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Thursday 20 January 2011

Chronological Emergence Of The Apostate Church Over Last 100 Years



Edited 27 Jan, 6 Feb, 17 Aug, 7 Nov 2011 and 1 April 2012
(for 17 Aug, edit see 3 videos added under Word Faith section)


This is Part  3 of a series looking into how (many strands of) the protestant evangelical Church became apostate over the last 100 years.This part 3 is not completed yet but due to various reasons I feel I need to display something now. I will add to it in due course, but I hope you find this helpful, for now.  To see part 1 and 2 please click these shortcut links:
Part 1   Why Dominion and Kingdom Now Theology Leads The Church Down The Same Road To Apostasy As Pursued By Rome
Part 2   Background To Why The Twentieth Century Evangelical Church Became Apostate


We will now look at the chronological emergence of the apostate church over the first half of the last one hundred years, through the influences of men like William Branham, EW Kenyon and Kenneth Hagan.


These men, whose false  "Christian" gnostic (now known as New Age) teachings and their unhealthy over focus on the supernatural and angelic experiences, became the forerunners to the Latter Rain and Word Faith movements. We will look at the origins of these two movements with a brief description of their main false teachings and their key objectives. We will also look at the subsequent and initial organisations which arose (at that time). 

These movements are the basis and links which led to the introduction of all other apostate  "Christian" organisations (which are ecumenical and new age). They are both very similar in their teachings. They both emphasise replacementism, the global reign of the church BEFORE Jesus returns (Kingdom Now Dominionism), restoration of the 5 fold ministry and the New Age idea and the satanic lie that we can all become like God by becoming little gods. They both emphasise power supernatural  ministry and talk much about angelic visitations.

Please read Colossians 2:18  and 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 which expose these "experiences" as unscriptural
First, here is a brief chronological sequence of 
how the evangelical Church moved away from a sound solid base to embrace the apostate.
Charismatic History:

1904 Onwards: Revivals leading to Pentecostal movement


1920’s: AOG, Elim, Apostolic Churches formed


1920’s to 1948 E W Kenyon laid the foundational teachings for Word Faith to be born later


1930’s to 1940’s: William Branham influence resulting in rise of Latter Rain movement and its teachings


1940’s:  William Branham, George Warnock, Paul Cain and others attempted to introduce Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God teachings into the Pentecostal movement.


1948 Onwards: Israel Become a Nation again coinciding with the full emergence of  Latter Rain Movement (include Manifest Sons Of God) preaching replacementism


1949, the Assemblies of God officially rejected the Latter Rain/ Manifest Sons of God doctrine as "heresy." The cult went underground but surfaced again in the 1960’s as the Manchild Company


1949: Kenneth E Hagan’s Itinerant ministry began (leading to Word Faith movement about 1967)


1951: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International started (Kenneth Hagin given full admission)


1948-1952: The Latter Rain Revival. Sharon Schools (Global Missions). This time coincided with the evangelical revivals Billy Graham, and healing revival Oral Roberts, Smith Wigglesworth, William Branham, David du Plessis, Cecil Cousen, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, TL Osborn, Dennis Bennett, David Watson, Donald Gee, Michael Harper, George Warnock. Paul Cain, John Robert Stevens


1954 Onwards: Awakening Revivals London Billy Graham 1952-1960’s: Revival died


1957 (approx.)  Billy Graham became ecumenical.  On Fullers Board 1958


1952-1960’s: Latter Rain Revival died out. The Latter Rain Movement took over


1960’s the rise again of the Latter Rain/ Manifest Sons of God cult, through the Manchild Company. Disregarding the Assemblies of God decision, Paul Cain, the Kansas City Prophets and Vineyard Ministries have subsequently reintroduced and successfully established their false doctrine in the Pentecostal churches.


