Hippity-Hopping to the IHOP

Truth Matters Newsletters – August 2011 – Vol. 16 Issue 8 – Hippity-Hopping to the IHOP – Rev. Robert Liichow

 Discernment Ministries International

 Hippity-Hopping to the IHOP

 Due the endorsement of Texas Governor Rick Perry a spotlight both secular and doctrinal has been placed squarely upon The International House of Prayer (IHOP). (1) Perry who is a Republican is running for the office of the Presidency and he has called for a day of prayer and fasting in Houston in August. A quote from a letter Perry sent to all 50 state governors says:

 I believe it will take a great amount of prayer, and a renewed commitment to spiritual principles, to get our nation back on track. Let us not delay in doing what is right for our people and their future. (2)

 Perry agrees with the proponents of extreme charismania so much so that he has asked Mike Bickle and his prayer warriors from IHOP to help in this event and Bickle’s group agreed and is involved. The let us not delay is referring to his upcoming prayer meeting and he, like all the extremists believe that their prayers will literally move the hand of God to manifest the things they have been decreeing in prayer. (3) [ I waited to finish this article until the prayer gathering occurred. People can listen to Governor Perry’s prayer online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvENzg61kw.  When you do you will notice that Jesus is not referenced in it at all, nor is the prayer addressed in His name, i.e. “whatever you ask the Father IN MY NAME” (John 14:13) I wonder if God the Father even “hears” prayers not offered in Jesus name].

 So What Is the Problem?

“Ok Bob what is so bad about a diverse group of Christians gathering together to fast and pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week? If anything, this sounds like something the Church and our society really need. . . more prayer, right?”

 It is without dispute that prayer is essential to our spiritual development and fellowship with our Lord. Christian voices alone are answered by heaven’s throne. (4)  This places a distinct burden on us who stand before the God of all creation as His royal priests (1 Peter 2:9) (5)  We do not have to pray…we get to pray! Prayer is one of the sacred privileges given to us by our loving Father to worship and extol His glorious virtues, to commune with Him, to pour out our hearts to the One who is easily touched with the feelings of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). Prayer is a good thing; it should have a prominent place in our daily lives and every worship service. I would heartily agree with those who bemoan the fact that prayer is so often lacking in many church services. In rebuking those who bought and sold in the temple Jesus stated clearly that of all things—His house would be known as a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). One of the many aspects of our local worship service at Zion in Detroit is the amount of time given over to prayer. I can honestly say that Zion’s liturgical format is Christ centered and prayer driven. (6)

 Who among us when a serious enough need arises does not contact other people of like precious faith (2 Peter 1:1) especially with e-mail and Facebook. If we are really honest about it we are all a little superstitious when it comes to prayer. Many think that if a certain person prays for them, then they will receive their petitions, others believe if enough people pray sincerely enough that will move God to acquiesce to our demand(s). After all, if two people pray for something, that is one thing, but if say 50 or 100 bombard the throne room of heaven surely God will hear and act in accordance to our wishes, Right? Not necessarily.

 Like many beautiful things prayer can be twisted and turned into something that is ugly and totally unacceptable to God. This is the concern regarding IHOP, they have taken things given by God to the Church, (in this case prayer, fasting, music) and turned it into something God had not intended for it to be. They have taken prayer which is a good thing and they have added one too many “o’s”—prayer is a good thing, but in this case it is not a God thing.

 And let every one of you take his censer and put incense on it, and every one of you bring before the LORD his censer, 250 censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” So every man took his censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. Numbers 16:17-19

 In the above text we see the Aaron and his sons taking their censer, incensing it and offering it to the Lord. The Lord responded by manifesting His glory. Incense is generally accepted to symbolize prayer offered to the Lord (see Revelation 5:4,8; 8:3) and in this case the Lord accepted it. However, one of the most sobering cases of ministerial malpractice is shown to us in the lives of the first Jewish high priest Aaron:

 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. Leviticus 10:1-3

 These priests, members of the covenant family took their same censers and fired them up and put on the same incense and offered them to the same God. God did not come in His manifest presence to fellowship with them, instead a devouring fire went out from the Lord and devoured them in the tent of meeting where they stood. The same activity, the same people, the same God, yet the first was accepted and their own inventive “liturgy” brought nothing but God’s wrath upon themselves. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire to the Lord and were judged for it. The point should be obvious — all prayer is not necessarily acceptable to the Lord. I would postulate that today it is still possible for God’s people to offer strange fire to the Lord via the incense of their prayers.

