The Charismatic Movement
THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT
Part 1
FEBRUARY - 1997
By Mervin Yoder
I don't claim in any way to be an expert on
the charismatic movement. I don't believe in people being experts on cults,
witchcraft, or other such things. I think we need to be experts on God's Word,
for if we understand God's Word and what is real, then we'll understand what is
false.
In our early days of marriage my wife worked
in a bank and was trained how to spot counterfeit money. It's absolutely
impossible to learn about all the kinds of counterfeit money, the bank said,
because there are millions. But if you study the real thing and learn all its
intricacies, you will immediately notice when something isn't right. The way to
discern wrong is by knowing what is right.
In the same way, we discern false teaching in
the church by being thoroughly familiar with the real thing. We look to the
Word of God and to the Holy Ghost. I could talk about this subject for the next
six weeks and tell you all I have been through, but you have something better
than that--the Holy Ghost within you. You don't need any man to teach you, the
Bible says. No man can be with you and watch over you 24 hours a day, but the
Holy Ghost teaches you all things.
I have to confess that while I was involved
in the charismatic movement I denied the voice of the Holy Ghost. When I saw
something that didn't feel quite right--something contrary to the "real
thing"--I pushed past my reservations and went along. That's how easy it
is to get enticed into deception.
I pray the Lord will give us discerning eyes,
that we would embrace and guard that which is holy and true. If we embrace the
Word of God and the Holy Ghost within us, jealously guarding them from those
who would take them from us, then when the deceiver comes we will not want
anything to do with him, though he be disguised as an
angel of light.
Though I must mention names in this study,
I'm not trying to shoot at anybody or raise up one
person in the place of another. Sometimes leaders must be mentioned by name,
just as Paul had to warn against Philetus and Alexander. And though we must
preach against much that is deceptive in the charismatic movement, we are not
denying the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the evidence of speaking in tongues, or
the other gifts. The word "charismatic" itself is a good word, taken
from "charisma". Another good word for it is grace, a divine
influence within a man's heart. This is usually what people are seeking after,
but the movement leads them astray.
II Thessalonians 2 provides a good
description of the charismatic movement. Paul exhorts us not to be shaken in
mind or troubled, "neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from
us...." Don't be shaken by what someone preaches, even if all the right
people are quoted, as people in Paul's day may have quoted Paul--a "letter
as from us". We are known in
"Let no man deceive you by any
means," Paul continues. Christ Himself, when asked what the sign of his
coming would be, told his disciples to "take heed that no man deceive
you." With our television, radio, and mega-churches today, we have
literally millions of people around the world who can be deceived in a moment
by one man. Robert Schuller is right now the most watched man in
Paul says the day of Christ shall not come,
"except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition." - I'm not sure all that the Bible means when it
talks about the day of Christ, but its plainest meaning is the returning of
Christ to catch away His church. In the charismatic mind, however, it means
something more. They think the day of Christ is the day in which Christ gives
dominion, authority, and power to man to rule the earth and be above all things
in the earth. A big push behind the charismatic movement is to rule the earth
and dominate the government. Though the scripture refers here and elsewhere to
the millennial reign of Christ, the charismatics say that satan
is bound already and God has given us full authority over all things in the
world.
The scriptures about us serving as kings and
priests are favorites among charismatics. They seek to set up a kingdom in this
earth. But Thessalonians says there will be a falling away first. I believe we
are full hilt in the middle of such a falling away, and widespread false
teaching and deception is evidence of such.
"Deceive" means to seduce wholly or
completely. Generally we find that people in the charismatic movement aren't in
it part way. They are completely given over to it. During my four or five years
in the movement I was seduced wholly into deception. I'm thankful the Lord
didn't come back then, because I don't know if I would have gone.
I believe many in this movement are
reprobate, completely given over to lies. Some have blasphemed the Holy Ghost
and are beyond bringing back. Though many are sincere and can be reached, most
will not be reached. Our desire is first to keep people from falling into that
deception, and second to reach those we can who have already fallen. Our
talking about them or putting them down won't do any good, but our praying,
fasting, preaching, and seeking after them through the Holy Ghost may help
bring them out.
The "falling away" Paul mentions
simply means "defection from the truth". Such defection is usually
very subtle. The charismatic movement doesn't come roaring in, saying
"Here I am! I'm going to lead you astray!" No, it leads to a gradual
falling away. I believe that most people in the charismatic movement at one
time knew God, because it is impossible to fall away from something you haven't
been to. So I believe the scriptures here aren't talking about the deceived
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons. Most of them have
been born into deception and have been walking in it all their lives. The
falling away will involve those in the authentic church who have known and
served God.
