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Note: the grammar and syntax is not great, but adequate for web consumption after some minor revisions. This was written in late 1999 shortly before I got married. My soon-to-be mother-in-law was a conservative evangelical Christian that followed the Christian Research Institute, Hank Hanagraaf, and other cult-watch groups, which created a lot of tension between us given that I had strong sympathies for various revival-renewal oriented movements. So, I wrote an apology to address some of those concerns, as well as to better understand where I stood at that point in my theological thinking. While most of this is really outdated today, it does offer a look into the state of mind from which I pursued spiritual interests during my teenage and early adult years ~ 1992-2003. My limited defense of
the charismatic, pentecostal, and faith movements. Why am I doing this? Why
can’t I believe what I see before my eyes: hundreds
of well intentioned Christian testimonies of
corruption and deception within these various
Christian circles which they call sects and cults? I mean: I see the
testimonies. I know that they are genuine in what
they say. I know that some of what they are saying
is probably true in their own lives. When I listen
to them attack these movements of G-d, I do hear
their evidence and reasoning for believing that it
is of satan, and much of what they have said has
really opened my eyes to the necessity of not
trusting these men-of-god simply because I happen to
like them or their ministries. For now, my objective is
not to defend Benny Hinn, Howard Browne, or any
other man-of-god. Instead, my objective is to defend
the faith and explain how Hank and other heresy
hunters are very, very, very wrong for denouncing it
as satan’s work and denying our brotherhood in
Christ. I will thus defend my brothers and sisters
for their faith in Christ Jesus according to the way
they serve G-d. I will do my best to give an idea of
what it is to serve G-d from our viewpoint along
with supportive scriptures. More importantly, I will
prove that we are not serving satan or his demons by
believing and serving the way we do, when in all
reality, it is the complete opposite. Even so, I am not seeking
to convert anyone into our faith, as I am just
seeking acceptance from those that disagree with us.
Even if they do not accept my faith in Christ Jesus,
I have his acceptance and justification. Why they have no right
to say that we are of the devil or give credit to
satan for the spiritual manifestations which take
place inside various charismatic, pentecostal, and
faith circles. This is the thing that
bothers me and my brethren the most. It really
bothers us to hear our fellow Christian brothers and
sisters call us a demonic cult. It does not make us
happy to hear others tell us that we have aligned
ourselves up with our devout enemy-adversary. It
also hurts our feelings that our own brethren openly
declare how gullible and easily fooled we are. We
have been under attack ever since and long before
the Mark 9:38-50 - The disciples of Christ became worried when they noticed that other believers were following Christ and performing miracles in Christ’s name, so they come up and made an inquiry to Christ concerning this. Christ then told them not to forbid what they were doing because: if they are not against him, then they are for him. He then goes on to explain how it would be better to cut off a part of the body that causes one to sin rather than to leave it in tact so that it could defile one's entire body and soul. Romans 10:1-18
- After the Apostle Paul spoke concerning the blindness
of We charismatic Christians
confess and believe all this and so much more
concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ
Jesus. We understand who he is and why he came. The
work of Christ Jesus on the cross of John 10:24-33
- Among the obvious message that these scriptures give,
it clearly teaches that the enemy can not snatch
believers away from Christ. This is really important to
understand considering the fact that we charismatics are
accused of being deceived Christians. If a person knows
that a certain believer is a true born-again Christian
which later attends a charismatic meeting and then
embraces the end-time revival, he is to now be labeled
by those outside the movement as being a deceived
Christian that is serving the enemy and on the broad
road to hell? This sentiment from those outside the movement is in
direct violation of scriptures in many places and this
happens to be one of those. How dare they say that we
have been snatched away from Christ, when in reality we
are following Christ according to the way that he is
presented in the bible and not in some other book
somewhere. Think about it: one moment the believer is a true
Christian. Seconds later, he is a deceived
demon-possessed non-believer which is on his way to hell
simply because you view Christianity this way. Now,
multiply that by thousands and thousands of Christians
every week and you began to see that this just doesn’t
add up. These believers haven’t been snatched out of the
hands of Jesus, as they have been snatched into his
hands and have fallen in love with him. Anyways, that is
another conclusive proof that these are true Christians. Matthew 18:12-20
- Here Jesus says that if we gather together in his
name, he is indeed in the midst of us. In true
charismatic and pentecostal circles, Christ is the
center of everything that is going on. Yes, we do
emphasize a lot concerning the Holy Spirit. Christ
Jesus, nevertheless, is the center of our worship. As we
worship and exalt Christ, we also exalt the Father and
Holy Spirit. We serve one G-d but recognize that he
exists in three different persons according to
scriptures. I realize that a lot of arguments against
what I am saying can be made using this scripture and I
will answer all of that and much more later. The point
that I am pointing out here is that we come together for
the purpose of worshiping Christ as the S-n of the
most-high G-d. For that reason, Jesus himself is in our
midst. Ephesians
6:10-20 - Spiritual Warfare: Paul
teaches a very valuable truth here which charismatic,
pentecostal, apostolic, and word-of-faith believers
preach constantly about. We believe and teach that
through the authority of Christ Jesus, we have a defense
and an offense against the devil. We fight openly and
strongly against him because Jesus, Paul, and the
Apostles told us to. There are, nevertheless, Christians
out there that condemn us as being a servant or follower
of the devil. I would have to ask myself concerning
these brothers and sisters of mine if they honestly
think that the devil is going to leave them alone simply
because they have Christ living inside of them. NO, NO, NO!!! When Christ comes to live inside you, you
become an enemy of the devil and he will attack you in
so many ways. He does not simply respect your decision
to obey or live for G-d. He will do anything he possibly
can do to rob from you the promises of G-d and make you
lose faith. Because you have nevertheless blinded
yourself to the idea that he doesn’t exist or can’t
attack you, you never even open your eyes to what the
Apostles taught and pleaded with their fellow brothers
and sisters of their day about. If we preach and believe
the truth of Christ, then why do they refuse to accept
us as their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus? We
shall find out later.
