in fact was red. The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is self control (ekreitei), not the lack of it, and as true watchmen predicted no revival came from Toronto. The fact it was a mixture of good and bad indicated it was an impurity (akatharsis) proving it was not of God (Greek text of 1 Thessalonians 2:3), and the fact that it mixed true doctrine with error (parasouxousin) proved it was a deception (Greek text of 2 Peter 2:2). David Pawson himself watched the videos of Rodney Howard Browne and Kenneth Copeland yet, as Isaiah predicted leaders one day would, he tottered when rendering judgment while they reeled with wine (Isaiah 28:7). In these Last Days we don't need those who totter and send mixed signals, but watchmen who sound a clear alarm. Neither do we need watchmen who are not watchmen sounding false alarms. Several years ago Barry Smith issued a public statement distancing himself from my stated opposition to the Toronto Experience, as he himself had been preaching in churches that were into this deception, (although he himself was not). My argument was that Jesus never told us to make converts but disciples, and placing converts into Toronto churches such as Richmond Assembly of God in Melbourne, Australia was not biblical discipleship. Indeed, Jesus told the Pharisees that they went to the ends of the earth for one convert and made him twice the son of hell as themselves. Under Brian Houston and his predecessor Andrew Evans the Australia Assemblies of God has become a whirlwind of everything from the hype artistry of Hill Song to the heresy of Benny Hinn. It has gone almost as far away from the bible as Elim in the UK.

I say it not to criticize Brother Barry, yet I myself turned down TV programs offered to me in both America and Britain because I would not associate with heresy. Each day I ask the Lord not to allow the work of the Lord, as important as it is, to become more important to me than the Lord of the work, lest the ministry itself becomes an idol. The day I compromise biblical truth to get a platform is the day there is no further point in me even having a platform as far as God is concerned. Brother Barry stated in his published announcement about me that 'God called him not to criticize but to preach the gospel and to prepare the church for the last days'. When a gospel preacher places people saved under his ministry into zoos instead of bible-based churches, there is a serious deviation from God's bible stated standards. In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24&25, Luke 21), Jesus warned of Middle East events surrounding Jerusalem: wars, rumors of wars, pestilence, and increased famines and earthquakes once each. However Jesus warned of deception perpetrated against the elect and false prophets four times. He did not warn of computer failures causing widespread chaos even once. If someone is called to prepare the church for the last days, why do they not concentrate on alerting the church to the rife deception as Jesus said, in the very churches they preach in - instead of compromising what Jesus said for the sake of keeping a platform in order to concentrate on alerting the church about things Jesus never even mentioned as signs of the end such as Y2K, and making themselves look utterly ridiculous in the process?

Predictably, the most extreme proponents of Y2K mania were not Pentecostals, but hyper-calvinists such as Reconstructionist Gary North, D. James Kennedy and R.C. Sproul as well as the more moderately Calvinistic Jerry Falwell. The Post millennialism of Calvinism is one pillar of Dominion ('Kingdom Now') theology, while charismania and extreme Pentecostalism the other pillar. So too, Calvinistic determinism was a pillar of American slavery and South African Apartheid and it is one pillar of prosperity theology, while Charismania and hyper-Pentecostalism, represented by sensationalists like Jeffrey, are the other. It is therefore not surprising that both extreme Pentecostals and extreme charismatics were but one faction caught up in the Y2K frenzy, while hyper-Calvinists were the other. Worst of all was the virtual scare mongering of Michael Hyatt propagated with the assistance of James Dobson's 'Focus On the Family'. I have never had any regard whatsoever for the so called ministries of an anti Israel theonomist like Gary North, much less an out and out son of Judas like Jerry Falwell who among other outrages commended Korean anti Christ Sun Yung Moon (who claims to be 'Lord of the Second Advent'; eg. 'The returned Christ') as "an unsung hero". As was noted by Hank Hanegraaff, Grant Jeffrey has a track record that had already established him as a crackpot. But I personally however have always appreciated the ministries of both Chuck Missler and Barry Smith, as I have to a lesser degree appreciated R.C. Sproul, (at least for his anti ecumenical stance), and for their sakes as well I am very sorry to see the Y2K rubbish leaving them looking like a public spectacle. May the Lord provide the grace to prevent me from going off into the futility of some ludicrous speculation. When a gifted minister of the Word deviates away from the Word into a focus of his own design, he winds up reducing himself to the level of a crackpot. Here lies the unfortunate result, because both Barry and Chuck are not crackpots. Yet that is precisely what their Y2K antics have been left appearing to be.