The Bible says many shall follow their
pernicious ways, many shall be deceived, and many will enter through the wide
gate, the gate of destruction. Few will enter the narrow gate and be saved.
The word "deceive" is a two-part
word, meaning:
1) to take from a point of origin, and
2) to cheat.
The charismatic movement comes and offers you
something that will lead you away from your place in God. Then it cheats you
out of the authentic Holy Spirit in your life. Most people in the charismatic
movement are sincere and have been seeking after God. But something came before
them, put on a face that appeared to be God, said something that sounded like
God, and led them astray.
In I Timothy 4, Paul again talks about the
latter times and those who "shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils". The
word "depart" means to "remove and instigate a revolt." The
spirit behind the charismatic movement eventually leads people into rebellion and
then revolt against anything that is holy and true. It is the same spirit that satan had as Lucifer in heaven when he said, "I will
exalt myself above the throne of God," and he led a revolt wherein a third
of the holy angels of God were thrown from heaven.
Think about that revolt. There was no sin
there at the time and no temptation, and the very presence of God filled the
place. Yet Lucifer was able to entice a third of the angels into open
rebellion. That's quite a revolt. Today we see in a glass darkly. We can't
bring the Holy Ghost out of a closet and say, "Here He is. This is what He
looks like." We can't provide a diploma of salvation that proves we have
it. We must walk by faith. But Lucifer's followers had no such handicaps. They
could see clearly, yet they still chose to rebel. If satan
could accomplish such a thing in heaven, how much easier is he able to do it
today!
That word "depart" is used again in
II Timothy 2:19:". . . let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart
from iniquity." How becoming is it for a Christian to be an adulterer. To remain in drunkenness, or in lying, or in stealing? The
idea is ridiculous. A Christ-like person departs from iniquity, from his old
lifestyle and his old way. The Bible says when you are born again old things
pass away, behold all things become new. A Christian doesn't live in iniquity.
He departs from it, he flees it, he runs from it.
In turn, when a Christian departs from the
faith in I Timothy 4, he does the same in reverse: he flees from the faith and
leads a revolt against it. He does this by "giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils." The term "giving heed" means
to pay attention to and adhere to, and it's related to the word "cleaving"
as when a man leaves his father and mother to cleave to his wife. Get the
picture of what is happening: Those in the charismatic movement have left the
Father and cleaved unto another spirit and another doctrine and are now setting
up their own principles and standards, walking in their own ways. The
charismatic movement is self-seeking, self-exalting, and self-perpetrating and
does away with the cross of Christ.
So when people give heed to seducing spirits,
they are given over to them completely, as in marriage. That's why you cannot
walk up to those in a charismatic church and convince them they're wrong. They
are deceived totally, their eyes are completely covered, and you cannot argue
with them or bring them out of that deception with your own might. It has to be
a work of the Holy Ghost as He supernaturally opens their eyes to the truth of
their captivity.
Paul delves into this further in II
Corinthians 11:3: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ." The charismatic movement does not dwell in the
simplicity of Christ. Neither do many other denominations, for that matter. The
simplicity of Christ is simply this: He was the last Adam,
the Son of God sent to die and pardon us from iniquity and resurrect us into
newness of life, so that we are no longer slaves to sin to walk in it, but now
we walk in obedience to Jesus Christ, with his resurrection power in our lives.
How subtly that message is corrupted and
added to! How often we hear people preach another Jesus. Verse 13 talks about
false apostles and deceitful workers "transforming themselves into the
apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light." The false prophet looks like
Jesus. The charismatic movement sounds like God. Those in it do not deny the
Bible. They are not anti-God or anti-church or even anti-Jesus. But they are
anti-Christ. You see, there is a difference. In I John we're told to test the
spirits, because the spirit of antichrist is already in the world. Jesus, born
of a woman, was simply God in the flesh. But as Christ he is the Messiah,
preaching and ministering and delivering from sin. Even the heathen celebrate
the birth of Jesus and marvel over the baby in the manger. The Muslims accept
Jesus and call Him a great teacher. The Mormons named their church after Him.
But they don't accept Him as Christ.
Who is Christ? He is the one who came up out
of the water and heard God the Father say, "This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." Then He went forth preaching repentance and
bringing deliverance unto salvation.
Christ is prophet, priest, and king. As
prophet He is the express image of God, described in Hebrews 1. He is the
outshining of God. Whatever Jesus did, God was behind it. When He suffered on
the cross, God was behind it. He is the revelation of God. As priest He is the
only door into salvation, the only door into heaven. He is the only door. Some
people try to go around the cross by all sorts of things: positive thinking,
church membership, church dress code, and so on. But the cross of Christ is the
only way. Third, Christ is king. That's what Christ means. When people are
anti-Christ, they are unwilling to submit to the kingship and lordship of
Christ. If there is any area in your life that isn't submitted to the lordship
of Christ, then you, too, are anti-Christ.