All throughout the New
Testament, the Pharisees constantly challenged the
authority of Jesus and sought to have him killed.
They could not handle the idea of Jesus being their
messiah. They were comfortable with their ways. They
were happy with their established religious
traditions. They were happy with the control which
they had over the children of Israel, through their
established doctrines, and dared not deviate from
them: they got upset at Jesus for healing on the
Sabbath and for preaching about the kingdom of G-d,
and they accused him of having a demonic spirit due
to the fact that he cast out demons. These religious
men thought that they had figured out G-d, and were
highly educated in their religious faith. They also
sought to find favor in the eyes of
The pharisees of today are
a bit different but things have not changed much.
The most important thing is that they are now under
the grace of G-d and therefore not condemned to
hell. In fact, most of them can not be properly
labeled as a pharisee since they are children of the
most-high G-d and saved by grace through Christ
Jesus. The spirit and attitude, nevertheless, of the
pharisees has been a part of the church ever since
the book of Acts. Even the Apostle Peter
demonstrated this several times when it came to
trying to force the gentiles to conform to and
uphold the law in the same way that he had always
done and believed, and the Apostle Paul had to
constantly remind everyone that, in Christ Jesus, we
are free from the legalistic religious traditions
that the religious leaders of their day dictated to
the people. This continued throughout the early days
of the church, but really started taking off as the
Roman Catholic Church became the official
representative of the Christian world, as I have
always thought of the Pharisees of today as being
primarily the Catholics and hated what I call
religion. [Goodness, have I ever repented of such
ill-conceived convictions: never would I have
thought then that I would ever be where I am now] When I stumbled across a
website from one of my dear charismatic brothers and
sisters, I began to realize that the pharisees are
not simply in the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, it
is not really in any specific church, as they are
throughout the christian world in many different
denominations. The biggest thing that I began to
realize is that most pharisees do not have a
clue that they even are one. They get so tied down
into the traditions and doctrines of men that they
blind themselves to the truth. We start to believe
in religion to get us to heaven and then start
explaining away sins, denying the existence of
angels and demons, and choosing to believe that it
is the will of G-d for us to be sick, poor, and
miserable. We then deny others the gospel because we
are ashamed of it or don’t really believe it will
change their lives or be of any benefit to them.
There are many different attitudes that a pharisee
will cling to. Not everyone clings to all
of them, as many only cling to a few of them, but
almost without fail, all of them want to stay in the
boat of life, as they do not want to walk on the
waters with Jesus. Nope. All they want to do is sit
in the boat of religion like the 11 disciples of
Jesus and mock Peter, those of us who are living by
faith. I can almost see the headlines now, if Jesus
were to personally ask someone to walk on water with
him, as the vast majority of the church would say
that the invitation was of the devil, deny that even
was Christ to begin with, and condemn the Christian
which happened to obey by stepping out onto the
water. Why? Because it isn’t biblical, of course. After all, everyone knows
that Jesus has never been to the earth since he
ascended to heaven, that the apostles were the last
to operate in the gifts of the sprit, and that
walking on water was not supposed to be for today,
as the only reason it was in the bible to begin with
was to show us that Jesus was the Messiah and to
help emphasize the importance of not taking our eyes
off of Jesus. I could go all day on this but my
point is really simple. The religious world doesn’t
want to embrace this end-time revival because they
cling to their old traditions and vain doctrines.
They are more interested in being religious than
they are following the direct will of G-d and
listening for that will in their lives. They fight
and attack us in every possible way. They take
statements out of context in our sermons and
messages, and only give one side of the story when
it comes to the things of G-d. All they are really
interested in is attacking and labeling us as
demonic people. They don’t care at all if G-d really
is moving in In fact, it would not
matter if everyone in the entire world became a
dynamic charismatic Christian, and were raising the
dead, and in constant worship of Christ Jesus, and
showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is
indeed with us. It wouldn’t matter, as they would
still reject it because it doesn’t fit their
understanding of theology. Some heresy hunters are
very well intentioned and are genuinely seeking the
truth, whereas others condemn everyone which doesn’t
believe the way they do. I am absolutely amazed at
the extent that they take this stuff. Apparently, they are scared
that the historic and traditional church is going to
disappear and leave them without a church to attend.
