A Warning About Some Modern Day Revivals
A popular television evangelist slays people in the Spirit, and when the “anointing” is on him, he touches people, and sometimes just waves his hand in their direction, and the people fall down lifeless. Sometimes he’ll throw “Holy Ghost” balls at a section of the audience, and the whole section will fall back “slain in the Spirit.” This being “slain in the Spirit” has become so commonplace that it comes as a surprise to many charismatics that the Bible is silent about it! There is no Bible account of Jesus or any of the apostles knocking any people into a Spirit filled catalepsy! Yet this practice typifies the charismatic movement’s obsession with paranormal “gifts” that are displayed in public with great commotion.
There is a church in Canada where the people are now experiencing what is called “holy laughter.” This church started out with rock type music with wild applause. This progressed to shouting and dancing in the aisles and unrestrained worship services, and today, even the pastor of the church said, “I am sure if what we are seeing is from the Lord or from the devil.” Women roll in the aisles, some with their dresses up over their heads laughing hysterically, and they claim that this is a new revelation of the Holy Spirit!
Today we are hearing less of Bible preaching, and we are seeing more and more of a religion based on feelings and emotions. In fact, for many their emotions have become their authority instead of the Word of the living God!
Many other Christians, besides Seventh-day Adventists are becoming concerned and are questioning the unbiblical chaos they are seeing being carried out in many churches. Some of the charismatic leaders are becoming angry with those who dare to question whether these spiritual excesses are really from the Holy Spirit. They characterize all those who ask them questions they cannot answer as being divisive or devoid of the Spirit. Benny Hinn, admittedly said some of his healings were “staged” to get the ball rolling! When he was attacked about this, he said, “Sometimes I wish God would give me a Holy Ghost machine gun; I’ll blow their heads off.” (Charismatic Chaos, p. 14.) Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Station, when he was criticized about these excesses said, “Get out of the way; quit blocking God’s bridges, or God’s going to shoot you, even if I don’t.” (Ibid. p. 14.)
One such minister that is being attacked for questioning the modern charismatic movement is John McArthur. He has written a book called Charismatic Chaos. I think every Christian ought to read this well documented and well-researched book! McArthur has come under attack because he is questioning the unbiblical excesses he is seeing in modern Pentecostal worship services.
In his book, McArthur writes: “A close associate of mine attended a charismatic businessmen’s meeting in Chicago where a Catholic priest testified that Mary had given him the gift of tongues while he was saying the Rosary. Then the Charismatic Protestant pastor leading the service exclaimed, ‘What an amazing testimony! Aren’t you glad that God is not bound by our ideas of what is doctrinally acceptable? How you get filled with the Spirit doesn’t matter, just as long as you know you got the baptism!’ The audience, numbering in the hundreds, broke out in wild, sustained applause. No one seemed to question whether that man’s testimony, so obviously in conflict with Biblical truth, might be spurious.”
Something strange is happening in the Protestant churches. They are no longer protesting any of Rome’s false doctrines. Much of the unifying that is going on with Rome and this modern day charismatic movement fuels Protestantism. Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon are two other Christian writers who are concerned about this trend towards an emotion controlled Christianity that ignores Bible truth. They wrote a book called The Seduction of Christianity. I highly endorse this book and I encourage you to read it. In the book they clearly point out the dangers of this new gospel that stresses feelings, emotions, mystical experiences, and meditations instead of the plain Word of God. By the way, it is interesting that the Roman Catholic Church is emerging as a leader in this movement.
Today TV healers urge viewers to call in to claim their miracle and also to give a love offering. Some of the miracles seem bizarre such as washing machines being healed: demons being cast out of vending machines: $1 bills being turned into $20 bills, etc. It seems that in their meetings God performs on demand putting on a show that rivals the six days of creation and the opening of the Red Sea! Yet, noise, miracles, unrestrained and bizarre behavior is NOT the test of what is truth! “Thus saith the Lord” in His Word is what the truth is! Noisy exercises and speaking in the modern day “unknown tongue” is also no evidence that one is filled with the Holy Spirit!