In the charismatic movement today, you do
whatever feels good. You have your movies, your television, your lifestyle,
your desires, your second and third wife-you do whatever you want, because the
kingship of Christ isn't recognized. The movement is anti-Christ.
Paul warns again in Galatians 1 that some
would pervert the gospel. In verse 7 he makes this strong statement: "But
though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." That's why the true
believer must not associate with certain people and ministries.
You cannot take that which is holy--the
anointing of God and the ministry of Gods Spirit--and join it to something that
is accursed, something that is banned from the presence of God. A false gospel
is false even if an angel from heaven preaches it, Paul says, just as in I
Corinthians 11 he said that satan can transform
himself into an angel of light
How can we tell what is of Christ and what is
anti-Christ? The answer, as we said at the beginning, is to give ourselves
wholly to Christ, to know the real thing so fully and so intimately that when
the counterfeit comes along we will spot it immediately. Next month we will
look at specific characteristics of the charismatic movement that are
anti-Christ, and how they contrast with the Christ of scripture.
Part 2
MARCH - 1997
Satan is able to mimic Christ. In II
Corinthians 11: 14-15, Paul warns that false teachers will transform themselves
into the apostles of Christ. "And no marvel; for satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light," Paul says. While the
charismatic movement may appear Christ-like to those seeking the truth, in fact
it deceives and leads astray. It is anti-Christ, against the Christ of
scripture.
Last month we looked at the deception of
false teachers as described in the scriptures. Such false teaching has an
immediate and often very drastic impact on a person's behavior. It's these
manifestations of charismatic behavior we want to examine now. Upon entering
the charismatic movement, a man very quickly drops his high standards and
qualities of character, dressing in new ways, bringing in television, watching
sports, and attending movies and concerts. Everything is okay. The seduction is
powerful and takes captive the very ones who think they are free.
One of the biggest things you will notice
about charismatic people is their singing. The flesh, not the spirit, glories
in their singing. Contrast a charismatic "revival" to a Spirit-driven
revival such as the three-year outpouring in
The charismatic movement is exactly opposite.
Flesh glories in it and moves in it. One prophecy that came forth from the
Charismatics are hung up on choruses. They
don't like hymns. I heard one man say, "I don't like those old hymns. They
talk about the blood and the cross, about suffering and death, and they make
you feel just awful." Many of their choruses don't even apply to today.
They talk about a realm of ruling and reigning that God has not allowed man to
enter into in this life. But they sing it because that is their longing and
dream.
Their worship services generally reach a
point of climax or ecstasy where people believe that God will do anything and
then someone is motivated to prophesy. The prophecies always hinge on the
blessing and prosperity of the Lord: "The Lord would have you know today
that He is going to bless you. He is going to bless your going in and your coming out; He is going to bless you in the field and
in the city. He is going to minister Himself unto you and bring you riches and
prosperity. He is going to raise you in height above all nations." And on
and on they go.
But while people sing these light and airy
choruses and talk about blessing and prosperity, they harbor sin in their
lives. Homosexuality, adultery, fornication, lying--such sins are in the
congregation while everybody is freely lifting hands. No wonder they stick with
praises and stay away from preaching. The Bible says it is the foolishness of
preaching that will save the soul. When the Word is preached there is
conviction and the Holy Ghost moves in. But you can go into a service with
guitars, drums, and singing and, though laden with sin, lift your hands and
feel everything is fine. You believe that because someone passed out on the
floor or someone spoke in a tongue and prophesied, God was there.
Praise and worship today is a business. The
choruses are produced methodically. You can even sign up with a club and get a
new cassette every month. I talked to a man whose church in
He gave me one of their cassettes. "This
one doesn't have a lot of power behind it," he admitted. "You see, we
have a school here, and every student who took the music course had to produce
a chorus for this praise and worship tape to get a passing grade."
Producing choruses to get a passing grade
isn't much different from all the other reasons the charismatics produce
choruses: to meet the schedule for the monthly release, to try for a big hit,
to aim for something new and exciting. The words aren't born beneath a burden.
They aren't born from fasting and prayer or from trial and persecution, as so
many of the hymns were. They are born out of materialism and other fleshly
concerns.
The charismatic movement is more than a
movement. It's a spirit that grabs hold of people, that
manifests itself through many different faces. It's hard to tell what it looks
like because it's in so many different churches: the Catholic, the Lutheran,
the Episcopal, the Baptist, the Mennonite, and virtually every other
denomination. It proclaims unity among all the churches of the world, just like
the anti-Christ described in scripture brings false unity. It has a powerful,
world-wide influence.
