the Spirit Watch
OUR MISSION:Lighting Candles In The Darkness
IN CHATTANOOGA: another class convenes for yet another seven week course of instruction in metaphysics, tarot card reading, numerology and astrology to enable students to "find their own connection and get their own answers."
IN KNOXVILLE: young people meeting in a Bible study group for UT students smother a prospect with positive regard, concern and attention. Later, the prospect will be required to confess his sins in excruciating detail to prove his willingness to "go all the way for God."
IN BENTON: two van loads of people from Cleveland arrive at a local place of worship to assist the new work's progress in the task of preaching "the gospel of the kingdom" throughout all of Polk County - a job they will repeat every three months or so.
IN DAYTON: a housewife who called for a free video offer on a toll free number advertised on the TNT cable network finds two earnest young men on her door step a few days later, and finds herself being introduced to "another testament of Jesus Christ."
IN CLEVELAND: a young couple are sternly rebuked from the pulpit by their pastor before the entire congregation for not having enough of the Spirit to be in church the following Sunday night. They are ordered to enter into a fast to demonstrate their repentance.
IN ATHENS: an elderly couple weep recounting how their son abandoned the Christian heritage they gave him, a decision he made after studying best selling books that "prove" that Christianity is a mythological, abusive belief system based upon church-sponsored fables
The Tennessee Valley and surrounding regions are certainly one of the most spiritually vital places in the world today, from the perspective of Christianity. Literally hundreds of churches are scattered here from Sweetwater to Lafayette, from Dayton to Blue Ridge. It can lay claim to being the "buckle" of the Bible Belt, a place where faith and religious conviction is fervent and deep. We should rejoice that despite our weaknesses, the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel does take place regularly. Certainly, the Church is greatly blessed here.
But one of the harshest of realities in life has a firm foothold here. It routinely seduces hundreds, even thousands in our region into a lifestyle based upon deception through the best of intentions. Through the zeal of well meaning and well convinced people on a mission to shed the light of their answer, their vision, this cruel bondage of mind and heart is being spread in every way possible. They'll use magazines in laundromats, bookstands at WalMart, educational programming on PBS and Cable In The Classroom, tracts in hospital waiting rooms, and eye-catching ads on TV and radio. Most often, it is through the shared testimony, implied wisdom, and observed lifestyle of these same people that their greatest influence is wrought - at the cost of broken families, marriages, ruined lives, and shattered souls.
Such people are members of destructive cults and advocates of antichristian worldviews who have become unwitting advocates of unhealthy spirituality and bogus philosophy . Largely unseen or overlooked, these virtual preachers have become a very serious problem that daily confront hundreds of people with well-packaged versions of the "Truth" which deny the Christian faith. Many unchurched as well as church-going people are deceived into accepting their claims on face value, thinking that they've really found the answer to their questions and problems. Tragically, many of them do so trying to gain a new source of understanding and spiritual life and instead find religious legalism, and authoritarian manipulation, and others descend into benign yet self-occupied lives of skepticism or mystical bent, blasting Christian absolutes as crass, intolerant fables.
The problem is very real, very close to home, and is not going to go away. In fact, it will come looking for you - it's highly likely that you may already know friends and even loved ones who may have gotten involved or affected by their new found "truth" . Arguments, threats, mockery, and heart-felt pleas by loved ones and Christian preachers have perhaps done no good; they remain committed to their new revelation. We feel that the Church in the Tennessee Valley has yet to respond adequately, and until it does, the "feigned words" and "fair speeches" of spiritually deceptive cult dogma and antichristian philosophies will continue to claim victims from among it's own pews, let alone from the masses who view it dimly.
That is why we exist.
Spiritwatch Ministries, formally called the Tennessee Valley Bible Students Association (TVBSA) are an effort at providing Christian discernment ministry. We have been commissioned by the Holy Spirit since 1993 to serve the Church and the world by countering the influence and spread of spiritually deceptive and religiously abusive groups that exist in the Tennessee Valley. Our two-fold mission is to redeem and restore the spiritually deceived, and to edify and equip the Church in the Eastern Tennessee region to do the same.
We accomplish this in several ways:
Christian outreach through dialogue, visitation, and personal work
Teaching through small home and group studies
and seminars in civic and church settings
help demonstrate Biblical discernment.
Caring support groups help bring healing
as well as online counsel by chat/e-mail.
research from credible, solid documentation,
and sound, balanced resources help bring light.
above all, however ..
PRAYER STILL CHANGES THINGS!
Intercessory prayer - James 5:16 In Action
As a member of the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) coalition, we actively and interdenominationally network with other Christians, churches, and countercult organizations to help us fulfill our mission. Our fundamental principles for this work are found in Jude 3 and Ephesians 4:15 - we are contending for the Faith by speaking the Truth in love.
We are available to serve you in the name of the Lord!
Seminars, ministry opportunities, confidential and caring counseling and free literature on spiritual and philosophical deception is available for the asking. Contact the ministry by e-mailing us , or write:
Spiritwatch Ministries
P.O. Box 5445
Cleveland, TN, 37312
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