"Only The Apostles" - 8 More Reasons

Reason #12:  Ephesians 4, 5, 6 describe thoroughly the Walk and Service of a Spirit-filled believer.
Nowhere in this key passage is speaking in tongues mentioned. 

Conclusion:  "Walking worthy" does not include tongues.

Reason #13 - Phonetics Test Every language must have hundreds of different syllables to express the wide range of ideas in a society.  Charismatic tongues only have less than 12 syllables repeated, constantly.  This is typical of gibberish that comes from a mind that is not expressing thoughts, but from a tongue out of control from the mind.

Note.  4 syllables are, for example, seen in "Cha/ris/ma/tic".  This shows that tongues are not real languages, but are just sounds made up on the spot at random. 

Reason #14 - Order of importance is reversed.  Majoring on tongues REVERSES the order of importance of spiritual gifts.  In 1 Corinthians 12:28, God lists tongues as the least important of eight gifts.

In 1 Corinthians 12:31, God tells the church to seek the "best" gifts.
God gives gifts to believers "as HE will" (12:11), not as we insist.
Charismatics tell people to pray long and hard for the gift of tongues.

We are not to deliberately choose and insist on having the least gift and exalt it above the others.  Why not place greater emphasis on the gifts of pastor-teacher, evangelists, helps, government, giving, etc.?  It is because these gifts involve hard work, but tongues is easy.

Reason #15 - Rebuking Errors - The context of 1 Corinthians is rebuking 13 errors, such as tongues, and it is not recommending tongues.  The Corinthian church was filled with problems that Paul corrects in this book, such as: 

1. They were following their favourite human leaders causing divisions. 1:11-14
2. " " favouring human wisdom. 1:18-2:13
3. " " carnal, living for self, not controlled by the Spirit. 2:14-3:7
4. " " forgetting the future Judgment Seat of Christ. 3:8-23
5. " " proud, thinking of themselves more highly than they ought. 4:1-21
6. " " failing to discipline, by tolerating a fornicator. 5:1-13
7. " " taking fellow believers to court. 6:1-20
8. " " confused about marriage. 7:1-40
9. " " confused about liberty thinking it meant license to do as they please, even stumbling others. 8,9.10
10. " " confused about clothing, long hair on men and Lord's Supper. 11
11. " " confused about spiritual gifts, especially tongues. 12-14
12. " " confused about the resurrection. 15
13. " " confused about the collection. 16

 As we can see the Corinthian church was deep in error and false doctrine.  It was the only church that emphasized tongues as today's Charismatics do.  Charismatics therefore place themselves in very bad company.  Charismatics fail to understand that Paul is not endorsing tongues, but is rebuking the wrong use of tongues and is strongly regulating tongues contrary to today's Charismatics.

Reason #16 - They fail the "Easy to be entreated" test.
It is amazing how tongue-speakers often become very angry, intolerant, irritable, impatient, nervous, very dogmatic, and extremely touchy when anything is said which disapproves of or corrects their idea of speaking in tongues.

"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, easy to be entreated"...James 3:17
"The works of the flesh...are wrath, strife..." Galations 5:19, 20.
"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God."  Hebrews 12:15.

Reason #17 - The First Mentioned Principle of Tongues is in the Context of Judgment.
This is a well-established principle for correctly interpreting Scripture.

It states that:

When any subject, word, expression or idea is first mentioned in the Bible, this shows how God thinks on that subject, and is a guide to how we should understand this subject in the rest of the Bible.  For example:

• The first mention of Babylon, Babel, and languages is in Genesis 11:1-9 where God confused man's languages so that they did not understand one another's speech.  "The Lord scattered mankind abroad upon the face of all the earth."  Man has remained divided by different languages ever since.  Hence tongues are associated with division and confusion (the meaning of Babel), ever since the Tower of Babel; not with the blessing of God, but with the judgment of God.

"Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues"  Psalm 31:20

Reason #18 - PRAYING IN TONGUES is WRONG because UNDERSTANDING is ABSENT.

"For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitful.  What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the UNDERSTANDING ALSO"  1 Corinthians 14:14,15.

Paul is saying here that if you pray in tongues, your spirit might be trying to express something, but your MIND (or understanding) has no idea what is being said.  This is wrong, Paul says.  For prayer to be genuine, we must pray with our spirit and with our understanding.

Praying in tongues fails the test of understanding.  The mind and voice are disconnected.  Many Charismatics will try to justify praying in tongues by quoting Romans 8:26.