Charismatics become wrapped up in churches
and preachers instead of Christ. They are always quoting man instead of
God--Hagen and Copeland instead of the gospel writers. Often they are
completely engulfed in the church and its activities.
The pastor is the main figurehead and
decision maker in the church. For all the talk about the fivefold ministry, you
never see it manifested. The pastor is usually the one who started the group,
and he's the one who is quoted and followed along with the national figureheads
such as Hagen and Copeland.
The charismatics also make men feminine and
women masculine, the exact opposite of what God lays out in I Corinthians 11.
God says man is the image and the glory of God, and
woman is the image and glory of man. But in the charismatic camp you see the
roles of men and women flip-flopped, just as they are in the world.
The charismatics have taken scriptures
completely out of context to develop their idea of "confession": by
your words you are condemned and by your words you are justified. They point to
the scripture in Proverbs, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,"
and twist it to mean that man can find power to be what he wants through his
thoughts. Kenneth Hagen took Romans 10:9-10, where Paul says that with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation, and applied it to every area of life. So if you are poor, you
need only to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that you are
rich, just the same way you got saved. If you need healing you simply believe
and confess. Instead of the emphasis being on God and his work, it's on man and
what man says and thinks. If you say something negative around them, they'll
rebuke you in a minute. "Oh, don't say that. It's going to come back on
you." Man is suddenly brought into bondage by every word he says.
In a deceiving way, they have taken away the
lordship of Jesus Christ and the sovereignty of God and the fact that He is the
giver of gifts and He chooses what is right for each of us. In his book about
faith, Kenneth Hagan has a chapter entitled "Writing Your Own
'Ticket." When you get on a train, Hagan says, the conductor comes along
looking for your ticket. And when you can provide it, that proves to him that
you have the right to he there and the right to take in whatever is on the
train: the comfort, the food, and whatever else you need. He says that God has
now given us the license to write our own ticket, and if we confess what we
need, the provision comes to us through the power of our confession.
Those who follow such teaching are usually
just speaking the words without the reality of God behind them. They aren't
truly baptized with the Holy Ghost but have only "confessed" it and
are speaking in tongues as someone taught them. There is incredible emphasis on
tongues in the charismatic movement, and if you aren't given tongues in a
moment, then they try to teach them to you. A couple that I
know were seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost in a Mennonite church in
Paul Youngey Chou is very famous for his
500,000-member church. He talks about being impregnated with a vision, and
after he becomes pregnant with it, he confesses it because it is within him,
and it simply comes to pass. In
Another emphasis of the charismatics is the
display of the "gifts" of the Spirit in their services. On a Sunday
morning people walk out discouraged if somebody didn't pass out or stand up and
prophesy or speak in tongues and interpret.
The more people fall on the floor and have
tongues and prophecies, the more the Spirit has been
among them. That's their qualification for a spiritual move of God. But the Bible
tells me that when in the Old Testament the glory of the Lord filled a place,
all the people fell on their faces. Nobody could stand to minister. That's
quite a contrast to what the charismatic churches expect. Even when people do
fall down, it's not from the Spirit of God. I see them look before they fall. I
see them pushed so hard they almost do a backward flip. Such tactics are human
efforts to imitate a move of the Spirit. Naturally when the people get back up,
they don't get up changed. They go down an adulterer and they get up one.
In every third sentence a charismatic speaks
you hear "The Lord told me. God told me." That's their way of putting
power behind their opinions. Many of these preachers were called at one time
and had the anointing of God on their ministry, but they have been seduced and
deceived and now are simply charismatic. They still have a lot of natural
eloquence, so when they add "The Lord told me" to their well-stated
ideas, who can argue?
Such preachers also like to lay hands on you
as they prophesy. They make people feel good with their prophecies, looking for
popularity and big offerings. They will say to a man whose lust for material
things has gotten him into debt: "God will bless you as you give to
him." So the man gives his offering and feels good as he looks forward to
his blessing. "Ah, I'm going to he blessed. I'm going to get out of
debt." Isaiah warned that there will he prophets that God has not spoken
to who will come and give the people a momentary peace by what they prophesy.
They will never tell you about sin and repentance and separating your life.
They won't do like Agabus did to Paul when he took his coat and bound it around
him, saying "The one that is the wearer of this cloak shall thus go bound
to
I watched Benny Hinn on television this past
year as he preached against the spirit of poverty that binds so many people. He
said it is God's will for us to be prosperous, not poor. At the end of his long
beautiful message, he drove in with his solution: "Many of you here
tonight are bound by the spirit of poverty, and we are going to break it. We
are going to take an offering and for this spirit of poverty to be broken in
your life, you have to write out the biggest check you can and put it in the
offering in obedience to God. If your wife is not here, write a check out for
her. If you are watching by television, write out your check and send it in. By
so doing the spirit of poverty will be bound." He said further that those
who didn't do it would be cursed. As people looked at him, this wonderful man
of God with "Thus saith the Lord" behind his words, who could
withstand him?