Some of the Y2K crowd, for all of their outlandish folly and the damage they have done to the church and to themselves, are still our brothers in Christ (such as Barry Smith and Chuck Missler). They are not those impostors of the Last Days who are deceiving and being deceived mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:13 - so why did they behave like them?

The real problem however is not that their predictions of nuclear cataclysm, mass power failures, social and political calamity, huge air crash disasters, and a global economic meltdown did not happen (Italy spent only 1.5 million pounds on Y2K preparation compared to Britain's nearly half billion and nothing happened in Italy). The real problem is that when events that are truly of some crucial prophetic importance take place and the real watchman sound the alarm, the world and indeed much of the church will now think it is just another false alarm. I hate to say anything good about the devil, but he certainly knows his business. If he can use misguided Christians to engineer deception and mislead the church, what better pawns can he have? The Last Days are too serious a time and biblical prophecy too serious a subject for those clearly not called to it to pretend that they are and hurt the church. We must have real watchmen. Let us pray that the watchman who are not watchmen will display the integrity to apologize to the body and ask God to repair the damage done to the church's credibility and to their own.

THE FALSE MACCABEES RUCKMANITES, CONSTANCE CUMBY, AND THE CYBER-CULT
In Daniel 11: 33-35 we read what some theologians term a 'double prophecy'. Daniel makes a prediction of what Matthias the Maccabee and his sons John, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Yehudah would do in the face of the deception of Antiochus IV (known as Epiphanus) who slaughtered a swine in the temple, outlawed Jewish observance of the Torah, hellenised and paganised the popular culture, and set up an image of Zeus in the temple with his own features. He was of course a major type of the anti Christ and up to verse 36 of the chapter there was a historic fulfillment by this mad Selucid King. The anti Christ will replay the saga of Antiochus Epiphanus and recapitulate his deeds, then after verse 36 go even further. Like Antiochus he will achieve much of this by intrigue and deceit (we explain this on the Daniel & Maccabees tapes and video series). As at that time there were the Maccabees who gave understanding to the many, so too in the last days 'those who know their God will take action' when the covenant is violated.

I have no doubt that the Ecumenical movement is a prelude to the rebirth of Babylon the Great in Revelation and that deceptions like Pensacola are preludes to the Great apostasy of Thessalonians. With the current drive for a false peace with Islam in Israel and the reconfederation of the Roman Empire via a pseudo-democratic federal Europe, the juxtaposition of these trends and the constellation of events that result indeed are setting the stage for the Man of Sin which Antiochus, among others, typifies and foreshadows (explained in greater depth on 'The Judeo-Christian Understanding of the Antichrist' tape and video series). There will be those who know their God, will take action, and give insight to the many. But as in the days of Antiochus, there will likewise be those who join with them in hypocrisy and betray them (two of the original Maccabees were killed as a result of internal betrayal). However, we already see the embryo of this in existence. There are those pretending to be watchmen, alerting the church, allies in the cause of truth calling themselves 'Discernment Ministries'; but who are largely a collection of charlatans, frauds, and deceivers with their own agenda who already betray the cause.

These people have much in common and tend to imitate each other, akin to the conspiracy theorists operating along the same kind of line. They postulate things on the basis of conjecture, and those not agreeing with them are branded as false or even New Agers in disguise.

Constance Cumby, who herself has published statements supportive of Roman Catholicism, has attacked Dave Hunt. Kevin Burgess (a real 'cyberworld fruit cake' if there ever was one) has attacked Mike Oppenheimer, a Jewish brother who directs the Hawaii based TV and radio discernment ministry 'Come Let Us Reason'. Tex Marrs has attacked a host of good people including Dave Hunt. Two things seem to characterize these false watchman. The first is that they are 'would be' Christian academics who merely have theological veneers with no real background in any scholarly sense in the matters in which they profess expertise. One need not be an intellectual to be a minister or have discernment, but one must have the qualifications to know what one is talking about. Peter, in his epistle, left scholarly matters to Paul, and some scholarly matters Paul appears to have left to Apollos. People of this ilk such as Gail Riplinger, Barbara Aho, Victoria Dillen, Wendy Howard and Richard Engstrom would be laughed out of any academic forum, but sincere believers not trained in academic theology can be sucked in by their endless production of nonsense, often bordering on pure idiocy. The second thing that defines the false watchmen of this category is their ceaseless propensity to defame and slander true watchmen.