1960’s Onwards: In Britain, Renewal Movement (becoming ecumenical and charismatic with many denominations joining) within Anglican Churches and house groups influenced by   the Anglican Renewal Movement tried valiantly to pastor the Renewal but foundered on ecumenism, formalism and their loyalty to the historic denominations


1950’s -1960’s The House-Church movement, as it was known at first, ran almost unnoticed alongside both the Anglican Renewal Movement and the independent Pentecostal groups


1963-5: Vatican II Ecumenical Statements and  secret talks with protestant charismatics


1963-7 Onwards: Kenneth E Hagan (through his Evangelistic Association and influenced by ministry of EW Kenyon) instrumental in Word Faith Movement Taking Off as a “discernable Movement”


1967 onwards Roman Catholics Take over the renewal


1967 (approx) emergence of Word Faith movement


1969 Charismatic Conference had the theme "Catholic Pentecostalism"


1970’s Onwards: Gradual decline in Doctrine and expression to Rome of Charismatics


1971 The first international charismatic conference held in Guildford was described by some as the "Coming of Age of The Renewal" yet it was attended by 40 Lutherans and 30 Roman Catholics and one of the main speakers was Kevin Ranaghan. "Mr Pentecost" David Du Plessis was also there.


1972, Cardinal Suenens became intimately involved in the Renewal and introduced it to the Catholic Charismatic movement


1970’s Onwards: Shepherding Movement with Fort Lauderdale 5 (Become united with Catholics) Shepherding covering and apostleship becomes similar to Catholic priesthood


1974 Martin and Clark teamed up with the ‘Fort Lauderdale Five’ (Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, Derek Prince, Don Basham & Ern Baxter – former secretary to William Branham), who were the founders of the Shepherding Movement, which later became known as the Charismatic Movement (yes, friends, the Shepherding came first!). They were joined by John Poole, another latter Rain adherent. Together these men established a group for ecumenical renewal.


1974 Onwards: Charismatic ecumenism  and New Order of The Latter Rain


1975 Anglican Renewal ends


1970’s throughout  Many leave the Anglican churches and are absorbed by House Church Movement. A Vacuum left after the end of the Anglican renewal helped lay the foundations of  the Restoration Movement beginning small as house groups as leaders emerged rebuilding from scratch with many meetings of the pioneers until its final formation


1975 Onwards: House Church Movement called Restoration Movement UK Apostling or New Church Movement (Well established by 1975 onwards)


1976 Charismatic Apostleship becomes like Vatican in deciding what is Doctrine.


1976 North South Divide of Restoration Movement. North soon ended without new leaders


1979 Evangelical Alliance become Charismatic with introduction of Spring Harvest with
Clive Calver, Peter meadow


1979 Onwards: Origins of Alpha Ecumenical Movement (originally laid in 1979 through the initial work of Charles Marnham)


1980’s onwards  The rise of New Frontiers and other similar restorations fellowships with networking methods. The rise of the New Apostolic Reformation aka NAR  or New Order of Latter Rain (out of Latter Rain).
Edited 7 Nov 2011. Here is a specific article on the NAR The New Apostolic Reformation. Why We Should Be Concerned About It

1980’s onwards  the infiltration of New Age teaching enters the church, with a plethora of new ecumenical, charismatic, experiential, so called weird revivals and new aged influenced Christians groups emerging, like seeker friendly, purpose Driven, Emerging Church, Promise Keepers (to name a few). See my list of the main groups on:

List Of (Probable) False Christian Leaders, False Christian Teachers and False Prophets (As Indicated By The Ecumenical or Heretical Organisations They Belong To)



We will now look at the origins of Latter Rain and Word Faith with a brief description of their main false teachings and their key objectives. We will also look at the subsequent and initial organisations which arose (at that time).
Notice the similarities of their teachings and their heresies and how they would have spread the same type of poison (using different methods and channels) throughout the evangelical/charismatic churches.

