Who and What is ALM?

The so-called "Reverend" Benjamin Psaltery on Second Life is in real life Benjamin Faust, a 36 year old Programmer, born in 1972 in New Jersey and raised in Paducah, KY where he was homeschooled from grade 4 onwards. Benjamin Faust is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Wright, Paducah, Ky. He graduated from Paducah-based Agape Land Homeschool with a diploma in office automation and graphic communications. He worked for EEM (Extreme Exposure Media (http://www.eem.tv)) for three years as Senior Programmer. However, at the time of his marriage to his wife "Mariposa Psaltery" on SL, he was employed by Food Lion, a grocery store in Harrisonburg. On the Extreme Exposure website, the Director of EEM turns out to be none other than Benjamin's real-life PASTOR: Pastor Dan Garber, Director

Pastor Dan Garber was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1953. His father was in the Air Force, and traveled extensively throughout Europe which made for an interesting family life. He married Karen Renee Whitaker in 1974, and two years later, in February of 1976, they had their first son, Jeremy Lang and Danelle Renee followed in December of 1978.

Pastor Garber entered the ministry in May of 1979, and planted the Potter’s House Worship Center in his basement in 1998. Since then Pastor Dan and his wife have completed the church building process and worship in a permanent building in Harrisonburg, VA.

In the Sunday News newspaper of Lancaster, PA, it was reported that Benjamin was engaged to Jennifer Ober the daughter of Ross and Carol Trainor, Honey Brook, and David Ober, Lancaster in March 2004, and they married in July of that year at Oasis Christian Center, Paducah, Ky., with the Rev. Larry Starnes officiating. Jennifer graduated from Twin Valley High School, Elverson, and Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisburg, with a bachelor's degree in English. She was employed by Yoder's Country Market, New Holland, as a cashier/bagger.

His Home Church: The Harrisonburg fellowship where Ben and Jen worship is Dan & Renee Garber's group, mentioned above. (This is unconfirmed, however.)

His Qualifications: The EEM church website "Potter's House" has no mention of Ben and Jen whatsoever (as far as I can see anyway) and watching the Pastor's "Welcome Message" on video there, I can see no hint of the important "music ministry" that Benjamin and his wife profess to have. Indeed, for a couple producing a quantity of music tracks that can be found online, it does seem odd that they are not more prominent in their own church's worship ministry. In the list of names given as praise leaders in Sunday worship, Jennifer (without a surname) does appear from time to time. Their church website however, does not confirm that Ben and Jen have any pastoral training or oversight even in their own home church let alone elsewhere. However, adverts in their newsletter and on their websites indicate that a home-study course can be obtained online that will "qualify" as credentials.

Rumour has it that Ben bought his credentials at a diploma mill.

Very much of interest is that Potter's House Worship Centre (PHWC) sees itself as able to give "ordinations" to those it recognises as having a biblical ministry. This in itself is sailing close to the wind, biblically - however, in the list of a dozen or more people and couples having received this "ordination" accolade, Benjamin and Jennifer's names are conspicuous by their absence.

One telling set of photos, however, does show church support for "TheCall DC 2008" - this will become very relevant in the pages to follow!!

Condor: Large Vulture-Like Bird that Preys on Dead Meat

Perhaps the worst decision Ben and Mari made on Second Life was to hook up spiritually and financially with Theodore Wright of New Jersey, aka "California Condor" of SL. California (who owns the land and buildings on Truth Island) is an IT techie with an ego the size of a house and the emotional stability of a ten-year-old. He is also a "Messianic" believer.

QUOTE: " Messianic Christians are part of a fast growing global movement who say it is the ancient ways, the historic, and the Biblical ways that matter most (Jer.6:16). Not only because it is written in the original and ancient Five Books of Moses, called the Torah in Hebrew, and the Pentateuch in Greek, but because they also foreshow the future hope of the return of the Messiah bringing His Messianic Kingdom to all humanity (Isa.66:23; Zec.14:16-19)."

Messianics are Gentiles pretending to be Jews, who follow the OT laws and get self-righteous about their closeness to the original truths about G-D (as they spell it) because they think their reading of Hebrew scriptures and following of feast days, dietary laws, and dress codes make them more "holy" than "ordinary Gentile Christians". In fact it's the exact opposite! I will not lay out here the biblical refutation of all this, because this is not the place nor time to do so, but the bible considers ALL who abide in Jesus Christ and who are under His Blood as ONE BODY in Christ, the "dividing wall between Jew and Gentile having been broken down". Not only that, but we are strictly warned NOT to return to the laws, regulations, feast days and beliefs of the Old Testament.

Messianic Christians are also in the forefront of the spurious "revival" going on around the world, and its false "apostles" and "prophets" who consider themselves to be earth's "Government of God". This is all central to the hatred California Condor developed towards me, when I began opposing his beliefs on Second Life. Like all these false teachers, they stand in judgement over others, but cannot take correction themselves, preferring rather to hit out blindly and call names, than to examine the truths of scripture.

If you want to be well and truly alarmed about the arrogance and pride of Messianics, then visit this website,
Then visit this Christian website to see a discussion of what and who are "Messianics". Also see below:

"Gentiles in the Messianic Movement" by Bruce Stokes, Ph.D.

BRUCE STOKES, Ph.D. is Professor of Anthropology and Behavioral Sciences at California Baptist College in Riverside, California.

The Messianic movement is a revitalization of Jewish ethnicity, as well as certain aspects of first-century Judaism, based on the belief that Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth) is the Messiah promised to Israel. The movement includes both Jews (openly defined) and non-Jews. Messianic Judaism holds that Torah observance (the laws of Moses) is normative for Messianic Jews. Messianic congregations also include non-Jewish (Gentile) participants. In many cases, the role of Gentiles in Messianic congregations and the larger Messianic movement is unclear. This article will attempt to address the need for clarification of the role that Gentiles can play in the Messianic movement.

