The leftward turn in this nation is stunning. It’s been happening for decades, but lately it seems it at warp speed. I’ve reported on this and even written books urging Christians to get involved.
Now it seems it’s invaded the church too. In a way, denominations have been going liberal for 100 years. But “evangelicals” always adhered to God’s Word, or so we thought. Yet in the past few years, particularly as the left has pushed critical race theory and the idea that anything goes sexually, we see this trend creeping into the church. A few have sounded the alarm, but not many.
Thankfully a brave charismatic pastor from Iowa whom I’ve known for several years is not only speaking up, but he’s also created an amazing documentary called Enemies Within: The Church. His name is Cary Gordon, and he is the senior pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, Iowa.
I recently watched the completed documentary (I had seen an impressive trailer earlier), and it is amazing from a cinematic point of view. But it is very eye-opening and concerning, so much so that it’s been canceled everywhere. Amazon.com, which had 1.6 million downloads of a documentary by the same producer, refuses even to carry it. So do all the other platforms—even a major Christian media company.
Since we have just launched our own streaming platform and because I believe in the message, I offered to run it. Right now, our new CharismaPlus platform is the only way to stream it except on the ministry’s own website. You can find Enemies Within: The Church at this special link: charismaplusapp.com/enemieswithinthechurch.
Recently I interviewed Gordon on my Strang Report podcast, and he told me he didn’t produce the documentary so he could make friends, but because the Lord commissioned his team to do it.
“The first thing Jesus did as King was to commission prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers into this world where we have sin and we have trouble,” Gordon says. “And we have problems, primarily two things, to sum it up, No. 1, to preach the gospel, to preach His message, to herald His warning to the world, that you must repent and be baptized, every one of you.
“But then secondly, Jesus constantly warned us that wolves would come, and false Christs,” Gordon explains. “And many, He said, who arise, would pervert the truth of the gospel and twist it to mislead God’s people away from the truth. And so as a minister of the gospel, I have a duty to preach the Bible as accurately as possible. But also I have a duty before the Lord, to defend the gospel from people who twist it. And we’re living in a time when the gospel is getting twisted, in every direction imaginable.”
Gordon says there’s something happening in the U.S. that’s nefarious and can be easily identified as the work of the spirit of the antichrist: lawlessness. “And it’s getting into all of our Bible colleges, and seminaries and de facto, it’s getting into almost all of our churches, and it’s reaching across every denominational line, you can see it in the Catholic Church. You can see it in Lutheranism, you can see it in many of the Protestant denominations. And frankly, it’s beginning to creep its way even into charismatic circles now, and it’s very, very dangerous, and it’s alluring.”
Gordon says—as I also warn in my book God and Cancel Culture—that even good-hearted people can be tricked into embracing this dangerous trend if we don’t warn them about why it’s not biblical. “It’s referred to commonly as the social justice gospel. And that’s why we made the movie, to educate people so that they could understand the danger that’s lurking. It’s really a Christian version of Marxism.”
For much more from Pastor Cary Gordon on his stunning new documentary, Enemies Within: The Church, listen to the entire episode of the Strang Report at this link and subscribe to the Strang Report on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast platform. I know you’ll want to visit our new app, Charisma Plus, and download Enemies Within at this special link: charismaplusapp.com/enemieswithinthechurch.
If you haven’t already done so, please visitstevestrangbooks.com for your signed copy of God and Cancel Culture, which I believe is my most important book to date. You’ll be amazed at how perfectly it lines up with the insights Gordon reveals in Enemies Within: The Church.
