One in the Same

One of the main points that I want to make with the Xraydio podcast is that there is no fundamental difference between an International Church of Christ ("totally-committed") congregation and an International Christian Church ("sold-out") congregation except that Kip McKean heads the discipling pyramid in his "sold-out" churches while the discipling pyramid in a "totally-committed" church still exists, but there is no clear overall leader of the movement. I saw another clear example of this with an article on ICOC Hot News by the Tattler - whom I believe to be Bob Dole. ;-)

Tattler overhears a story about significant growth at Virgina Tech. The ICOC church there, the Roanoke Valley Church, started the semester at 20 and grew to 41! (Tattler explains that the 21 new members are "15 move ins - mainly from Virginia - and 6 baptisms".) Now that's one way to kickstart a campus ministry. To top it off, Tattler notes "And all that has happened despite [church and campus leader] Forest [Versele] traveling to Australia, Kiev, and Montreal throughout the past 6 weeks." Wow!

Now does this style of self-focused article about numerical growth on college campus sound familiar? This is exactly the same as what the campus ministries in the "sold-out" International Christian Churches do. (Here's a recent post from Mike Patterson's ministry at Arizona State University.) However, the similiaries don't end there. On the Roanoke Valley Church's campus minsitry site, they have the study names for the "First Principles" study series. (However, it's called "Gaurd [sic] The Gospel" instead of "First Principles".) Patterson's Campus Ministry has a link to "First Principles" as well. (Unfortunately that link is broken. I had to hunt around some of the International Christian Church web sites and found an audio version of "First Principles". But I did find a critical analysis that debunks the twisted scriptures used to convert someone to the church.) Since Kip McKean claims authorship the "First Principles" studies, shouldn't the ICOC churches not use them anymore?

Clearly, if one goes back to before the Henry Kriete Letter was released in early 2003, the doctrine, the lifestyle, the commitment, and the terminology of the old unified ICOC is exactly the same as the doctrine, the lifestyle, the commitment, and the terminology of Kip's new International Christian Churches and the current state of the International Churches of Christ except without McKean at the helm. And it also unfortunately means that the spiritual abuse is the same as well.

Bitterness is not necessarily a sin.

In the last show, I rebutted Mike Patterson's comment about this "internet... radio show" host being a "bitter fall-away". Being bitter is not necessarily a sin. In fact, according to this article from the Barnabas Ministry, "It is a normal response to hardships or sorrowful situations, exhibited by righteous men and even God himself." And "[B]itterness becomes sinful when it is accompanied by sinful actions."

I admit that when I left the organization about two years ago, It was a very emotional experience. I experienced many losses. I lost what I had thought to be my relationship with God and relationships with what I had thought to be fellow Christians. I was bitter accodring to some of the defintions of bitter: "hard to bear; grievous; distressful - causing pain; piercing; stinging - hard to admit or accept". (Please note that these descriptions are adjectives, not nouns.) However, after a period of several months, I gained a true relationship with God through truth and grace and started to build new relationships with healthy Christians in my new fellowship and in other churches. Meanwhile, current ICOC members shut me off when I tell them that I have left the church and am growing spiritually.

My focus with Xraydio is to expose the false gospel and false doctrines the International Churches of Christ and International Christian Churches (the "sold-out" movement) teach. This includes going after the propegators of these doctrines, including Mike Patterson, Kevin Holland, Kip McKean, and various others. I see everyone involved in this toxic religous system as a victim and continually pray for God to use whatever it takes for people to leave. The tragic part is that the price for these high-level leaders to leave is utterly enormous, but still possible under Christ. The real enemy has, is, and always will be the demonic system that masquades as a valid Christian church. (Ephesians 6:12)

Web Site for the Show

I've decided to go with blogger to host the web site and blog for Xraydio. Maybe I'll move the podcast here as well. More to come!