"...the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which CANNOT BE UTTERED".

This verse is not talking about praying in tongues because tongues are uttered vocal sounds.  The Holy Spirit speaks our thoughts to the Father with groanings which cannot be uttered by us, yet prayer tongues are uttered by people.

Reason #19 - The Process of Elimination shows tongues to be not for believers of today.

Tongues primary purpose was to warn unbelieving Jews to repent, or God would judge them.
They refused to repent, so God judged them in 70 AD, thus making tongues as a warning to the Jews no longer necessary.

"Tongues are a sign, NOT TO THEM THAT BELIEVE, but to them that BELIEVE NOT..." 1 Corinthans 14:22.

Tongues are a sign for one of three types of people.  Which one?

a) NOT FOR BELIEVERS. 14:22.  This means that tongues have no purpose for believers.  For Christians to speak in tongues is not valid.

b) NOT FOR GENTILE UNBELIEVERS. 14:23.  Those unlearned to the Old Testament meaning of tongues, or unbelievers, "will they not say that ye are mad?"  This describes unsaved Gentiles.
Tongues are not for this group because the history of Assyrian and Babylonian tongues as a warning of a judgment to Israel meant nothing to them.

c) JEWISH UNBELIEVERS, 14:21.  "In the law (Isaiah 28:11, Jeremiah 5:15 and Deuteronomy 28:49) it is written, with men of other tongues (Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman) and other lips will I speak unto this people (Jews); and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord".

S.I.T.S. - Can it Rightly Be Described As A Revival? (3 of 4)

We have seen that there is no biblical support for the 'Slain in the Spirit' experience, and that its origins are anything but Christian.  Before we examine the claim that the Holy Spirit is the inspiration behind the phenomenon, let us see whether these unusual occurrences could be considered as a 'revival', as is often claimed by its advocates.

A genuine revival of Christian spirituality fosters a profound sense of the awesome holiness of God and a piercing awareness of one's own sin (Isa. 6:5; Job 42:5-6; Lk. 5:8).  It engenders a desire to obey Christ's Law and the teachings of the Apostles whom He appointed, coupled with a humble and orderly partaking in the Lord's Supper (Acts 2:42). 

In contrast with the signs of a genuine Christian revival, we find that being 'Slain in the Spirit' results in a sensual yearning for psycho-religious experiences which then take precedence over Christian spirituality and lead to a rejection of Biblical revelation.  Consequently, the practitioner of this all-consuming ritual rapidly becomes enslaved by its seeming catharsis.  For example, even after many years of having these "charismatic" experiences, we find that a Church of England Bishop is still having to race off to a church in Toronto where he can be found lying 'on the floor roaring like a lion' (Sunday Telegraph, June 19, 1994, p. 5).  That is not spiritual revival -- that is demonic bondage!

Origins of Being 'Slain in the Spirit' (2 of 4)

If there is no support for this experience as bona fide Christian practice, then how are we to identify it?  What is its true origin?  According to the above-mentioned article in the Times, the spate of  'religious fainting' to which it refers has its recent origins in a small church in Toronto, Canada -- hence it has recently been referred to as the 'Toronto Blessing'.  This experience can certainly be transferred from one church to another -- usually through a visit by members of an affected church, or by an influential leader who encourages it during a service.  But that is by no means the real wellspring of this phenomenon, which has always been around in one form or another in the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. In fact, it can be traced back even earlier than the beginnings of Pentecostalism at the turn of this century.

One of the earliest and most notorious advocates of this experience was an itinerant preacher in the so-called 'Holiness Movement', Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924), who also gained a reputation for falsely prophesying that San Francisco would be destroyed by an earthquake in 1890.  In her preaching in the 1880s, she advocated a religious experience which she called 'The Power', and she would often go into a trance during services, standing with her hands raised in the air for more than an hour.  Nicknamed the 'trance-evangelist' and even the 'voodoo priestess', she was often accused of hypnotising people.  And here we come to the very crux of the 'Slain in the Spirit' phenomenon.