In recent years, Christianity has been rocked with sex scandals involving popular charismatic and tongues speaking preachers like Jimmy Swaggert, and Jim Baker, and now we are seeing it with many charismatic Catholic priests who for years have been molesting children!
The flippant way some modern day preachers claim to speak for God, and to have a special connection with Him is also alarming many. Kenneth Copeland, a very popular television evangelist claims that he gets his unique interpretations of the Bible by direct revelation from God. At his Dallas Victory Meeting, Copeland, speaking for Jesus said, “They crucified Me for claiming that I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in Me. Hallelujah!” (Deceived by the New Age, p. 205.) Copeland claimed that Jesus denied His own divinity! Will Baron, who was a new age high priest that was converted to Christ, and is now a Seventh-day Adventist minister said that his new age guru, when he was studying to be a new age priest, instructed him to watch Copeland and Kenneth Hagin on television because they were the nearest to new age philosophy!
Brothers and sisters, it is time for Christians to return to the Bible, and to study the Bible like never before! We are seeing and hearing strange things, and Jesus said that the deception would grow to the point that if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived!
One well-known preacher and author claims that Jesus comes into his bathroom each morning when he is shaving and talks to him. He says, “Hi Jesus,” and goes on shaving as Jesus finishes speaking with him! In the Bible when men like Daniel, Peter, Paul, John and Isaiah saw the Lord, they fell down trembling and awestruck before the great God of heaven! And this man goes on shaving! I find that hard to believe! I don’t believe he is seeing the real Jesus!
Dear reader, you don’t need to feel anything, or see anything unusual to be a child of God, or to be filled with great joy! You just need faith and belief! In fact, in 1 Peter 1, verse 8, it is written: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” Many charismatics have abandoned the Scripture guidelines, and the guidelines of God’s law, and as a result, today we are seeing a spiritual free for all!
Oral Roberts, a few years ago, claimed that a 90-foot Jesus told him that he would be killed unless he raised 8 million dollars by a certain deadline to keep his hospital going. The hospital, by the way, eventually closed down.
According to Christianity Today Magazine, the most watched television preacher is Robert Shuler in his Crystal Cathedral. Nearly four million people watch him each Sunday morning. Schuler preaches a feel good gospel of universal salvation, positive thinking, inner healing, and no-denominational ecumenicalism. His books are best sellers. But there is something seriously wrong with Schuler’s gospel. In the October 5th, 1984 edition of Christianity Today, Schuler is quoted as saying, “I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and hence, counter productive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.” According to Schuler, Jesus would be uncouth when He said, “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Peter would be “uncouth and crude” when he said, “Repent and be converted.” So would Paul who said, “Be not deceived, the unrighteous will not enter the kingdom of God” in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
Because the voice of faithful rebuke is being lost from the pulpits, America is in the shape it is in. If ever the church and the world needed rebuke and correction from God’s Word, it is now! Yes, we are to worship the Lord with our mind, and our emotions, but never should we let emotions supercede divine revelation as our basis of what truth is! “Thus saith the Lord” is what the truth is! Yes, we should be open-minded, but we can be so open-minded that our brains fall out! One modern revival was going strong until there was a power failure, then the revival stopped because the electric instruments couldn’t play! Friends, when God gives true revival, it won’t depend on the electric company but on His Holy Spirit, and the preaching of His Word like when he raised up the Reformation, and the Second Advent Movement!
Besides the gospel of emotionalism, there is another gospel being preached that is not the gospel Paul preached. It is the gospel of Psychology. Another book I highly recommend is Psycho-Heresy by Dr. Martin Bogdan. Dr. Bogdan has four prestigious college degrees in Psychology, and he spent years in a very lucrative practice treating patients with every form of psychological and psychiatric treatment known. When he became a Christian, he realized that the gospel of Jesus Christ was ten times more effective in changing the life than were any of the treatments he was giving! He realized that psychology was replacing the Word of God and the power of faith and belief for many Christians. Bogdan realized that even though it says in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 2, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season, and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all loving kindness and doctrine,” there is a psychological type of feel good preaching sweeping the church that does not include rebuke, or calls to surrender fully to Jesus, and that does not teach that it matters whether we obey God’s law or not! To expose this heresy, Bogdan wrote his book.