Most Apostasy seems to have originated with William Branham (1909-1965) EW Kenyon and Kenneth E Hagan which (between them resulted in the birth of Latter Rain and Word Faith

William Branham 
See http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain9.htm  and http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain4.htm  which shows up his weird experiences and belief’s, which were the forerunner to  much of the weird unscriptural nonsense we hear from Word faith preachers of today and the dawn of the age of experientialism


Latter Rain were inspired by William Branham and emerged


EW Kenyon
The spiritual mentor of today's Word-Faith teachers is E W. Kenyon, a man who was greatly influenced by the metaphysical mind science religions (some being cults) such as Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity, and Church of Religious Science note this paragraph modified slightly 7 Mar 2011

The bedrock of Word-Faith doctrine is what Kenyon calls "new creation realities." For the rest of the Word-Faith assertions to work, man first must be exalted to a high position.  Word-Faith teaching puts man on the same level as Jesus Christ.  This is done by assembling Scripture passages to purportedly prove that once a man is in Christ, then the "new creature" spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is recreated as a new species of being.  Kenyon writes: "You see, man is a spirit being.  He is in the same class with God.  He was created in the image and likeness of God.  He had to be in order to become a partaker of the Divine Nature.  When he sinned he became a partaker of Satan's nature, selfishness. ... The part of man that is re-created in [sic] his spirit.  God imparts to our spirit His own nature, Eternal Life" (The Hidden Man, p.121).  


For more details which show up the false teachings please click on http://www.victorychristianfellowshipfalseteachers.com/ewkenyon.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Faith

Kenneth E Hagan (through his Evangelistic Association and influenced by ministry of EW Kenyon) was instrumental in Word Faith Movement Taking Off as a “discernable Movement”

Word Faith

For full details of how this movement emerged please read my article on http://watchmanforjesus.blogspot.com/2010/02/truth-and-danger-about-word-faith.html and read http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/word-faith.html


Edited 17 Aug 2011 (just this paragraph)
and here is a  series of 3 powerful videos (from Justin Peters) exposing the  heresies of the Word of Faith movement. Please click on the shortcut links: 
A Call for Discernment Session 1 - Dangerous Doctrine - YouTube
A Call for Discernment Session 2 - Mangled Manifestations - YouTube
A Call for Discernment Session 3 - hurt of healing

Latter Rain
Manifest Sons teachings are Kingdom Dominionist and replacementist: they believe in restoration of the Church, restoration of the 5 fold ministry with the offices of apostles and prophets, having authority through its leaders by strong shepherding and discipleship. A perfection of the saints, immortalization, and the attainment of being Christ as we become just like Christ in nature and ability.  See the similarities with Word Faith?

The Manifest Sons of God doctrine has an eschatology of Dominionism through the perfecting of the saints under the leadership guidance of the latter-day prophets and apostles. All the promises for Israel they apply to themselves.
See   http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain1.htm   for all you need to know about Latter Rain and Manifest Sons Of God and also on   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latter_Rain_(post-World_War_II_movement)

These groups emerged out of the influences of Latter Rain and Word Faith:
Shepherding Movement, Restorationists (house church movement) New Apostolic Reformation (see note on this group below), New Frontiers, Charismatic Catholics and Ecumenism etc

Edited 1st April 2012 (Just this paragraph)
Please note I have added a new article which exposes how dangerous the Manifest Sons of God doctrine now known as JOELS ARMY is. This new article demonstrates how Joels Army is now emerging in a big way and why it is a seriously dangerous precedent in 2012  Here is the link:  The Rise Of The New Inquisition. Joels Army



Re Shepherding  and Restoration Movements

Re Catholic links

Re New Frontiers Link with Paul Cain Of Latter Rain

Until I add to this article and publish part 4 please also check these excellent 2 articles which are also a portrayal of how the apostate church developed throughout the last 50 years or so.
http://www.birthpangs.org/articles/background/restuk2.html

http://www.birthpangs.org/articles/background/restuk3.html

Added 6 Feb 2011
This is the full list of  ecumenical and/or new age influenced Organisations I am dealing with in this article and on the next one (Part 4):

