[Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On Mar 10, 2012]
Faytene Grasseschi continues to try to generate attention for The Cry Hollywood—the prayer event is only a few days off now, a big rally planned for March 15 in Los Angeles. You wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that this attempt to bless and encourage Hollywood and to encourage Christian activity in the arts there is a good thing.
And on that level it is. But on another level it is something else. The idea of a “Front”—the patsy that pretended to write scripts for Hollywood figures blacklisted in the 1950s comes to mind.
When it was safe to do so, Faytene and an ally felt free to explain that The Cry Hollywood is awash with her ideas that a group of superchristians will soon be on the move. Donors to The Cry Hollywood are “sowing into conquering Hollywood, attendees at a meeting at a Southern California church were recently told. They could “conquer” Hollywood with Faytene.
Dominionism and the idea of the “manifested sons of God?” I suspect it will underpin The Cry Hollywood, even if only just off the stage.
On February 19, it all started coming out when Faytene spoke at Blessed International Fellowship. While you may hear it all
here, for the time being, I made sure to make careful note of what was said for posterity, rolling tape. And however winsome Faytene might be at the rally, hopefully we might have an idea for “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.
The church where Faytene spoke meets at a Vineyard in Anaheim, while its offices are in Fullerton. In the beginning of her remarks, Faytene seems audibly excited. It was Faytene’s first visit to the congregation and friends James Goll and Patricia King had been talking up the church to Faytene, saying how good it was.
I think this was significant to Faytene, and led her to think to herself that the church was “get” and endorse a franker message. She could be more upfront, as they would understand what she is getting at . It’s more explicit than the Gnostic knowledge-style hints and sides that have been popping up in
Faytene’s promotional efforts that I wrote about in a recent post.
“Red meat” rhetoric may be served at the table in this church.
The sound table operator, alas for Faytene, started his recording a little early. As the online sound file starts, an unknown fellow is in the middle of exhorting the audience in--as it revealed later—preparing to take an offer for Faytene. Later he will direct people to her book table, where she is also passing on tickets to The Cry Hollywood rally for a suggested donation.
“Unknown Fellow" is in the middle of telling the story of Caleb in the Old Testament and how he wanted to take the land around Hebron as that was “where all the giants were” Caleb conquered it for him and his descendants forever.” He’d been mentioning that Caleb took a “mountain” which ties in with the “seven mountains” idea of the dominionist mindset.
“Hollywood is a very difficult mountain” ’ said Unknown Fellow;
“But I just felt like as I was praying, Faytene has asked for this mountain ‘cause she doesn’t just see the giants, but she sees the Lord and she has heard from the Lord to go after this, Amen. And I feel like as a body of Christ, I don’t care what church she is from, we are the universal body, and this thing that we can do is support her and in her promises that she received from the Lord, we can partake in the promises and when she conquers that land that we too can conquer the land with her. Amen? So this is what we are sowing into this afternoon, we are sowing into conquering Hollywood….”
Conquer is awfully martial for “blessing Hollywood”, isn’t it? But I guess nobody will come across with the cash unless they ramp it up in some way. Taking over is not necessarily a blessing.
Yes, this is someone from the church speaking, but after the offering, Faytene was careful to add a little joke in the Anaheim sanctuary—crossing into the city she decided,“It’s like the spirit of Mickey Mouse is in the air!”—but she wasn't careful to distance herself from Unknown Fellow’s desire to charge on ahead. If they who are listening happen to think as he does, so much the better?
She’s sharing her testimony, and mentions that “I was raised in a Catholic home” but that she hadn’t taken the message to heart. She talks a little about her days at Simon Fraser University, which I would like to return to later. [UPDATE: She refers to Simon Fraser University as somewhat of a graveyard for faith when she went there, and I was wondering how valid that was. Not being a SFU alumus myself, I don't know.]
She goes on to talk about her experiences at a prayer retreat at Bowen Island, near Vancouver, in 1997. Evidently, as she explains what came to be the foundational understanding of her ministry, you can listen and understand that she has been at least flirting with dominionism since she entered Christian work.
Thinking of the passage in Romans 8, she said, she has become convinced that she could be part of, and help lead, a group of Christians who are so in tune with God’s will that is what they instinctively do. She thinks that the Romans passage about creation “groaning” for the “mature sons of God” prophesies about that.
They will be, she said to her audience just like Jesus in their ability to submit to the Lord. Next came the prudent caveats. “I’m not saying that we’re going to be saviours”, she said. She added that she is nowhere nears this state in her own life, but she aspires to it.
These future mature sons [and daughters] of God “
will begin to walk in the dominion of God”
“….[W}hen these ones begin to appear en masse, they will walk in the original mandate given to Adam and Eve and the commission to disciple nations. They will begin to walk in dominion stewardship of the earth, subduing darkness and sin that causes corruption and decay and cultivating life again. Their very presence in the earth, come on, will cause curses to be broken off nations and the dominion of God to be made manifest. But it all begins when these ones like Jesus bow in radical consecration to the will of the father, I’m talking about something much deeper than praying a prayer of salvation, although that’s a good place to start, and dedication to God. I’m talking about a lifestyle of total sold-out abandonment to the will and the ways of the father, so that even creation will look at us and say ‘They are ones who resemble God in the earth and are completely government by his spirit.’ I love what Daniel prayed ‘Father would you remove anything in our lives that would resist the whole manifestation of your glory.’ Man, that’s it.”