 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:5-13

 Our Master was a man of prayer. It is obvious from His life that prayer was massively important to Him. After preaching Jesus sends the multitude away and goes away by Himself to pray “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, (Matthew 14:23). (7) We see Jesus praying all night long in the following text: “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came…, (Luke 6:12-13)  (8)   He often went alone and apart from both the people and His disciples to pray to His Father. What do you think Jesus was doing during His 40 days of fasting in the wilderness? (9)  Yes Jesus even commanded that His disciples both pray (Matthew 6:7; Mark 11:24; Luke 11:2) and fast (Matthew 6:16). According to Jesus prayer and fasting are not optional accessories that can decorate one’s spiritual life or not. No, they are vital ingredients to a vibrant and fruit-filled Christian walk. Let me state it another way — if Jesus Himself needed to pray (and do it quite a bit) and fast, then how much more do we need to? It is an interesting study to take some time and look up the passages regarding our Lord and prayer. (10)

 After taking time to re-read through all the passages regarding Jesus prayer life you have found some interesting facts. First of all Jesus never held prayer rallies. He never held any type of mass prayer meetings, nor did He ever pray all night with His disciples. When He did ask His friends to come and pray with Him in the garden of Gethsemane they fell asleep on several occasions (Matthew 26:41). This may shock you but He did not pray for the world (John 17:9). You will have noted in Matthew 6 some directives given by our master which are to govern our prayer life.

 First He says don’t be like the hypocrites who like to gather and prayer aloud to be seen of men. Now, as a former Pentecostal & charismatic extremist (11)  (there is a difference) I can tell you that people act differently in groups than when they are alone. Part of this is normal acceptable behavior, yet much of it involves the myriad of masks we put on when we are around others.  There used to be an old motivational poster that said “integrity is what you do when no one is watching,” which ought to be true spiritually too. Many people attend these massive prayer meetings to be seen and often to see others. You want to see people who want ot be seen as deeply spiritual?

 Go to any IHOP gathering or just a local all-night charismatic shut-in. For example the women who lay on their backs with the legs bent and spread, pelvises thrusting toward the sky screaming out unintelligible gibberish want to be seen as giving birth to revival (I kid you not). The man jogging in place flapping his arms in the corner is either in ecstasy or is doing the pee-pee dance, in any event he draws attention and so it goes. Jesus says don’t pray to be seen by others. Your prayer life alone should mirror what it is around others. If you don’t raise your hands in private, why do it in public? Don’t prostrate yourself at home, don’t do it in the church.

 Next Jesus goes on to warn against using vain repetitions like the heathen do! Naturally, when the Lord tells people not to do something, they do and do the exact opposite and do it all the more. This too is pandemic among all tongue-talking prayer warriors. As one who spent hours each day praying in other tongues, as well as being in charge of prayer meetings I can attest that most of what is uttered by anyone in other tongues today consists mainly of vain repetitions. If you listen to anyone “pray” in other tongues for more than a few minutes you will

 Naturally, worship has now taken on an entirely new meaning for these fledgling Christians (at this point the word had not even been coined) whereas before they had been looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, now He has come and His flock await His return. The liturgy did not change, but the true underlying meaning behind the liturgy was now full understood and thus it became more meaningful in the lives of the disciples.

 quickly hear them saying the same syllables over and over again, sometimes softly at other times in a loud voice, but the same words. Charismatic prayer meetings are vocalized in other tongues, I mean a good 90% of the meeting are not in English apart from giving a general directive “the Lord wants us to cover India in prayer” then off we’d go in the spirit. It is just as true today as when Jesus first uttered His words “for they think they shall be heard for their many words,” This is the underlying belief and motivation of the IHOP — if they can just get enough people praying seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day especially when this is combined with fasting and music surely God will answer from heaven. Yet before we get ahead of ourselves we have to consider the historical roots behind IHOP in order to discern its doctrinal foundation.

 A Somewhat Brief History of IHOP

 Even though Mike Bickle’s non-profit “IHOP” is being sued for trademark infringement by The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) (12) we will continue to use the acronym until the case is settled to refer to the enthusiastic prayer warriors.

 Originally IHOP did not stand for “The International House of Prayer,” originally it was an acronym for Intercession, Holiness, Offerings and Prophecy. Where did this revelatory insight come from? From no less a luminary than the self-proclaimed prophet & exposed homosexual and drunkard Paul Cain, the spiritual mentor of Mike Bickle, the current SINister over The IHOP.  (13)

 Founded 12 years ago by Mike Bickle, a self-trained evangelical pastor, with a group of 20, the International House of Prayer, in a former strip mall, now draws tens of thousands of worshipers to its revival meetings. A wholly devoted cadre of 1,000 staff members, labeled missionaries, has given up careers to move here, living off donations and spending several hours a day in the prayer hall to revel in what they describe as direct communication with God. Another thousand students attend the adjacent Bible college, preparing to spread this fervent brand of Christianity. (14)

 True enough on the surface; Bickle did start IHOP around September of 1999. Since then they like to boast that prayer, fasting and praise to the Lord have been unceasing since that time. According to their web site—

