James Holmes, and only James Holmes was the only 'devil' in the Colorado Theater, Mr. Holmes chose to do Evil over Good.

The Colorado Movie-Massacre and the Real Dark Knight

by Greg Stier

Along with the rest of America, I’m shocked and saddened at the mass shootings that took place in Aurora, Colorado, at this morning’s 12:01 am premiere of Dark Knight Rising, the latest and last of the Batman trilogy. As of this writing, twelve people are confimed dead and many more are in the hospital. My heart breaks for the victims and their families, as I’m sure yours does, too. I hope we are all committed to praying for these families and the recovering victims in the days and weeks to come.

I live in Arvada, Colorado, only 24 miles (a 30-minute drive) away from the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center. So this shooting hits especially close to home. I also am only 22 miles away from Columbine High School, where a similar tragic shooting unfolded just over 13 years ago. For some reason, the Denver area seems to be a haven for this kind of tragedy.

This morning I got a text from my friend and fellow preacher, Derwin Gray. He is a church planter and pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he is best known for being “The Evangelism Linebacker.” Derwin traveled with Dare 2 Share for two years, and we have grown a powerful friendship as a result.

Our text exchange was this:

“It’s crazy how shootings take place in Colorado.”

“I don’t understand.” (my response)

“I meant Columbine and now the shootings last night at the Batman movie.”

“I know. I just meant I don’t understand why this happens so much in Colorado.” (my response)

“I wonder if there is a demonic stronghold…”

My one word response was “probably.”

This little text exchange got me thinking. It got me thinking about another “Dark Knight” who ruled the heart of a gunman in Aurora last night. It got me thinking about Satan’s role in the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999, when he invaded the hearts of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. It got me thinking about Satan and the stranglehold he has in the souls of so many. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that this dark knight “comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” and he did just that last night. He used the trigger-finger of this twisted madman to steal innocence, kill people, and destroy hope.

Frankly, as brokenhearted as I am for the victims, I’m infuriated with Satan. I’m sick and tired of his twisted, anti-God, anti-life ways. Yeah, yeah, I know that James Holmes is the 24-year-old suspect the police have in custody, and the judge won’t buy “the devil made me do it” defense. But, according to Jesus, we can’t hate James. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love and pray for our enemies.

But in times like this, we have to hate someone, and the best person to hate is the worst...Satan himself. I hate him for the deception he unleashes in the hearts of so many. I hate him for the destruction he has been directly or indirectly involved with since the beginning of time. I hate him for his hatred of everything God and everything good.

I’m dedicating myself afresh and anew to destroying his kingdom through intercessory prayer, rescuing lost souls from his grip, and wreaking havoc amongst his demonic minions. Join me. Join me in this holy uprising against the unholy dark knight—that dark knight who once led worship for all of heaven and was the chief guardian of the mountain of God (Ezekiel 28:12-15), that dark knight who led a mutiny against the King of kings (Ezekiel 28:16-19), that dark knight who was cast out of the presence of God and thrown to the earth in disgrace (Isaiah 14:12). That same dark knight who whispered in Hitler’s ear whispered in another ear last night.
And I am sick of it. I am asking you to be sick of it with me. I am angry and I’m asking you to be angry with me.

So here is our battleplan against the dark knight who rages and raves against God’s kingdom and rips and ravages the people God created:

1. We are going to start praying with passion.
We are going to pray for Satanic strongholds to be torn down (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) and for God’s kingdom to be built up (Matthew 16:18). We are going to pray for the lost people in our spheres of influence to experience the hope, forgiveness, and transformational power of Jesus Christ. We are going to pray for our communities to turn to the only One who can rescue them from Satan’s strong grip. We are going to intercede on behalf of the surviving victims, the familes of all the victims, and for the gunman himself to experience the forgiveness of heaven (along with justice on earth in the form of a stiff sentence).