They say that they are scared of Christians being
deceived to hell and not defending the faith, and
they claim that the bible is their sole authority,
and that they will not go against what the bible
teaches. They make it sound as if they are the ones
defending the faith from every form of heresy, and
they act as if they are serving G-d by attacking
those that believe differently or incorrectly, and
they put up this religious front and talk about how
they have gone to seminary school for 10 years and
pastured five different churches in the past 30
years or so. In fact, they make
themselves sound as if they have all the answers,
yet they have blinded themselves to the truth. While
they can quote two-thirds of the bible without even
opening the book in some cases, many are
intellectually proud and have totally forgotten that
Christianity is a faith of experience and emotions
as well as intellect. Many of these people even go
so far as to say that a Christian should never-ever
be emotional and view emotions as being an open
doorway for deceptions. Of course, I can see their
point, as it is people's really deep and powerful
emotions and feelings toward our great and awesome
G-d that leads most people into and keeps them in
the charismatic christian world. Often they talk
about the heart being deceitful above all things,
quoting a passage from the Old Testament, taking it
out of context no less, and totally forget that
Christ Jesus gave us a new heart when we were born
again. Most of these critics, which talk so much
about historic Christianity and the traditional
religious way of serving G-d, view salvation merely
as being something where G-d writes our name down in
his book of Life. He then signs a legal contract
indicating that we are legally saved but never
changes us into his likeness. In other words, they deny
the born-again experience and replace it with
man-made doctrines and creeds as being the measuring
stick for salvation. Well, Saul of Tarsus was that
kind of man in the New Testament and Jesus came down
and set the record straight. I truly believe that as
this movement starts correcting some of its many
flaws, Jesus himself will visit these heresy hunters
to show them just how wrong they are. This revival
will sweep the entire christian world. One day, the
secular world will see a united church proclaiming
the gospel one last time before we depart off this
planet to let satan have his fun for a while. There
will still be heresy hunters out there, which are
determined and convinced that they are following the
narrow way that leads to life, while everyone else
has taken the broad way to hell. That is okay
though, as they can think what they want to think,
but scriptures do not lie. Apostasy in the Last Days or Revival? Various
Prophetic Insights into the Return of Christ. Heresy hunters have a field
day with these because they have theology so figured
out that they can’t imagine the idea that the W-rd
of G-d has insights that they hadn’t thought about,
or that show that revival and the return of Christ
will indeed happen in this generation. They are so
convinced that all these bible prophecy and
word-of-faith and revival teachers, evangelists,
prophets, and apostles are wolves in sheep’s
clothing, that they dismiss all their teachings. Any
teaching that supports their ministry is considered
to be scripture twisting and taking scriptures out
of context, and are dreamed up simply to further the
apostasy efforts and to introduce new heresies. They
will even say that we are relying on visions, divine
encounters, angels, and other would-be
extra-biblical ways of primarily justifying our
beliefs. The reality is so far from their
assessment, in the true charismatic renewal
meetings, that it is almost laughable, yet very sad,
as we simply allow the word of G-d to speak for
itself and not rely on traditions to interpret
everything. That’s the difference. Anyways, one
symbolic understanding of G-d’s timetable is as
follows. A day with the Lord is as a
thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. (2nd
Peter 3:8) With this concept in mind,
we allow G-d to teach us a few things in
relationship to the seasons or prophetic timeline in
which we live. There are over 38 major end-time
bible prophecies that have taken place in this
generation and many other minor ones. With that in
mind, we ask ourselves if perhaps these scriptures
hold any hidden prophecies as well as their obvious
implications. We realize that nothing is 100 percent
definitive. We simply ask if it is possible and G-d
has revealed some really amazing things to ponder
about: as to why this is the last generation and
what will happen in this generation. The most
popular thought is known as the 6-day theory.
According to this theory, G-d created heaven and
earth in 6 days and rested on the seventh. There
will therefore be 6,000 years of history, and then
Christ will have his millennial reign for a thousand
years to complete the 7-days of history and
creation. This fits in very nicely considering
almost everyone generally agrees that the bible
shows about 6,000 years of human history, and all
the prophecies indicate that the return of Christ is
to happen this final generation, ours no less. Well, that is interesting,
to say the least, but it is just a theory. Check
this out though, Christ was buried for two days and
rose on the third. Is it not interesting that there
has been almost 2,000 years now, or 2 days, since
the life of Christ. Won't he be raised, or revealed,
on the third day. Hmmm, the bible says that Christ
will rule and reign for a 1,000 years. Doesn't this
fit in well with the 6-day theory? He has gone away
to prepare a place for us during the past 2 days and
is to now return for the 3rd day to
reveal himself to Okay, It’s now
the 4th of December and I have not been
able to properly write my defense down the way I had
wanted to. I wasn’t even able to come close to doing
all the research hours that I had intended to do. I
certainly wasn’t able to write everything out
concerning my defense. In many ways, I can honestly
say that my defense is not all that scholarly or
well-written or anything like that. Most people
would look at this defense and say that it is all
irrelevant, and that I don’t understand what the
word of G-d really teaches, and that is why I am
deceived, or whatever the case may be. Honey, I will
at some point complete my defense and everything but
that may be years away and you are going to be with
me in the very near future. Consequently, I am going
to simply postpone this project for another date and
time. In some ways, it really won’t be necessary
because you will slowly start to learn all my
various beliefs and reasons for them throughout our
marriage. Nevertheless, It is really important that
I send you what I have done already so that you’ll
have an idea of what to expect from me concerning
our faith in Christ Jesus. In the remainder of this
defense letter, however, I will share my feelings
and beliefs concerning charismatic Christianity.
