Hitchhiker's Guide To Christianity II : PG and X-rated Christianity explained

This is the second of the three parts recorded in 1990. The first is here with more explanatory details. Enjoy.


Part Three was recorded but not allowed by U2 Management. The track was destroyed while wondering which direction to take next. The original script to part 3 is here, and is set in a large shopping arcade which did not really exist in Britain in 1990.

Hitchhiker's Guide To Christianity 1

Leonard and Jamie were asking to hear some stuff. We have a few computer limitations at the moment which means we have to move with what is currently on the hard-drive.So instead of the 1989 Third Level Christianity message here is the first ever public release of a track from my unreleased double CD."Early Harvest". It is one of 3 tracks that make up a small play entitled "Hitchhiker's Guide To Christianity".All the other items on the 2 CDs are musical. By now readers of this blog will be familiar with the territory. This was recorded when I was in exile in 1990 and if people are having trouble now...well you can imagine I didn't stand any chance nearly 20 years ago. The play gives a framework...the same as this blog....to the rest of the Cd...that is they are like waymarks in sound, songs and music which mark the growth stages of developing in Jesus. Blogs did not exist. Google did not exist.Windows moviemaker did not exist. So I've just added visuals by googling to what is just a CD track. Hope you like it. One last point and I've got proof in the shape of John Daniels who produced this with me....I was prophesying forwards to 1995...perhaps naively...believing that that was going to be the time for a worldwide download on these things! As it happens, God did precisely that, but in seed form...and in a way none of us could have dreamed up...in that 1994-5 saw this most amazing download of relating to the Father and the outpouring of grace in the Toronto Blessing. But where this leads to is a fresh maturity and authority in the Spirit. What I call the third level. So while everybody is still scoffing at the strange manifestations of this period...I am quietly saying...look again...you may just see a Mighty Lion roaring!.

We can reposition ourselves

If you want to learn more about repositioning yourself or your church I would recommend downloading this year's series of messages from Rob Rufus in Hong Kong: Invading the Impossible series, and Attitudes that attract the empowering grace of God.Here is something I wrote down earlier.


In 1986 the Spirit showed a picture of some natives in a jungle gazing skyward in awe at a metal bird. To us it is just a plane. The Spirit was saying "What is the difference between the natives and those who perhaps build the plane in America? Answer: 100 years of know-how in flight. He was saying in the same way, up until now we have been involved in praying in revivals, which have passed by us in a similar way, but never understood how or quite why. This remained a mystery. But now the Spirit wanted to take us into his confidence and give us know-how about what is really going on. The rest of this material can be found in Dan's Archives here the copy of my Letter to the Charismatic Movement 1990 posted 15th May2008.

The substance of all these blog posts comes from listening to God while tuning and driving. In the last few days I feel prompted to give some specific examples. Now in the old scheme of things, any negatives were condemnatory, sounded permanent and thus engendered dissensions and fierce battles in the Body of Christ.

Here's the good news! As in the passage above, while there still remain mysteries in God...these mysteries are not to be too mysterious. We are learning how to do stuff!!! We won't for ever and a day be a group of natives staring upward....we are being made co-workers with Christ. Co-sharers in His operations. What I call life in the order of Melchizedek ( see the post series).

You want another confirmatory verse?
"The knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea". That's the knowledge...the How to...the Spirit principles which allow us to open our hearts to God and make ourselves available to join in with His contemporary significant acts!!
Without getting too heavy about this point I do want to share a bit of 70s history. Then bring it up to date with some stuff a piano client was sharing. I knew she was a bit different when I saw Bill Johnson's book on her settee!

In 1970 Chorleywood had John Perry as minister. The AmershamOld Town Baptist Church had Eric Chambers. Goldhill Baptist nearby had David Pawson. These were all key figures in the early years of UK charismatic renewal in denominational churches. Now, unbeknown to most after all these years is this !!! All three met together regularly to pray and encourage each other. I believe some or all received input also from the nearby Slough Pentecostal pastor Billy Richards who later tragically died...in true stoic Pentecostal form...while believing God to heal his cancer.
All 3 leaders,Perry,Chambers, and Pawson moved on to other churches, but their works remain.