What Maria Woodworth-Etter had discovered was the ancient art of hypnotism, the practice of which was first popularised in the West one hundred years earlier by the Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815).  As one researcher of the occult has noted, 'the phenomena that are defined as 'hypnotic' emerged from the faith-healing activities of Mesmer at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries' (James Webb, 'The Occult Establishment', Open Court 1976, p. 352).  Mesmer had developed his pantheistic theory of 'Animal Magnetism', which resulted in the famous faith-healing sessions at his clinic in Paris.  In a major book on the occult (which was originally titled 'The Black Arts'), a description of these sessions reads as follows:

'Mesmer marched about majestically in a pale lilac robe, passing his
 hands over the patient's bodies or touching them with a long
iron wand.   The results varied.  Some patients felt nothing at all,
some felt as if insects were crawling over them, others were
seized with hysterical laughter, convulsions or fits of hiccups. 
Some went into raving delirium, which was called'The Crisis'
and was considered extremely healthful.' 

(Richard Cavandish, 'The Magical Arts', RKP, 1984, p. 180).

In a book significantly entitled 'Three Famous Occultists', a record of Mesmer's clinics by a contemporary historian gives a similar portrayal of his manipulative sessions: 

'Some are calm, tranquil and experience no effect.  Others cough,
spit, feel slight pains, local or general heat, and have sweatings.
  Others, again, are agitated and tormented with convulsions,
These convulsions are remarkable in regard to the number affected
with them, to their duration and force.  They are preceded and
followed by a state of languor or reverie'.

(R.B. Ince, 'Three Famous Occultists', Gilbert Whitehead, 1939,

pp. 87-88).

Sometimes the participants in these sessions would hold hands to form a circle, and it was not uncommon for waves of communal singing to occur.  There is an inescapable comparison here with the phenomena which have so bewitched numerous churches today.  Although its practitioners are ignorant of the fact variations of the 'Mesmeric Crisis' experience are being repeated in Pentecostal-Charismatic meetings throughout the world today.  Repetitive chorus-singing to create an intoxicating atmosphere, the laying on of hands, powerful physical sensations, agitation, hysterical laughter, raving delirium, convulsions, all followed by a deep sleep or state of reverie.  Like its Mesmeric counterpart, this religious experience is induced as the result of the potent suggestions or physical touch (or even the mere presence) of an influential teacher.  Furthermore, it is an experience that is available to anyone who is open to receive it, of whatever religious persuasion, and it has as little to do with Christian spirituality as a Dionysian rite.

However, the true significance of Mesmer's hypnotherapy sessions was well understood by some of his more perceptive contemporaries.  Way back in 1784, the King of France wisely appointed a Commission to examine Mesmer's claims, consisting of reports from two reputable medical bodies:  the Faculty of Medicine of the Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Medicine.  This commission came to the highly discerning conclusion: 

'That man can act upon man at any time, and almost at will, by striking

his imagination; that the simplest gestures and signs can have the

most  powerful effects; and that the action of man upon

the imagination may be reduced to an art, and conducted

with method, upon subjects who have faith'

(R.B. Ince, op. cit., pp. 107-108).

Mesmer's discovery that his patients could be controlled by his will is acknowledged as being the great foundation-stone of modern hypnotism, as well as exerting a profound influence on succeeding generations of occultists of many traditions, ranging from the Cabbalist magician Eliphas Levi, to the U.S. Spiritualist Movement of the nineteenth century, which had discovered that in the Mesmeric trance a person could readily make contact with discarnate entities or 'spirit-guides' - the significance of which will soon become clear.

When Anton Mesmer discovered, in the late eighteenth century, the rudiments of manipulative hypnotism, the seeds of Western psychotherapy were sown -- a fact which is confirmed by a prominent psychiatrist in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:

'What is important is the impact and influence [Mesmer] had on

the subsequent development of psychiatry.  It would indeed be no

exaggeration to say that he was one of the world's first psychotherapists'

(J.R.S.M., Vol. 85, no. 7, July 1992, p. 383).

It is Mesmer's crude form of manipulative hypnotherapy which is being practised by the 'deliverance ministries' and 'healing' crusades of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, through which the strong suggestions and even the mere touch of a powerful teacher can turn the lives of the guillible inside-out.  But the origins of this hypnotically-induced 'Crisis Experience' can be traced back much further than the eighteenth century.  For the hypnotherapists of today have simply rehashed the psychological and spiritist techniques of the ancient Shamans -- the witch-doctors and medicine men of pagan cultures -- in a modern guise.  The New Age scientist, Dr. Fritjof Capra, physics professor at Berkley University, California, reveals that

'Shamans used therapeutic techniques such as group sharing, psycho

drama, dream analysis,  suggestion, hypnosis, guided imagery [visualisation], and

psychadelic therapy for centuries before they were rediscovered

by modern psychologists'.