Latter Rain
Manifest Sons Of God
Fullers Theological Seminary
Word of Faith
Shepherding  Movement
Restoration and House Church Movement
New Frontiers 
Spring Harvest
New Breed
Joel's Army
New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)
Third Wave Movement
Vineyard
Toronto Blessing, Pensacola and Lakeland Revivals
Alpha
Kingsway International Church (KICC)
TBN
Seeker Friendly
Purpose Driven (Rick Warren)
Emerging Church
HillSong
Promise-Keepers 
Renovaré
Healing Rooms
Elijah List (list of prophetic Ministries)
Manhattan Declaration 
Westminster 2010 Declaration
THE MESSAGE endorsers
Jerusalem Prayer Team
Lausanne Movement (founded By Billy Graham)
International Apostolic Council (IAC)
International Coalition of Apostles (ICA)
Mission America Coalition (MAC)
American Society for Church Growth (ASCG)
Evangelicals and Catholics Together 1994 

20 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Andrew Bowman

I have not published your comments because I feel they sidetrack or confuse the matter of those 2 articles.

You raise some very good points, but it seems you have misinterpreted the things I have written. I would rather have a dialogue with you personally by email, before publishing any of your thoughts.

You have my email address (shown on this blog), but I do not have yours, so cannot reply to you personally. So please email me (using your email account) directly to me. I promise I will not divulge your email address.

Thanks

Andrew Bowman said...

John,

I'd rather keep this in public. If you are posting a piece on the internet for the world to see, I think it's only appropriate for discussion about it to be similarly public.

Let me reduce my comment to one question:

Are you actually claiming that all branches of the evangelical church (worldwide? in Britain?) today are apostate and believe in kingdom now/dominion theology?

I hope you will have the grace to post this and respond.

Andrew

Pete said...

John
A very well researched and highly pertinant series of articles.
God bless

Unknown said...

Hi Andrew.
Good to see you back again with your contributions.

In answer to that question. I never stated that all branches of the evangelical church are apostate.

Those churches that are dedicated to teach THE WORD OF GOD trusting in Christ alone for our salvation (not works needed to save us)
and keep themselves separate from those false teachings and from those false organisations ARE NOT apostate.

With respect Andrew, I went into great detail explaining my position to you before, within my article entitled:

"Christian Protestant Denominations In 2010. Are They Now All Apostate? (Of Course Not). This Blog's Statement" on http://watchmanforjesus.blogspot.com/2010/09/present-state-of-denominational.html

Rather than get into this discussion here, please refer to that article which I believe gives my full answer.

God bless

Andrew Bowman said...

But John, at the very start of this piece, you wrote "This is Part3 of a series looking into how the evangelical Church became apostate over the last 100 years".

You're now telling me that you actually meant "...some parts of the evangelical church became apostate...".

I think it's very important that you express yourself clearly. Saying one thing when you mean something else will lead to misunderstanding.

I have to also question your definition of apostacy. I'm not going to argue with the first bit - faith in Christ alone - but I don't believe that apostacy has anything to do with separation in the way you see it.

For example, thousands of churches in the UK are members of the Evangelical Alliance. You would consider that makes them apostate. I think that's a ludicrous position to take, despite the fact that I don't agree with everything about the EA. And you'd probably also say that every single member of those churches is an apostate for the same reason. That's just plain crazy. I don't see anything in my Bible suggesting that belonging to a particular organisation necessarily makes a church or its members apostate.

Unknown said...

Thanks Pete.

I hope you found it useful.

The rest of this is amodification because I just realised I gave wrong info.

In answer to a question from Andrew Bowman (not published) who asked about the anglican renewal ceasing in 1975.

The list (on this article) stated that the anglican renewal came to an end in 1975. This was because the life of that renewal left it to join the restoration movement, according to the charismatic church records. I cannot comment too much because I am only writing the information I found.

It could be that the power or fire of that renewal ceased and what remained were embers but still charismatic, with some life still in it.

I do know that (from experience of being a believer since 1977) that whatever (so called) life there was, was influenced by those (within or supportive of) the restoration movement.

Unknown said...

Thanks for pointing that out Andrew. You were right, it was misleading. I have now modified it to read

"This is Part 3 of a series looking into how (many strands of) the protestant evangelical Church became apostate over the last 100 years."

