Kundalini and Andrew Strom

I was recently introduced to Andrew Strom and his message warning the body of an invasion of false teachings and dangerous practices that come from Kundalini. Kundalini (Sanskrit for snake or serpent power) is a psycho-spiritual energy, the energy of the consciousness, which is thought to reside within the sleeping body, and is aroused either through spiritual discipline or spontaneously to bring new states of consciousness, including mystical illumination. (www.themystica.com)

Some of the physical effect of Kundalini include (en.wikipedia.org):

• Involuntary jerks, tremors, shaking, itching, tingling, and crawling sensations, especially in the arms and legs
• Energy rushes or feelings of electricity circulating the body
• Intense heat (sweating) or cold, especially as energy is experienced passing through the chakras
• Spontaneous pranayama, asanas, mudras and bandhas
• Visions or sounds at times associated with a particular chakra
• Diminished sexual desire or a state of constant orgasm
• Emotional purgings in which particular emotions become dominant for short periods of time.
• Depression
• Pressure inside the skull and headache
• Bliss, feelings of infinite love and universal connectedness, transcendent awareness

Watch the series of videos below produced by Andrew Strom and see if you have experienced this in your church. What do you think?

Kundalini Warning Part I

"…this is exactly what is warned about in Scripture."

- Andrew Strom

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Kundalini Warning Part II

"We need a revolution in the leadership of the Church."

- Andrew Strom

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Kundalini Warning Part III

"A lot of people when they see this stuff they go right over to the other extreme. They don't want any miracles. They don't want any prophecies whatsoever. They want nothing to do with a supernatural God… We can't afford to be doing away with healings and miracles. …we've got to have them in balance, we should have them in abundance…"

- Andrew Strom

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Honesty is the Best Policy

"You can fool some of the people all of the time,

and all of the people some of the time,

but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

Abraham Lincoln
(1809 - 1865)

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Getting High on Jesus?

This is one of the craziest things I have ever seen. If you can stomach it, watch the whole thing. If not, just watch a couple of minutes to get an idea.



In this video YouTube Prophet, John Crowder, shares his testimony and explains that during an acid trip, he committed himself to Jesus and was immediately sobered from the drug. From that moment on he never did drugs again. He says that the high he was seeking through drugs was actually a valid search. It was just the wrong way to get it. Now he gets high on God. He says using drugs as a metaphor puts the Holy Spirit in a cultural context that people can relate to. Being ‘baptized in the Holy Spirit’ means nothing to the average person; but smoking some ‘Jehovah-juana’ is something that people in our modern society can understand and accept.

This logic assumes that everyone has done drugs and/or has a desire to get high particularly through the use of drugs and drinking. Once these people have found the real high (i.e. God) they don’t need drugs or alcohol anymore but they can still get high. But, what about the people who have never used drugs or drank alcohol? Would they relate to this metaphor? What about young children who are completely ignorant to drug related comments, actions, and behavior?  Most importantly, did Jesus send us the Holy Spirit so we could feel the physical effects of a drug induced high? Is flailing around on the floor ‘high on Jesus’ the purpose for being filled with the Spirit?

In his book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different, Tullian Tchividjian makes a good point. He says that "as believers, being relevant makes us irrelevant." In other words, when believers adopt secular culture* in order to attract non-believers it doesn’t work. In addition, when we look and act like the rest of the world we water down the message of Yeshua. Why would non-believers want to join the ranks of the God’s Remnant if we are essentially just like them? What attracts the non-believer is the fact that we are different. We shouldn’t compromise our beliefs in order to fit in because we are called to be Holy and set apart; we are in the world but not of the world.

The video ends with the narrator/director concluding, “Who am I to judge”. He didn’t see any problems with the message and practices taught by John Crowder and his crew of Christian Mystics. Should their movement continue to spread, it will only be a matter of time before you hear someone referring to their morning devotions as ‘getting whacked up on the Holy Ghost.’



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* Namely those practices and traditions that go against the very nature of a Torah lifestyle.


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The "Matthew 18" Principle: A Quick Look

Probably the most cited passage in resolving disputes is Matthew 18:15-20. At a congregation that we attended in the past this passage was known simply as the Matthew 18 Principle. The principle went something like this:

If someone in your congregation sins against you:

1. Talk to him alone and explain to him how he has offended you.
2. If he listens to you and apologizes to you, then you've been reconciled.
3. However, if he does not admit his fault then bring a witness or two with you and confront him again.
4. If he still doesn't apologize in the presence of the witnesses, then go and tell the Church Leadership.
5. If he still doesn't admit his fault and apologize in the presence of the Church Leadership, excommunicate him.

I remember hearing exhortations from the 'pulpit' to apply the Matthew 18 Principle when trying to reconcile with another member of the congregation. However, I don't remember this principle being taught from the 'pulpit' by looking at the passage in context. This principle was not taught, really, but rather passed along from member to member.

So let's take a quick look at this passage in context in order to define the principle. First, a quick background: Chapter 18 begins a section in Matthew that is a collection of Yeshua's teachings. You can study the chapter as a whole or study the shorter passages that are stand alone teachings. We will only be looking at a portion of this chapter. If you have a Red Letter Bible, you will notice that the majority of this chapter is Red that's because Yeshua is doing most of the talking. Anyway...

Let's read our text:

Matthew 18:15-20 (NAS)
15 If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.

Right away we see in verse 15 an if / then scenario:

IF you know that a brother is in sin;
THEN go confront him in private.

Some translations say "If your brother sins against you" (ESV) specifically. However, I believe that this is talking about more than just a personal offense. That's why I used the NAS translation; but we'll address that later.

