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cain, caleb, christine cain, commentor, false reporters, false reports, false witness, Hillsong, Hillsong Church, nephilim, scripture
Pastrix Christine Cain from Hillsong tweeted:
“”Then Caleb silenced the people…. ” (Numbers 13:30) You must choose to silence the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life!” – Christine Cain, https://twitter.com/ChristineCaine/status/277617043015090176, 09/12/2012. (Accessed 10/12/12.)
So is this scripture that Christine quoted telling us to “silence the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life”? A commentor responded with the following:
“@ChristineCaine Except that is not what that verse is telling us to do. Who said it, to whom was it said?”
Good questions. What does the text actually say?
“At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” – Numbers 13:25-33, (Emphasis Added.)
We don’t know about you but we didn’t see it taught anywhere that we “must choose to silence the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life”. Did you? Why is Christine making up her own theology from out of context snippets of scripture?
Hillsong Church Watch 
Because the Word is alive and God uses it to speak to His people in whatever they are struggling with or going through. I really feel sorry for you if you read the Word and don’t find fresh revelation in it every day. I pray that The Lord would open your heart to hear that His Word is alive and new and pertinent for whatever you are going through in your life.
There is a major difference between reading scriptures IN CONTEXT and ripping scriptures out of context to say something God isn’t saying.
Christine Caine should not be teaching using the scriptures like this. This is dangerous and only encourages young Christians to follow her methods.
Can you honestly think her approach to the scripture is fair?
First of all it is tweet, not a teach! A tweet! An encouragement based on a scripture which is easily understood.
It says, “”Then Caleb silenced the people…. ” (Numbers 13:30) You must choose to silence the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life!”
Caleb wanted the still the voices of dissent which were casting a negative light on the mission God had set for Israel.
The ten spies were sent to get the lie of the land so that they would know how to advance, not so they could panic, rebel and back out of the instruction God gave them to enter the Promised Land, which He had already said he had given them.
Similarly, if God gives Christians instructions to minister the gospel and they are beset by fear, doubt and unbelief, as the ten spies were, and as Israel were convinced by them, then they will never go into the places God has sent them.
Sometimes, when we are sent into places to preach, or minister, or serve, we are faced with obstacles, or opposition. These are times when we need to trust God’s instructions and press on.
So, yes, it is relevant to admonish the Church to silence any negative voices, including their own thoughts, and especially anything which attempts to prohibit them from obeying God.
These things are passed down to us as examples of how to obey the instructions of God without fear, doubting or unbelief, and in faith.
Why is this so hard for you to understand?
the logos is alive but what has been uttered is written in stone….
@ churchwatcher,
we didn’t see it taught anywhere that we “must choose to silence the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life”. Did you?
Well, yes. The people were afraid to go into the Promised Land because they saw giants and felt that they were like grasshoppers in their sight. They were afraid, and therefore did not believe God’s promise that He would give them the land, and were, therefore, disobedient to His command to go. They had no faith in God’s promise, thereof they lacked faith, and they doubted His word.
For this they suffered the consequence of wandering in the wilderness for an entire generation, God telling them they would die in the wilderness and their children would go in in their place. So Israel live for forty years in the wilderness until Joshua and Caleb led them into the Promised Land.
It was Caleb who ‘quieted’ them – asked them to be silent in their doubt and unbelief, and to have faith in God’s promise, saying, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it”, which was an example of his faith in God’s promise, but they feared and doubted anyway and so died in the wilderness rather than living in the Promised Land.
Pretty clear cut, really.
Considering it’s only a tweet, it is not a bad summary of how to respond to God’s promises.
And, according to Paul, their situation was written as an example to us.
1 Corinthians 10
11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
So no one is ‘cained’, as you put it. And your mystery commenter, @joefortruth, seems to have a history of being ignored by the ministries he harangues with his tweets.
“”Pretty clear cut, really… ” (EthelLumbo) You must choose to cut out the negative voices of fear, doubt & unbelief in your life!” – ChurchWatcher.
Above is an example of what Christine did to the scriptures. We are applying her approach to the scriptures to your comment. She hasn’t accurately handled God’s Word and read herself into the text.
Our question still stands:
Why is Christine making up her own theology from out of context snippets of scripture?
Define ‘example’.
OK, I’ll define it for you:
Example: a thing characteristic of its kind or illustrating a general rule.
As I already pointed out, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that these things, that is, the way Israel responded to God’s instructions and commands, are written for our example.
As it is written: Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
They are written to illustrate a general rule, a way of conducting ourselves which has reward or consequences, as it clearly did for Israel when they refused to obey God and go into the Promised Land.
Promised Land: the land God promised to give Abraham, and was now handed to the generation of Moses to enter, but which they, through fear, doubt and unbelief, refused to do.
For this refusal an disobedience they were to wonder the wilderness until the succeeding generation took up God’s command and entered in, but under Joshua and Caleb.
So what is the example for us in this?
When we have heard from God, by His Word, or by the Spirit, we should not fear, or doubt, or be in unbelief, but we should trust His word and go in regardless of whatever opposition we might face.
Why are you having so much trouble understanding what an example is and how we apply it?
Are you saying that Jesus or the writers of the Epistles were wrong to refer to Old Testament examples and types when defining the New?
To assist you with this concept of learning from the examples of the Old Testament, here is confirmation of 1 Corinthians 10:11…
…whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Romans 14:4…
…and, of course…
…All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Which entirely backs up what Amoore said in the first comment on this thread – Because the Word is alive and God uses it to speak to His people in whatever they are struggling with or going through.
I agree with what the other commentators wrote above. Even in secular institutions of education we are taught to use imagination, to be innovative, to draw parallels and to make applications. People have been saved by seeing bible verses in a different light. To suggest that there is only one lesson/meaning that could be derived from a bible account is to attempt to impose your myopic view on others.
There is drawing parallels to make passages more easily understandable for the average person, and then there is Narcigesis. http://apprising.org/2012/01/12/narcigesis/
If Narcigesis is a theological crime then Caine’s guilty of first-degree murder to this bible passage.
right on the head….i was thinking the same but did not know this expression….who do they think they are?moses and aaron?
“Even in secular institutions of education we are taught to use imagination, to be innovative, to draw parallels and to make applications.”
And it’s just *so* important for us to keep up with the world, isn’t it Andrew?
“People have been saved by seeing bible verses in a different light.”
Obviously you haven’t been paying attention. There is no “different light”; there is only the light and the darkness.
“To suggest that there is only one lesson/meaning that could be derived from a bible account […]”
The only valid meaning or meanings are those that are plainly evident in the text or that are revealed by the Holy Spirit, not any new age nonsense spouted by numb-neuron know-nothings such as Christine Caine.
“[…] is to attempt to impose your myopic view on others.”
And just how is the view from your perch in Numptyville Central, Andrew?