By the way, I DID NOT add Evangelical Alliance to my list of organisations because I know it would raise too many issues.

The fact is that many churches are starting to realise the apostate nature of EA and are starting to leave it. There are many churches who simply do not know what EA are supporting. So , I do not name all associations with EA because it is a grey area.

I never stated that individuals who belong to churches attached to false organisations are apostate. I said that the ORGANISATIONS are apostate and ITS LEADERS or church leaders who follow these organisations are PROBABLY false.

I never (at any time) pointed the finger at the laity within these organisations, as they could simply be blind sheep who follow in sincerity and do not know what they are following.

I did say or imply that individuals who deny the Bible and the way of salvation (as presented by the Bible) to deliberately follow after ecumenism instead are probably never born-again. As always, I will say "only the Lord knows the heart and who are His"

Anonymous said...

hi, i havent read all this article yet but it is very interesting, i cant belive how much false teaching there is out there, and that years ago ive had asccocations with these ministries, can you tell me, is it biblical to speak healing scriptures over yourself, like" i demand my body to work etc in the name of jesus", i think its called word faith im not sure i have a booklet called Godc creative power for healing, charles capps, also is there any suitable christian meditation? and is the verse by his stripes you are healed mean we are all supposed to be healed?? or does this mean spiritual healing, what would you recomend as suitable teachin on healing? feel v confused now and disressed over the years who to trust for prayer etc and you wonder what do they belive, it seems thers not many options left to go to, also have u heard of healing rooms?? cal pierce? my friend was v invovled with the william branham teachings and i felt imeditaly that it was not of God ...thanks

Unknown said...

Hi Anonymous

You raise some very important points.

I will start by commenting on the whole section from Isaiah 53:4-6 which is completely talking about our sinful nature.

"He was wounded for our TRANSGRESSIONS, He was bruised for our INIQUITIES, surely He bore our SORROWS and by His stripes we are HEALED ...... and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The context is talking about SIN. Transgressions is everything to do with our wrong doing and disobedience to God, iniquities is to do with what we are or have become. It speaks of our sinful nature, ie a nature that tends/leans towards sin, siful behaviour, perversion and general twistedness.

This means that Jesus died to save us from our sinful nature and from every individual sins we have committed. He bore our sorrows which meant that he suffered in our place for all the misery caused by our sin and dealt with the darkness in our souls. All these things were done so that we could be saved from our sins and be brought into a close relationship with God.

So the 4th element "we were healed by His stripes" in context MUST be referring AGAIN to our sinful state. It would not make sense for it to refer to natural healing but to spiritual healing. ie our separation from God has been healed. It is a healing of reconciliation.

Of course, certain sicknesses are a direct result of sin and are often healed once sin is forgiven. Jesus said "is it easier to say your sins are forgiven, or say rise up take your mat and walk". In that case Jesus demonstrated the effect of that persons sins being forgiven which was physical healing too.

Word Faith use those verses (as they do in ALL their doctrines) out of context. they are very selective in what verses they teach on and NEVER show you the full context, but MAKE THE BIBLE say what they want it to say.

Unknown said...

It is useful to know the origins behind these false organisations, like Healing Rooms, Word faith etc. Many of them are influenced by the occult, new age and scientology, which use magic formulaes for getting results, by invocations etc. Even eastern religions use mantras to invoke power upon themselves.

Jesus said "do not be like the pagans who think they will be heard because of their many words .... do not offer up vain repetitions"

Even repeating the name Jesus over and over again (even though Jesus has the sweetest name on Earth) can be a form of invocation used as a formula to receive power.

Jesus implied that we should not invoke His name as a mantra for power. We should simply bring our requests and our worship to the Father in the name of Jesus for His glory and not as a magical formula.

It is true that there is power in the Name of Jesus and that demons tremble at the mention of His name.
"There is no other Name given amongst men by which we are saved but the Name of Jesus"

However, it is not just the name that saves but Jesus Himself. So just repeating His name over and over again does not bring results. It is our surrender and submission to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, being obedient through the faith He gives us, that will bring results because HE DOES IT. It is not invoked power upon us that does it.