 The International House of Prayer of Kansas City is an evangelical missions organization that is committed to praying for the release of the fullness of God’s power and purpose, as we actively win the lost, heal the sick, feed the poor, make disciples, and impact the seven spheres of society–family, education, government, economy, arts, media, and religion…We refer to our full-time staff at the International House of Prayer as ‘intercessory missionaries.” They raise their own support to work as full-time missionaries who reach out to others from a lifestyle of prayer and worship. Today, about 2,000 believers (staff, students, and interns) serve full-time, investing fifty hours per week, as they go from the prayer room to the classroom and then to ministry outreaches and works of service. Also, as those who are committed to the forerunner message, we are preparing ourselves to prepare others for the unique dynamics of the generation in which the Lord returns. (15)

 One thing to keep in mind is that IHOP did not just suddenly “spring up” into existence. The concept is an amalgamation of some obscure strings of thought from various charismatic luminaries. As mentioned in a prior article much of today’s extremism can be traced back to George Warnock’s “Feast of Tabernacles, along with Franklin Hall’s Atomic Power With God Through Prayer and Fasting and David Wesley Myland’s book The Latter Rain and Pentecostal Power. These books form the core of extremist beliefs today. Oh I suppose I should add in Kevin Conner’s The Tabernacle of David and maybe Hall’s book How to Raise the Dead (DMI has a copy of it too) (16)

 All of the aforementioned books speak of a fairytale world where virtually all believers will walk this earth (prior to Christi’s return) as true sons of God. The concept of sonship is very important to these people. The Greek terms used for “son” in the N.T. are not all the same designations. Some times son denotes an infant or at other times a young boy. To these folks the goal is to become a mature fully developed spiritual man. A man who now walks in the manifest presence of God, one who is used in any and all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The problem is that the most common term denoting sons of God, not some designation for the spiritual elite.

 Deeply planted in the minds of the extremist is the concept of the power of God. We know a little of His power is from our reading of the Bible. The question they ask is how does one go about obtaining His power and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth to the degree of ever vanquishing death (1 Corinthians 15:26). It has long been written about (see above books), preached in private leadership meetings, and whispered among the devotees that the day is coming and might be upon us where God will raise up a flock of “eagle saints” who will have risen on the wings of faith to such a degree that even death will bow before them! Naturally, such a belief must contain the reality of complete victory of all indwelling sin & every vestige of this fallen world. These so-called eagle saints, or manifest sons of God (MSOG) will have achieved complete sanctification in this life through a series of spiritual impartations, much fasting, prayer, Bible study, meditation. According to their belief system the best way in which a person can grow to become an eagle saint is to be in a growth environment with people who are all in agreement with the same spiritual goals. False prophet (real profit) Bill Hamon makes the following statements in his book The Eternal Church:

 Each restorational advancement of the Army of the Lord has established denominational forts that are given responsibility to maintain the purity and power of that truth…New recruits are now being drafted and trained and older soldiers and generals are being put through intensified training for the next advancement of the Church Army. They are being purified by the Baptism of Fire… Are you ready? Where do you start? What will you do? A new government must be established, a new way of life for those millions of people. You are now ready to rule and reign on your overcomer’s throne!… The Earth and all of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, the time when they will come into their maturity and immortalization. . . . When the Church receives its full inheritance and redemption then creation will be redeemed from its cursed condition of decay, change and death . . . The Church has a responsibility and ministry to the rest of creation. Earth and its natural creation is anxiously waiting for the Church to reach full maturity and come to full sonship. When the Church realizes its full sonship, its bodily redemption will cause a redemptive chain reaction throughout all of creation. (17)

 Hamon, whom we’ve already written about received his “call” into prophetic ministry in the late 1950’s as a young boy at a revival meeting led by an early restored prophet of the New Order of the Latter Rain. For many years Hamon has been allegedly training and releasing thousands of prophets into the earth. His books are often the text books in charismatic Bible “schools.” Mr. Bickle and Mr. Hamon are ministry friends and support one another in the prophetic movement. Hamon is the mentor, Bickle the disciple in that Hamon cut his teeth on NOLR doctrine which he got straight from the horses’ mouth so to speak. Bickle got his doctrines second hand, but as we shall see he has learned them well and has implemented them all in the IHOP.

 The underlying concept behind the sign-gift people is that of restoration. They believe at some point the Church lost what God had revealed to her and along with that lost revelation the Church lost the dynamic power of God. When this loss happened depends upon who you ask, there is no one answer only many theories. It really does not matter to them as to when this loss of knowledge/power occurred what is important is that they agree it did happen. They love to cite the following text “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).

 Every non sign-gift denomination and congregation is placed into this category. Every one outside the sign-gift community is considered a low-wattage believer who will barely make heaven. If you do some basic Church history study you will learn that every movement within the Church or from outside have been groups asserting that they and their group are the true restored Church. Some groups have based their claim on restored truth, formerly lost revelation now revealed to their prophets. This would include people like Judge Rutherford, Joseph Smith, David Koresh, Helen G. White, Mary Baker Eddy and a host of other damnably deluded fools. Others claim restored Biblical truths, restored miraculous powers, restored foundational offices (prophet & apostle specifically) and now divine revelation called “present day truth” (2 Peter 1:12). IHOP falls into this second category of restorationists and in that sense they are not anything new on the scene.