This is really important because my viewpoint is
totally based on my experiences and dreams from ever
since I was a teenage kid falling in love with
Jesus. I understand that some of what I believe
could be wrong or in error in some way or another.
This nevertheless is the way I view true biblical
Christianity.
Okay, I figure a good place
to start out is by explaining many of the
similarities and differences between the two. First, allow me to say that
my viewpoint is exactly that, it is uniquely mine.
Others throughout the movements have their own
viewpoints and beliefs as well, but I do feel rather
confident that most of the people in these movements
share much of my views and beliefs. To put it
another way, my viewpoints do not speak for everyone
on every thing but it is accurate enough to be an
adequate representation of the various beliefs and
viewpoints out there. Being charismatic and
pentecostal is universally understood to be the same
thing in many ways. This is why you will find many
who, like me, consider themselves to be both
charismatic and pentecostal. For us, we do not
paticularly care what we are labeled so long as
people understand that the Jesus of Nazareth
presented in the bible is clearly the one what we
worship, as we are not following a false gospel or
other Jesus. As I start reviewing many of the
similarities between the charismatic and pentecostal
Christian, you should start being able to understand
why we are considered to be the same thing, by most
people, especially from our various revival-renewal
critics. A little history lesson:
back in the early 1900s, a group of christians came
together in Los Angeles and began to pray for G-d to
visit them the same way that he visited the
first-century church. Christ eagerly honored their
prayer and was very delighted to once again be
invited by his church to bless them with his
manifested presence. Although G-d had visited past
revivals with various forms of manifestations and
his manifested presence, this would prove to be much
deeper and different. This moment of divine favor
became known as the azusa-street revival and began
what would become the world-wide pentecostal
movement. Any time that G-d moves in a significant
way such as this, you can expect controversy to
erupt. Just like the critics attacked all the other
moves of G-d throughout history, this would be no
different and the following movements are still
being relentlessly attacked by it’s own critics.
Anyways, people would come to During the 50s or so, the
great healing-revival took off as many people began
to lead faith-healing ministries. I don’t know all
the history to this, but from what I understand,
most of it was very much from G-d, as many
people were genuinely touched, healed, and saved by
G-d as a result of these movements. Some of the
leading ministers began to abuse thier gifts of
healing, and thus fell into different forms of
heresy and sin. While many did fall, others remained
faithful to G-d, and thus didn’t fall. Oral Roberts
is one of those ministers which remained faithful. Somewhere in the 60s or
70s, the charismatic renewal movement began to take
off. Until this time, pentecostals were viewed as
holy rollers because of their fanatical expressions
of worship, as many were even considered to be
demonically oppressed and deceived. Even so, they
were also very well known for their holiness
preaching, which really turned off many people
because they didn’t want to give up their sinful
lifestyles. This was especially true of the
baptists, as baptists have always had a really bad
reputation of being hypocritical christians, which
preached one way while living another way. During
most of this time, pentecostal christianity and
traditional christianity was viewed as being
separate or different. Most pentecostals condemned
those outside their faith to hell while most outside
the pentecostal faith repaid the favor. They would
rarely speak with, pray for, or have anything to do
with one another. As such, they didn't hold
city-meetings for prayer and evangelism together.
Even though they were both true christians, they
simply wouldn’t acknowledge it. In fact, they
personally preferred to slander, insult, lie, and
preach against one another. It was really sad but
very true, as lines were clearly drawn in the sand
as to what a christian was. You were either
pentecostal or non-pentecostal: very much like when
it was believed that you are either jewish or
christian but can’t be both. Well, this is why G-d
sent the charismatic movement into the Church. Anyhow, I will go more into
those details later, but for right now, I simply
want to conclude this section of history by saying
that the past 6-7 years has been known as great
times of renewal. It has also been filled with great
anticipation, prayer, and yearning for the day when
G-d floods down on the world, just as is recorded in
Acts, in chapter 2 verses 17 through 21, wherein
Luke is quoting and interpreting Joel chapter 2
verses 28 through 32. It is a great and beautiful
day to be living in the body of Christ, but this is
just the beginning. Despite what the critics teach,
the final days of the Church are very glorious, and
we are indeed in the very last of the last days.
These glorious days will soon bring Christ back to
rule and reign very soon. This is a time to rejoice
and live for Christ like never before: with all our
hearts, minds, and souls.