The foundational strata of these false Maccabees are undoubtedly the Ruckmanites, named after their patriarch Peter Ruckman, who is on his third marriage after yet another divorce. Ruckman holds the view that the King James Version of the bible is the only one authorized by God to the point of virtual heresy, claiming that even the additions of the 1611 edition not found in ancient manuscripts are further revelation. Not all of Ruckmanites agree with all of Ruckman's extremes, but they are all influenced by him. The worst of these is Gail Riplinger, who was debunked as a charlatan and a fraud when Christian Research Institute revealed that she can not even read Greek and that her academic credentials are not in theology or in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic manuscript analysis (basic skills as essential in bible translation as anatomy and physiology are in medicine, or mathematics is in engineering) but absurdity of absurdities, rather in home economics! Unfortunately, instead a writing a thesis on cost effective detergents which she may be qualified to do, she published an outlandish book on 'New Age Bible Versions', doing more harm to the cause of protecting textual orthodoxy from paraphrases, Roman Catholic annotated bibles, and the censored and politically correct 'inclusive version' (dealt with on our tape 'Bible Versions').

Let me state that Moriel and I have no problem with the KJV, I read it devotionally myself. And I respect how God in times past has used it. More to the point, who cannot value the noble heritage of Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Coverdale from whose labors it arises? I am additionally perfectly open to considering serious scholarly arguments from academically qualified Christian sources concerning their theories of Textus Receptus etc. (again, we refer our readers to our own audio on the subject). But these people will have no association with Ruckman or Gail Riplinger. The Trinitarian Bible Society as one example made it clear in print that they do not wish to be identified with her or her book. There have been excellent books on the reliability of New Testament manuscripts authored by reliable scholars such as F.F. Bruce and Dr. Craig Blohmberg. Ruckman, Engstrom, Aho, Dillen, Marrs and Riplinger however are not scholars. Neither are they watchmen. They are mere fakers who only wish they were and pretend to be.

Again the pseudo-academic pretense of these people is at times laughable. When Engstrom was confronted with my response to his nonsensical insistence that the New Testament did not use Midrash citing two known scholars (R.N. Longenecker and John Lightfoot), he reacted by saying only two scholars ever agreed with me (after implying at first there were none). Had Engstrom read Longenecker's bibliography before replying to me on Internet, he would have seen that there are at least 58, and not made a public joke of himself! Another case was Paul Fahy who objected to our critique of the Reformers as not having gone far enough and took exception to our views on the Judaic background of the New Testament. Among other things he insisted that Paul used Greco-Roman concepts such as a Roman legionnaire's armor, not knowing that Paul's usage was simply a recontextualisation of the Hebrew armor straight out of Isaiah 59:17 & Isaiah 52:7. He also asserted that he knew of no scholar who ever attributed Gnostic influences to Augustine, while every first year seminary student knows that Augustine had been a member of the Gnostic Manichean sect. While no scholarly source would attribute any credibility to such people, the average well meaning Christian unfortunately just may.

Along a similar line is hyper-Calvinist Peter Glover, who ignorantly equated Midrash with gnosticism, only to have it pointed out in the public arena that it was a renowned Puritan hyper-Calvinist theologian who first documented Midrash in the New Testament and wrote the first Midrashic commentary on the New Testament. Like Cumby who assails other discernment ministries while she herself is party to serious doctrinal error and ecumenical deception, Glover, likewise attacking other valid discernment ministries such as Bill Randles and Michael Penfold professes to be an anti charismatic/anti Pentecostal. Yet he himself teamed up with Patrick Dixon in an AIDS charity. Dixon is the most extreme and experiential of charismatics who is a virtual mystic and who teaches New Age experiences such as 'Altered States of Consciousness' as manifestations of the Holy Spirit and grounds for irrational behavior.

We again point out that while generally having the beliefs of Ruckman and Riplinger about the King James Version etc. and being clearly influenced by them, not all follow them to the same degree. Yet, Cyber cultists like Aho, Dillen, Thomas Lamb, and Engstrom with their Ruckmanite and identity movement leanings can be operationally compared to small time gangsters. They do not have the organization, crooked lawyers, money-laundering accountants, or power of a professional criminal. This is like what happens when the cyber cultists get access to the Internet. Most cyber cultists have no church membership, do no evangelism, discipleship or anything else biblically ordained as a normal aspect of Christian discipleship. Theirs is mainly a cyber church where like their paranoid conspiracy theorist counterparts of the secular world they carry on the latest conjecture and attack anyone not getting on board, once more only revealing their ignorance each step of the way.