Types of Gentile Involvement

Gentile participants in the Messianic congregations fall into several categories that are described as follows:

1. Some Gentiles are what have been described as "wanna-be Jews." These Gentiles have come to the conclusion that God has "called" them to be Jewish. They often wear kippahs and are sometimes unwilling to be totally honest about their Gentile identity.

2. A second group includes Gentiles who find Jewish ethnicity attractive and find meaning and fulfillment in Messianic styles of worship. By copy-ing Jewish ethnicity, these Gentiles seek to demonstrate their love of the Jewish people and the Jewish roots of Christianity.

3. A third group of Gentiles has come to the theological position that the Torah is equally binding on Jews and Gentiles. The result is a loss of Jewish--Gentile distinction.

Abundant Living Ministries

ALM is the cyberchurch arm of "Living Sounds" which is an online ministry. Indeed, "Rev" Faust says he's got no time or interest in pastoring a real life church. Despite that, ALM has a church attendance of around 35 a week, two "services" on a Sunday consisting of singing and a message that can be followed in audio, a Podcast of their services, CD copies of the messages to buy, a networking website for ALM members and friends and advertising around the Internet. Because of its potential to reach people of all ages and nationalities it's important to take a look at ALM's teaching and associations.

Grace Orphanage

One association that might be questioned is that to an Orphanage in India. Whether or not the Orphanage exists is not at issue - although it has to be said that many TV evangelists and "Positive Confession" preachers do solicit support for charities and organisations that only exist on paper - but the activities of the two men listed on their website front page (Emmanuel Nethala and Rev. N. John David Raju) seem to consist of little but placing requests for donations on every blog, forum and open communication network possible.

In a quick search I found dozens of inappropriately-placed messages. One, on an Irish Freemasonry site (!!) said "Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I love your website and pray for you daily. I appreciate all that you are doing for the cause of Christ.". Another of Emmanuel Nethala's standard begging notices was placed on a New-Age "lightworker's" website. Another message is on a new-age interfaith "Peace Church" website, and so on...If nothing else, this shows how undiscerning and cash-hungry Grace Orphanage really is.

There are also clips on the Internet of people complaining about the spamming and unwelcome soliciting that Grace Orphanage undertakes. One such complaint followed a MSN message that popped up on a user's computer, asking for donations - these tactics are completely inappropriate for a so-called Christian organisation. The statement of a forum member who was annoyed to receive such a message is shown below:

New "Prophecy Today" forum Member Is A Fake!!!

« October 11, 2006, 10:36:33 AM »

Yesterday, I received a personal message from a new member, "Bro Emmanuel Nathala", Prophecy Talk, asking how I was. Happy to hear from anyone from PT, I responded in kind. Today, he sent me another personal message... this time including a link to his website: www.graceorphanage.org. Being a website developer, I researched who owned the site and found the following domain information [user lists domain name as being registered and adminstered by Benjamin Faust]...This confused me because, according to the website, this gentleman supposedly resides in India - NOT Virginia!

I also took note that the email address listed on the website was: emmanuel@rock.com. This struck me as particularly odd, since a reputible organization uses their own URL address. I then went to www.rock.com, to see what that website was about. It's a rock and roll site, where anyone can obtain a free email address. It is quite obvious to me that "Bro Emmanuel Nathala" is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I find it highly offensive that someone would use poor widows and orphans from India to line their own pockets!!! PLEASE - IMMEDIATELY DELETE THIS MAN'S PROPHECY TALK MEMBERSHIP!!!

Despite all that, I found that Benjamin Faust is deeply involved with these fellows. The entire Graceorphanage.org website and the servers on which it resides are a product of Benjamin Faust. He registered the domain name for this organisation in 2005 and has updated it ever since! He is listed by name and address as the administrator of the Graceorpanage.org domain, and the website is hosted on his own Llivingsounds servers. (Before that it was hosted on EEM servers, the organisation belonging to his Pastor.)

Fianancial Questions

Owning and maintaining an island on Second Life is not cheap - indeed, it is VERY expensive. Financial reports have not been openly listed by ALM since the middle of 2006, when the Truth Island came into being. Perhaps this is because the financial burden was undertaken by Truth island owner and creator, Theodore Wright, aka "California Condor". Having a financial liability to this man means (surely) that Ben and Jen are beholden to him in a serious manner and would do anything to prevent falling out with him, including covering up his errors and smoothing over his arguments. Not to speak of condoning his foolishness and false doctrines.

In my opinion this association has turned Benjamin and his wife away from their original naive, if well-intentioned, mission to reach people of Second Life with the gospel and made them into weak-willed lackeys who are afraid to discuss error, resist falsehood, correct unbiblical practises, exercise genuine biblical discernment and discipline, or do anything in their so-called "church" apart from turning up on a Sunday to sing a few songs and say a nice message.

As we shall see in the pages that follow, the hard work of reaching others was left to ALM members or even those who chose for their own personal reasons to visit Truth Island; the task of defending whatever truth exsited there was left to people other than the "pastors", and Ben and Jen were led by the nose into many unwise decisions that were taken simply for the sake of peace and quiet, and supposed "unity" amongst the staff. The line of least resistence was taken, regardless of the impact on ALM members.

Eventually this led (as it always does) to genuine scriptural activity and truth being sidelined or even banned, while mealy-mouthed platitudes and compromised behaviour were presented as the ONLY acceptable form of discussion.

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