**After reading this letter please “forward” it to your family and friends who you think might be interested. We have been updating our mailing list, so if you want to be removed just reply to this email and write “remove”.**

Greetings my friends,

I have copied below a stirring article written by Jim Baumgaertel, a dear friend and brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. As I was reading his article, it was as though a light was turned on in my mind and I thought….”this man is now describing and explaining to me our journey through Evangelical and Fundamentalist institutions when Carol and I became born again Christians”. Immediately I knew that my family, friends, and even my worst enemies needed to read what Jim has to say. Jim’s explosive letter is clearly a prophetic “last days” warning to those who profess to be Christians.

His words will awaken you from “sleep or slumber” if you take them seriously, my friends. Don’t be offended by that statement, for all of us, at times, go to sleep and tire of the spiritual battle with the fallen angels who politically and religiously rule the nations, including America. And we become weary of the war we have daily with our own carnal flesh and mind which war against our new hearts in Christ Jesus.

I have some close older friends on our mailing list who are Vietnam, even Korean and World War II combat veterans who can vividly recall how easy it was to let extreme fatigue cause their guard to come down. They remember well the encouragement and warnings they received from friends and commanders who watched over their very lives. Think of Jim as your friend in the foxhole you dug together. And know this, it is our commander, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is watching out for your soul and awakening you to the danger around you. Remember, our only way of escape from the seductive, hypnotic power of our sin nature and the fallen angels who stir it up, is repentance and faith in the shed blood, glorious resurrection, and pre-millennial return of our Lord Jesus.

Please visit Jim’s web site when you have time and read the other material he has posted there. You will be blessed, as I have been. I remember years ago when we first started our internet ministry, Jim was one of the first Christian men who sent a letter of encouragement and we then exchanged links to our web sites. After reading this letter and visiting his site, please consider sending him a word of encouragement as well.

Your eternal friend,

Jack http://www.BabylontheGreatisFalling.net

P.S. If you drop by my web site please let me know by signing the “guestbook” or dropping me an email. Thank you for reading this and I hope to hear from you soon. Again, if you have any interest in current world events, please consider reading my articles “The Judgment Chronicles” and “The Fundamentalist” posted on our web site. And if you want to read about my military background, please read the articles “Pacifist, Patriot, or Pilgrim” and “Moved with Compassion”. Just click on my web site link above and click on “Articles”. The radio interviews I have been part of can be listened to by clicking on this link: http://www.thebyteshow.com/JackHook.html
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The Evangelical Subculture

Two Different Conversions

When I became a follower of Jesus Christ I underwent two different conversions, although I didn’t realize it at the time. First, I was converted from my old life into the Body of Christ by reconciliation with God through Jesus. Hallelujah! At about the same time I bought into the Evangelical Subculture under the false impression that it WAS the Body of Christ. It took me years to realize the difference between the two.

I had been aware of “Christendom”: that worldly religious structure consisting of political and economic empires and bureaucracies, both Protestant and Catholic, that had fought religious wars and undertaken crusades to retake the “Holy Land”, that had burned people at the stake, that continued to preach false Christs and false gospels of works, and that continues to talk about the counterfeit unity called Ecumenicalism.

But I had not understood the nature of the Evangelical Subculture, that is a part of the worldly structure of “Christendom”. This subculture has its own organizations and institutions, denominations, parachurch organizations; its own magazines and radio stations and TV networks; its own schools and colleges and universities; its own celebrities; its own music industry and book stores; its own marketing and advertising worlds.

Like Joining a Club

The tragedy of the Evangelical Subculture is that people who have a sincere desire to follow Jesus get side tracked into a zeal for being a part of this worldly system. It is like joining a club. The club member begins to wear the clothes and trinkets bought at the “Christian” book stores; watch “Christian” TV and listen to “Christian” radio; buy the latest fad books that sweep the “Christian media”; subscribe to the “Christian” magazines; worship the “Christian” celebrities; use all the latest jargon promoted in the latest books by the celebrity authors.

A cult-like mentality develops among people who see this Evangelical system as identical to the Body of Christ. Their zeal is for the trappings of the subculture. It is its own religion. If someone tries to point out the unbiblical nature of some aspect of this subculture people will take offense because you are criticizing their religion. The subculture becomes the message. The “gospel” that people preach is for conversion to the system, not really to Jesus Christ.

The Subculture, Institutionalism, and Deception

The pop culture of Evangelicalism feeds on institutionalism, denominationalism, “non-denominational” institutional church organizations, and the professional clergy system. The professional clergy and their church organizations, in turn, find an indoctrinated constituency to fill their pews and programs. Both the subculture and the institutional churches turn a relationship with Jesus and his people into a participation in a religion and a lifestyle.

This Evangelical Subculture has played a major role in setting professing Christians up for deception. It seduces people to think and act like the subculture instead of reading the Bible for themselves and deriving their understanding from the Bible. It has been this subculture that has infected the Evangelicals with psychology, self-esteem, political action and social activism, unity at the expense of sound doctrine, mysticism, and cult attachments to gurus, movements, and organizations. Ultimately, the end of this deception is a merging of the Evangelical Subculture with the global counterfeit religious vision.

We ought to be content with the simplicity of following Jesus and being the Body of Christ together with those the Lord provides for fellowship, according to the teachings of the Apostles in the New Testament.

Jim Baumgaertel

Proclamation, Invitation, and Warning http://procinwarn.com/ jimbaum@procinwarn.com