One recent example of this was their aversions to 'The Star of David'. This aversion is partially shaped by the anti Semitism of the identity movement with which the cyber cult is favored. The identity movement in turn is influenced not only by British Israelism but by the misogenic Manifest Sons/Latter Day Rain heretic William Branham who held to serpent seed beliefs and cursed the Trinity. It is no coincidence for example that Engstrom's partner in the "US1" email network circulates email statements supportive of Branham.

In fact in Judaism, what non-Jews wrongly call the Star of David is actually known as 'The Shield of David' or Magen David and is not seen as a star. Its rabbinic interpretation is the configuration of the 12 tribes around the holy Ark sojourning through the wilderness. It was indeed a pre Christian pagan symbol in Babylon, Phoenicia, and Egypt. But only as the cross was a pre Christian pagan symbol in Celtic Britain and Ireland. The menorah, not the Star of David was the actual ancient symbol of the Jews (and is still the symbol of the State of Israel and the official seal on Israeli government legal documents). So too, the fish, not the cross was the original Christian symbol. The fish also had been a pagan symbol of worship of the fish god dagon (as in the Old Testament). It is a five star pentagram that is a satanic emblem, not a six pointed Star of David. Both these Christian and Jewish symbols had pagan equivalents. The Hebrew Temple had architectural parallels in pagan Egypt and the Flood Narrative in Genesis has a literary parody in the Myth of Gilgemesh and the Masonic Jahbalon is a trinity. Do surface parallelisms dismiss something as evil?

It is rather what the symbol means in a given historical setting and cultural context that determines if it is evil or not. The American manned space program carried project names like Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, but no one identified these project names with pagan deities or astrology or labeled them inherently demonic. Cyber cultist however, driven by a combination of theological ignorance and paranoia can do no other. Again, we are dealing with charlatanism. There are very good Christian researchers like Dr. John Weldon, Dr. Ron Rhodes, and Dr. Tal Brooks who are bona fide experts on cultic influence. There are superb Christian experts on the occult such as Dr. Curt Koch. We have an anthropological and archaeological masterpiece 'The Two Babylons' by Alexander Hislop documenting the influx of pagan symbolism into Christendom. The Ahos, Dillens, Howards, and Engstroms of the cyber cult however are not anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists or theologians. They are basically an unbalanced fringe element who are but false Maccabees posing as the watchmen they are not.

You have read about the watchmen who are not, now here are some who are. One thing the Body of Christ needs in these Last Days are true watchmen. We need people who are bible based, and who operate valid discernment ministries to alert the church and give understanding to the many, as Daniel predicted by the Holy Spirit would rise up. These legitimately help prepare the church for the End Times in the correct biblical sense. Among others (as of February 2000), Jacob Prasch & Moriel are pleased to endorse the following Watchmen ministries as true ones. We may not agree with every aspect of their ministry, nor they with every aspect of ours, but we stand by them as comrades in Christ's cause and we sanction them as honest and credible voices for truth and righteousness in an age of deception and compromise who are worthy of the prayers and support of concerned believers.

The Berean Call (Dave Hunt & Tom McMahon)
World Challenge (David Wilkerson)
Discernment Ministries (Jewell Van der Merwe)
Jacata Ministries (David Lister)
Believers In Grace (Bill Randles)
National Prayer Network (Mark Haville)
Belfast Berean (Mark McAlister)
Media Spotlight (Al Dagger)
The Sentinel (Jacky & Bill Alnor)
Vanguard (Siam Bayhro)
CWM (Philip Powell)
Eddy Cheong Ministries (Dr. Eddy Cheong)
St. Matthew Publishing (Philip Foster)
Intercessors For Britain (Ray Borlaise, Stuart Dule)
PWM (Clifford Hill & David Noakes)
Ed Tarkowski Ministries (Ed Tarkowski)
Spirit of 88 (Michael De Semlyn)
Living Word (Gary Hall)
Bread Upon the Water (Bill Brehm)
Christian Voice (Stephen Green)
Banner Ministries(Trish & Jon Tillin)
Light For the Last Days (Tony Pearce)
Take Heed Ministries (Cecil Andrews)
Come Let Us Reason (Mike Oppenheimer)
Watchman Fellowship (James Walker, Bob Anderson)
Personal Freedom Outreach (Dick Fisher)
Spiritual Counterfeit Project (Tal Brooks)
Alpha and Omega Ministries (James White)
Utah Lighthouse Ministry (Jerald Tanner)
Reach Out Trust (Doug Harris)
Discernment in the Church (Sandy Simpson)

Barbara Aho Alert

What is the Ruckmanite cult?

THE WATCHMEN WHO ARE NOT WATCHMEN