The solution Benny Hinn offered wasn't the
blood of Jesus. If there is a spirit of poverty like he described, and I
believe sometimes there is, people will be set free only through the blood of
Jesus. The Jesus taught by the charismatics is not the Jesus of scripture, the
Jesus who suffered on the cross and calls on us to take up
our own crosses and follow Him. Don't be deceived by the rosy promises
and momentary peace offered by false teachers! Look out for the angels of light
who look and feel so wonderful! Only a firm grasp of scripture and reliance on
the true Spirit of God can protect us from the deceits of the enemy. Next month
we will examine the theology of the charismatics and see how that theology
deviates from the plain truth of scripture.
Part 3
APRIL - 1997
In the Garden of Eden, satan
told Eve, The day that you eat of this fruit, you shall he as gods, discerning
both good and evil and having a power. Today's charismatics have succumbed to
the same temptation. They say we can have a power within us to be like gods.
The Seduction of Christianity is a well-written
book coming against such false doctrines. One example it gives is Kenneth
Copeland's assertion that just as dogs beget dogs and cats beget cats, so God
begets God. Using the scripture in Hebrews 11, Kenneth Copeland says the world
was framed by the Word of God, and God has given us his same spirit of faith;
if we truly recognized and realized our power, we could create another earth in
the same way God did. The only thing preventing us is our lack of faith and
lack of confession. A similar claim is that we can create money and confess it
into being "Ye shall be as gods."
Their flagrant misuse of power can be seen in
how they command the Holy Ghost. A charismatic man came into one of the
churches in PA and tried to contaminate the group. He would stand the people in
a circle, holding hands, and say, "Now the Holy Ghost is going to go from
my left around this circle and he is going to touch you." An Amish man was
telling me about the circle and how he and others got knocked to the floor. A
power indeed went through them, but not the power of God, for their purposes
were contrary to the Word. We can't dictate to the Holy Ghost.
The charismatics invented the health and
wealth doctrine and overemphasize the work of healing. Some of them can hardly
preach on anything but healing. But though they fall on the floor, and at times
their healings seem to be real, many of them get up and still have to go to the
doctor because they don't get healed. Their confession of healing is perpetual
but it lacks in results. I certainly believe in healing and the miracles of
God, but the way they go about it is contrary to scripture.
II Timothy 3:5-7 says, "Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort
are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth." Some of their leaders were known in their
crusades for filling the first two or three rows with all women. These men had
captivated such women who, led away by their lusts, were looking and longing
after the men. Jimmy Swaggart at one time preached against the charismatic
movement and against Benny Hinn specifically. He preached holiness. But when he
was caught in his sin, he turned to the charismatics for help, and they took
him in. Now he is preaching with Benny Hinn and recently said he had seen God
move in the greatest way ever through their joint ministry. In his magazine he
now sells long golden earrings with crosses, and his wife is completely made
up, like Tammy Faye Bakker II.
Ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Charismatics are constantly on the go, always talking
about health and prosperity--but never coming to any truth in it. They often
live hypocritical lives, bragging that God has prospered them and accusing the
poor of living in sin while they carry incredible amounts of debt. They flash
their watches and jewelry, large cars, large homes, and anything else that is
gaudy and glittering believing such things to be a sign of spirituality.
In James 5 the Bible says, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold
and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and
shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the
last day." This is a description of today's charismatics.
Another popular doctrine in their midst is
the "dominion" or "kingdom now" theology. Most of the
leaders do not believe in the catching away of the church. Tommy Reid and Earl
Polk stand at the forefront of this belief. They deny the truth of I
Thessalonians 4 and I Corinthians 15 and simply believe that a day is coming
when they will begin to take over all branches of government and authority in
the world. They will become the lawyers, the politicians, the presidents, the
congressmen, and the kings, and they will rule the world from those places of
authority. They will Christianize the world.
The Bible tells us that satan
is the god of this world and it can't be Christianized. "Come out from
among them and be separate," the Word says. Be different. But they think
they will gain dominion over the world so that Jesus can come back and they can
reign with Him. They mention nothing about tribulation, nothing about
persecution, and nothing about the destruction of the world.
Believing that satan
is now bound, they say that Jesus has given us all dominion and all authority
that man lost in the Garden of Eden. When Jesus rose from the dead, he took
dominion back from satan and returned it to men, where
originally it had been bestowed. There will not need to be a catching away of
the church because the church will take over the world.