(Fritjof Capra, 'The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture',

Flamingo/Collins, 1982, p. 337).  [emphasis added]

Just as the Western psychologists are proffering ancient Shamanistic practices in a guise which is more palatible to the uninitiated Westerners, so the professing Christian churches which peddle 'religious fainting' have simply made the Possession-Trance state of Shamanism more readily acceptable to the undiscerning sheep who attend their heated meetings.  These are the true origins of the strange phenomena which are being so widely reported today and which are bringing the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ into so much disrepute.

Charismatic Chaos by John F. MacArthur Jr.

From the Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Is Experience a Valid Test of Truth?

• It All Starts with the Baptism of the Spirit
• Was Peter a Charismatic?
• Did Paul rely on Experience
• Keen but Clueless
• The Origins of Experiential Theology ...

Chapter 2 - Does God Still Give Revelation?

• The Canon Is Closed
• How the Biblical Canon was Chosen and Closed ...

Chapter 3 - Prophets, Fanatics or Heretics?

• The Kansas City Prophets
• Roman Catholicism
• From Sola Scriptura to "Something More" ...

Chapter 4 - How Should We Interpret the Bible

• Three Errors to Avoid
• Five Principles for Sound Bible Interpretation
• Four Texts Charismatics Commonly Misinterpret ...

Chapter 5 - Does God Do Miracles Today?

• What Happened to the Age of Miracles
• Are Miracles Necessary Today?
• Does God Promise Miracles for Everyone?
• What Made the Apostles Unique?
• Has God's Power Diminished? ...

Chapter 6 - What is Behind the "Third Wave" and Where is it Going?

• Signs and Wonders?
• Power Evangelism?...

Chapter 7 - How Do Spiritual Gifts Operate?

• Spiritual Gifts or Spiritual Casualties?
• Gifts in the Corinthian Church
• Carried Away with False Gifts ...

Chapter 8 - What was Happening in the Early Church?

• The Charismatic Doctrine of Subsequence
• Seek the Power or Release It
• Is Spirit Baptism a Fact or a Feeling?
• The Difference between the Baptism and the Feeling ...

Chapter 9 - Does God Still Heal?

• What was the Biblical Gift of Miracles?
• A Closer Look at Healers and Healing
• God Does Heal -- His Way
• How Did Jesus Heal?
• The Gift of Healing is Gone, but the Lord Continues to Heal
• What is the Explanation for Charismatic Healings?
• Has God Promised to Heal All Who Have Faith? ...

Chapter 10 - Is the Gift of Tongues for Today?

• The Biblical Gift of Tongues
• Are Tongues a Heavenly Language?
• Counterfeit Tongues
• The Abuse of Tongues at Corinth
• Tongues Will Cease
• What Kind of Tongues are Being Spoken Today? ...

Chapter 11 - What is True Spirituality?

• The Zapped and the Unzapped
• Marks of True Spirituality
• Gifts Do Not Guarantee Spirituality
• How to be Filled with the Spirit
• Peter -- A Pattern for Being Filled ...

Chapter 12 - Does God Promise Health and Wealth?

• False and True Religion
• The Wrong God
• The Wrong Jesus
• The Wrong Faith ...

From the Introduction:

It is not necessarily factious to voice disagreement with someone else's teaching. In fact, we have a moral imperative to examine what is proclaimed in Jesus' name, and to expose and condemn false teaching and unbiblical behaviour...

The biblical challenge is not to avoid truth that is controversial, but to speak the truth in love. (Eph. 4:15)...Scripture is the rule against which we must measure all teaching, and my only desire is to turn the light of God's Word on a movement that has taken the contemporary church by storm...

The most visible and charismatic celebrities barely even give lip service to biblical authority. The few Charismatic leaders who are concerned about biblical truth have been viciously attacked by other charismatics. In effect, they have been shouted down by people who quote 1 Chronicles 16:22 ("Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm") as if that verse silenced all doctrinal discussion -- and as if we were supposed to assume that everyone who claims an anointing from God is speaking the truth. As a result, charismatics as a whole have failed to expose and reject the most obvious, unbiblical and even anti-Christian influences in the movement.

Fantastic encounters with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are reported as common place. Personal messages from God are supposedly routine. Healings of all kinds are claimed. It is not unusual to hear striking testimonies about how God, in response to faith, has corrected spinal injuries, lengthened legs, and removed cancerous tissue. Seemingly omniscient Christian talk-show hosts discern that miracles and healings of various types are happening during their broadcasts. They urge viewers to call in and "claim" healings.