Eternal
Security Doctrine: This is the
biggest difference between most charismatic and
pentecostal believers. Pentecostals preach relentlessly
on holiness and the need, or commandment, to live a life
free of sin. There is nothing wrong with this mindset
except the fact that it can be a really huge and
unnecessary stumbling block for many fellow believers,
such as myself. It is especially troubling to those who
have genuine relationships with Christ and know that
they know that they are saved and on their way to
heaven, but are struggling with sin in their lives. The
pentecostal message of holiness is very condemning for
these true and sincere believers. They will constantly
feel condemned, instead of convicted, when they attend
their meetings because of the way they preach the
message and use scare-tactics concerning the very real
possibility of backsliding to hell. In fact, many of the
Christians that were at one point in these movements,
but have since left and joined an anti-pentecostal
church, leave because of that reason. I know that I
wouldn’t want to go to a church where I was constantly
condemned for every little action that I did that didn’t
line up with godly standards. Pentecostals leave many
outsiders the impression that if you so much as
accidentally say a bad word, and then die before
repenting, that you’ll not make it into heaven. This is
a highly exaggerated representation of their faith, but
it drives home the idea. The reality is that they do
believe that the grace of G-d is very much sufficient to
overlook accidental sins, and sins that are unknown to
the individual. Nevertheless, they make a point out of constantly
reminding their believers of the very real dangers of
losing one’s salvation experience. This flies in the
face of those who follow the calvinistic teaching of
unconditional grace, which gives believers a
license-to-sin. This teaching is very prevalent in
baptist circles, but is also very widely taught in most
other denominations and sects as well. Calvin started
this heretical teaching, and is known for several other
false-teachings as well. Don’t get me wrong, from what I
have heard, he has done many great things for the
body of Christ, but his teachings have nevertheless lead
many people into deception, and quite possibly, into
eternal damnation, not to mention the fact that Calvin
was known for some really horrific sins. It is hard for
me to really understand how anyone could actually revere
him so greatly, but people do: many hold his teachings
to be almost as true as the words of Paul. This is
important for you to understand, because many of the
Critics are really passionate Calvin fans, and cling to
his teachings. I will speak more on Calvinism later, but
for now I will simply say that much of his teachings are
seriously flawed, yet admired by those clinging to their
once-saved always-saved doctrines. Because of this, many
people have lots of problems listening to the
pentecostals constantly preach on holiness and the
possibility of backsliding to hell. Oddly enough, many
pentecostals cling to some of the false teachings of
Calvin as well, but deeply resent this imparticular
teaching. At any rate, my point is simply that many
pentecostals wrongfully condemn fellow believers in
Christ, based upon whether or not they are living a holy
lifestyle or not. This is where charismatic christians
greatly differ from the pentecostals in this area of
Doctrine. In fact, most of us take a middle-road approach to this
doctrine, which is to say that we do believe and
understand that a believer can loose their salvation
experience, but the grace of G-d is much more greater
and sufficient than we realize. To put it another way,
G-d does indeed own an eraser on the pencil with which
he writes our name into the Lamb's book of life.
Nevertheless, he does not use that eraser anywhere near
as much as the pentecostals seem to think. Those who
follow Calvin’s teaching wrongfully take it to the
opposite extreme of the pentecostals, in that they deny
the fact that G-d even owns an eraser, when in fact many
have lost their salvation, over the years, wrongfully
believing that they had a license-to-sin. Charismatic
christians generally take a middle-road approach to the
issue, but I will further clarify how when I go over the
differences between the Baptism
in the Holy Spirit: This is
another one of the differences between the two. This is
impaticularly true of the old-fashioned pentecostals who
cling to the idea that one must speak in tongues in
order to be saved. Most pentecostals have since realized
that G-d does truly save people, even if they have never
spoken in tongues before. Therefore, that is an extreme
difference between the two. The main difference here is
in relation to sanctification, which is to say that
pentecostals mistakenly teach that a person must first
clean up his life and purify it from sins before the
holy spirit will honor our invitations to manifest
himself inside the believer. This sanctification process
can happen simultaneously with conversion, but it is the
exception and not the rule. A pentecostal believer
seeking a touch from G-d via baptism, or a refilling of
the holy spirit, normally end up waiting long periods of
time before receiving this gift of G-d. This is really
sad because it is the religious way of doing it, whereas
charismatic christians view this experience quite
differently, as they believe that G-d is very willing to
bless his children, and that there is not any need to
sanctify our lives first. To put it another way, this is
a gift of G-d that is as free as salvation is. After all, it is thus a whosoever-gift, with only one
restriction, and that is to first be born-again or
saved. This valuable truth was really brought to
knowledge via the word-of-faith movement. I still
remember Jesse Duplantis talking about his experiences
of seeking the baptism via the religious pentecostal way
versus the way that he now sees G-d instantly baptizing
many believers without tarrying. Why? Because of the
believers faith and understanding of the desire of G-d
to bless them, that is why. The other big difference
between the charismatic and pentecostal viewpoints
concerning spiritual gifts and holy living is that
pentecostals seem to keep the idea that you must be a
godly individual, and living a really holy lifestyle, in
order to have the gifts of the spirit operating in your
life. In fact, they seem to think that G-d only gives the
spiritual gifts of healing, words of knowledge,
prophecy, etc. to individuals which have proven
themselves worthy of such a privilege and area of
responsibility. Then, they condemn people who have had
these gifts when they find out that they have sin in
their lives. All of a sudden, accusations of being a
false prophet-teacher are thrown into the mix, and they
kill their wounded, just as do most non-charismatic
churches as well, whereas charismatic christians tend to
more closely favor the biblically accurate viewpoint,
which is to say that these gifts are exactly that,
gifts. They do not necessarily prove anything in and of
themselves, as G-d freely gives to whom he decides, but
does not place much conditions upon those gifts, and it
is for that reason that the church of Corinth was so out
of order and chaotic, along with acts of immorality,
despite the fact that most members were practicing their
spiritual gifts. This in fact is why people living
ungodly lifestyles can still be found praying-in-tongues
or having dreams and visions. Just because they have
fallen into sin, that does not mean that G-d has
abandoned them, nor does it mean that he should take
away the gifts which he freely gave them earlier. Many
charismatic christians will even use this argument in
relationship to salvation, because there are many which
firmly believe that a true Christian can not lose their
salvation, since it was a gift freely given, and you
can’t take away gifts once you have given them to
someone, and so G-d does not take these other gifts away
either. Anyhow, my point in all of this is to simply say that
pentecostals tend to over-emphasize holiness to the
point of condemnation, whereas charismatic christians
have a tendency to be more compassionate, and to help
their struggling brethren to overcome thier sin instead
of killing them for it, as do their pentecostal
counterparts. Word of
Faith Christians They are certainly some of
the most controversial, misunderstood,
misrepresented, misquoted, taken out of context, and
attacked Christians of all simply because of how
seriously they take the word of G-d. They simply
decide to take the word of G-d seriously and not
question it. If it says it, it must be so. The bible
is the ultimate authority on everything in life.
