APOSTASY AND FALSE TEACHING
"...And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:11-13)
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." (1 Timothy 4:1-5)
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)
"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (2 John 7)
"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 4)
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NEW...
AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH:
an exposé of the ‘Shepherding’ Movement
This is without doubt the most difficult piece I have ever attempted. It is difficult because many are likely to be deeply offended, even angry. This is not something I particularly want to do by design and have been somewhat reluctant. Nevertheless, I am not going to apologize, not in the least. What I have discovered has both shocked and saddened me. I feel sorry for those naïve souls who have been deceived by the false teaching I am about to expose and even more for those whose experiences in the cultic organisations involved have had their lives devastated and there have been many. Some of the abuse that some have lived through is as shocking as it is unbelievable.
What I am referring to is the so-called ‘shepherding’, ‘covering’, or ‘discipleship’ movement. It is only quite recently that I came into contact with it. This is largely due to the fact that when I came to faith in Christ just over seventy years ago, I always regarded pentecostalism with healthy suspicion and have always kept myself apart from it when I could. From time to time, I have made my reservations known publicly so that many have been reticent to tell me of their own personal involvement. As a rule, their position emerged through a third person.
I believe my caution to have been well founded. Right from its beginning early in the twentieth century, pentecostalism has shown itself to have nurtured false teachers, fraudsters, and other noxious persons and even at times criminals. William Branham (1909-1965), an early American leader is fairly typical. He posed as a healer, an initiator of revival, and claimed to be a prophet with the anointing of Elijah who had come to announce the second coming of the Lord Jesus. These claims show him to have been a shameful liar and proven fraudster where much of his ‘ministry’ has been shown to have been a scam, even during his own lifetime.
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THE PENTECOSTAL CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT:
whence is it?
Up until now I have deliberately refrained from becoming entangled in an appraisal of the Pentecostal/Charismatic phenomenon. The reason has been twofold: on the one hand practical and on the other personal. As a movement it is impossibly diverse and multifarious, ranging from quiet error to rampant blasphemy and heresy. This makes it difficult to know which of its many tails to take hold of first. On a personal level, I have lost many friends to the movement, several becoming well-known leaders. One, a Swedish friend, was a room-mate at the Bible Institute where my wife and I were students. He has since his elevation to dizzy heights refused to acknowledge my emails. Another friend from the United States along with his wife became Bible teachers with the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship or ‘Toronto Blessing’. Seeing that we were once such good friends, this makes matters distressing.
Furthermore, I have seen local Churches decimated and broken up by this frightful and delusory mockery of the Christian faith. As I have continued to learn of folks whose lives have been totally messed-up by their involvement, I have now determined to speak out and hold my peace no longer. A husband and wife, friends of my wife Valerie, were deeply involved in the Charismatic world. The wife lost her mind completely and was placed in an institution by her husband from whence she eventually escaped and landed on our doorstep having travelled all the way from Germany without having paid a cent in fares. In another instance, a lovely young lady, gifted with a fine singing voice who attended the sister Bible institute in Germany to the one we went to just north of Paris, was caught up together with her husband in an extreme Pentecostal group. She became distressed enough to commit suicide. I hope she will find grace and mercy in the Saviour whom she once trusted for salvation. Listening to her beautiful singing recently on YouTube moved me sufficiently to make me yet more determined than ever, even for her sake, to expose this dangerous and fraudulent movement for what it is. I swing between deep sadness and quiet anger at this perversion of the precious Gospel of the Lord Jesus. These charlatans preach another Gospel born of another spirit than the Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:5-8). They worship another ‘Jesus’, another Saviour not found in Scriptures who is unable to save them from slipping one day headlong into the bowels of hell from whence this awful deception came. No one will be more surprised than they.
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)
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