Regarding Healing Rooms. I intend to write something on this soon as part of this series. For the meanwhile I will leave this observation (on next comment:

Unknown said...

This was from a friend:

Please check this expose of Healing rooms:

http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/healingrooms.html

It has been observed by those who have discernment in these matters, that you will never find "sound" churches and ministries running Healing Rooms, because they know they are not of God; invariably they are run by churches and ministries where there is already some compromise, error and false teaching and ecumenism to a greater or lesser degree.

Many working in them get false words of knowledge; in fact, many operate through a spirit of divination. They are well-intended, but, I am convinced, falling into a snare of the enemy, thereby operating in counterfeit spiritual gifts, and, dare I say, lying signs and wonders.

Healing Rooms are, I am convinced, a Last Days phenonomen; one of those deceptions, I believe, of which our Lord warns us in Matthew 24


This is from me:

I have investigated Healing rooms before. What I discovered is it has very strong New Age experiential links. If I am led to write about how deeply New Age has infiltrated the church (I have scratched the surface of it on some of my articles) it will certainly include healing rooms.

The techniques used are certainly verging on occultic (from what I remember).

I know of one person who got involved with Healing rooms ministry. It was so clear how infected he had become by its practices that he was VERY supportive of the paradigm shift, voted for a woman to be co pastor of the church and was supportive of emerging church corrupting that church. It seems all part and parcel of this whole deception which blinds the eyes of believers.

At the moment I am working on a big project, showing which groups (within the apostate church) are now ecumenical and/or new age and why. Healing rooms will probably fall into that category.

Unknown said...

Here is an excellent and powerful book on healing which I highly recommend THE BIBLE!!!

Really, there are so many books written on healing and possibly 99% of them should be ditched. There is sufficient teaching in the Bible on healing for us all. Going to so called experts will only confuse. They are secondary books. Why read them when you can avoid false teachings by studying the scriptures on the subject.

There are occasions when God WILL heal and there are others when God does not. Whether all believers should be healed or not is a confusing question because our minds tell us that Jesus surely wants us all to be healed, but the NT letters show occasions when people were still sick.

Certainly if God is going to heal you He will give you the faith to believe it, but remember faith is not what YOU drum up but what God gives you. So if God has not given you the faith DO NOT beat yourself up about it. Also, remember it is FAITH IN GOD WHO CAN HEAL not FAITH IN FAITH. The onus is not on you to force yourself to believe. Faith comes from God NOT from you.

Anonymous said...

thanks i am just reading the replies to my questions as i am ill it takes me a while read, but thank you v much

Don said...

Christian Science is not a cult. Christian Scientists practice their religious teaching out of a reasoned conviction of its truth -- not from blind, irrational feeling about Mary Baker Eddy. There are no secrets. The churches and Reading Rooms are open to all, and the services are dignified and simple. Church members come and go at will. And any kind of cult-related mind control is an anathema to the teachings of the religion. Some religionists, though, tend to confuse the issue by not using this term "cult" in the sense that most people understand it at all. They apply it to virtually any group that departs from certain doctrines which they believe to be biblical. But this is to make words mean what one wants them to mean. Thoughtful Christians in many denominations reject the assumption that any group of people has a right to label as a "cult" any denomination that disagrees with that group's definition of true Christianity

Originally submitted By me in Jan 2011

Unknown said...

Hi Don

Thanks for that correction. I am sorry that I did not publish your original submission. I held it back because I wanted to consider whether it would be right for me to condone any support of unsound, unbiblical religions, such as Christian Science.

However, on reflection (reading through your comment again) I realise you are not really advertising it. You are correct is saying that not all false religions are cults, so I was wrong to give the impression that Christian Science was a cult.

I have now changed the wording to read:

"the metaphysical mind science religions (some being cults) such as Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity, and Church of Religious Science"

I maintain that Christian Science is a false religion because it waters down the Word of God and teaches and practices unscriptural things.