Some of the miracles seem almost bizarre: one dollar bills turn into twenties, washing machines and other appliances are "healed," empty fuel tanks fill up supernaturally and demons are exorcised from vending machines. People are "slain" (knocked flat) in the Spirit; others claim to have been to heaven and back. Several even claim to have been to hell and back!

Some even go so far as to deny the effectiveness of evangelism without such miracles. They argue that the Gospel message is weakened or nullified if not accompanied by great signs and wonders. They believe some people need to see signs and wonders before they will believe. That notion has spawned a whole new movement, grandiosely tagged "the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit," also known as the Signs and Wonders Movement. This recent variation on the old charismatic theme is attracting many evangelicals and others from mainline denominations who were formerly wary of Pentecostal and charismatic influences...

Experience, however, is not the test of biblical truth; rather, biblical truth stands in final judgment on experience. Frederick Dale Bruner has stated it clearly: "The test of anything calling itself Christian is not its significance or its success or its power, though these make the test more imperative. The test is truth."

If you are a Christian who has not experienced some supernatural charismatic phenomenon, perhaps you are feeling left out. You may be wondering whether God views you as a second-class citizen. If He honestly cares about you, why haven't you had a special miracle or manifested some spectacular gift? Why haven't you ascended to a higher level of spiritual bliss? Why haven't you heard Jesus speak to you in an audible voice? Why hasn't He appeared physically to you? Do our charismatic friends really have a closer walk with God, a deeper sense of the Holy Spirit's power, a fuller experience of praise, a stronger motivation to witness, and a greater devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ? Could it be that we non-charismatics just do not measure up? The charismatic movement has separated the Christian community into the spiritual "haves" and "have-nots."...

John F. MacArthur is pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and is heard daily on the radio program "Grace to You." He serves as president of The Master's College and Seminary.

This book can be obtained at the Grace to You website at www.gtycanada.org or www.amazon.com. Your local Christian bookstore will also be able to order it for you.

Why Are Tongues So Popular?

Charismatic teachers and writers claim that speaking in tongues is the work of the Holy Spirit, that it is a sweeping new burst of power that has come upon the church in the last days.

How can that be? The tongues being spoken today are not biblical. Those who speak in tongues are not practicing the gift described in Scripture. Then why do so many pursue this practice with such fervor? Why do they seek to convince and intimidate others to start doing the same thing? A basic reason is spiritual hunger. People hear that tongues is a way to have a wonderful spiritual experience. They fear that if they have not spoken in tongues, they may be missing something. They want "something more."

Also, many people are hungry to express themselves spiritually. They have been coming to church for years but they really have not been involved. They have not been recognized as particularly spiritual or holy; and because they hear that tongues-speakers are thought to be holy and spiritual, they try it.

Another basic reason for the growth of tongues is the need for acceptance and security. People need to be in the "in group." They want to be among the ones who "have it," and they cringe at the thought of being among the have-nots who are on the outside looking in. It is very satisfying for some to be in the charismatic movement. It is a form of self-actualization to be able to say, "I am a charismatic." It makes many people feel that they are somebody, like they belong to something, like they have something others do not have.

Another explanation is that the charismatic movement is a reaction to the secularized, mechanized, academic, cold, indifferent society in which we live. The tongues-speaker feels like he or she is directly in touch with the supernatural. Here is something tangible that they can experience. This is not dry and academic. It feels real!

Probably the key reason tongues have exploded on the scene with such force is the need for an alternative to the cold, lifeless Christianity that permeates so many churches. People who join the charismatic movement often are those who are looking for action, excitement, warmth, and love. They want to believe that God is really at work in their lives -- right here and now. Dead orthodoxy can never satisfy, and that is why many people look for satisfaction in the charismatic movement.

Some might say "Why criticize them?" We do so because it is scriptural to be concerned about whether our brothers and sisters are walking in the truth. Although it may not seem very loving to some, the Bible is clear that we are to "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). True love must act on the truth.

(from Charismatic Chaos by John F. MacArthur, Jr.)

What Respected Christian Leaders Have To Say!

Many Christian leaders are in agreement that the teachings of the Faith Movement are not biblical and are harmful to the church. If you are involved in the Faith Movement, it is very important that you undertake a personal re-evaluation of your spiritual committment.

