Eternal Security - The Peace of Mind You're Missing!

I have not always believed in eternal security.  I was raised in the Pentecostal church, a denomination that did not believe in eternal security and frequently preached against it.  As a child, I was not threatened by such preaching.  I always loved church.  I would arrive early to claim my second-row aisle seat -- ..in front of the pastor.

There were two reasons I chose to attend the Pentecostal church.  First, my grandfather was a Pentecostal pastor.  Second, it was my mother's preference.  I can remember as a young boy getting up on Sunday morning, eating breakfast, and walking to church.  Even when my mother was unable to go, I would be there.

June was typically revival month back in those days.  In June of 1944 our evangelist for the week was a Mrs. Wilson.  Women evangelists were not uncommon in the Pentecostal church.  As was my habit, I was there Sunday morning, front and center, with every intention of attending each night that week.  After the choir finished their song, Mrs. Wilson walked to the pulpit and preached a stirring salvation message.  I don't remember anything in particular that she said; I just remember feeling a strong desire to respond.  When the invitation began, I rose from my seat and went foward.  Before I reached the altar, I began weeping.  I knelt down and started asking Jesus to save me.  Several members of my Sunday School class gathered around and began praying for me as well.

When the altar call ended, the pastor of the church asked me to step up to the pulpit and share with the congregation what Christ had done for me.  Still crying, I stood behind the pulpit and said, "I don't know all that Jesus has done for me but I know He saved me."

The pastor put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me square in the eye, and said, "Charles, grow up and be a good boy.  And when you die, you will go to heaven."  [This pastor was telling Charles that his salvation must be maintained by being a good boy.  The implication is that if you are not good you can lose your salvation which is what the Pentecostal church teaches and believes.]

Easier Said than Done

It didn't take me long to realize that being good wasn't easy.  To compound the problem, just about everything a twelve-year-old boy considered fun was a sin according to the Pentecostal church.  I was continually confessing my sins, begging for forgiveness, and hoping I wouldn't die before I had time to repent!  

During that time I began sensing God's call in my life.  That meant one of two things in those days, becoming a preacher or a missionary.  The awareness of God's call in my life only darkened the cloud of guilt under which I lived.  How could I ever help anybody else when I am constantly waivering?  I would wonder.  What if I stood to preach and wasn't even saved?  

[Pentecostals never know at any given time if they are really saved because they believe they can lose their salvation at a moment's notice.  This teaching does not give their adherents any peace of mind about their salvation or their eternal destiny.  What is the point of salvation if it can be so easily lost?]

At age fourteen I joined the Baptist church.  My decision was purely a social one.  The Baptist church had a larger youth group than the Pentecostal church, and that meant more girls!  That was when I discovered not everbody believed as I did.  I first heard the phrase "eternal security" in that little Baptist church.  Even as a teenager I was a diligent student of God's word.  Armed with my list of verses, I was prepared and even eager to present my side of the issue.  No one made a dent in my theology.  And I never expected anyone to, because I knew the Scripture was clearly on my side.  

When I left home for college, I was a staunch believer in the doctrine that one could lose his salvation.  Often in our dorm the conversation would turn to religion.  Over and over I would pull out my arsenal of verses and present my case.  Frequently, I found myself standing alone.  But my view was strengthened by the carnal lifestyles of many with whom I debated.  Men who claimed to be saved and yet whose actions gave no indication of their having a relationship with Christ.  Intellectually, I was more persuaded than ever.  But deep inside a battle was raging. 

Despite my strong defense and quiver of verses, I couldn't make it all fit.  The events of that Sunday morning in 1944 were fixed in my memory.  I remember for the first time feeling that I was at peace with God.  I knew I had been born again.  The possibility that I could lose all I had gained that Sunday morning seemed a little farfetched.  And the idea that I could lose it and regain it repeatedly was difficult to comprehend.  

Although I was troubled by my internal struggles, I never felt alienated from God.  I had an inner peace even at my lowest times.  Somehow I knew He still loved me and accepted me.  My repeated requests for salvation were more a ritual than an heartfelt sense of need.  I never felt lost.  Yet the Scripture seemed to be so clear on that point.  Consequently, I remained resolute in my defense.

Seminary Days

In the fall of 1954 I entered Southwestern Theological Seminary.  Once again I found myself in heated discussions concerning the issue of eternal security.  I continued my study of what I considered the pertinent passages of Scripture.  For a long time I did not understand how anybody could think the Bible taught that the believer was eternally secure.  But slowly that began to change.  