II Timothy
Paul had just given the truth of the matter
in II Timothy 2:12: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."
Where do you find the charismatics talking about suffering? Instead they say,
"If we stand up in power, then we shall reign." Jesus directly
opposes their ideas when he says in Matthew 5 that the meek shall inherit the
earth. And in Luke 22 he tells his disciples not to be like the Gentiles, who
lord it over others, but to be servants, the least of all, and then the Father
will give us a kingdom in heaven.
The doctrine of unity is another favorite
with charismatics. In their circles you will find Pentecostals, Baptists,
Catholics, Mennonites, and on and on. People from all denominations go after
their vain teaching. They are willing to drop all differences and all doctrine
for the sake of unity. And they especially drop the doctrine of holiness, since
living a holy life by necessity separates you from others and prohibits the
unity they cherish.
The Bible talks very little about unity. In
Ephesians 4 it says there is a unity of faith and a unity of spirit, and in
Psalm 133 it says "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity." That's about the extent of it. But the Bible speaks at
length about holiness. We must never compromise doctrine or holiness under the
guise of unity. True Christians put a premium on holiness, but to the charismatics
it is only something nice to sing about--getting into the Holy of Holies where
God gives you dreams and revelations. But the Bible talks about holiness in our
daily lives--without holiness in our lives no man shall see the Lord. And I'm
not just referring to their dress, their hair, their makeup, their gold, and
their jewelry. Those are simply the fruits of the unholiness in their hearts.
Theirs is a spiritual sin that separates them from God's holiness.
I heard with my own ears Benny Hinn say he
stood alongside the Pope in the
Robert Schuller is another great fan of the
Pope. And now Jimmy Swaggart is with them. He was the Pentecostal voice of
holiness in years gone by, but now he is with those who are unconcerned about
holiness.
Many of you may be shocked to hear that when
Billy Graham, the most famous evangelist in
Luke 7:22 has a word for false teachers:
"Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what
things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the
lepers arc cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel
is preached." Preaching to the poor is one of the qualifications for the
anointing of the Spirit. That shows you how the charismatics are false. They
don't preach their prosperity message in
Verse 23 continues: "And blessed is he,
whosoever shall not be offended in me." People were offended by Jesus and
put him on the cross, and anyone who preaches Jesus is going to cause offense
as well. If we preach the truth and oppose what is false, then the world will
oppose us. We won't be popular. This verse says we are blessed if we don't stop
at the offense, but keep on preaching.
Billy Graham, on the other hand, doesn't give
such offense. He is popular. Even the world respects and loves Billy Graham.
In Luke 6:22 we are given the same message:
"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you
from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for
the Son of man's sake." Does that sound like unity? Does that sound like
all men coming together? No, this doctrine of the charismatics is only paving
the way for the anti-Christ, so that when he comes and speaks, all will come
unto him.
We need not be grim in our persecution,
however. Verse 23 says: "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for,
behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets."
Verse 26 gives another warning to those who
strive for popularity and respect: "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak
well of you! for so did their fathers to the false
prophets." This doctrine of unity is the doctrine of the false prophets.
When a man is highly esteemed among all men and spoken well of, he is a false
prophet. He is saying something pleasing to the flesh, and people love it.
The charismatic doctrine of Christianizing
the world leads them to preach about a coming worldwide revival. They talk
about a latter-day rain that is going to sweep all men to Jesus Christ. But the
Bible says straight is the gate and few there be that enter
therein. Few there be. Most people follow the broad
way to destruction. Matthew 24:4-5: "Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive
many." Verse 9: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and
shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."
Does this sound like a great revival? Quite the opposite.
The end times will be a time of falling away, not the gathering in of Gods.
Verses 21-22: "For then shall he great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved."
Another doctrine the charismatics
push--another that is pleasing to the flesh-is that God is a good God. You hear
only about his goodness, never about his wrath, chastisement, or judgment. If
you were to suggest that God disciplines His children and allows things to
happen to bring them to their knees, they would call you a heretic. They say
all good things come from God and anything that makes you suffer comes from the
devil.
But listen to Hebrews 12:6-8: "For whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
Many, many scriptures the charismatics ignore
in their talk about a good God. Jesus didn't come to please the world but to
turn it upside down: "For judgment I am come into this world, that they
which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind"
(John 9:39). Suffering is considered evil in the charismatic
church, but listen to Philippians 3:10: "That I may know him, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death." Again in II Timothy 3:12: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution." God's goodness does not preclude his allowing us to
suffer.
I have seen firsthand the troubling
ramifications of these false doctrines. Next month I will draw on my personal
experience to further elaborate on the many dangers of the charismatic
movement.