Here is the enigma. All 3 churches had access to the same stuff. All shared input from apostles/prophets/international ministries of the day. If anything...the Baptist churches were ahead on the born again front...as would be expected in those days.
So how is it that the only church anyone has heard of across Britain is Chorleywood?
Who brought in Graham Pulkingham and Body ministry, Juan Carlos Ortiz, then John Wimber in the 80s? Who founded Soul Survivor and New Wine...both conferences with national impact? Who helped HolyTrinityBrompton enable Alpha Courses, and encouraged the Toronto Blessing also with HTB?
Where were the other two churches in the national stakes? Who has even heard of them?

Well this is what my client shared. Apparently every single visiting ministry to Goldhill this year has said the same thing. God wants His church back! Now this is supernatural and should be an encouragement. He is about to move...so fasten your seatbelts guys!

My church was the Amersham Old Town Church,now Kings Church. And when I re-visited after 32 years I was disappointed. But the same will be true of them. God wants to move. He always wants to do more than we can ask or think. And the great news is we can position ourselves!!!

I've made some changes

I know it's messy. But I'm sick to the back teeth of people thinking this is some weird elitist site.
Then when I heard Rob's message "Taking away the veil" (see the link) for the 2nd time I realised we really are on the same hymnsheet. You see once people understand the Genesis 3:5 thing, you begin to see ...yes...for the first time in history...we're seeing a real removal of the former lies of Satan, to begin to see the Christ life formed corporately and individually in us.
At the moment many are calling it Law. But it's this remote-controlled living where we try to conform according to laws and statutes...
when there's no need for remote-controlled living
we're now battery-powered by Christ Himself through His own Living Spirit of Life!!!

Tim Atchley's post on Seed needs a wider broadcast

...........perhaps it was the damage I received when I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit , which turned me from a mild-mannered intellectual into wanting to preach into our main school assembly at 14...whatever it was...but there are various hot buttons that people like Mark Driscoll, my friend Michael Hammond or here Tim Atchley can press.............(Hope he doesn't mind this further example of my ministry of plagiarism) Tim is Sheila's husband.....
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Tim writes :Sowing Precious Seed Part 3
In the Parable of the Sower Jesus was communicating the pattern of the ministry these men and any witnesses of His to come after them would have.It also reveals the ongoing condition of people throughout the world, for all ages. These four types of people are present with us today, and will continue to be with us till the end of the age.This parable is meant to enable us to be faithful to the Lord as His witnesses of His Gospel till He comes.Jesus does not make the goal the fruit itself. The goal is the spreading of the Gospel. Why spread the Gospel?Most would say because it is what will bring men and women to Christ, and there is truth in saying this. In fact Scripture tells us that it is the very power of God unto salvation. But there is more.The Gospel needs to fall on every heart and confront mankind concerning the reality of God, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ the Son, and the work He accomplished.Every ear is entitled to hear the word, and every heart is given a chance to allow it to work. Each soil will reveal what nature it is. But the goal for sharing the Gospel needs to be in the sharing itself.This makes success much different from modern Christianity has made it out to be.Modern Christianity has convinced it’s followers that unless people are receiving Christ we are not getting anything done. I beg to differ with this ideology.In the parable of the Sower I find that a faithful sowing of seed regardless of outcome is what pleases the Father. Jesus in no way indicates that the Sower was wrong for throwing seed on all the types of soil.Nothing in the parable spoke of what to do about the types of soil. In no way is there any instruction on how to change the type of heart a person has at the moment we share the Gospel with them.On one hand we say that salvation is the Lord’s business, but on the other we want to be able to share with someone, have them pray to receive Christ, and then take the credit for their coming to know Him.What if Christians got a revelation that success according to Jesus is found in faithful seed sowing without demanding a certain outcome?I wonder how many believers would become empowered to share the Gospel for the first time if not more than they have already?
My reply:
1.This is amazing and needs to be broadcast more widely. We are always success oriented and this has had a paralyzing effect.Another thing that takes our eyes off a false success orientation came through Jorge Pradas who said Evangelism was so God could receive greater glory.(i.e.He is already receiving glory from what He is working in our own lives...He needs to receive greater glory by having a whole bunch more kids to work with.
2. Sheila has not said anything about how you are with Mark Driscoll. You'll know from Dan and my posts that there are certain misgivings. But one thing was fantastic about his talks in Brighton.(TOAM2008 free downloads.sessions 2,4,6) Everything they do on Mars Hill is directed towards more people coming to know the Lord. He really stressed they have no missions department! He doesn't use them. Every single facet of the church is geared to growth anyway.Many many practical ideas for pastors.
3. As mentioned in my testimony post (baptism video) I learned a bit about pushiness! I am nowhere near as pushy as my evangelist friend Michael, (who I am going to tell about this post by the way). What I learned was this....sometimes we acquiesce too readily to the unsaved person's brain which is working overtime to try and sort everything out mentally before giving assent to the gospel. While we are never to cross the sanctitiy of another human's will...the truth is no human brain is ever going tie up every loose end before taking the step of obedience and faith of humbly submitting to Christ. And counter-intuitively...having done so, the brain then starts putting together truths that have eluded it for decades, quite quickly....all within a very short while of knowing Jesus. So my experience with my friend has somewhat spurred me on. So many good things and changes have occurred for him already.There's a similarity here with the sales process. A good salesman gets a bottomline decision from another person....this takes politeness but firmness. The devil does not want a decision for salvation of any kind, and is continually seeking to overcomplicate everything.