Strangely enough, it was my intense study of the Scriptures that caused me to begin doubting my position.  This was not a sudden change.  It took time.  Nobody convinced me.  On the contrary, after a while, nobody even wanted to talk to me about it;  I had pretty much run the issue into the ground by that point.  But as convincing as I was, I had no peace about the subject.   So I continued to study.

Verse by verse I picked my way through the passages used to support each view.  Through this process two things became apparent.  First, I was guilty of ignoring the context of many verses I quoted to defend my view.  As I began digging deeper into the events and discussions surrounding these passages, they took on a different meaning.  Second, I discovered through my study that the concept of salvation through faith alone cannot be reconciled with the belief that one can forfeit his or her salvation.  If I must do or not do something to keep from losing my salvation, salvation would be by faith and works I specifically remember the day this particular truth dawned on me.  I found myself at a theological fork in the road.  To maintain my position, I realized I would have to abandon my belief in salvation by faith alone.  

It was as if a light came on.  Suddenly I saw it.  I wanted to shout.  I felt like a man just released from prison.  I began to thank God that I had been wrong all those years.  I thanked Him for the relentlessness that had kept me searching and praying.  Then I was struck with the most awesome thought of all.  I had been eternally secure since that day as a twelve-year-old when I prayed, asking Jesus to save me.

That morning was a turning point in my life.  It was far more than a shift in my theology.  It introduced me to the true meaning of unconditional love.  It was the beginning of my lifelong journey into the mystery of God's amazing grace.  Terms such as peace and joy took on a whole new meaning.  They became part of my experience not just my vocabulary.

I realized how little I had really trusted God.  You see, it is difficult to trust someone when you are never really sure where you stand with that person. Security came to mean a great deal more that a guarantee of where I would spend eternity.  It was the perfect word to describe the sense of intimacy I felt with Christ.  I was secure.  Secure in His love and acceptance of me.  Secure in His daily will for my life.  Secure in every promise He had made.  And of course, secure in where I would spend eternity.

I'm Not Alone

I continually meet people who believe as I once believed.  If it were simply a theological difference I would be content to agree to disagree.  It is far more than that.  I know the bondage to which that kind of thinking leads.  I have lived with the guilt and the fear fostered by that view.  Jesus said, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).  Freedom comes from knowing the truth.  Bondage results from missing it.  

. . . Hopefully you will be set free to enjoy the relationship God has paid so dearly to provide.  It is a relationship from which fear and worry are absent.  I know from experience that until you settle once and for all the question of whether or not you are eternally secure,  this quality of joy will elude you. . . hopefully you will be able to face life with the confidence that comes through knowing you are eternally secure.  

[If you are currently attending a Pentecostal/charismatic/Faith Movement/Victory Churches, and this subject has not come up recently, you need to ask them if you only need to be saved once or whether they believe you can lose your salvation.  If they believe and teach that you can lose your salvation you need to get to a Baptist church or one that believes in eternal security.  If you don't you will never have the peace of mind that salvation was intended to give you.]

By Dr. Charles Stanley

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.

You Are Now Without Excuse!

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are now without excuse for getting involved in a cult or continuing in one.  The previous 25 blogs have provided you with extensive, reliable, trustworthy information on Truth and where it can be found.  Reading only the Bible will not keep you out of a cult or help you to get out of one you are already in.  All cults use the Bible to justify their "weird and unique" belief systems.  Reading books by well-respected, world-renowned, properly educated Bible scholars will.  Each of these 25 books previously mentioned has a bibliography of resources used to research the book (some very lengthy) which you can also access.  Most or all are available at www.amazon.com.

What should we be striving for as Christians?  It seems to me that our primary concern should be "absolute truth" and where it is being taught.  Surely somebody is teaching absolute truth in our world today or at least someone is teaching what would be considered the closest to absolute truth that can possibly be achieved.  With this purpose in mind, highly respected Bible scholars become a very important resource when it comes to Bible interpretation (hermeneutics).  The Faith Movement/Word of Faith and Victory Churches International do not have even one widely respected Bible scholar in their ranks, including all the television ministries.  That's why they all tell you to read your own Bible and interpret it for yourself.