Just before his death, the late cult authority Walter Martin warned, "The situation is extremely serious" because the faith teachers "have forged a virtually unbroken chain of serious doctrinal deviation." He further observed, "the study of the Kingdom of the Cults has taught me many profitable lessons, and this is one of them -- error begets error; heresy begets heresy and always in the name of truth, always in the name of the gospel."

Noted theologian J.I. Packer author of Knowing God and God's Words, argues that calling "some televangelists to account for their heretical teaching, their spiritual unreality, their shameless personality-cult, and the spurious dramatics of the fund-raising is unpleasant but necessary, for pastoral reasons."

Dr. Donald K. Campbell comments that the Faith Movement "is grevious and threatens to engulf the Church and sweep many professed believers into dangerous currents of false and destuctive doctrine."

Church historian Dr. Harold Lindsell, author of The Battle for the Bible and The Bible in the Balance, warns, "Historic orthodoxy is being diminished by heretical departures from the true faith...Along with some biblical truths a poisionous stream of error is to be found."

Theologian R.C. Sproule, founder of Ligonier Ministries and author of The Holiness of God and In Search of Dignity observes, "Very little evidence of any significant knowledge of either Church history or theology is displayed by Copeland, Hagin, Tilton, Crouch, and others. These men are not scholars. There is nothing wrong with that...What is alarming, however, is the attitude with which these 'teachers' assert their novelties, claiming divine authority for charting a new course...There is such a thing as heresy. The tragedy is that it pervades the electronic church."

Noted Christian counselor Dr. Jay Adams believes that for too long the Faith teachers "have been spreading falsehood unchallenged."

Dr. Dave Breese, a popular speaker and author of Know the Marks of a Cult and Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies, laments that "much on television that passes for Christianity is a new Gnosticism, a revived pantheism."

In his analysis of the Faith Movement, distinguished professor of the New Testament Dr. Henry Krabbendam comments that, "The doctrinal positions will often prove to be confused, confusing, errant, and at times, even heretical; the interpretive procedures are arbitrary, ill-advised, deficient, and at times, even damaging."

Professor of Theology and Apologetics Dr. Rod Rosenbladt observes, "...many popular media evangelists are preaching what amounts to blasphemy in their references to Christ's Person and work...In almost every point of Christology, these televangelists have deviated from orthodoxy and have promoted their own fantasy saviour..."

Michael Horton comments in the following manner: "...the obnoxiousness of offering salvation for money is itself heretical, indeed, pagan. Nevertheless, the gospel heralded by some of the television preachers is even more perverted than that...It is not only crass and ugly; it is overtly blasphemous and anti-Christian...they are preaching another Word, another God, and another Christ."

Even the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements representing 65 contributors from a large variety of different denominations, many of them Pentecostal and Charismatic, comments that the Faith teachings are based on a distortion of Scripture and a distortion of the biblical concept of faith, and that, for example, their concept that believers are "little gods" presents "the greatest danger."

(from The Facts on the Faith Movement by John Ankerberg & John Weldon)

It All Starts with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

One reason experience is the touchstone for charismatics is their undue emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a post-salvation experience. Charismatics generally believe that after someone becomes a Christian, he or she must seek diligently for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Those who get this baptism also experience various phenomena, such as speaking in tongues, feelings of euphoria, visions, and emotional outbursts of various kinds. Those who have not experienced the baptism are not considered Spirit-filled; that is, they are immature, carnal, disobedient, or otherwise incomplete Christians.

That kind of teaching opens the floodgates for believing that vital Christianity is one sensational experience after another. It sets in motion a contest to see who can have the most vivid or spectacular experience. And, of course, those with the most awesome testimonies are held in highest esteem spiritually. Incredible claims are made, and they almost always go unchallenged. Instead of responding to a proper interpretation of God's Word, Christianity is collecting fantastic and preposterous experiences. The Bible is either mangled to fit those experiences or simply ignored altogether. The result is pseudo-Christian mysticsm.

Mysticsm is a system of belief that attempts to perceive spiritual reality apart from objective, verifiable facts. It seeks truth through feelings, intuition, and other internal senses. Objective data is usually discounted, so mysticsm derives its authority from within. Spontaneous feeling becomes more significant than objective fact. Intuition outweighs reason.

Irrational mysticsm is also at the heart of the charismatic experience. It has subverted Biblical authority within the movement and replaced it with personal experience. The practical effect of charismatic teaching is to set one's experience on a higher plane than a proper understanding of Scripture. (Charismatic Chaos - John .MacArthur, Jr.)