Northern Europe and Russia - Update

General note:
Some readers might get really confused as to what my position is as they trawl through these posts. In the last post I mentioned various misgivings I have...and here am I championing David Hathaway. Listen, I used to get frustrated with Billy Graham, who never once talked about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. But I was converted through his film ministry and Billy faithfully pursued his evangelistic calling to the ends of the earth and to the end of his life. Anyone introducing people to Jesus needs support and Jesus is well able to fill in any gaps through His Word and by direct Holy Spirit revelation....because He is alive!!! Here are some key historic breakthroughs happening before our eyes right now. This is very much a follow on from the Nicholas and Pam post.
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David Hathaway writes:Thank you for your support during 2008 - this year we have held TV crusades and broadcast in 11 cities acrossRussia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Estonia and Bulgaria - in addition we have held ministry conferences in 18 locations in Europe and USA. Also each week, our Gospel programmes are shown in 74 nations, not on 'Christian' TV, but on secular TV, to unbelievers-with responses from as far apart as Greenland, Iceland, Europe and even Kuwait!
Estonia - a breakthrough in evangelism in Europe - was the most powerful crusade in my life! Then, at the beginning of this month, December, we broadcast the crusade for the whole nation to see on their most popular channels at the most popular times, with repeat broadcasts included in the price! The response is overwhelming and still coming in - the entire nation has been touched. One woman, who watched the broadcast and who had attended the actual crusade, sent this testimony: 'Thank you for your ministry in Tallinn, our small child was healed
from a skin disease. We also took our unsaved friend, who had a problem with deformed legs from childhood. When he went forward to accept Christ, his legs became hot, he looked down and saw he was completely healed! It was also wonderful to see the crusade again on our local secular TV!'
In Estonia, right now, 110,000 follow-up newspapers carrying the crusade reports are being distributed across Estonia and Latvia by the Government Social Services and other outlets! Because of the power of God in Estonia, the churches in Lithuania are now asking me to hold a similar conference and crusade in Vilnius during 2009.
I went straight from the power of the Estonia crusade into Perm in Russia - the most powerful crusade in Russia yet -1000 new converts attended the follow-up meeting, 800 joined the house groups, and 100 outstanding healings were confirmed. From Russia I went to the Russian churches in America where, in one meeting, 500 young people gave their lives to Christ! And now in Bulgaria, a few days ago, I'm seeing the power of God increasing. The need of the world is stronger and more desperate now than ever, and God will answer by fire, by power.
I need you to continue in prayer for finance. - Because of the increase in evangelism this year, we still have a debt of £150,000 in the UK, plus a debt of $400,000 (US dollars) in Russia for the last crusades.
This current crisis is creating the greatest hunger, the greatest opportunity, for evangelism. All over Europe the people are desperate for the Gospel, pastors are pleading with me to come, the churches are uniting, and the unbelievers will come in their thousands because their only hope is in Christ. - We need to clear our debt so that we can begin to plan the crusades in Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia, Armenia, Slovakia, as well as Holland, Germany and the UK for 2009.
I believe that, if we will wrestle with God in prayer like Jacob did, the Lord will bless us in this crisis - and not only deliver us - but cause it to be seen that He is meeting our needs when others are falling.! pray for God's peace and guidance to be with you during this economic crisis; and in January I will show you how you this is part of God's Prophetic Plan to hasten the Return of Christ!
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There are some downloadable videos from these crusades: http://www.propheticvision.org.uk/