 Bickle like all extremists take the Book of Acts to be their manual on how to “do” church. The extremists make the mistake of taking the Book of Acts to be the normative pattern for all of Christian life until Christ returns. (18) They fail to read with understanding.

 Acts is an historical account, not a doctrinal treatise, although there is doctrine in Acts. Acts was not meant to be normative until Christ return.

 In Acts not every Christian went around working miracles and healing the sick. Peter did not spend all his time walking about on really sunny days so folks could be healed by his shadow (Acts 5:15), nor did Peter start a “Healing Crusade” throughout Palestine.

 The Apostles did not go around imparting/releasing spiritual gifts into masses of people. For example from the Day of Pentecost until the time Cornelius’ household received the Spirit with the evidence of other languages was ten (10) years apart (see Acts 10:40-44) ! It was not a usual occurrence, re-read the account yourself, the apostles themselves were surprised.

 At no time since the death of the Apostle John have any Church expressions duplicated what occurred in the Book of Acts (which is why restorationists say the church lost its power somewhere somehow).

 Today’s extremists deny these four facts about the Book of Acts. To them Acts is the pattern of the victorious Church. They read of people having open visions of angels (Acts 12:8); divine teleportation (Acts 8:39) something Jesse Duplantis swears happened to him in his book Heaven Close Encounters of the God Kind; demons cast out (Acts 16:18), people raised from the dead (Acts 20:10) David Hogan claims to have raised over 400 people from the dead and people actually believe him. Women who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9), obviously if God spoke through these women He will speak through women today, right? These are simply a few of the examples these folks love to examine. Everything supernatural in Acts is supposed to be our daily experience as Christians, and if not the sheep, then most assuredly our leaders. It is because of this faulty understanding of the book of Acts combined with insights from Warnock/Hall/Conner that IHOP emerged.

 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things Acts 15:15-17

 The IHOP started more with a prophetic basis (Paul Cain’s input) and it seems some Scriptures were cherry-picked to support their revealed word. In fact their own web site states as much:

 Over the last 25 plus years, the Lord has graciously given us about 25 powerful prophetic experiences that provide insight into what will happen in the days ahead in Kansas City, the USA, and other nations. These supernatural experiences were given to several prophetic people in the 1970’s and 1980’s. They include times when various believers saw the Lord, heard God’s audible voice, saw an angel, or had prophetic dreams that were dramatically confirmed. These prophetic experiences are referred to as IHOP-KC’s prophetic history. Scripture, being the highest standard and guardian of truth, is our primary light in a dark world. However, the Lord sometimes gives us prophetic experiences to highlight aspects of our specific ministry assignment and to strengthen us in our faith to believe for the release of His extraordinary blessing. (19)

 Remember what I just wrote about their view of Acts? Prophetic experiences, seeing Jesus, hearing audible voices, seeing an angel. . .”Scripture being the highest standard and guardian of truth is our primary light” [but not our only one]. Primary can mean first as in chief or primary can mean the first reference sought or first in a line of several. Extremist Tommy Tenney, author of the best seller The God Chasers stated that the Bible contained the dusty footprints of where God had been but now we had to rely on the Holy Spirit to take us to new experiences and revelations that continue where the bible stops. Extremists believe that the that the 29th chapter of the Book of Acts is being written today.

 After making his one weak statement on the semi-sufficiency of Scripture Bickle goes on to say “however,” meaning that yes we look to the Bible but the Lord gives us additional prophetic experiences outside of the Bible. There has been an alarming downward spiritual turn in the charismatic renewal since the early 1990’s.

[A SHORT BUT IMPORTANT RABBIT TRAIL BEGINS HERE]

The extremists took a further step towards cult status during the beginning of the so called “Toronto Blessing” which I have already proven beyond question in my book The Two Roots of Today’s Revival was demonically inspired and empowered and transmitted by men. When critics, such as myself and other heresy-hunters began to contact pastor Arnott (which I did) Kilpatrick, Rodney Howard Browne (the Holy Ghost bartender) and others about our concerns over what was being taught and practiced we were then told what has now become the official party-line when challenged about their unbiblical doctrines & practices.