They take every verse of the bible seriously and
personal. Many of the most visible leaders of the
movement openly admit to the fact that they believe
that the bible is alive and actually teaches them
directly, even in a personal way. As an example,
when they read about Jesus talking to the 12
disciples, they actually have the nerve to think
that Jesus is talking to them. When they read that
Jesus says to go out and heal the sick, set the
captives free, and cast out demons: they believe
that he is giving them that exact commandment. When
they read about how Jesus went about always doing
good by doing all these miraculous signs and
wonders, so that he could be glorified as the living
G-d, in the flesh, they have a tendency to believe
that he really did in fact do that. Then, when they read about
how Jesus Christ is the absolute perfect will of G-d
for all of humanity, they decide to look to Jesus to
know the will of G-d. Put that with the verse in
Hebrews that states that Jesus is the same today, as
he was yesterday, and forever shall be: one thing
becomes abundantly clear, it is not the will of G-d
for anyone to be suffering, sick, poor, needy,
depressed, oppressed, defeated, or anything like
that. If it was or is his will, then we would have a
record of Jesus sending these kinds of afflictions
on those that he ministered to. After all, he was
the exact will of G-d, not just an example. Knowing
this fundamental truth, they then read scriptures
which talk about how G-d is only pleased by faith,
and how almost every godly individual in the bible
was someone who lived by faith, they start putting
this together and look at the bible totally
different than what most religious believers do, as
they start rejecting sickness as being in the will
of G-d. They start looking for scriptures that
demonstrate the will of G-d concerning health,
prosperity, and other things. Once they find the
scriptures, they can know that they know that they
know that it is the will of God for them to be
healed. Why? Because there is no scriptures that
indicate that it is his will for them to be sick, as
it is their critics that misinterpret Job and the
thorn in Paul's flesh. Overwhelmingly, the word of
G-d clearly teaches that it is G-d’s will that his
children should be healthy, not sick, and without
need, not poor and barely surviving. Then, much to
their amazement, they realize that the will of G-d
is for them to prosper and be blessed. How do they
know this? Well you have to remember that the bible
is viewed as being the ultimate authority for
everything in life: man’s opinions are irrelevant,
and they just want to know what G-d says in his
word. So, they go through and see what G-d says
about it. Strangely enough, G-d clearly teaches that
his will, for his children, is that they should be
blessed and prosperous, and in fact there are many,
many, many examples of this throughout the
scriptures. Of course, the critics are quick to
point out that the bible is constantly warning about
the love of money being evil and how Christ and his
apostles were constantly preaching against money,
but this is only a partial representation of what
they actually taught though. When you read the
scriptures, in-context, you’ll find out that they
were preaching against those who loved their money
more than G-d. In fact, money is their god in many
ways, as it was this that Jesus and his apostles
were preaching about. There is simply nothing wrong
with money in and of itself. The bible clearly
teaches that it is the love of money that is the root
of all evil. It is the church who has clung to the
poverty-gospel for many years, believing it is the
will of G-d, when in fact the reality is totally
different. The apostles never taught that money was
evil, but they did warn repeatedly about the dangers
of money becoming a form of idolatry. Sadly, quite a
few inside the word-of-faith movement, have failed
to understand that danger, and instead viewed this
doctrine as being some sort of get-rich scheme, and
thus defrauded many sincere Christians of money from
their pockets by promising things which they had no
intention of keeping, and thus hurt hurt the
movement in the process, albeit that they did expose
some of the dangers related to it. As the critics
are often quick to point out, there were quite a few
controversial teachings, some of which borderlined
heretical during this time, by some of the most
influential leaders. Let me briefly address them
now.
In fact, bearing false
witness towards others is one of the 7 sins which
G-d deeply hates and resents. What does this have to
do with the little gods quotations and the other
controversial beliefs or sayings in this movement?