A Third Level Approach To Ministry II : Twinklers

Prodded a little by Lydia Joy losing her grandfather I wanted to continue this summary of thoughts on how the 3rd level changes everything we ever thought we knew about ministry.Maurice Smith calls mature Christians twinklers (see my book list).While others may age less than gracefully, with a growing cynicism, twinklers twinkle more!! Their eyes just give the game away. And you just know. You know they know Him in whom they have believed.

Without a powerful experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, a Christian seems to take several decades to become a true twinkler. Whether Protestant or Catholic, they are people of prayer and the Word. The slight snag is by the time they are twinklers, it is nearly time to go home...and they are severely restricted by limitations of age, mobility and possibly other issues.

So Youth With a Mission, Morris Cerullo, and Rheinhardt Bonnke hit on another system. Give the people of God an experience...a powerful experience coupled with a lot of training on the life of faith...and send them out to turn the world upside down!! In a way this is what happened on April 6th 1972 to all of us in a little corner of Bucks,England. And it seemed for a while we did turn our corner of things in Amersham a little bit upside down.But here is a snag. Youth With A Mission, Morris Cerullo and Rheinhardt Bonnke call this making twinklers. (Well they don't...but they call this sending workers out into the harvest). It is and it isn't. Let's return later.

For New Frontiers and a whole host of other networks of new churches, this is insufficient, so they believe in yoking developing ministries to local church situations over months and years. Possibly sending people to a more formal type of Bible College, be it run by their family of churches or some other institution that holds an evangelical position. Unless these new ministries are exposed to a radical Holy Spirit anointing either directly, as in Rob Rufus'case, or through other ministries...the tendency is always to settle back into "sound teaching of the Bible" but with little power and little miraculous fruit.Both approaches I would call the twin sides of the second level.
So to recap:Firstlevellers, by dint of continuing in the faith, continuing in prayer, continuing in the Word, continuing with the ups and downs of fellowship life, may well after decades and decades ...if they don't duck out... find themselves twinkling.
Secondlevellers will experience a baptism in the Holy Spirit, be introduced to the reality that Christianity is in fact supernatural in manifestation, be then driven back into a hunger for the Word, and a fresh hunger to experience fellowship together with other Christians, but this time at this new supernatural level . The growth arc will probably be shorter than in the first case. But if our experiences in the UK are anything to go by, we are still talking somewhere between 1 and 3 decades even moving pretty quickly before anyone even approaches twinkler status. And again there is absolutely no certainty that people will press right through. For this reason Paul writes "Do not harden your hearts as the Israelites did in the days of rebellion in the wilderness."
Firstlevellers know how to get others into a born again experience.
Secondlevellers get people born again and baptized in the Spirit. As I have mentioned before, in the year of 1972, at the age of around 14(Christine is one year younger), both she and I in our respective areas of the UK were doing all this. Now this for many fellowships would mean we had arrived. Well, here we are at age 50, and we still haven't. Because you see there is a 3rd level of growth.Without a vision, the people perish. Without even a sketchy understanding that there are 3 distinct growth stages, people all over the world in the Body of Christ are floundering around. You've got people like Amy, (see Amy's blog) who have probably been compliant for years in their church system...thinking that that would amount to something, confusing 2nd level churches with the raw real deal of the anointed Living Body of Christ. Ofcourse in parts it is....but the 2nd level stuff contains other ingredients as dangerous and poisonous as the worst plant foods that you could ingest.So Youth With A Mission, Rheinhardt Bonnke, David Hathaway, Morris CerulloAlso New Frontiers, and all the other 70s and 80s like networks, be it under Terry Virgo, Alan Vincent, Gerald Coates,Barney Coombs and so on and so on....are all (probably unwittingly and out of anxiety to get the job done) doing the Body of Christ a huge disservice....Why?Because they are calling the 2nd level a mature ministry and as the world instinctively knows...it isn't.
Because they are not raising the people's sights and expectations to believe that Jesus is faithful to complete the work in us to make us fit and able fathers who reproduce after our kind.We either believe in the power of His Word to raise us up as fit ministers ....or we don't. And if we don't, we help God along a little with more programmes, and training procedures and conferences.....
when what people need to understand is
How Genesis 3:5 works
How Jesus came to destroy all the works of the Evil One
How He came to lay the axe to the root.

