The Claim of Special Powers from God

Toxic Faith Characteristic #1- continued

The claim of special powers from God is another way for a person to feel valued regardless of whether they have anything to do with God. This claim is often used to manipulate people into believing the gifted one is a great person of God. One of the scariest scriptures for these toxic ministers is found in Matthew 7:21-23:

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven...Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practiced lawlessness!"

No more notorious abuse takes place than in the area of faith healing. At times God rips through the normal bonds of the universe and heals people miraculously. On some occasions He uses people to facilitate that process, and on other occasions He does not. The problem comes when some people use teachings about God's healing power to manipulate and exploit believers.

A perfect example is the faith healer from California who claimed to know people's afflictions, their names, where they lived, and other personal tidbits that only a miracle worker would know. Once he had established his credibility through such feats of knowledge, he would claim to heal the people of what he knew was wrong with them. The religious addicts who followed him loved to watch his magic and believed that it was all real. He deceived his devoted followers into believing God revealed the needed information to him. In fact, supplied with a tiny hearing device and radio receiver, he got the information from his wife, who had gathered it before the "performances." Confronted about the practice, he admitted that it had been part of the family tradition passed down from his minister father.

Not only did he mislead loyal and would-be followers into believing that he was hearing God, but he deceived them into believing he healed those people with the power of Jesus. The power of modern technology was portrayed as the power of the Saviour of the world. He used this supposed special power to prove he enjoyed a favoured position with God.

This man's exploitation of the terminally ill, the sick, and the afflicted, and his ability to reportedly laugh about the exploitation of their finances, are unconscionable. Few things are more cruel than exploiting an individual's search for hope. To these persons God may well say, "I never knew you."

Sadly, the addicts who follow them may never know God either.

Distinctive Characteristics of Christ's Healing Miracles

1. Christ healed completely: Christ had no half cures. The paralytic didn't hobble away; the leper didn't go back to the priest with only a few skin nodules here and there; and the blind man didn't need glasses or a seeing-eye camel to find his way around.
2. Christ healed immediately: Except for three instances where the healing took place in a matter of minutes, all miracles happened instantaneously--not days or weeks later.
3. Christ healed in public: His healing ministry was not limited to certain prearranged sites. He didn't need an emotionally supercharged atmosphere or an "annointing" in a crusade or church to heal the sick. He went up and down the countryside and streets healing people in a seemingly random manner (of course, He foreknew exactly whom He would heal).
4. Christ healed mostly visible or organic disease: He was not intimidated by withered body parts, the blind, or people in the grave. His miracles were so convincing that even His critics of the day could not refute them.
5. Christ healed even those without faith: Christ healed without partiality, healing even those who apparently had little or no faith. You'll remember that the man Christ healed of blindness didn't even really know who Christ was. "He replied, Whether Christ is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see!" (John 9:25; see also vv. 35-36)
6. Christ healed with a purpose: His purpose was to authenticate His messianic claim. (John 5:36), to show the people that He had the authority to forgive sins. (Matt. 9:6), to prove that His message came from God (Acts 2:22), and through it all to launch the beginning of His church and bring more glory to God (Eph. 2:19-22; John 11:4). Christ didn't heal everyone (John 5:3-5); nor did He heal on demand (Matt. 12:38-40).

Christ healed without bias - any type of person, anywhere, instanteously, totally, any disease, in plain sight of everyone. The disciples' healings followed suit. Peter and Paul completely healed the lame and both apostles raised the dead. The apostles' healings were so numerous and so convincing that not even their enemies could deny them.

After Pentecost (the birth of the church), no miracle ever occurred in the entire New Testament record, except in the presence of an apostle or one directly commissioned by an apostle. Like Christ, the apostles didn't perform miracles simply for the physical benefit of the recipients. Miracles were never intended to make all believers healthy or to be a last-ditch effort by God to bring a person to saving faith. A miracle by itself will never bring someone to genuine faith in God (John 6:65). Neither is there evidence in Scripture that the miracles performed by the apostles were to continue after they died. Miracles of healing had a very specific purpose; to authenticate the apostles and their message from God (II Cor. 12:11-12), and therein build the foundation for the church (Eph. 2:19-22) -- the spiritual framework supporting the very life of the body of genuine believers.

So why did Christ wait until He was about thirty to miraculously heal people and display to the world His miracle-working powers? Because Christ healed with a purpose.