Part 4
MAY - 1997
II Thessalonians 2:3 makes it clear that
"the day of Christ shall not come, except there come a falling away
first...." The charismatics, with their "kingdom now" theology,
teach just the opposite. Yet their very behavior exhibits a falling away, as I
discovered during my time in their midst.
At age 22, I got baptized with the Holy Ghost
and faced rejection from my Mennonite church. So I went to a charismatic
Church. They talked about the baptism and showed all the evidences of being
filled with the Holy Spirit, yet many things I had to question. If they were so
led by the Holy Spirit, why were women singing in mini-skirts? Why were men
hugging women and women hugging men? Why all the looseness, the talking, and
the jesting?
In II Thessalonians 2:4 Paul further
describes the falling away of the last times: "Who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." This is
exactly what the charismatics are doing. They exalt themselves and ignore the
command to "Be ye holy as I am holy."
Through suffering Jesus learned obedience, and he made it clear we will he made
perfect in the same way. We are called to humble ourselves and die to our
flesh, but they talk about blessings and prosperity. In so doing they
"exalt themselves above all that is called God."
In the same fashion, Lucifer tried to exalt
his throne above God's, enticing a third of the angels to join him. In his self
exaltation he was "showing himself that he is God." He has brought
into the church the same deception he used on his fellow angels. Paul warned in
Acts to "Beware, for there shall be wolves that shall come in from amongst
you." He wasn't talking about Hari Krishnas and Buddhists, but about
deceived Christians practicing the deception of Lucifer.
Paul continues in II Thessalonians 2:5:
"And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will
let, until he be taken out of the way."
I believe this verse is talking about the
Holy Ghost. Satan cannot deceive us as long as we have the Holy Ghost within
us, because the Spirit leads us into all truth, as Jesus said. So if the Holy
Ghost indwells us, He is always checking and warning us, as was my experience
when I walked into the charismatic church and saw that things weren't quite
right. The Spirit was warning, warning, warning: "This isn't right! This
isn't God!" And the Spirit will continue to warn us "until he be
taken out of the way"--until we deny His warning and pursue the evil laid
before us.
That's why some people in the charismatic
movement are completely given over. They have blasphemed the Holy Ghost and
denied his warning. They have not hearkened to the Spirits calling and have
decided to embrace the devil's deception that they can be as God and can exalt
themselves above God's throne. So they have received another spirit and no
longer have the Spirit of God.
Verses 8-9: "And then shall that Wicked
be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and
shall destroy with the Brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is
after the workings of satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders...."
This is a clear description of the
charismatic movement, which is deceptive precisely because of its "power
and signs and lying wonders." People get healed and receive supernatural
experiences. There is power in this thing and they are taken by the power. I am
thankful today that many of the things I named and claimed, confessed and
sought after, never came to pass. If they had I might still he in the movement.
In Pharaoh's court, Moses and Aaron cast a
staff on the ground and it became a serpent. But so did the devil's men--the
magicians' staffs became serpents also. The men of God put their rod over the
water, and the water turned to blood. Put then satan's
men turned the water to blood as well. The devil was matching God miracle for
miracle. He had power.
Finally the men of God called the dust of the
earth into lice, and the magicians tried to do it but could not. They told
Pharaoh that this was nothing less than the finger of God, because they
couldn't do it. They realized that God's power was greater than theirs. The
Bible says, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the
world."
The Holy Ghost is greater than the devil, but
the devil still has much power, and if we give ourselves over to him he will
deceive us, as verse 10 says: "And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might he saved." Though the Holy Ghost warns those caught
up in deception, they willfully deny the truth. They begin to overlook
holiness, and ditch the covering. They get into television right away and then
into sports and so on. Because they have received another spirit, they deny the
Holy Spirit.
I Peter
Watch what happens when people deny the Holy
Spirit in 11 'Thessalonians
Remember the passage in Matthew 7: In the
last day many will say, "Lord, Lord, did we not in your name cast out
devils and do many wonderful works?" Yet God will answer, "Depart
from me. I never knew you." Jesus wasn't talking about the Mennonites, the
Baptists, or the Methodists. They don't believe in casting out devils and doing
many wonderful works. He was talking about the charismatics. They're the ones
who are full of the gifts of God, but they are heeding another spirit. God will
give them over to a strong delusion that they should believe a lie and he
damned, because they would not believe the truth but took pleasure in
unrighteousness.
I left the Mennonite church in rebellion and
anger because of how they mistreated what God had given me, the gift of the
Holy Ghost. So I entered the charismatic church with a combination of anger and
rebellion and rejection-and a wide-open heart. This is the very combination of
emotions that most people have when they enter, and it makes them vulnerable to
deception. Their own church family has rejected their experience of tongues,
and another church, the charismatic church, has its arms open wide and says,
"Hey, we've got it. Whatever you want, we've got it."