What root? The religious system? The 2-bit secondlevel structures the grace-bloggers are railing against? Terry Virgo? Nope Nope Nope The axe is laid against us? Every flipping last second of the day we are not living from the reality of what the Cross has won for us. We don't need to go around looking for others to single out.Every little second we catch ourselves living the Genesis 3:5 "Just independent me"lie...we needDan Bowen, Amy, Sheila, Lydia Joy,Matt Daelon,Jamie,Leonard...to prophesy back to us..."Hey you...you are now Christ you...you have no separate existence...to believe that is to fall back into sin again, and to give life again to something that since the Cross can never have life again...the old Adamic hubris life of the devil himself lived through mankind.The people I have listed as Missions and New churches above...the YWAMs etc they need to be preaching according to the models in scripture. And I have never, I repeat never, heard anyone of them preach according to these lines.

Model 1. Jesus For 30 whole years He did nothing apart from grow in the understanding of how life works. He grew in knowledge and wisdom. Carpentry. Just learning to believe who He was. By faith. No flash stuff.Then was baptised in water and the Holy Spirit. Had the quickest 2nd level in history in the testing in the wilderness. That's because his personal foundation in God as a normal person for 30 years meant He could skip most of what we've had to go through in the 2nd level. Then straight afterwards He began to operate in the 3rd level. Two fold: Declaring War on the Devil in the territory allotted Him by the Father:Israel. Secondly: to raise up father ministries like Himself in just 3 years. All this while also preaching and teaching the Kingdom to 1. outsiders 2.believers and closer disciples and 3. the 12 apostles to be.

Model 2: The 12 apostles They were Jews. They understood the 1st level basics. That God is sovereign. That we give our life over to Him, expressed first in water baptism. That He alone can forgive our sins and make us new. They entered into an early prototype 2nd level, where although not knowing a born again experience yet, nor a complete baptism in the Spirit....from pretty early on they were sent out to chase the devil off God's Earth with power to heal,deliver and forgive sins.This shows us that at one level Morris Cerullo, Terry Virgo,YWAM and all are correct. As long as there is at least one 3rd level ministry...not everyone needs to be a 3rdleveller before embarking on mission trips.(There was only one Graham Pulkingham , but many in the Fisherfolk team for example)It shows us also, as we found on 6th April 1972, and again in Lakeland Florida this yearThe Power of the Baptism in the Spirit is put in context: as a tool for preaching the GospelThis is absolutely Terry Virgo and Morris Cerullo territory. And is accurate.Secondly, if you want people to grow fast...you expose them from early on in doing the work of the Kingdom with power. Even if that carries a high risk tag...as we saw with Todd Bentley. I am so glad that Jesus - knowing all about how sinful I was - still allowed me to lay hands on folks at 14 and get them filled with the Holy Spirit.Jesus came at the disciples with love, but also slicing stuff off them with His prophetic use of the Word...such that in only 3 super intense years they were ready to launch the Kindom for real at Pentecost. But as I've taken time to point out again and again in these posts, in Acts 2, they'd already gone through their 2nd level...which almost left them totally devastated...so when the Spirit came in power, they were 3rd Levellers....fit and able to father the first ever church at Jerusalem.All ministries that I have grown up with are totally wrong in equating our entrance Baptism in the Spirit with Acts 2.Morris Cerullo is wrong if he implies that at the end of one of his Schools of Ministry, as wonderful and life transforming as they are.....if he equates that with what the disciples were put through over a 3 year period. Rheinhardt Bonnke is wrong. You can't quite level the same at New Frontiers....in fact if anything they are too slow by Jesus standards....or they again call maturity what is not maturity....not like Acts 2 at any rate.