 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. John 21:25

 In expressing my concerns to former Pastor Arnott (20) and warning him that if he did not explain himself biblically I would have no recourse but to warn the Body of Christ to the fullest extent of my ability (Matthew 18:17) as meager as that may be. His response was to cite John 21:25 as his way of explaining spiritual drunkenness, making of animal sounds by the guest Pastor as he attempted to read the Scriptures and some other excesses we witnessed and videotaped. Everything that was done simply falls into the category of the “many other things which Jesus did” that are not recorded in the bible (keep in mind these people think they are writing the last chapter of Acts now). How then are we to judge such expressions?  Simple.  We are to believe in the revelations and prophetic directives given by the restored apostles and prophets. So spiritual drunkenness is from the Holy Spirit because John Arnoot/Kilpratrick/Hogan (___insert a name) says it is, and after all, God has called them to, in Kilpatrick’s own words “shepherd the revival” ergo he and the other leaders know what is from the Spirit and what is not, they are the authority in these cases since the Bible is silent.  Does that seem strange to you?  Isn’t this what happened in the early church (the pattern)? Originally the Apostles took what Scriptures they had, the O.T. and received new insight into it via The Spirit. God has changed not (MalachI 3:6) and so today we can/should expect God to speak to His apostles and prophets and they then will faithfully reveal it to the Church, who will out of loving obedience to godly authority DO what the apostles and prophets direct. Whenever any leader attempts to lead people away from the Bible and into subjective experiences and asks them to place faith in their new revelations, then those people have departed from the one true and holy Apostolic Church. How so? When people reject the sole authority of Scripture and have added alongside it subjective revelations and experiences which they deem authoritative on the basis of a shared consensus, then these people have left the sure anchor of their souls (Hebrews 6:19) and are adrift on a sea of darkness and human speculation.

 [END OF THIS RABBIT TRAIL]

 IHOP came into being as a direct result of these main influences (1) assorted historical prayer movements, (2) concepts on power prayer, power fasting, power worship gleaned from the New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR), and (3) one text from the New Testament.

 Bickle is correct when he comments that there were various prayer movements in the history of the Church. He mentions the Moravians, a Pietistic group led by Count Zinzendof and their admirable history of continual prayer. The next major movement he cites is the “Prayer Mountain” started in 1973 by Dr. Paul Cho, charismatic extremist with the largest church in the world. (21) Bickle cites other examples on his web site (22) and he attributes great spiritual moves of God directly to these various prayer endeavors.

 From his study of revival history he came away with the conviction that if enough people pray with sincerity and passion long enough then God will answer the pleas ascending to His throne by these tireless prayer warriors (Luke 11:9). Extremists base their staunch position that whatever God did for others in the past He is obligated to do the same and more for us, because He does not change (Mal. 3:6) and He is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) and since these are the last days we can expect ALL THINGS to now be restored (Acts 3:21).

 Bickle took his own conclusions from prayer movements of the past and added the “power” component that the NOLR SINisters taught him. Since the late 1940’s the vast majority of Pentecostal / charismatic books are focused on some facet of the power of God and how to obtain it and use it. Prayer ceased to be simple communion with our Lord, crying out our hearts to Him in both joy and sadness, in plenty and in want. No, for these members of Joel’s army, these proto-Manifest Sons of God (MSOG) prayer becomes a tool in the hands of the adept by which he or she decrees things into existence (Job 22:28), subdues the principalities and powers, releases weal or woe.

 With these two legs of his stool in place Bickle simply needed to add the Biblical “leg” of his work in progress, The IHOP. Charismatic extremists are highly gullible, but they still require some sort of Biblical text to at least cast the dimmest of Biblical light upon their beliefs. Extremists are quick to cite Acts 2:1-6 where the people were all gathered together in prayer and the Lord shook the place and three thousand souls were saved due to Peter’s prayer-fueled Spirit anointed preaching. First came prayer (directed by the Lord) THEN came the Holy Spirit with POWER — anointing the prayer warriors, chief of whom was the Apostle Peter whom preached under the anointing and thousands were saved. So in Bickle’s mind and now the minds of thousands of people the account means this today: a group of people in one accord (aka spiritual agreement) praying equals revival. Let everything be established by at least two witnesses (2 Cor. 13:1) so Bickle initially attempted to use Acts 15:16 as his key scriptural proof text.

 The context of Scripture means little to nothing to extremists. Read any recognized biblical commentary and they all uniformly agree that this passage has absolutely nothing to do with the re-establishment of Davidic worship as a pattern for the Church nor does it have anything to do with the return of Christ. When Bickle was confronted with the irrefutable context and thus true meaning of the text he backed off and now states on his web site:

 We affirm that the Holy Spirit is orchestrating a global worship and prayer movement that will operate in great authority. (Lk. 18:7-8; Mt. 21:13; Rev. 5:8, 8:3-5, 22:17; Isaiah 62:6-7; Joel 2:12-17, 32). This prayer movement will operate in the spirit of the tabernacle of David… In the days of King David, he established a tabernacle that had singers and musicians who ministered to the Lord night and day. Today, the prayer movement is in the spirit of David’s tabernacle. This means that the prayer movement will have some components of the tabernacle of David, specifically pertaining to singers and musicians. (23)

 Bickle had to back off from declaring what he has created is in fact the re-established Davidic tabernacle and must settle for being merely in the spirit of Davidic worship. By way of quick review the three legs of Bickle’s wobbly throne are his view of revival history combined with heretical and aberrant teachings of the NOLR buttressed by a few texts that were wrest from their contextual setting. This is how the rapidly growing phenomena of The IHOP got started.

