Archive for the ‘Examining false doctrines in the Church’ Category

In Part 1 we established who the Holy Spirit is and His Diety as a God.  In Part 2, we will examine his role as the 3rd part of the Trinity.  To understand the Holy Spirit, you must understand his purpose and mission.  John 16: 7-11 states, in part:

 However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].

And when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment: .

But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].

He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

Think of the Holy Spirit like a spotlight is on a singer in concert.  Jesus is the central figure, and the Holy Spirit is shedding light on Jesus.

So, if we walk in the Spirit and let him teach us, what kind of people will we become?  The answer to this question is found in Galatians 5:22.  It states: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.”  The manifestations of love are joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (an even temper).

So, how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit?  This entails much false teachings within the Church, both in the Charasmatic and non-charasmatic circles.  You can’t be born again unless you have the Holy Spirit  Titus 3:5 states:

He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

But, what is being “filled with the Holy Spirit” mean?   I believe the key is found in Acts 1:8.  It states:  “But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  And what is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit?  It is found in the remainder of the verse. “and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

If  you have no interest in witnessing for Christ or being a witness by your words and actions, and people can’t see the fruit of the Spirit in you, I don’t care if you have the gift of tongues, you are NOT filled with the Holy Spirit.  The gift of tongues is just that–a gift and that is all it is.  It is an important gift, but it is dead wrong to build a doctrine around it.  The gifts of the Spirit are what you have while the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 is what you are.  Isn’t what you are more important than what you have?

Please do some reflecting on this concept this season of Pentecost.  We must always examine ourselves to make sure our belief systems are correct, never falling victim to what we call in Psychology “group think”  where you think like the group instead of discovering things for yourself.  You will be glad you let the Holy Spirit be your teacher instead of people.  God wants to do a new thing this Pentecost season.  I would encourage you to be in special prayer during this 50 days from Easter and discover God in a new way.

What is the prosperity doctrine and is it good or evil?  Is possessing lots of money evil?  Well, let’s see what the Bible says.  Let’s find our key scriptures first.  Our first stop is I Timothy 6:6-10

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Does this scripture say money is evil?  No, it says the LOVE of money is the root of all evil and those that DESIRE to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare.  This can clearly be demonstrated from the scandals in teleevangelism in the 80’s and is still going on today.

One thing is abundantly clear–money is the focal point of almost all of them in the charismatic circle of preachers.  It is the new era of prosperity–giving money to God so he will give money back to us in time of need.  In case you haven’t noticed, the only ones getting rich from it are those promoting it, and that is not because God has blessed them with it. Rather, they have blessed themselves through huge salaries.  This used to be called stealing from the ministry, but now if you disagree with them, “you are coveting.”  The philosophy is that God doesn’t want his children poor.  He wants them to prosper.

For further detail, there is an excellent website that I have found that I want to share  and it has a very good article on the prosperity doctrine.  It is: www.indefenceofthegospel.com.   Another good website to always check is www.ministrywatch.com.  You can click on the article “Measuring Oral Robert’s influence.

Two key scriptures are used to support this incomplete doctrine–3rd John 2, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, and be in health just as your soul prospers,” and the words of Jesus in Luke 6:38 “Give and shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.”  The prosperity televangelists set the example by taking huge sums of money from the ministry, in the form of salaries, the books that they write, and speaking engagements.  They ride in limousines, Porches, and Role Royces.  Many of them have fallen from grace.   This shouldn’t come as any surprise as their faith is based on what they can get from God instead of what they can give to Him.  

It should be noted that not all TV evangelists preach the prosperity doctrine, and most of them are very hard working and honest.  It is an illusion that all TV ministries are “money hungry.”  It just seems that way because the hard working sincere ones, who live off a modest income from their ministries don’t make the news and the headlines.  They just go on carrying on the Lord’s work of the Great Commission–to “Go into the world and preach the Gospel.