We should not be willing to accept any teachings we believe to be false by continuing to sit in the pew and participating in any way in the ministry.  No matter how you look at it, churches teaching falsehoods are like a rotten apple in the barrel of Christianity. If we are fully aware that our leaders are engaging in false teachings we need to exit these churches immediately.  Staying in these churches and supporting them with our time and money makes us accessories to the falsehoods.  We will have to answer for that someday!

Now that you have more than enough information available to you to keep you out of a cult, this blog will be focusing in future on specific false teachings which are currently misrepresenting True Christianity to the unbelieving world.  As the upcoming blogs proceed, you will become aware fairly quickly that the primary source of false teachings today is found deeply embedded in the Pentecostal Church.  I believe that the Pentecostal Church is one of the main enemies of truth in our world today.  Almost every major false teaching currently out there can be traced back to the confused and  misguided Pentecostal Church.  Truth mixed with falsehood qualifies the Pentecostal Church as a cult.

Pentecostal, you will find, is a huge umbrella which includes the modern day Faith Movement, Word of Faith and Victory Churches International.  Canada Christian College is to blame for teaching an extremely aberrant form of Christianity and giving out doctorate degrees to people who are not qualified in any way.  Canada Christian College should be put out of business to eliminate the blight they have put on True Christianity.  If you are interested in teaching truth to anyone, do not attend Canada Christian College or allow your children to go there.   What they are teaching is not True Christianity and should not be supported in any way.   All of the above mentioned organizations are deeply rooted in the Pentecostal Church and its ongoing gross misunderstanding of  "The Truth" contained in Scripture.

If you are searching for Truth, make no mistake about it, the so-called truth that the Pentecostals are espousing is based in falsehood and is leading millions of people worldwide astray.  Why would you settle for anything less than the unadulterated truth?  The "Pentecostal Dictionary" shows very definitively that these people and this movement do not know what they believe, why they believe it and they know even less about absolute truth.  They have totally distorted what Christianity is all about.  Proof will emerge in upcoming blogs.  The Pentecostal Church has been one of Satan's greatest tools which he has used extensively to throw Christians off the "tracks of truth" and into the "ditch of falsehood."

You will also learn in future blogs how you can know if you are actually in a Pentecostal Church because most of them are no longer using the word "Pentecostal" in their name.  Community Church, Life Centre, and Victory Centre are a few that have become much more common now.  So, beware!

We say we want God's best for our lives.  What could be better than finding out what is "actually" truth and then "sticking with it"?  Do not listen to anyone who has something to gain from what they are telling you!  This scenario is quite common in today's churches.  Scripture admonishes us not to add anything or take anything away from the "Gospel that was delivered to the Saints".  Looking forward to sharing with you in the days ahead.

ONE VOICE

SHINING THROUGH THE DARKEST NIGHT
STANDING UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT

A Final Outpouring?

Has the gift of tongues resumed in the twentieth century? Pentecostals and charismatics treat that question in one of two ways. Some claim that the gift never ceased -- it just declined -- and therefore the groups who claim to speak in tongues were forerunners of those contemporary Pentecostal and charismatic movements. In taking that position they put themselves in a heretical tradition.

On the other hand, many charismatics concede that tongues did cease after the apostolic era, but they believe the contemporary manifestations of the charismata are a final outpouring of the Spirit and His gifts for the last days.

A key text for Pentecostals and charismatics who take this second view is Joel 2:28: "It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy and your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

According to Joel 2:19-32, before the final Day of the Lord, God's Spirit will be poured out in such a way that there will be wonders in the sky, and on the earth -- blood, fire, and columns of smoke; "The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes" (v. 31). That is obviously a prophecy of the coming millennial kingdom and cannot refer to anything earlier. The context of the Joel passage makes this the only plausible interpretation.

For example, Joel 2:20 refers to the defeat of "the northern army" that will attack Israel in the end-time apocalypse. Verse 27 of Joel 2 speaks of the great revival that will bring Israel back to God. That is another feature of the Great Tribulation and is not yet fulfilled. Joel 3 (vv.2, 12, 14) describes the judgment of the nations, an event that comes after Armageddon and in connection with the establishment of the earthly, millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Later in Chapter 3, Joel gives a beautiful description of the millennial kingdom (v. 18). Clearly, Joel 2 is a kingdom prophecy, which was not completely fulfilled at Pentecost. (Acts 2) or on any occasion since. It must refer to an era that is still future.