 Next month we will consider the three key ingredients that comprise a “service” at IHOP and what these ingredients are supposed to facilitate in both heaven and on earth!

 Copyright © 2011 Robert S. Liichow

End Notes

1. For more information go to http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/uhj

2. Continue reading on Examiner.com Rick Perry bases call for national salvation on “Joel’s Army” cult movement – National Political Buzz | Examiner.com – http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/uhj#ixzz1SgLaYnXs

 3. Charismatic extremists are besotted with their false concepts of the “anointing,” which they define as the tangible-power of God given by the Spirit to believers. This power can be increased or decreased by the believers’ actions. Like Baskin-Robbins there are many flavors of the anointing and these folks hope to tap into the three major levels of anointing in these IHOP meetings. They teach there is a priestly anointing, a prophetic anointing and a kingly anointing (the decreeing anointing Job 22:28). They base this on some Old Testament references and couple it with the fact that Jesus ministered as a prophet, priest and King. Thus as His disciples who are called to go and do greater works than Jesus Himself (John 14:12) {according to their beliefs} then it only stands to reason that we too must have access to these levels of mystical power. Fortunately through the restored ministries of the apostle (I call them opossums)and prophets (whom I denote as profits) the disciples again has access to these endowments of power.

 4. I believe that God does not answer the prayers of unbelievers. Why? Because all prayer is offered to God in the name of His Son our Lord Jesus (John 14:13) and how can one pray in His holy name if they do not even believe in Him?

5. I do agree with our sign-gift brethren that part of our role as priests before God is to offer prayers on the behalf of the citizens of the Kingdom and those outside its sphere.

 6. I am a member of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Detroit (LCMS). We are unique in virtually all of the LCMS denomination due to our emphasis on adhering to the best of the Church’s reformation liturgical history. We are unapologetically a “smells & bells” congregation, as ministers we wear vestments according to the historic Church Year, we follow the historic One Year lectionary and much of our time together is devoted to prayer.

 7. The Holy Bible: English standard version 2001 (Mt. 14:22-23). Wheaton Standard Bible Society.

8. Ibid.

9. If anything this is the only genuine “40 Day of Purpose” in the Bible.

 10. Please understand I am not confusing the things the Jesus only could do as our Savior and the God-man. What I am saying regarding His prayer life and His directive “When ye fast” to mean these practices are not optional in the life of the believer. I believe that the Word of God creates faith that brings about willing obedience to God’s Word via the work of the Holy Spirit. Ergo, what we hear the Bible teach on prayer and fasting correctly, it creates a desire to do that which is pleasing to our Lord and God. As I like to say, it is not a “have to” but a “get to” and even more, now with a new heart (Eze. 36:26) the inner man desires to please the Lord (Romans 7:22).

 11. I initially joined the Pentecostal Church of god one of the original Pentecostal denominations formed around 1914-1916. Later on I left that congregation and joined a Word of Faith congregation replete with a Rhema graduate “pastor/prophet” Joseph Frye. Traditional Pentecostals are doctrinally the same as fundamentalist Baptists just add tongues (admittedly a reductionist comment). Charismatics come from all denominations & have no real centralized headquarters an amorphous bunch to be sure.

 12. Article can be read at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20016654-504083.html

13. Article is available at http://www.freepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2521723/posts as of 08-11-11

14. Quote obtained from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/us/10prayer.html?_r=3 on 08-14-11. ‘

15. Obtained from http://www.ihop.org/Groups.aspx?ID=1000036203 on 08-14 Underlining added for emphasis

16. The first three major texts I have cited are available on our CD Rom research disk on the New Order of the Latter Rain. For a mere $25.00 one can have a huge collection of out-of-print materials, some video and audio clips, overheads, pictures, sermons, etc.

17. Hamon, Bill, The Eternal Church p. 385, Destiny Image publication. Underlining added for emphasis.

 18. I cannot stress this fact enough. Acts is seen as the model, the norm for our Christian life. They fail to take into account that the book itself was written as a historical account of what took place. Although there is doctrine contained in Acts, it is not a source of Church doctrine per se. They posit that when they see miracles stopping in the Church that must have been the point at which power was lost, as more obvious false doctrines began to be accepted they would say that is when revelation was lost.

 19. Obtained from http://mikebickle.org/resources/series/38 Underlining added for emphasis.

 20. He left the Toronto Airport church as pastor to shepherd the revival as he likes to call it. There is some mystery as to whether he left on his own or he was asked to heave. I believe the latter due to all the attending problems of trying to pastor a church with members while entertaining out of country guests 7 days a week for a few years. Burn out occurs especially among the members who get shunted aside. Also, Kilpatrick from the Pensacola Outpouring also lost his pulpit when the fires died down and the fraudulent financial practices and faked manifestations came to light. They both can be found at the Holy Spirit revival at “The Bay” in Texas.

