2. Why Would God Allow Dedicated Christians To . . .

. . . Experience and Give In To Influences That Are Not From Him?


Every moment of his life, the Christian must battle spiritually with the world, the flesh and the devil.  This is part of the maturing process.  All believers are tempted with pride, worry, fear, sin and disobedience.  Does God allow believers to sin?  Yes, of course.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him".  James 1:12.

The Lord allows us to test every experience by Scripture, or to go by our feelings.  God will allow us to be tempted in all forms.  This includes the temptation to depart from Scripture by believing false revelations.  Signs and wonders can have sources other than God (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10; Revelation 13:13, 14; Matthew 24:24).

Jesus warns four times of deception at the end of the Church age in Matthew 24.

If a Christian swaps the sword of the Spirit, and takes up feelings or human reasoning, he opens himself up to Satan's deception.

Many Christians in unemotional churches know very little Scripture.  In daily struggles with sin and temptation, believers are most vulnerable to the attraction of false instant spirituality.  Rather than live by the Word of God for victory, one may seek the apparent shortcut of tongues, prophecy, power evangelism, healing, etc. as the answer to his problems.

• Charismatic leaders who criticize Bible teachers who urge careful study of the Bible, are hence criticizing the legitimate spiritual gift of teaching.  They urge charismatics to follow them without questioning their interpretation.  They oppose non-charismatics by asking:  "Who did God use, the educated Pharisees or the simple Apostles?"  They thus forget 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God ... rightly dividing the word of truth".

Along the way we all have difficult times, as seen by Elijah under the Juniper tree (1 Kings 19:4, 5), David fleeing from Saul, Paul's beatings, etc.  Don't seek a quick fix to gain instant spirituality.  The devil offered Jesus a shortcut to earth's kingdoms by avoiding the cross.  The devil will offer us many shortcuts seeming to easily solve our problems.  We must stick to the basics:  study the Word, pray, confess sin, yield to Christ, abide in Christ, and take up the cross daily.  These require work, watching and warfare.

DON'T SWAP THE WORD OF GOD FOR AN EXPERIENCE.

The main damaging side effect of charismaticism is the welcoming and accepting of heretics, apostates, nominal Christians and Roman Catholics into the Church.  A person can pray to Mary, then speak in tongues, thus being accepted into many charismatic fellowships.  Charismatics emphasize unity at the expense of doctrine.