Overcoming By The Word Of Testimony

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Revelation 12:11

Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?

Clarence Odbody, "It's A Wonderful Life"

We live in a day and age in which Jesus our Lord told us that the love of many will wax cold, evil men will wax worse and worse, and the consciences of many will be seared and therefore utterly amoral. False prophets are arising everywhere and deceiving many. And of course the personal cost suffered by those who've been deceived, as well as so many others, is never going to be at the top of the media rolodex or in their PalmPilot memos. If glittering fashion plates and wise mentoring types present their spiritual poison served up in the form of a Cutting Edge or a Next New Thing or a Breakthrough Quantum leap, so much the better. They lap it up like cats around milk. The media inures itself to responsibility or consideration of the shattering of souls their careless blather leads many into but not through for the sake of their ratings and revenue. And the advance of this kind of hardening of hearts is going to be found everywhere.

That's why revelation of the nefarious doings of cult leaders, false teachers and heretics everywhere has to be done. Some one has to confront the evil for the sake of the good, for the glory of God, for the freedom of those captive by it.

Which is why we've pointed out - among other things - how Gwen Shamblin, leader of the Remnant Fellowship cult, continues to razzle dazzle the media with her "weight loss" draped in the silken cloak of personal fulfillment to disguise it's ugly iron fist that she uses to control others. Earlier this year, she managed to wangle her way onto the Tyra Banks Show to attempt creating an infomercial through the show to advertise her gospel of weightloss. If you got time, you can see how fiercely RF operatives hijacked a comments forum on Banks' website about the show here to see how seriously they take their media "outreach." Blech.

No one can exactly point to Tyra Banks as an objective commentator of our times. Her ditzy presence is only going to reflect the values of what matters to most of the sensationalizing media out there. She's a fashion model whose show gravitates around her take on the topics that matter most to her target audience: sexual controversy, body image, and of course whether her breasts are real or not. That lowest common denominator is what she shares with NBC, Fox News, and the other media meisters out there - the allure of weight loss mingled with spirituality that disses the norm which, if presented properly, props up ratings. They don't care about victims when the sponsors want a return on their dollars. Their pretense at "professionalism" is nothing less than a very real whoring with a Gwenzebel who stands in the bullseye of God's judgment that itself will bring His judgment on their own heads.

That is why I have said what I have said on my article on the "fellowship of the bling" on the website. Some have asked me if Banks or the other media figures she schmoozes with are a paid agent of Gwen? It's possible. Any kind of unholy position in the conjugal chambers where culture and media do their lovemaking is not above speculation. Just look at "Dancing With The Stars" or the lunacy of reality TV featuring Paris Hilton cleaning cattle stalls. Or the recently deceased Tammy Faye Bakker doing a "The Surreal Life" by living with several D-list celebs in a home in - where else - Los Angeles. 20 years ago, I would never have thought the late Jerry Falwell would have gone anywhere near the abominable mess that the Jim and Tammy and Jessica and David show at PTL created. But there they were. And then, the good Reverend was found sharing embraces with another genuine antichrist, the so-called "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon, who just happens to believe he's the Messiah.

What is surprising is that so many of the vicious detractors of the Evangelical right so totally failed to raise this peculiar bit of "network building." So nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God ..

Seriously, I don't think Gwen earned money from her shtick on the Tyra Show. Personally, I think that Tyra's own shallow curiosity is what impelled her to bring that looney tune cult leader and her coterie onstage to show the world how to eat french fries and gape at before and after pictures. I think that the ubiquitous and endlessly reiterated "before/after" testimonies and pictures are what Tyra, whose battle with the bulge has gotten her a lot of unwanted attention which she's publicly smarted over, got ensnared by.