Another error being popularly taught in Pentecostal and charismatic churches today is that the way we can know that we are filled with the Spirit is that we speak in the “unknown tongue.” Many feel that if they can speak in tongues, they have arrived, and nothing else is important. There is no need for them to learn more, or to study to show themselves approved unto God.
Let me make a point here. The Bible gift of tongues was the ability to speak in a foreign language for the purpose of spreading the gospel. Seventh-day Adventists believe in the Bible gift of tongues, and I have heard of documented instances where some of our missionaries were given the ability to speak in another language to share the truths of the Bible with others whose language they did not speak or understand! In the Bible, the gift of tongues was given on the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts chapter 2, to spread the gospel of Christ to others from all over the world who were in Jerusalem for the Jewish feast days. But I am afraid that today there is a counterfeit Corinthian type gift of tongues that fosters pride, emotionalism, and confusion and division in the church!
In 1 Corinthians 14:27 – 28, it is written: “If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. 28But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.” Paul instructed that this not be spoken in the church unless there was an interpreter present. Yet this is totally ignored today and hundreds babble at the same time with no one interpreting! Language can be translated and interpreted, meaningless gibberish cannot! By the way, the word “unknown” in this verse in the King James Version is in italics. This is to let us know that it was a word added by the translators, and that it was not in the original Greek text of the New Testament.
Tongues speaking is no sign of truth either. The Jansenists were a group of Roman Catholic loyalists who opposed and persecuted the Protestant Reformers spoke an unmeaning gibberish that resembles the tongues being spoken today, and this is well documented. In the 1700s, the Shakers, as they were called because they shook so much, spoke in the “unknown tongue.” They were led by a lady by the name of Mother Ann Lee who considered herself the female Jesus Christ! The Shakers danced, shook, and spoke in gibberish in a trance-like state! Today, Tibetan monks, who do not even believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, also speak with ecstatic utterances resembling in cadence the tongues being spoken in Pentecostal churches! The Virginia Medical School has even documented tongues speaking among New Age health practitioners and spiritualists! Plato, who lived centuries before Jesus documented in his book Phaedrus, “inspired utterances” by families who were worshipping the pagan gods!
Even the United States government became interested in the glossalalia sweeping the churches. They gave a special grant to the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York to study this phenomenon. They sent a team of two psychologists, a linguist, and a psychiatrist to study and record tongues speaking in modern religious meetings. They especially were interested in those who claimed they could interpret the tongues being spoken. After six years of investigating tongues and its interpretation, this was there conclusion; “There was no similarity in the interpretation of the various interpreters. One interpreter said that the tongues speaker whose recording he was listening to was praying for the health of his children. Another interpreter listening to the same recording said that the tongues speaker was thanking God for a recent successful church fund raising effort.” (Rattling the Gates, p. 86.) Every one who listened to the recording had a different interpretation! God is not the God of confusion!
Some modern day tongues speakers try to claim that they are speaking real languages. Pat Boone claimed that his wife spoke in ancient Latin. Others claim they spoke in ancient Egyptian! Why? Nobody knows! Dr. Welmers, a Christian linguist that led a team of linguists to study the tongues phenomena being spoken in churches reported this in his book, The Baptism, Power, Gifts, and Fruit of the Holy Spirit, on page 20. “Among the Christian linguists who have been asked to listen to tape recorded samples of contemporary glossalalia, their experience in several hundred of the world’s three thousand languages was brought to bear on the subject, and this experience involves virtually every group of related languages in the world. If these utterances were in real human languages, certainly by this time, at least a few of them would have cropped up here and there that were identifiable to one of us . . . to date, no linguist has identified any glossalalic utterances as any real language, whether existing today, or in the past.”
Roland Hegsted, the author of the book Rattling the Gates, and one who spent twenty years studying the modern tongues movement wrote this on page 87 of his book. “In more than twenty years of investigating the tongues movement I have never heard tongues that appeared to be any other than a collection of manufactured words drawn from the speaker’s reservoir of sounds. Once one gets the hang of it, tongues of the manufactured variety are not difficult to produce.”