Let's clarify a couple of things:

• "your brother" - this is a reference to a fellow believer, someone who is part of the Ekklesia, the remnant of Israel who believe that Yeshua is Messiah. It's not talking about a sibling although a sibling could be a believer. You get the idea.
• What is sin? - "Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." - 1 John 3:4 (AKJV) Law = Torah. Torah means instructions or teachings. These 'instructions' are for the Children of God and can be found in the first five books of the Bible.

Okay, the first thing we have learned about this passage is: if a fellow member of the Ekklesia is transgressing the Torah and you know about it, it is your duty to talk to him in private and show him his fault. This isn't a choice, it is actually a command. Turning a blind eye to a fellow believer's sin is not LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, it is not being YOUR BROTHERS KEEPER. Let's continue...

Another clarification:

• "listen" - this is the Greek word pronounced akouo (ak-oo'-o); if Yeshua was speaking Hebrew, the word used would have been sh'ma. This word sh'ma means listen but it implies action. So a more accurate definition for sh'ma is 'listen in order to do.'

If your brother 'listens to you', it doesn't mean that he just heard you out and continued sinning. No. It means he was moved to repentance. He heard your words, saw his error, and changed his ways. You've won him over, you've helped him make t'shuvah; a return to the Torah and Adonai.

Now, if he did not listen to you (v 16) and continued sinning, this is a problem. He is a member of the Ekklesia. He knows Hashem. He knows Torah. He knows Yeshuah. He knows what sin is. He is backslidden and is now in a bad place. He is unrepentant. At this point you take two or three witnesses with you to see his sinfulness. Witnesses witness, they report what they have seen. When the witnesses see the sinful actions of this brother, they too will call him to repentance. Maybe he didn't understand your plea. Maybe he thought he was right and you were wrong. Now with more believers present to dialogue with, hopefully he will see his fault and change his ways.

But if he still does not repent (v 17) then you, along with the witnesses, are to tell the 'church' or Ekklesia. But what does this look like? Do you run into congregation on Shabbat, grab the mic from the cantor, and start giving the report? Probably not. At this point in the Book of Matthew, Yeshua was in the process of building His Ekklesia. His ministry was still active. There were no believing communities in the diaspora or in Jerusalem for that matter. So how do we know how to handle this and what it means to 'tell it to the Ekklesia'? I have a suggestion: we can look in the Book of Acts and see, as an example, how disputes were handled in the early Ekklesia of Yeshua. For instance, in Acts 15 when the men came down from Judea and began teaching circumcision (conversion) to the Gentiles, what did Paul and Barnabas do? They went to the leaders, the Elders, of the Ekklesia in Judea, in Jerusalem, and let the them handle it. Consider your community today. Wouldn't you bring a matter like this to the Elders of your community and allow them to communicate it to the local body? Isn't that their job? Yes! It is the Elders, the appointed leaders, who can make a judgement to excommunicate someone from the Ekklesia. When someone is excommunicated from the Ekklesia they are then treated like a non-believer because the Ekklesia is a place for believers only. Also, when Elders come together in order to make a judgement (v 18) they bind and loose, they forbid or permit. In other words, they make the hard, governmental decisions here on the earth in their communities. They seek the Wisdom of Adonai in prayer and apply their understanding of the Torah to form their decisions. They do this as a group in order to hold each other accountable and compliment each other. Whatever their decision is, Adonai is in agreement with them (v19). Not only is He in agreement; He is also there with them (v 20) in their meeting!

Now, notice that all of these actions are one way - from you to your sinful brother. It doesn't say anything about the brother apologizing; although an apology is implied when talking about repentance. However, the point is this, the goal is to win the brother and ultimately protect the community. He's got three chances to change his ways or he's out. If one person can't help him then three or four might be able to. If these three or four can't help him then they bring in the big guns, the Elders. If the Elders can't help him, then he is out of the community. Again, the Ekklesia is a place for believers only; a little leaven will leaven the whole dough. We must purge the sin from our midst in order to protect the community, the Ekklesia of Messiah Yeshua.

So, are the steps of the Matthew 18 Principle given for personal offenses? Since the goal is to win a brother from sin, I do not think that this passage is addressing 'personal offenses'. Keep in mind that a personal offense can come about because of someone's sinful behavior so then, what are we to do about personal offenses? If we continue reading in Chapter 18 we find out...

Matthew 18:21-22 (NAS)
21 Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

In the verses following this passage Yeshua tells a parable about a servant who was in debt to his master. The master extended mercy to the servant but the servant did not extend the same mercy to a person who was indebted to him. If you are harboring an offense, if someone has 'done you wrong', and you want justice; I encourage you to read this parable: Matthew 18:21-35. This parable helps us understand what we are expected to do when we have a personal offense, when someone has sinned against us.

Okay, so let's redefine the Matthew 18 Principle based on what we found:

1. If you find a believing brother in sin, address him alone in order to win him from that sin.
2. If he will not listen to you, bring two or three more brothers to witness the sin and then address the sinful brother. Hopefully they can win him.
3. If he will not listen to you and the witnesses, take the matter to the community leadership, the Elders, and allow them to address the wayward brother. Hopefully they can win him.
4. If he will not listen to the Elders, as a group they are to decide a judgement for the sinning believer, even excommunication.
5. The goal is to win the brother from the sin and ultimately to protect the community.

After reviewing this passage more closely it is my understanding that Yeshua taught this principle for cases in which the sin is obviously punishable by excommunication. Of course this principle can be used in addressing lighter sins; but more importantly, it shows us how to deal with the unrepentant brother and it reassures the Elders that He will be present in their Beit Din (House of Judgement).

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