2. We are going to reach out.
The gospel ain’t going to preach itself. We must preach it. We must love those around us and reach out to them with the gospel message. Who knows? Your next-door neighbor may be the next lone gunman that does something crazy, stupid, and dangerous. In either case, you have the gospel message that can rescue your friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, and co-workers from sin and Satan, from crimes big and small, from a wasted life.

3. We are going to live our lives to the fullest.
We are not going to hole up in fear. We are going to live life in faith. We are going to live our lives in boldness because, for those of us who have faith in Christ, Satan can’t ultimately win against us. Hebrews 2:14,15 makes it clear that Jesus, "...too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
Jesus' death on the cross destroyed Satan’s ability to keep us afraid of death. How? Because Jesus destroyed death for those who put their faith in him. Sure we will die physically someday, but we will live in eternity forever through faith in Jesus!

On December 9th, 2007, there was a shooting at the YWAM center in Arvada, Colorado, a mere three miles away from my house. Two people died in this shooting. This hit especially close to home because the YWAM center is on the same campus where my kids go to school. As I was driving my then seven-year-old boy to school the next day, I asked him if he was afraid. He said "Yes."

I asked him, "What’s the worst thing that can happen to you?"

He thought for a moment and said, "I could get shot and die."

I asked, "What happens when you die?"

He thought and exclaimed with a smile, "I’ll go to heaven!"

I reassured him with these words, "Jeremy, as Christians who've put our faith in Jesus, we can’t lose. The worst thing that can happen to us is the best thing that can happen to us."

He went to school that day with a spring in his step because of the hope he has in Jesus Christ. You can do the same...if you've put your faith in Jesus. If you haven't, do so now. Go to www.gospeljourney.com to find out how.

Let this tragedy remind us to live life to the fullest, to pray to the max, and to reach out with a renewed sense of urgency. And let it remind us to live lives of love, drenched in the power of God and alive with hope. For it is these kinds of lives that will destroy the kingdom of the true dark knight. [1]

The Real Dark Knight is a Legislature which bars men from being able to protect their own lives and the lives of the innocent, even Jesus' own disciple Peter carried a weapon. How many people killed in the Century 16 Theater would be here today when law abiding citizens are allowed to carry a legal and lawful sword into the movie The Dark Knight?
Joh 18:10 Simon Peter therefore having a sword drew it, and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. Now the servant's name was Malchus.

Stop the Lucifer Lie!

The Lucifer Myth

By Obadyahu Benyamin

Who is Lucifer?

To many, religious and otherwise, the question of who exactly “Lucifer” is an easy one to answer. Lucifer is the enemy right (hasatan)? The theory that the character Lucifer is Hasatan has been a popular one in Christianity dating as far back as the 4th century. And not only within Christianity has this idea attained popularity, but within various occultist groups, particularly Satanism and Luciferianism, Satan and Lucifer are commonly used interchangeably. Many of us came to accept the idea that Lucifer was hasatan long before ever reading the one verse in Isa 14:12, the only place in the Bible which mentions “Lucifer”. What if we showed you, however, that there is no Biblical Character by the name of Lucifer; and “the enemy”, that is hasatan, is never, at any point in the Bible, referred to by name? Wouldn’t it be mind blowing to find out that the character “Lucifer” wasn’t hasatan or the devil? It would certainly destroy the doctrinal principles of religions which have sprung off the theoretical foundation that Lucifer is “the devil” – especially those which deem their leaders infallible. Well, brace yourself, because we are going expose this myth for what it is! A few things worth noting before we start:

•Lucifer is never directly or indirectly called Satan, nor is the word Satan ever found in Isaiah 14.

•Despite all the NT’s reference to hasatan, there is never a quote from Isa 14 to substantiate their position on Satan.

• Isa 14:12 is the ONLY place the word “Lucifer” is EVER used in the Tanakh.

Now let’s begin!