In the midst of it all, the stories about the abuses Shamblin and her ilk have wrought on so many lives were obviously unheard from. And sadly there will always be the terrifyingly shallow and/or undiscerning people who will uncritically accept whatever they are told and just believe what is told to them. They are the ones for whom the media whoredom with Gwen will spell their spiritual ruination. Steve, one of our ministry associates, sent Joy and I a videotape of the show. It was indeed pretty nauseating. Joy and I could barely stomach watching it. I think it is potentially one of the worst and most egregious examples of media irresponsibility yet.

Watching Gwen lead adult men and women in a one hour dog and pony show jumping them through the hoops she created was absolutely infuriating. They all followed the same game plan they've been doing for years when dealing with those outside their group who they want to bewitch with their siren song and got to do it on perhaps the one place they could have done the most damage - targetting Tyra's national audience of twentysomething young women who are fresh meat for the image and fashion-driven culture of the day that Shamblin so totally exploits for her cult recruitment.

The broadcast shows that RF has learned how to lure its audience with a far more nuanced approach. The preachiness is still there, but as presented, it's more self-centered then ever, focusing on what the "pure" achieved with their familiarly manic energy. Gwen's prophetic mantle now appears to be woven with finer fabric and bigger hair than ever before. She's never been big on sackcloth and ashes anyway. Her fundamentally warped and domineering spirit of manipulation still shines through, but she shamelessly dazzles on as the humble, unassuming "Ms. Gwen" on the broadcast. Everyone in her orbit who "testified" knew the talking points to hit on, and of course, Jesus was given his five seconds of visibility on the show.

The big push on the free WDW webcast held a few days later - prominently advertised on the WDW website which was visited by a new crop of potential recruits - was for members to press on through WD classes to the WD Advanced courses where, the "pure" on the broadcast proclaimed, they had their "Aha" moment. That is the demonic snare that they want to spread.

The preaching and high pressure gloom and doom message of the WDA perspective is pretty burnt in my mind, and it's that kind of Zion absolutism that they want people to get ensnared by. And they now are doing it more sweetly then ever.

But I think, finally, in the end of it all, Tyra's public refusal to endorse the WDW and RF at the
end of the show may have really been a very good thing, and her use of the "C" word (CULT) just as casually as she did lifted enough red flags to warn a lot of people. The Spiritwatch website really showed a HUGE spike on the day of the broadcast, so I can hope that this little question may have snapped a lot more than we realize to see what RF really is. And we are certain that it is what we presented on the website about Remnant that got a LOT of that attention.

As the old book says, the true saints of God will overcome even Satan himself "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." We've all enjoyed the first deliverance, we're still telling the story of the second part, and by the end of our days on this sorrowful old world, we'll have shown ourselves true to the principles of the Kingdom of God. Our lives are to be lived for the service of God's Kingdom - there's a whole world of wonderful ministry, sharing, labor and outreach to others we can yet offer while we still have time. That's why we and so many others who have helped Spiritwatch Ministries do what we do.

The testimony of those who've suffered the tender mercies of Remnant authoritarianism is telling the real story. And it's online 24/7 .. year round .. and it is being watched and listened to. I believe that in the end, when the books of life at the Bema Seat of Christ are opened that we will at long last see the accounting of just how many people potentially were turned ASIDE from RF because of their identifying with and being touched by what we've featured here. That's why Gwen and her cult hate this website so bad, that's why they keep trying to shut it down again and again. She can't shut that off.

Won't it be exciting for you to meet at the dawn of the Eternal Future for God's people, at that dinner table supper with the Lamb, someone across the table will tell you how your testimony about how Christ touched your life helped them overcome not just the trap doors of RF but other things you could scarcely imagine? We always get emails and calls from people who say how our ministry has sent into their lives a thought or a word that spoke to them and blessed them with light that helped snap the spell of a Shamblin or the web spun by another false teacher.

We are humbled to have had a small part in this since all of our lives always touch others in ways we can never fully appreciate, and the Internet is a powerful way of doing that. We may never meet them all here, but in that Day of Days, I believe we will.

agape

rafael