Remember also, that prosperity has never been around for anybody, even Americans, until about 1950 except for the select few.  Since the beginning of time, it has been a hand-to-mouth existence for everybody and still is for those in the 3rd world countries.  If the prosperity doctrine isn’t true for everybody, then it can’t be from God.  

The Christian life is all about surrendering yourself as a” living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1-2) That may or may not include money.

The “heros of the faith” are not those who have lots of money.  I want to leave you with Hebrews 11 which is God’s hall of fame.

 36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;38(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

I know first-hand what spiritual “fat-cats” these prosperity preachers are.  Most of them have little substance.  Most of them could never hold up under  the persecutions  mentioned in the above passage. 

So, in conclusion, don’t be like the “rich young ruler” Jesus talks about in Mark 10:17-27.  He came and fell at the feet of Jesus. but went away because he didn’t love Jesus enough to give up his riches.

Love of money can entrap people who lack it also.  It is just more subtle, so be careful.  Just love Jesus and what he has done for you unconditionally.  That is what true surrender is.  It is saying “okay Jesus, here I am.  I am yours unconditionally!”

 ¹BUT ALSO [in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.     ²And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings;because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.  ³And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.   ( II Peter 2:1-3)

 ¹IN MANY separate revelations and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets,   ²[But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order].  ³He is the sole expression of the glory of God.  (Hebrews 1:1-3)

    ²⁰You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:20)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6)

I get quite alarmed at what I hear over Christian TV from seemingly sincere Christians in leadership positions.  There seems to be very little discernment these days from people listening, mainly because of Hosea 4:6–”my people perish for lack of knowledge.”  How are you to get knowledge of you don’t “study to show yourselves approved, rightly dividing the word of God?”  (II Timothy 2:15).

I have been charasmatic for over 30 years, and I have never heard anyone exalt themselves to “Prophet or Apostle status” until after the year 2000.  I have heard ludicrous things like, “we have a prayerline to heaven others don’t,” “all the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate through us,” and  ”God speaks through us first.” There is absolutely no scripture to back these claims up.  They are just people that want to exalt themselves.

To ascertain if people are teaching correctly you must search out in the Bible three things: This is how I determined truth in this matter.

1.  Find your key scripture (Hebrews 1:1-2) The key is the former days, God spoke through the prophets, but in these last days through Jesus.  Cults have prophets, Christians have Jesus as their prophet/priest.

2. Find your supporting scriptures (Ephesians 2:20) What was the purpose of prophets and apostles?  The answer is to build a foundation, prophets for the Old Testament and Apostles for the New Testament.

3.  Find the “devil’s advocate scriptures  In other words, what scriptures do these people use to support their claim. (Ephesians 4:11)And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers”

False teachers are ferocious for taking one scripture to validate their claim while disregarding other scriptures.  You can’t do this if you use critical thinking skills.  So, how does these scriptures all tie in together?  What they don’t do is contradict each other.  Sometimes, we have to get the context of the scripture right.  In this case, who is being addressed, Jews or Gentiles?  Gentile Christians never had prophets, and the context of the times is that the Church was just being established.  In this case, I think we have a problem with semantics–the true meaning of what was intended.  Paul was referring to those with the gift of prophecy, not the individual.

Also, there is a gift of prophecy for a worship service as described in I Corinthians 12, but there is no gift of apostleship.  In a worship service there certainly can be a word of prophecy given through any individual that is an open vessel for God to use for the benfit of the entire church.  If you have the gift of healing, does that make you the healer?  Of course not.  So, having the gift of prophecy operate through individuals doesn’t make them prophets.

In sum, you don’t let yourself be taught by any Christian as much as you let the Holy Spirit teach you through other Christians.  Also, you do, however, need to be selective as to who you choose to learn under because you have a tendency to become like that person.  In other words, if you learn under a legalistic judgmental leader, you will inevitably become judgmental and legalistic yourself.  Always remember, the Holy Spirit is your teacher, and He will never lead you astray.  People will, God will not.