YouTube is Still Here

I haven’t been here for a while. “Rebecca” and I have been working on arranging a meeting overseas, and also, I’m not quite as enthusiastic about reaching out over the web as I used to be.

Today I texted her when I got up, and she said she had been to church. She had been crying. The reason? T.B. Joshua had died.

Joshua was Youtube’s most popular evangelist until an obscure homosexual group got his channel deleted. Youtube did it instantaneously, without providing a chance for the ministry to remove the videos that made these homosexuals uncomfortable. The videos showed Joshua casting demons of homosexuality out of willing adult Christians. It wasn’t electroshock therapy. These weren’t videos of people claiming to be doctors. The videos showed Christians doing exactly what Christians are supposed to do, according to Jesus himself. Youtube made a remarkable leap into the realm of censoring religious speech, while leaving up videos of Muslims spewing hate and at least one rabbi claiming Jesus was in hell in boiling semen and feces.

Joshua did wonderful things. He performed a great number of healings. He delivered many people. He helped the poor. He never had a real scandal. One of his buildings collapsed, killing a number of people, but that was not a personal scandal. Anyone can own a badly constructed building.

Why did Joshua die? He was only 57, and he was doing God’s work. This morning, I asked God, and the impression I have is this: the church glorified Joshua too much, and he didn’t resist enough. People who came to him for help called him “Man of God” and behaved as though he were a great authority. He had a group of appointed “wise men” who also healed. His photo appeared in many places. Many videos were presented in a way that glorified him more than God.

I don’t believe God took him. I think Satan got access through pride.

This is what I seem to hear when I pray about it.

I felt that God told me what happened was part of the ending of the age of big churches. In big churches, people respond to peer pressure more than the Holy Spirit. A preacher who lets people idolize him is responding to peer pressure. I feel God said that peer pressure is the weapon of the Antichrist.

Of course, that’s true. The Beast isn’t just a man. It’s the voice of the unsaved masses. They are also the Beast. The man himself is just their representative.

The Beast likes homosexuality because liking homosexuality is the easy route to temporary peace. The Beast doesn’t like miracles and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit, because the Beast thinks self-confidence is our salvation. The Beast doesn’t mind hearing the word “God” (yet), but it hates the name of Jesus because Jesus brings division and demands obedience.

The Beast says you have to wear a mask and get vaccinated. Eventually, it will say you have to have a mark in order to buy or sell. Peer pressure will be overwhelming in America, just as it always has been in non-Christian countries. Persecution is peer pressure.

Obeying your peers is a bad idea. They’re your equals, so, like you, they know very little, and much of what they know is wrong. You should be obeying someone who is not your peer. God’s thoughts are better than ours.

Pride and peer pressure are connected. Proud people want others to think well of them. It turns preachers into followers when the word says we are to be the head, not the tail.

Peer pressure ruined the Hebrews on two well-known occasions. First, they chose Saul over prophets and judges, and second, they chose Barabbas over Yeshua. Both times, they chose the Beast. On both occasions, the damage was done by a popular vote. Crowds rejected prophets and Jesus and sentenced the Jews to future problems. The Beast is a crowd. His voice is their voice.

A few days ago, the government of Nigeria banned Twitter because Twitter deleted a tweet from the country’s government. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Joshua died soon thereafter. Youtube struck, Nigeria struck, and Satan showed Nigeria it could take down its greatest evangelist.

I expect Twitter to win, because the power of the Beast has gotten too strong. Humanity has elected Satan in a landslide. For a long time, I’ve been saying the Internet would replace government. Maybe the battle with Nigeria’s government will be a way for Satan to show how big he’s grown. I would be surprised if the ban worked properly. There are too many ways around it. Even if Twitter falls, another service can replace it next week. The Beast is like a shark which has rows of new teeth to replace the ones that fall out.

I don’t think Joshua was a bad preacher. Far from it. I believe everyone’s armor has chinks, however. The Bible shows that Satan can’t touch us without permission. It says a curse does not alight without a cause. It says Satan roams the street as a roaring lion, seeking whom he MAY devour. It may well be that in the age of “likes” and “influencers,” social pressure has become so strong, no one who heads a big, organized congregation is safe from pride.

I am praying for God to help me to give up all pride. My most dangerous and most culpable enemy is my flesh. The spirits and people who tempt me can’t get anywhere unless my flesh lets them in, and pride is a big doorway. If God has given me anything, it’s not because I’m good. I have been cruel to animals. I have paid for pornography. I have used drugs. I have said filthy things about people. I have stolen. I have lied. I can’t let myself mistake mercy and inheritance for wages I’ve earned.

My strong hope is that God raises up the grassroots ministries I believe he has told me about. We don’t really need a few individuals who reach millions of people. We need millions of individuals who reach a few people. Jesus never said any person would reach millions. He said a person might get a hundredfold return. That is the maximum figure he mentioned. If every Christian reached a hundred people, there would be no one left to go to hell. Right now, we have preachers flying around on jets speaking to billions, and hell is still the destination for most people, including many of the preachers.

A ministry doesn’t prove itself by healing the sick and working other miracles. A ministry proves itself by raising up many people who can do those things. If one men or a few men stay on top, very few people they teach become like Jesus, and the people who attend their church remain dependent on the pastor and his appointees, the church fails at its purpose. I hope the grassroots church which is developing now will have a lot more success.