 21. I do not mean the largest charismatic church. I mean the LARGEST CHURCH & CONGREGATION in the history of the world (what does that teach us about the “narrow way.”?)

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The Discipline of Prayer –Part Two

Truth Matters Newsletters – March 2007 – Vol. 12 Issue 3 – The Discipline of Prayer — Part Two – by Rev. Robert S. Liichow

Discernment Ministries International

By Rev. Bob Liichow

We began to consider the majesty of the Lord’s prayer last month and this month we will briefly look at the remaining six petitions given to us by Jesus in this stunningly rich prayer.

Matthew 6:9-13

 “After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen

On the surface what Jesus gave to His disciples is a seemingly simple prayer. Yet the breath of this prayer is astoundingly wide and encompasses the entirety of man’s existence. I will be citing very heavily from Dr. Martin Luther and his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer as found in the Book of Concord. Whatever you may think about Luther. I believe you will agree that he had great insight into the Lord’s Prayer. My comments are in Blue, Luther’s are in Black.

The Second Petition

“Thy Kingdom Come”

But just as the name of God is in itself holy, and we pray nevertheless that it be holy among us, so also His Kingdom comes of itself without our prayer, yet we pray nevertheless that it may come to us, that is, prevail among us and with us, so that we may be a part of those among whom His name is hallowed and His kingdom prospers. [ Luther’s insight flies in the face of a great deal of current teaching concerning the kingdom of God in charismatic circles. It is commonly taught that we the Church, can either hasten or delay the coming of God’s kingdom. This hastening or delaying is done through either our positive or negative confessions or actions. Those who teach a brand of “Dominion Theology” say that it is up to the Church to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This false doctrine espouses the belief that we are to Christianize every nation and then hand a restored would back to Jesus at His return. This global restoration and dominion will be allegedly led by a large number of “restored” prophets and apostles. Some of the more well know people who teach this false view include: Earl Paulk, Dr. C. Peter Wagner, Kenneth Copeland, Mike Bickle, John Paul Jones, Don Nori, Mahesh Chavda and others.]

But what is the kingdom of God? Answer: Nothing else than what we learned in the Creed, that God sent His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the power of the devil, and to bring us to Himself, and to govern us as a King of righteousness, life and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience, fro which end He has also bestowed His Holy Ghost, who is to bring these things home to us by His holy Word, and to illumine and strengthen us in the faith by His power.

Therefore we pray here in the first place that this may become effective with us, and that His name be so praised through the holy Word of God and a Christian life that both we who have accepted it may abide and daily grow therein, and that it may gain approbation and adherence among other people and proceed with power throughout the world, that many may fine entrance into the Kingdom of Grace, be made partakers of redemption, being led thereto by the Holy Ghost, in order that thus we may all together remain forever in the one kingdom now begun.

For the coming of God’s kingdom to us occurs in two ways; first, here in time through the Word and faith; and secondly, in eternity forever through revelation Now we pray for both these things, that it may come to those who are not yet in it, and by daily increase, to us who have received the same, and hereafter in eternal life. All this is nothing else than saying: Dear Father, we pray, give us first Thy Word, that the Gospel be preached properly throughout the world; and secondly, that it be received in faith, and work and live in us, so that through the Word and the power of the Holy Ghost Thy Kingdom may prevail among us, and the kingdom of the devil be put down, that he may have no right or power over us, until at last it shall be utterly destroyed, and sin, death, and hell shall be exterminated, that we may live forever in perfect righteousness and blessedness.

From this you perceive that we pray here not for a crust of bread or a temporal, perishable good, but for an eternal inestimable treasure and everything that God Himself possesses; which is far too great for any human heart to think of desiring if He had not Himself commanded us to pray for the same. But because He is God, He also claims the honor of giving much more and more abundantly than any one can comprehend, — like an eternal, unfailing fountain, which the more it pours forth and overflows, the more it continues to give, — and He desires nothing more earnestly of us than that we ask much and great things of Him, and again is angry if we do not ask and pray confidently.

The Third Petition

“They Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven”

Thus far we have prayed that God’s name be honored by us, and that His kingdom prevail among us; in which two points is comprehended all that pertains to the honor of God and to our salvation, that we receive as our own God and all His riches. But now a need just as great arises, namely, that we firmly keep them, and do not suffer ourselves to be torn there from.

For no one believes how the devil opposes and resists them, and cannot suffer that any one teach or believe aright. And it hurts him beyond measure to suffer his lies and abominations, that have been honored under the most specious pretexts of the divine name, to be exposed and to be disgraced himself, and besides, be driven out of the heart, and suffer such a breach to be made in his kingdom. Therefore he chafes and rages as a fierce enemy with all his power and might, and marshals all his subjects and, in addition enlists the world and our own flesh as his allies.