Model 3. Paul As one untimely born. Filled with the Spirit from the word go. But NOT given Holy Spirit wings to then go off straight away and turn the world upside down. (Morris Cerullo take note)Praise God that everyone hated him, or was cautious about him. He might be converted, but he'd been responsible for many deaths...one was specifically named: Stephen, the martyr. So there was no way he was going straight out on the road. Norman says Paul spent 3 years in Arabia. Gene Edwards says he spent several years in the Antioch church. Two things happened. He received from heaven during this period his gospel. Everyone has to have their own gospel.Divine revelation from Jesus Himself. It's not so we all start our individual cults. There is only one Jesus. And only one gospel. But Jesus has to make it our gospel. He has to write it in us. So we become living letters read by men.After 36 years I have a gospel. As we start preaching the stuff that is actually in the New Testament , and not the 2 level stuff we've been preaching for years...there is no reason why we cannot (in Jesus) raise up local bodies that grow believers in similar time periods to Jesus. In fact we have something that Jesus never had: we have the Holy Ghost Growing Machine - The Body of Christ . So this was the second thing that happened to Paul : that which was now in him was being worked out and recognised by this early example of a Gentile Church. This Jesus will make Himself known to others in our surroundings through us. Our gifting will be perceived.

As we look out at many weary faces who have been faithfully attending charismatic churches now for 30 or 40 years....it is sad to now say, there is in fact no reason why it had to take this long. The good side of our history is that the Terry Virgos, the Gerald Coates rushed in to fill the vacancies to provide good, solid, faithful and sacrificial leadership. Listen, Terry actually came to minister to us in Amersham instead of being present at the birth of one of his children. People only get born once!!! How sacrificial was that!

On the bad side, virtually the entire leadership in our country never knew that a 3rd level existed, let alone how to minister it. So ofcourse as they hit us with verses from John 15-17 about bearing fruit, and unity, and as we all sink in condemnation, because largely these things are not so in our networks...........little did we know that none of these things are really possible til we hit the motherlode of the 3rd level. Think how disastrous the disciples were in their 1st three training years. Forget unity. Forget pure fruit. They were arguing who was the greatest. Who's DA BISHOP!

In this post I have not even covered the question of Bible Schools. The writing of Jesus gospel inside us so we become Living letters is such a profound work....that without a proper release of the Spirit can take a whole 7 decades as I began saying. There is no possible way apart from a wave of Holy Spirit Revival Power,Revelation, and supernatural deliverance , (which by the way, on many occasions has swept through Ed Miller's Bible schools)....ordinarily there is no way on God's earth that a Bible school be kitted out with what it takes to move a man or woman out of the deep deep delusions of selfhood into the 3rd level in the 2 or 3 years usually allotted for the task.
I believe, as a fulfilment of what Jean Darnall, and Harry Greenwood, and other renowned prophets prophesied into Emsworth, I believe I was a part of a prototype wave of ministry training as God will refine and hone in the future. I believe the Bible House model of training which came through Ed Miller and then Jorge Pradas, are much closer to the biblical model. Where everyone leaves everything to come together to:
seek God together
learn what it is to live and work as the Body of Christ together
to be dealt with at a very deep level

and to teach also the things it was not good at:
teaching us to minister in Power together as teams
teaching us Norman Grubb's insights as to the true nature of the human condition in Genesis
teaching us what it means to walk as Christ in our individual forms
and at this level of insight -how to live together in love and the Presence of God

So what is the difference between that and a monastery or nunnery?
It's more dynamic,prophetic. People come together until a specific work has been established amongst them. Like Paul and Barnabus they are recognised in ministry, called out by God, separated for specific tasks. It's all the things New Frontiers wanted to be, but never had the tools for. It's organic. Our Bible House began around a house church in new Brighton Rd Emsworth, but moved into 20 acres of property as the church vision grew. It's less programme based...more based around the expanding Word and gifting of some rather dead individuals.
That is , individuals who have so caught this thing about being dead in Christ, they themselves are the programme!!! Like Mother Basilea Schlink, Graham Pulkingham, Richard Wurmbrandt,Watchman Nee,Witness Lee....every time they open their mouth they cause irreparable damage to people's insides!!!
In short they have become Twinklers of the First order!