Well, they give you these quotes, but do not tell
you anything about what they were preaching about,
for a very good reason. By explaining to the reader
why these leaders made their statements, especially
by allowing the reader to hear the entire sermons
for themselves, they know that if the readers heard
the message in its entirety, the message would not
be as controversial or heretical in nature. They
withhold this information and give isolated
quotations for shock-value. I wish I could say that
all the critics out there would at least be willing
to accurately quote these ministers, but the reality
is that they often misquote them, and have them
saying things which they never said. At any rate, the
little-gods statements came during the late 1980s.
Most ministers in the word-of-faith movement have,
since then, either denounced these teachings or else
decided that it really wasn’t something to spend
lots of time worrying about on this side of
eternity, given that the bible gives lots of room
for interpretation on it. Having not heard the
sermons, I can only speculate as to why they made
these statements. Seeing these statements have been
repented of, there is no reason to stress out over
them, or hold these ministers in condemnation for
them. What is under the blood has been forgiven.
What Christ has forgiven, we have no right of
throwing it back in their faces. Just think if we
had someone doing that to us all the time. These
people are attacked relentlessly for things that
were supposedly said / taught 10 years ago, despite
the fact that they have since been forgiven by
Jesus, although the question still remains as to
where they actually needed forgiveness; after all,
the bible does leave room for arguments in favor of
this doctrine, but there is a very thin line that
carries it over in complete heresy as well. Anyhow, I am not going to
go into the specifics right now other than to simply
say that the bible clearly teaches that we will
rule-and-reign with Christ, and various other
scriptures say that we are being transformed into
his image, so that someday we will become sons of
G-d. Just because we are sons of G-d does not mean
that we are equal to or greater than G-d, it simply
means that we are in a really special relationship
to G-d with the possibility of ruling our own
creations or planets. If this is so, then it could
be argued that we are indeed little-gods. I am not
saying that we are, I am simply saying that there is
room for disagreement here. Another possible
interpretation concerning thier little-gods
statements is the fact that we all have Jesus living
inside of us. If Christ is living inside us, who are
redeemed us by his blood, and the Father sees Jesus
in us, when he looks at us: if these things are
true, logic would have it that we could be viewed as
little-gods when compared to those for whom these
things can not be said of. But like I said, I have not
heard the sermons and therefore can only speculate
as to what they were teaching about. The one thing
that I am certain of is that they were not teaching
the new age doctrines of us being gods. They may
have fallen into error concerning a few minor
interpretations of scriptures, but they did not deny
the Lord that bought them, in the process.
Furthermore, they repented of these teachings long
ago. I might remind our critics, which continue to
condemn them with these various charges of heresy,
to read and apply Matthew chapter 18 verses 15
through 22. The critic may respond that this is in
relation to someone sinning directly against them,
that the word-of-faith teacher did not sin against
him, the critic, directly and therefore this
scripture doesn’t apply, but in all reality, if the
world-of-faith teacher is in heresy by teaching such
a doctrine, then he has sinned against the entire
body of Christ, and therefore all believers are
required to forgive him if and when he repents,
critics included. Another controversial teaching or heresy promoted in the 80s, by various word-of-faith teachers is the Jesus-died-spiritually doctrine or that Jesus-was-born-again during his experience on Indeed, my soul still cringes at times when I read some of the alleged statements made by various prominent word-of-faith teachers concerning this teaching, but I also know how the heretic hunters operate as well. They selectively pick and choose the statements they want to use to condemn these ministers. Sadly, I can not trust half the quotes out there, which were allegedly made, because I know that these heresy hunters flat out lie concerning their statements, and often interpret the actual sayings to come up with the alleged quote. Sure, they source the material that they supposedly took the quotes from so you can go back and check it out for yourself, but not everyone has the ability, the materials, or the time to do so. It is far more easier to simply believe what the accused says in defense or what the accusers say in offense. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who knows? I mean, material that is 10 years old or more could easily have been altered since then, as this is often the case with history. Anyhow, my thoughts are that most of this fussing over this teaching is irrelevant. Why? Very simply, the death of Christ on the cross and his resurrection is the only hope that we have of eternal life and the word-of-faith teachers firmly teach this biblical truth. Just because they believe that Christ went to hell to further complete the process is really not heretical in nature. I mean, there are several scriptures that indicate the reality of this. As much as it does hurt me to think that perhaps my precious savior went to hell, and was tortured for over 2 days, as he was cursed for our sins, before finally resurrecting, I can clearly see that this teaching does not measure up to true heresy. In all honesty, I think
this teaching, if and only if taught correctly,
shows far greater love and compassion towards
humanity on Christ’s part, than him simply dying on
the cross. That does not mean that Christ died in
vain. Far from it, as there were lots of reasons why
the plan of G-d called for him to be crucified like
that. My point is simply that, whether he died on
the cross and instantly went to heaven, or else died
on the cross, went to hell, was born-again, and then
rose from the dead in his glorified body, it doesn’t
really matter. In both ways, it is acknowledged that
Christ physically died for our sins, remained in the
grave for three days, and then rose again physically
in his incorruptible body. It is through this
process that humanity can now look to the cross for
their salvation. As such, word-of-faith teachers are
not looking at Jesus as being some great prophet
that just happened to fulfill the prophecies, and
thus became one of many saviors for the world, or
whatever else allegation one might propose. Nevertheless, the critics
will inevitably point to other quotes, which these
leaders allegedly made, that makes it seem as if
they are lowering Christ to the level of man and
exalting man to the level of Christ. Some of these
selective quotes would give you the idea that
word-of-faith teachers believe that we will actually
become greater than Christ. These quotes are
certainly the most troublesome, but I have learned
that you can’t trust the critics about anything
anymore. They do not believe in biblical ethics of
not bearing false witness. Instead, they come up
with lies, take things out of context, twist the
scriptures around, and then use scare tactics of
deception to keep their followers away from these
ministers. The reality is that G-d became a man and
kept his divinity at the same time. 100 per cent
G-d, and 100 per cent man. Because of this, Jesus
now bridges the gap between humanity and the divine.