I remember when I first became a Christian; I had a pastor give me a sheet of paper that had instructions on it about how to start speaking in tongues. On the paper it instructed to start saying meaningless sounds like ba, baba, shaba, etc, and to let your lips and tongue loose like when you are cold and have the chills. I said to that pastor, “Now why in the world would I want to do that?” He had no answer! It has come to the point, that if I was speaking in a Pentecostal church and I said, “Mashunda, manunda” in the middle of my sermon, they people would applaud wildly that the pastor was filled with the Holy Ghost! Someone might even dance a jig to celebrate! Why? Because I made a few sounds with my mouth! Do you see what is happening? Do you see why evangelical Christians like John McArthur, and Dave Hunt, and others are writing books warning about this kind of religion, and do you see why their books are best sellers? Truth is being determined by feelings, and not by the Bible!
The apostle Paul made it clear that not everyone would have the ability to speak in foreign languages they never learned. In 1 Corinthians 12, verses 28-30, Paul wrote: “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” Paul said that “some” had these different gifts; “some” would have the ability to speak different languages, but not all! Yet, there are many churches that teach that unless you have the gift of tongues, you have not received the Holy Spirit! This unbiblical teaching causes many to manufacture this gibberish so that their brethren do not think they are unconverted! Notice also that Paul listed the gift of tongues LAST, and least important! While today it is exalted as the most important, in fact, even proof that one is converted!
Jesus did not say ‘by their gifts you will know them.” He said, “by their fruits you will know them!” One can counterfeit the gifts of the spirit, but one cannot counterfeit the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, etc.! These must come from above and change us within! That’s why Jesus said, “By their FRUITS you will know them!”
In his book, Beyond Seduction, on pages 21-22, Dave Hunt writes: “One watches in amazement as a popular television preacher or healer pauses dramatically in his sermon, cocks and ear toward heaven, carries on a conversation, holds up a hand to let God know that He’s talked enough, then confides to his eager audience what God has supposedly said. This is usually carried out with an almost flippant camaraderie as though God existed solely to perform on command. How vastly different the Biblical scenes of God’s mighty encounters with prophets and apostles of old. Consider Moses on the Mount at the giving of the Law, or Isaiah crying, ‘Woe is me!’ or John the apostle falling as dead at the feet of the resurrected Christ . . . One often has the distinct impression that one is watching entertainers.”
In the early history of the Adventist Church, church leaders had to deal with false speaking in tongues, and other so-called charismatic gifts. In Portland, Maine in 1863, a group attending the camp meeting there began to speak in tongues an exhibit other “gifts.” In the meetings where this was happening, they were using loud music with drums and shouting, and it was causing quite a stir at camp meeting. Ellen White was present at the time, and the Lord gave her discernment regarding it. She wrote, “Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the ‘unknown tongue,’ which is unknown not only by man, but also by the Lord, and all of heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises has been considered gifts, which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this has not been good . . .When the happy flight of feeling is gone, they sink lower than before the meeting because their happiness did not come from the right source.”(Testimonies For The Church, Vol. 1, p. 412.) In 1890, the same thing happened at a camp meeting in Indiana. Ellen White wrote this about it as recorded in the devotional book Maranatha, on page 234. “The things you have described . . . the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.” So before the devil slipped this false revival into Christianity, he tried to place it in God’s remnant church, but the Spirit of Prophecy have the warning to God’s remnant people that they might not be deceived!
I believe there is another spirit at work in some of the revivals we are seeing today! In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 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.’” Here were people who were calling Jesus “Lord.” They were healing people in His name! They were casting out devils in His name! They were doing “wonderful works” and “many” of them IN JESUS NAME! Yet, Jesus said to them, “I NEVER knew you, depart from Me, you that work iniquity.” The Word translated “iniquity” is the Greek word, “anomia,” and it literally means lawlessness! Jesus was saying, “I don’t know you, get away from Me you that break My Father’s law!” Woe! Jesus will say those same words one day when He comes to those who think, for whatever reason that they can break God’s law with impunity! God will forgive sin, but He won’t wink at it!