I was in this church a couple of months when
an altar call was given for those who felt they had a call of God on their life
and wanted to consecrate themselves before the Lord. I
went forward. As I was standing at the alter, meditating before the Lord and
seeking him with the sincerity of my heart, I suddenly felt the pastor's hands
come on my head, and just as quickly I felt someone catching me and laying me
on the floor.
Something put me on that floor. He didn't
push me. All I felt was the light touch of his hands. I lay there not knowing
what to do. I wasn't out; nor was I in some aurora or some state somewhere. I
just lay there wondering what to do next.
I Timothy
I believe the day that pastor laid hands on
me I received the spirit he was working under. Through that experience I began
walking in deception, and it wasn't until a man stood up and preached against
the charismatic movement that I finally saw my deception and repented of my
sins. When I repented the veil was lifted from me.
I then renounced that man and his laying of
hands on me. Brother Wayne has preached on witchcraft and the need to renounce
such evil; I believe the same is true concerning the false spirits of the
charismatic movement. If you have received a false laying
on of hands, or have walked in that power, it needs to he renounced. If a
weight or burden is holding you back and restricting you from being what God
wants you to be, it might be that you were involved with such evil powers and
never renounced them. Let the blood of Jesus break that chain that wants to
hold you captive.
In the charismatic movement there is constant
emphasis on gifts and power. There is excitement and lots of action. On Sunday
people are in ecstasy and flying higher than a kite. But many hit bottom on
Monday. They live a roller coaster of emotions, because they are promised one
thing, and they confess it and claim it, yet it doesn't come to pass.
In contrast, when a person walks full of God
and knows joy unspeakable and full of glory, peace that passes all understanding, and life "more abundantly," he will
discern the shallowness and emptiness of the charismatic experience. He will
meet charismatics and see that though they have a boldness
and a speech, inside they are empty. Paul describes it as a "tinkling bell
and a sounding cymbal." They claim all the gifts and all the power, but
they don't really know God. "Depart from me; I never knew you," God
will say.
How do we deal with those in the charismatic movement?
First, we need to reach those who are
reachable. Thank God somebody reached out to me! I have no right to stand where
I stand today. Absolutely no right. I was deceived. I
was a preacher in the movement and given to the doctrine. One day we had a tent
meeting and the evangelist preached against a thing I had been involved in. As
the host pastor, I sat on the platform and hung my head, realizing I was wrong.
I decided to turn from my sin, and I knew I would have to repent in front of
the whole church and ask their forgiveness. I knew, too, I was going to have to
repent before my parents and parents-in-law. The day I did that the veil was
lifted from my eyes. I finally could preach from the whole Bible. I saw things
I never saw before. I was taken out of bondage.
Many others in the movement need escape from
their bondage. They have eternal souls that need to be reached. We don't need
to speak evil against them or mock and laugh at them. Nor should we turn up our
noses and think we are really special because we are not like them. They are
people who need Jesus, a true deliverance in their life. They need somebody
who's willing to go to them and, under the anointing of God's Spirit, live a
life that's full of God. Our gossiping or holier-than-thou attitude won't carry
the Spirit of God.
When I was in the charismatic church and felt
the call to preach, I began to look through the popular Charisma magazine.
'Today I wouldn't read that thing for anything; it's full of the doctrines of
devils. But I began to look there for Bible schools and sent off to several for
information. I heard back from Ramah Bible Institute in
After my repentance I stood up in the church
I was pastoring and said there would he no more Christian rock 'n roll. I had
visited a worship center were they advocated Christen rock 'n roll or rather
(religious rock 'n roll). There was a lot of power in that church of 3000
members. Many people who get converted and seek the baptism of the Holy Ghost
end up there.
So I have people I love who are in the
movement all the way, bitten by that charismatic serpent. I am profoundly moved
when I think that I should be where they are. I very nearly went to the same
school as their pastor. It's only the mercy of God that opened my eyes to come
hack to holiness and truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't know if you realize just how
dangerous the charismatic deception is. It's something that could very well
come into our midst and split us apart. It would tear our hearts to see sons
and daughters and mothers and fathers sucked into it. Don't think that we are
immune to it. It has deceived others just like us, and it has deceived people
full of the Holy Ghost.
We need to have the five-fold ministry
functioning in our midst. We need to have the true teaching of God, the true
power of God, and the prophet of God who comes in among us and stands up and
says what God is doing. And it comes back to this simplicity: in the moment
that we hear, that's the moment to repent. We must remain pure and holy before
God.