Page 188. Sheepishly, almost apologetically, he fully endorses dominion theology. That is, the full rule of Jesus comes through His people! Now. Apart from, or even before, His coming! Wrong. The coming of Jesus sets up His rule, when there is hardly any faith left on earth! Knowing there are die-hard pre-Millennialists in his reading audience, he quickly appeases this crowd too: He says that, ultimately, the literal rule of Christ on earth establishes the fullest expression of HIs authority. Doublespeak? You bet!

He adds that entire cities and people groups will come to Jesus before His return. I've seen practically entire villages saved, he says. I ask, where? I ask it, even knowing that what he says is true. When a chieftain in a tribe goes a certain direction, quite often the entire tribe goes that way. I do not believe, however, that mass conversion, in the Biblical sense, takes place. Christianization of a people group is not necessarily because of rebirth, but peer pressure exerted by the leader. This happened in Latin America when Roman swords forced people to "convert" or die. They converted. But not really. To this day, whole nations are "Christian" but only in name.

Meanwhile, though I accept his premise that entire villages "turn to Christ" at times, I press him again for specifics, which are hard to come by in this volume. Where are these villages? Let me write to their government and confirm that what you say is true.

Page 188. Fact check: Many of his facts are true. We can surely give him a pass now and then. But let's ask for some integrity here. He says that one-sixth of the world lives in India. True. Then he adds that India is roughly the size of Texas. Very false. India is roughly 4 times bigger than Texas.

Page 214. "We are approaching the best days of church history." Are you sure, James? If we are in the end times, will things not be going the opposite direction? Hasn't the apostasy set in already? Though we live in a religious age, to be sure, is the church prospering and set to prosper more?

Page 241. He believes that apostles have been sent to discern the false things and people among us. He has a "Savior" mentality that he directs toward these holy men. What he forgets is that there were apostles in the first century, real ones to be sure, yet there was also confusion and falseness then. Apostles did not perfect the church then, nor will they do it now. They presented the truth and the church either accepted or rejected it. If the apostles of our day were to re-present Christian truths everywhere (and so far, they are not!) is there any guarantee that the sheep of today will follow any more than the sheep of yesteryear?

Page 242. He deals at length with the subject of defilement, becoming spiritually unclean before God. Defilement always leads to divination, he says. He somehow puts this together, but I was not able to figure how, exactly, except perhaps as with the case of Balaam.

Anyway, he says that when one gets defiled, it's because of what "we" call the law of transference. Don't know who "we" are, but this law has no place in Scripture and is therefore a made- up law, with a made- up title, as is so much of the writing of this book.

When I share with you his autobiographical sketch and show you from whom he received his own initial healing and call (a practicing homosexual who died of AIDS), you will wonder how he could have forgotten this fact when proclaiming that we have defilement transferred to us by giftings of others. That is, an unholy man could conceivably transfer a holy gift, but with it, you just might get the unholiness too. Again, the law of transference is made up, so we need not be concerned with defending or denying it here.

Page 263. This was a shocker. Because the apostle Peter was such a great man of God, God knew he could trust Peter with great wealth. What?! Go figure: Silver and gold I have none! Surely you are not speaking of the fact that everyone laid their belongings at Peter's feet for redistribution? That wealth was never Peter's! Where do these things come from, I keep asking.

Page 263. The author feels that the majority of ministers are not paid what they ought to be paid. I couldn't help ask myself, as I read this, if he was talking about the Eastern world or the Western world. I began to scan my brain for Scriptural passages about ministerial salaries and securities. Hard to come by. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," "He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly." I wonder what would happen to the Christian image in the world if pastors would re-assign all the areas of their responsibility that do not pertain to preaching and teaching the Word. All the secretarial work, much of the visitation, some of the counseling, etc., could go to qualified people in the church. That would free the minister to work with his hands a bit, as did Paul, and relate more to his sheep. Giving ones' self to the Word of God and prayer, as did the apostles, is one thing. Giving ones' self to the keeping of a modern business office may not fit the Biblical mold, in my opinion. The true shepherd is not worried about how much he is paid, or if he is paid at all. His heart hungers to feed God's Word to those who need it most, to seek and to save the lost, to intercede for the saved. Putting a salary discussion on such work seems inappropriate.

Page 264. The travelling minister -apostles - are likewise "underpaid." What must they do, asks Maloney? Paul worked. But the author says we need to restructure! Wonder what that would look like?

Page 288. A spirit of faith can be imparted by the laying on of hands, says James Maloney. And, faith comes through "glory encounters." Besides yielding to the "spirit of" mentality so pervasive in the movement, he makes a statement that runs contrary to the real method God's people are to receive faith: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The Book is under attack in our generation. Has been in every generation. Thank God, it stands, and it works. Read the stories of God's dealings with man in the past and soon you will have a present-day faith of your own, even without an "encounter" or "impartation."

Page 291. Here he equates the virtue of 2 peter 1:5 (add to your faith virtue) with miraculous power! First he says what Strong's concordance says about the word, then he adds that "later" the Greek word came to be known as miraculous. No history of the transformation of that word is offered. We must just believe the good doctor.

Anyway, the verse should read, "Add to your faith miraculous power!" We need miracles added to our faith. Sorry, I say it as gently as I know how, but this is perverting the Scripture.

Later he even says that faith is a virtue, confusing things even more.

Page 355. He takes the Galatians comment about "bewitching" (spoken about the Jewish legalists' effect on the churches of Galatia) and compares it to divination, which in his thinking "glazes the eyes", substituting "nothings" for God's words. He says that legalism is the curse of limitation and divination and yields forgery, all of which points to the necessity for miracles. We should ask ourselves, "Am I betwitched?" If so, we should pray, "I expect to see signs and wonders and miracles."

Maloney's world, but not the Bible's, revolves around miracles. There is some validity to such thinking, but now he is seeing it everywhere in Scripture. The Galatians passage is about Jews who wanted God's people to come back under the law, and Christians who were starting to yield to it. Period. The passage is not about miracles at all. Except for the miraculous change a person receives through the forgiveness of sins in Christ. Why would a person exchange this new life in Christ, reasons Paul, to go back under the law, which he cannot keep anyway?

I am not fighting against the miraculous. Let the genuine signs and wonders follow those who believe, especially as they pray for assistance. But let them not lead. You see here how "miracles first" theology truly does glaze the eyes, and place unreal expectations on the children of God.