The Lord’s not impressed with noise, with miraculous claims, or with people doing all kinds of things in His name. He’s looking for those who show they have received His righteousness by faith, and the way they show it, according to Jesus is that they keep His commandments! He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15.) If Jesus told those who were claiming to know Him that He never knew them, then who was giving them the power to work those miracles? The answer is plain. It was the devil! If Jesus was not blessing them then because of their lawless deeds, He will not bless those claiming to have God’s gifts if they are ignoring His law today! Jimmy Swaggert was speaking in tongues while he was secretly visiting prostitutes! Jim Baker was dancing in the spirit while he was committing adultery with Jessica Hahn! Jesus has not changed! The Bible says, “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, and even forever.” Revelation 16, verse 14 tells us that in the last days there will be “spirits of devils working miracles.” And for what purpose? Revelation 17, verse 13 says it happens so that “these have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the beast.” According to God’s Word, this false revival is happening today to unite all churches under Rome’s leadership!
On page 588 of the book The Great Controversy, Ellen White wrote: “The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. As spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power. The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church members love what the world loves and are ready to join with them, and Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium . . . Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith.” What a remarkably accurate statement reading in 1884 of what is happening in our day!
In the same book, on page 464, she wrote: “Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.”
These words were written in 1888. Just 13 years later, on January 1, 1901, at a small Bible college in Topeka, Kansas, a young minister by the name of Charles Parham laid his hands on a student – Miss Agnes Osman, and she began to speak in ecstatic utterances and exhibited the modern gift of the unknown tongue. It was the same kind of thing the devil tried to place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863 and 1890 but was identified as false by the spirit of prophecy. It took hold in the churches of the land and the neo-Pentecostal movement was born! Today, almost all denominations have embraced this movement, and even some in God’s remnant church have partook of it and left the church! The Roman Catholic Church is emerging as a leader of this “renewal” movement and the Pope has put his imprimatur on it! What should concern every Bible believing Christian is that the same old errors of Rome have never been denounced, and the same errors that Protestants of old rejected, even at the cost of their lives is now being embraced without a shot being fired! Today Protestantism is closer to Rome than ever before! No church can boast more miracles than Rome who has been at this game for centuries!
The true people of God will not compromise with false doctrine! While the world is drinking the wine of Babylon and going mad, don’t let it happen to you! Don’t listen to darkness no matter how many so-called “miracles” are attached to it! The Bible tells us how to know if we are hearing the truth or not. In Isaiah 8, verse 20, it is written: “To the Law, and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them.” No light means there is darkness there! Do you want to know how you can really tell if you know Jesus? It tells us how in 1 John 2:3-4, “3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Dear reader, I don’t know about you, but my life wasn’t changed by taking a course in self-esteem, or by the power of positive thinking, it was changed when I believed the gospel of Jesus Christ, repented of my sins, received the gift He already gave me 2000 years ago when He died on Calvary’s cross, and gave my heart to Him! I took God’s Word as my guide, and His law as the standard for Christian living. Then I knew, as I still know now, that I was on the right path – the tried and true way the Lord laid out for us – the way that if we follow, will land us on the heavenly shore!
The true gospel will cause the forgiven one to have a change of heart! God’s agape love will be poured into the heart, and this new covenant love will cause God’s law to be written in the heart as it says in Hebrews 10, verse 16. The true, everlasting gospel will cause people to walk as Jesus walked. That’s the fruit of the real gospel! When we walk in the spirit, it will not be evident by a lot of noise, but rather by the victories God gives us as we walk in Him! The true gospel tells us that sin is the transgressions of the law, and that there is a Savior who has already purchased salvation for all who will receive it by faith! And the Bible says in John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
True revival will come to the last day people of God when they heed the message of the true witness and repent, and cover themselves in Christ’s righteousness, and rub the eye-salve on their eyes! Jesus is still knocking on the door of hearts saying the words of Revelation 3:19-22, “19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He’s knocking on the door of all of our hearts today! Let’s open the door and let Him in! What do you say?
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