Lucifer is NOT a Name:

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (KJV)

First and foremost the word in the actual Hebrew text (that is translated as Lucifer) is the word haylel (הילל) which means morning star. Coincidently, the Latin word “Lucifer” has the meaning of “morning star”, and is defined as the following on the Google online dictionary:

morning star: a planet (usually Venus) seen just before sunrise in the eastern sky

So definitively Lucifer and Haylel have the same meaning (implicitly), however there is one major problem. Lucifer is a translation, not a transliteration. Proper names are transliterated NOT translated. This is a simple indication that the word Haylel is not a proper name, nor was lucifer intended to be viewed as a proper name in its original usage. Also, when we look in the Latin Vulgate’s version of 2 Pe 1:19, the Greek word for morning-star (phosphoros) is translated as lucifer, indicating that the word lucifer was never intended to be understood as a proper name:

For More:

Even the writers of the Catholic Encyclopedia admit the parable is “expressly directed” towards the King of Babel – so why the Lucifer translation? Can anybody say tradition? The Catholic Encyclopedia

claims it to have a “deeper significance”; hence this permits them to apply it to hasatan, even though it contradicts the context of the passage. They’ve admitted themselves, however, that there is no other basis, besides the tradition of the “early Fathers” and later Catholic Commentators, for interpreting Isa 14:12 as an address to hasatan! The verse they cited, which allegedly corresponds with Isa 14:12, Luke 10:18, does not quote Isa 14:12, nor does it say Lucifer, Haylel, or any of the like. Notice, the Master says “I saw Satan” not “I saw Lucifer/Haylel” etc…

Luk 10:18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan falling out of the heaven as lightning. The NT does give us an image of hasatan being cast out of Heaven – no doubt about that. But it never says it was specifically because of pride (as the King of Babel), or trying to be like HaShem (as the King of Babel). Hasatan could have been cast to earth for any sin; but neither the NT nor OT specify what that sin was. Nor does the NT, in all its references, ever cite Isa 14 as the basis for the hasatan’s fall. The Bible has the tendency to be silent concerning the specifics in heavenly matters; and it probably does so for a reason, being that not all heavenly things are to be revealed to humans (2 Cor 14:12).

Conclusion

The fact is, though hasatan did fall from Heaven, we don’t know what sin caused this fall; and we have subconsciously accepted philosophies about hasatan, which don’t actually reflect the Biblical account, rather, the tradition of man! Was there an ulterior motive behind this? Possibly! A whole Luciferian Religion (the worship of self and satan) has sprung off a Christian error! Numerous groups, have used this misrepresentation of “lucifer” to build religions – some even claiming themselves to be Messiahs or worldly representations of God on earth. Showing this error, however, reveals the fallible nature of many of these self-proclaimed Messiahs and Priests and sends a humbling blow to the heart of their followers. Our brothers originally believed and taught that Isa 14:12 was an address to hasatan, in ignorance; however, upon knowledge of the truth we immediately adjusted. This was simple for us though because no one here claims to be infallible, where Biblical knowledge is concerned; and we are constantly adjusting and perfecting our knowledge. What one may notice is that many groups who, associate divinity/infallibility with their leaders, and/or the KJV (and any other Text which falsely translates haylel as “Lucifer”), will be extremely reluctant to accept this simple error, and will become immediately defensive of their congregation and this tradition. Our advice is to avoid these groups at all cost.

The Book of proverbs emphatically shows that one’s wisdom is dictated by their ability to learn from mistakes, make corrections, and be corrected, not the inability to make mistakes and/or be corrected. Only fools are not subject to correction and reproof. Assemblies who will continue to perpetuate this Lucifer lie, after knowledge of this clear evidence, represent the fool in proverbs. Lucifer is not hasatan, nor is it a proper name, but an honorific title given to the King of Babel meaning morning

star – plain and simple. Stop the Lucifer Lie! [2]

Shalom aliekhem

Obadyahu Benyamin