There is still, however, the question of what Peter meant when he quoted Joel 2:28-32 on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21). Some Bible teachers say that Peter was pointing to Pentecost as a fulfillment of Joel 2:28. But on the day of Pentecost there were no wonders in the heavens and signs in the earth; no blood and fire and vapours of smoke; the sun did not turn to darkness and the moon to blood and the great and terrible day of the Lord did not come. The prophecy was not fully realized; Pentecost was only a partial fulfillment, or better, a preview of the prophecy's ultimate culmination. The parallel to that is the Transfiguration, in which our Lord's glory was briefly revealed as it will be seen fully throughout the millennial kingdom.

Peter was simply telling those present at Pentecost that they were getting a preliminary glimpse, a projection of the kind of power that the Spirit would release in the millennial kingdom. What they were seeing in Jerusalem among a handful of people was a sign of what God's Spirit would someday do on a world-wide basis.

One of the fine Bible scholars of the nineteenth century, George N. H. Peters, wrote, "The Baptism of Pentecost is a pledge of fulfillment in the future, evidencing what the Holy Ghost will yet perform in the coming age." The miracles that began on the day of Pentecost are light on the horizon, heralding the coming earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Some charismatics spiritualize "the former rain and the latter rain" of Joel 2:23 (KJV). They argue that the former rain refers to Pentecost, when the Spirit came, and the latter rain to His outpouring in the twentieth century.

Throughout the Old Testament, "the former rain" refers to the autumn rains "the latter rain" to the spring rains. Joel was actually saying in the millennial kingdom both rains will come "as before" (v.23). His point was that God will make crops grow profusely in the kingdom. Joel 2:24-26 makes that abundantly clear: "And the threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame."

The "former and latter rain", then, have nothing to do with Pentecost, the twentieth century, or the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals and charismatics cannot use Joel 2:28 as a basis for saying tongues have been poured out a second time. In the first place, Joel did not even mention tongues. In the second place, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was not the ultimate fulfillment of Joel's prophecy.

Thomas Edgar makes this significant observation:

There is no Biblical evidence that there will be a reoccurrence in the church of the sign gifts or that believers will work miracles near the end of the Church age. However, there is ample evidence that near the end of the age there will be false prophets who perform miracles, prophesy and cast out demons in Jesus' name (cf. Matthew 7:22-23; 24:11, 24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

We do well to be on guard.

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

John's book is available through http://www.gtycanada.org/ or http://www.amazon.com/ if you are interested.

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)

The Health and Wealth Gospel Is Going Down!

In a very short space of time the "Health and Wealth" gospel will be history. Any minister still teaching it will be called to account for this teaching by his congregation and if he doesn't stop teaching it, he will be asked to leave.

God has moved very decisively against the "Health and Wealth" gospel in recent months. He has brought down the main source of this "rot and swill" which has been infecting Christianity for some time. Oral Roberts University is now bankrupt and out of business. Its President and CEO, Richard Roberts, is under investigation by a U.S. Senate Committee for misappropriation of funds. What this means is that no more false teachers will be produced out of there to propagate this cancer throughout the Christian community. Satan has been doing some of his best work from inside the church.

Also being investigated by the Senate Committee are Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyers, and Benny Hinn.

"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" Pay Attention True Christians! What is the message here? You need to stop supporting anyone who teaches the "Health and Wealth" gospel. Stop attending their meetings. Stop sending them money. As long as you do, they'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

These people are very dangerous. Using the gospel as a smokescreen, they have the ability to hide their real reason for teaching the "Health and Wealth" gospel. That reason is to gain personal wealth from their followers. They are told that if they give to the church they will receive a one hundredfold return. This is nothing more than a "get rich quick" scheme for those in leadership positions. Has anyone at BVC received their hundredfold yet? I'd bet a lot of money that they haven't.

I'd also bet that my son, Glenn, has not yet been cured of his diabetes either. Don't let them tell you to go off your insulin and trust God for a miracle. You could end up dead just like a friend of mine who fell for the Pentecostal "mumbo-jumbo" that the church was telling them. You don't need doctors or medical treatment.. you just have to have enough faith. Her miracle never came and she is dead--at age 43. This is where their teachings on healings lead. Many deaths have been reported all over the world due to this foolish man-made theology. IT JUST ISN'T TRUE!

Won't Judgment Day be interesting to watch as these people try to explain the intentional misleading of millions for personal gain to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. What could they possibly say to explain themselves? It will be a rather humbling experience, don't you think?