Let’s unpack this. Some things that come to my mind.
First, what hubris to assume that sinful men and women can be made perfect by the Holy Spirit. Not that the HS is manifested, which I recognize, but “completely so?”
I just know myself, and I would not dare to assume that my heart could be in that kind of place until Jesus finishes his work in my heart.
Second, think of all the great Christians of the past. Pick an example to suit you. Isn’t in appalling to think that these past heroes are, of necessity, failures? They must be horribly flawed to not come to this new understanding of the coming Christian ubermensch supermen and show it themselves? Just think, if they had been such losers, Jesus could have come back centuries ago.
Could you imagine Faytene ambling up to St. Paul, if she is correct in her thinking, in order to say “If only you had been as smart as I was…” ?
Thirdly, Faytene can say that these super ones will not be a savior, but who in the greater world would feel an explicit need for a saviour, when the “Domionionism Super Friends” are doing all this great stuff for everyone? They’d need one, but the temptation would be there to settle for second
best.
Lastly, I am reminded of Jesus’ example of the two men praying in the temple, the one with the one asking for mercy and the one who is so full of himself that he thanks God that he wasn’t born like you know who…
Which attitude do we see in these remarks from Faytene?
“I thank you that I was born in these days when I could be a mature son of God, unlike…” ?
After a brief digression, Faytene adds this:
“….I was reminded of a prophecy by Bob Jones—and I don’t know if you guys had heard this one—but he actually prophesied a few years back about the decades. I think it was about the next four or five decades. And he said that the decade of 2010 would be a special emphasis on the Glory of God. Did it not? I mean everywhere we went there were glory conferences….”
Faytene must hate the Internet sometimes. You can check things out.
I think I found what Faytene was referring to. This site
here quotes Bob Jones as saying, in a 1996 appearance at a Hamilton, Ont. Church that the 2000 would be full of “glory” as Faytene says. But what did he predict for the 2010s? The rise of the ‘faith of God” of creative miracles, controlling the weather and such.
Continuing right from where I stopped quoting Faytene adds this, which is sort of like what the above site records Jones as describing, but also different in a way.
By the way, Bob Jones is
predicting a huge revival that will require until 2014 or 2015 to prepare for the “Glory”. As of last July, the glory train he saw hadn’t arrived yet and we need to be “prepared for the glory of God to come.”
Anyways, Faytene moves from the last decade to this one.
“And in the decade of 2010 to 2020, he {Jones] said that it was going to be the revealing of the true sons of God. The revealing of, I believe, another word would be giant slayers, you know. Men and women of faith and consecration that are willing to go low like Jesus in order to be raised up to defeat the powers of darkness, right? The ones that are willing to say “not my will…”
“God has been sending the forerunners,” she added, “This is available to all believers.”
Let’s look back to Faytene’s description of the true sons of God that I quoted earlier. Sounds like Jones’s decription of the Manifest Sons of God, which I found here, with all the overcoming, and such.
Jones was
quoted in the past as describing the “manifest sons of God” of the future in this way:
"I have called the best of every blood line in earth unto this generation…I have elected to bring them forth in this generation…THE ELECT GENERATION…even the bloodline of Paul…of David…of Peter, James and John…They will even be superior to them in heart, stature and love for me’…Your children will possess the spirit without measure…They will move into things of the supernatural that no one has ever moved in before…coming into the DIVINE NATURE of Jesus Christ…a Church that has reached the full maturity of the GODMAN! This generation…is going to see the beginning of this WORLD WIDE NEW ORDER."
Sounds like the same concept of the “true sons of God”, the”giantkillers” will will exercise “dominion” that Faytene was talking about?
Especially when she says this::
“God is looking in this hour to anoint, I believe, and raise up the mature sons of God that all of creation has been waiting for…”
Perhaps Faytene may mean “manifest sons of God” in what she teaches, but she has come up with new terminology—“mature” to describe the same, or a similar idea. She would know that using the phrase “manifest sons of God” would set off alarm bells that would wake the sheep dozing as she preaches.
Faytene goes on to talk about her experiences in Liberia and in Canada, revisiting the “touch the heart of a King” argument that I addressed in my last post on this subject. How kindness is better than criticism. And such. She ends her remarks by praying for and prophesying over the church. Faytene added that she had been recently prayed over and advised that God might be calling her to work both of Canada and “Hollywood” at the same time.
Hollywood, she says, “was founded to tell stories about God…Hollywood was already given to Jesus.”
I wouldn’t say that, looking back at the history of “Hollywood.”
She said that God is looking for people who are able to see beyond the dysfunction of Hollywood, or wherever one might be called to, and say “…My God is able to give me this mountain because my God is a covenant keeping God and if I show up, he’s going to back it up.”
“God is raising up Kings. That might be a little bit misunderstood…” she added.
You don’t say, Faytene. On the contrary, I would wonder, after you were able to find a sympathetic church where you were able to let your hair down a bit, we might be able to understand what you might be getting at with The Cry Hollywood much better.
.