I am not really going to defend this teaching right
now because I don’t really know all the depths of
it, nor do I know what was actually taught, and what
are exaggerated claims by the critics. Instead I
will simply say that most of this teaching could
very well be quite orthodox, biblically based, and
yet could be close to heresy, as this teaching could
easily be turned into another-gospel if the teachers
started to contradict the word of G-d. Nevertheless, the bible is
the final authority on everything and the
word-of-faith teachers do in fact stay true to the
bible even if their interpretations differ somewhat
from the traditional viewpoints. Christianity has
had a long history of established creeds and
doctrines proven to be in error or false by later
generations of Christians. Every since the church
fell into apostasy during the Catholic era, and
Martin Luther finally revolted against it, we have
been in a search for the truth of the word of G-d
every since then. This is an on-going search that
will only be completed when Christ finally comes and
sets the record straight himself. In the meantime,
we would be better off to dispute the claims of our
enemies, and quite fighting our brethren over things
that are open to interpretation such as this.
Consequently, they observe
the covenants, which G-d established with his
children, and take his word that he will continue to
honor his covenants always. One of these covenants
was the one that was established with Abraham. We
are spiritual descendants of Abraham; therefore, the
covenant is for us as well. I can not possibly go
into all the details required to explain all of
these covenants, and how they relate to us, so I am
not going to even try right now. My point, however,
is quite simply that they read the bible as if
everything in there is a promise to them, in one way
or another. They know that G-d never contradicts
himself, so they look for the context of all
scriptures and allow Jesus to teach them, via the
holy spirit, what his will is for them. The Bible is
so clear that it is scary sometimes at how many
religious people actually miss these teachings.
Nevertheless, they do, as the desire of G-d is to
bless his children, which walk in obedience to him
and exercises faith in him. This of course would
include holiness as well. Anyways, I am getting off
the subject now. Allow me to conclude this by saying
that the word-of-faith teachers are not commanding
G-d around like many of the critics claim. They are
simply taking G-d at his word and learning to trust
him no matter what the circumstances seem like. Some
of the most talked about scriptures, among various
word-of-faith teachers, are Hebrews 11:1, Romans
8:28-39, Galatians 3:14, and many others.
In conclusion, let me send
you some links to various other ministries that have
done a really good and biblical defense of the
faith. They show you what the bible really says
about these manifestations and help you understand
what is going on in the body of Christ these days.
There is so much more that I really wish I could
write, but that will all have to wait for another
day. If you have any questions or concerns, please
remember that you can trust me. I have a decent
understanding of the views and beliefs of both sides
now, and can help mediate between the two. I will
not have all the answers, but I can help you find
those which I do not have. http://home.interpath.net/songbird/defense.html
This is a good website that gives many good
arguments in defense of the word-of-faith movement.
I laughed many times because of how funny the author
is in some of his articles related to how God
supposedly wishes sickness, diseases, poverty, and
other tragedies on his children just to make them
more like Christ. Trust me, there is some funny
things to read in there. I enjoyed this site quite a
bit. Especially the sections dealing with the
another gospel accusation and the response to Hank’s
book Christianity In Crisis. http://www.nettrek.com.au/~gregga/apologet.html
and http://www.nettrek.com.au/~gregga/index.html
This guy from Here, you will find many of
the questions, concerns, facts, myths, etc. related
to the Toronto-blessing. Trust me, you can not
possibly read everything there is to read in one
day. This is a site that you can spend all day in
and still learn new things about what is going on.
My reason for telling you this is because I don’t
want you to take this site lightly. The man has done
a really good job defending the http://tbm.org/goodnews.htm
This website was also of great encouragement for me
as well. He has written many great articles to
choose from. My favorite two is faith-movement and
which-Christ-do-you-worship? Please feel free spending
lots of time exploring his site. http://www.vineyardchampaign.org/papers/witw
Here is another very well written and prepared
defense of the http://www.jamesavenue.com
The church in Ft. Worth that I am eagerly looking
forward to visiting. http://www.tacf.org
The church that the Toronto-blessing became known
from. http://www.brownsville-revival.org/index.htm
The church that is known for the Pensacola
outpouring" http://members.aol.com/psalm11110/index.htm
This site gives a couple of links to sites that are
for the Toronto-blessing and against it. Feel free
to visit both, but remember that the critics can be
very brutal when it comes to attacking our beliefs. http://www.word-of-faith.org/faq.htm
Honey, it is really important that you review this
webpage really quickly before we go to the church in
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