However, I do not want to get into a debate on Christian Science within this article as it would sidetrack the purpose of this article.

However, if you want to chat with me personally on this, please write direct to my email address from yours and I will try to deal with it there.

For all my readers (especially those who are experts on the CS subject) please write to me regarding whether you consider CS as a cult, religion or a false sect of Christianity or even why you consider it to be a true. Please give sound logical reasons, with respectful politeness (WITHOUT mindless rantings) and your reasons.

If there is a big enough response, I will (God willing) write a separate article on it (posting your comments to that article). Bear in mind that I will only publish helpful comments.

I will do this when I have time. However, at present I am trying to complete part 4 as a continuation of THIS article.

Anonymous said...

Thus if I pray for healing in Jesus' name and healing in fact occurs, is that satan performing the "healing" or in fact is it God? Ditto deliverance. '[I]s it by the prince of demons that I drive out demons' or is it God? Even in His earthly day, Jesus based Truth on His miracles

The Wisdom of God on us both,
Butch

Unknown said...

Hi Butch

With respect, you and I are NOT Jesus. Whatever Jesus said and did BECAME the Word of God and truth. Jesus did not actually need to follow the Word of God (although He regularly showed that He DID fulfil the scriptures and followed its teachings) because Jesus IS the Word Of God. Whatever He did/does IS TRUTH.

It is wrong to say that "experience of 'god' proves truth". It is nonsense! We must ALWAYS weigh up our experiences as to whether it fits in with Scripture. Jesus answered satan with scripture - so should we.

By the way, just saying the name of Jesus verbally (ie as a "magical" word or excuse) IS NOT doing things in Jesus Name. Jesus explained that doing things in His Name meant first abiding in Him and doing things (as led by the Holy Spirit) in HIS AUTHORITY.

For example "I arrest you, in the NAME OF THE LAW". Authority first needs to be given, then you follow orders under that authority. Look at the context where Jesus said:

"if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." (John 16:23-24)

The context can be found in John 15, where it talks about abiding in the vine and "without me you can do nothing". Doing things in the Name of Jesus requires BEING IN JESUS. Just using His Name, without abiding in Him is misusing the Name.

Jesus said that many will come in my name saying "Lord, Lord, we did this and that in your Name". He then stated something very important "I NEVER KNEW you". They went out healing and delivering in the name of Jesus under their own Will and purpose, but were never sent out under the authority of Jesus.

If people are healed, it is no evidence that they are Divinely healed. Many are only temporarily relieved but not fully healed. Jesus said that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. So if a false prophet/teacher exercises healing then the fruit CANNOT be good.

The criteria is whether someone with a healing ministry centres their life on Jesus and on His Word or whether they twist the scriptures for their own agenda.

The latter CANNOT be exercising under Christ's authority , ie "in the Name of Jesus" because they are actually doing it in their own name.

It is seriously wrong to misuse the Name of Jesus and is considered as blasphemy. The Name of Jesus IS powerful because of what the Name represents. Phil 2:6-11 says "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

It says that God bestowed on Jesus the name which is above every other name because of who He was/is and because of what He had done.

It is not the name (in itself alone)which has power but what the name represents.

Demons shudder at the name of Jesus BECAUSE of what the name represents. It represents the FULL authority of the Living God who reigns supreme throughout the Heavens, who has conquered death, once and for all and has authority over every power in the Universe and MUCH MORE.

Anonymous said...

Amen

Unknown said...

That "Amen" comment; is that from the last "anonymous" writer ie Butch? If so, thanks for replying. If it is not from Butch, what is it that you are "amen" ing to?

God bless

RomaLynn said...

I did this same study a while ago, when Todd Bentley came out with his nonsense, and mentioned William Branham, etc etc. No matter what anyone says this whole movement is bred in deceit, manipulation, emotional hyper junk. Histrionics, which Hitler studied and did well also.

I commend you John for posting this and know am praying for all involved to wake up from this.