Miracles had a specific purpose for the church; but as adults today we don't need signs and wonders to authenticate the words of God's ambassadors; we already have God's Word written down for us in black and white. Nor do we need spectacular healings to prove to the unsaved that God exists. If the unsaved will not believe what the written Word of God says and apply it in their lives, no miracle will ever convince them. The unbeliever may stick around in the church to see more spectacular "healings", but a genuine miracle by itself will never bring anyone to completely surrender his or her life to God.

Even in the New Testament, miracles were never intended to bring masses of people to a saving faith. Though numerous miracles authenticated the ministry of Christ and His apostles, the mind-boggling miracles did not produce widespread faith (Luke 10:13-15). The masses still crucified Christ and murdered His apostles.

From "Does God Still Do Miracles" by Dr. Brad Burke.

What About Miracles?

Miracles wrought at the hands of God's messengers, were primarily clustered in three brief ages of Bible history, during the lives of 1. Moses and Joshua, 2. the prophets of Elijah and Elisha and 3. Christ and the Apostles (after Christ was thirty years of age). We have no record of healing miracles occurring in large numbers, anywhere, any time, at the hands of just any saint. C.S. Lewis states it plainly: "God does not shake miracles into Nature at random as if from a pepper-caster." Only certain messengers of God were used to perform divine miracles, referred to as "signs and wonders" throughout the Old and New Testaments.

Why were these "signs and wonders" performed? (past tense) God used these supernatural feats as signs to the people, identifying and authenticating the credentials of His earthly spokesmen. Christ did numerous wonders and signs to demonstrate the truth of His message. (John 10: 24, 25; 20: 30-31; Acts 2: 22). When Elijah raised from the dead a widow's son, the widow proclaimed "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth." (1 Kings 17: 24). With the canon of Scripture incomplete and with so many false prophets buzzing around, citizens had difficulty separating God's truth from human imagination. But by orchestrating an inexplicable miraculous event through His prophet, or apostle, or His own Son, God effectively channeled His truth to the people.

To accomplish this, God performed miraculous healings that blew away the magic, trickery, and psychosomatic healings of His competition -- mainly Satan and the false prophets. Christ instantaneously healed a paralytic and the people praised God saying "We have never seen anything like this." (Mark 2: 12) Spinal-cord paralysis is a healing without medical explanation - it's supernatural. Christ also restored the sight of a man born blind which is another healing without medical explanation. (John 9: 1-34) Christ immediately healed a man of leprosy. (Matthew 8: 1-4) Again, this healing defied all medical explanation. Perhaps Christ's greatest miracle was seen in raising Lazarus from the grave. (John 11: 11-44) Lazarus was dead for three days, to be raised to complete health, was truly beyond medical rationalization. And Christ raised not one but at least two other individuals to life - one right out of a coffin on his way to his funeral (Luke 7: 14-15; 8:49-56)! From "Does God Still Do Miracles?" by Dr. Brad Burke. The miracles being performed today in no way compare to the miracles which Christ performed. His miracles had distinctive characteristics which will be discussed on the next posting.

Redefining Christianity

Barrie Victory Centre has as its purpose and motto "Releasing the Restoring Fire of God". Where in Scripture does it say that this is the purpose of the church? In fact, where does it say that you are even supposed to be doing this at all. This church is attempting to redefine Christianity and in particular "the Gospel that was delivered to the Saints". "The Gospel" like the character of Christ is unchanging and steadfast, NEVER changing. "He is the same yesterday, today and forever" as is the Gospel. To add to it or take away from it in any way is blasphemy and punishable by death.

What would happen if Christ returned and found out what's going on at Barrie Victory Centre? Here's just a few things He would be appalled at:

Healing included in the Atonement - man-made theology. Kenneth Hagan renounced everything about the faith movement on his deathbed.

Speaking in Tongues - not for today

Modern Day Prophets - not for today

Divine Revelation is being used by the leadership as a substitution for a proper education at a respected Bible College. (Canada Christian College is not one of those)

Faith Healing - God heals but on His agenda and in His time and not everybody "with enough faith" gets healed.

Miracles - not for today

Positive Confession - A throwback to Catholicism and not found in Scripture. It does more harm than good.

Thou Shalt Not Read Any Books Other Than the Bible - The purpose behind this is to control the minds and thoughts of their followers, keep opposition and questionning minds silent.

The truth is that Christianity is very subtly being redefined right in front of their faces and it no longer looks like or resembles true Christianity but rather a VERY different gospel.

If you attend BVC, with the littany of errors being taught, you have to ask yourself, How Far Away From Truth Can You Go before you can no longer claim to be a Christian?