If we would be Christians, therefore, we must surely expect and reckon upon having the devil with all his angels and the world as our enemies, who will bring every possible misfortune and grief upon us. For where the Word of God is preached, accepted, or believed, and produces fruit, there the holy cross cannot be wanting. And let no one think that he shall have peace; but he must risk what whatever he has upon earth — possessions, honor, house and estate, wife and children, body and life.

[ Luther taught salvation by grace through faith alone, but it was not a cheap grace, nor was it a faith that does not produce works. Many today hold only to a theology of glory and cannot accept the reality of the theology of the cross. The early evangelicals understood that they would have to suffer attacks fro their stance on the Gospel. Consider well what Luther says here in light of the teachings of Joel Osteen, Paula White or Jesse Duplantis.]

Hence there is just as great a need, as in all the others, that we pray without ceasing: “Dear Father, Thy will be done, not the will of the devil and of our enemies, nor of anything that would persecute and suppress Thy holy Word or hinder Thy kingdom; and grant that we may bear with patience and overcome whatever is to be endured on that account, lest our poor flesh yield or fall away from weakness or sluggishness.”

Behold, thus we have in these three petitions, in the simplest manner, the need which relates to God Himself, yet all for our sakes. For whatever we pray concerns only us, namely, as we have said, that what must be done anyway without us, may also be done in us. For as His name must be hallowed and His kingdom come without our prayer, so also His will must be done and succeed although the devil with all his adherents raise a great tumult, are angry and rage against it, and undertake to exterminate the Gospel utterly. But for our own sakes we must pray that even against their fury His will be done without hindrance also among us, that they may not be able to accomplish anything and we remain firm against all violence and persecution, and submit to such will of God.

Such prayer, then, is to be our protection and defense now, is to repel and put down all that the devil, Pope, bishops, tyrants, and heretics can do against our Gospel. Let them all rage and attempt their utmost, and deliberate and resolve how they may suppress and exterminate us, that their will and counsel may prevail: over and against this one or two Christians with this petition alone shall be our wall against which they shall run and dash themselves to pieces. This consolation and confidence we have, that the will and purpose of the devil and of all our enemies shall and must fail and come to naught, however, proud, secure, and powerful they know themselves to be. For if their will were not broken and hindered, the kingdom of God could not abide on earth nor His name be hallowed.

The Fourth Petition

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

[In this petition I want to draw your attention to how marvelously Luther expands this simple petition to encompass every aspect that of life that goes into God providing for us daily bread. Also not how Luther often mentions the negative aspect which are wrapped up in our prayer to our heavenly Father].

Here, now, we consider the poor breadbasket, the necessaries of our body and of the temporal life. It is a brief and simple word, but it has a very wide scope. For when you mention and pray for daily bread, you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy daily bread and, on the other hand, against everything which interferes with it. Therefore you must open wide and extend your thoughts not only to the oven or the flour-bin but to the distant field and the entire land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of sustenance. For if God did not cause it to grow, and bless and preserve it in the field, we could never take bread from the oven or have any to set upon the table.

To comprise it briefly, this petition includes everything that belongs to our entire life in the world, because on that account alone do we need daily bread. Now for our life it is not only necessary that our body have food and covering and other necessaries, but also that we spend our days in peace and quiet among the people with whom we live and have intercourse in daily business and conversation and all sorts of doings, in short, whatever pertains both to the domestic and to the neighborly or civil relation and government. For where these two things are hindered [intercepted and disturbed] that they do not proper as they ought, the necessaries of life also are impeded, so that ultimately life cannot be maintained. And there is, indeed, the greatest need to pray for temporal authority and government, as that by which most of all God preserves to us our daily bread and all the comforts of this life. For though we have received of God all good things in abundance we are not able to retain any of them or use them in security and happiness, if He did not give us a permanent and peaceful government. For where there are dissension, strife, and war, there the daily bread is already taken away, or at least checked.

Let this be a very brief explanation and sketch, showing how far this petition extends through all conditions on earth. Of this any one might indeed make a long prayer, and with many words enumerate all the things that are included therein, as that we pray God to give us food and drink, clothing, house, and home, and health of body; also that He cause the grain and fruits of the field to grow and mature well; furthermore, that He help us at home towards good housekeeping, that He give and preserve to us a godly wife, children, and servants, that He cause our work, trade, or whatever we are engaged in to prosper and succeed, favor us with faithful neighbors and good friends, etc. Likewise, that He give to emperors, Kings, and all estates, and especially to the rulers, of our country and to all counselors, magistrates, and officers, wisdom, strength, and success that they may govern well and vanquish the Turks and all enemies; to subjects and the common people, obedience, peace, and harmony in their life with one another, and on the other hand, that He would reserve us from all sorts of calamity to body and livelihood, as lightning, hail, fire, flood, poison, pestilence, castle-plague, war and bloodshed, famine, destructive beasts, wicked men, etc. All this it is well to impress upon the simple, namely, that these things come from God, and must be prayed for by us.

But this petition is especially directed also against our chief enemy, the devil. For all his thought and desire is to deprive us of all that we have from God, or to hinder it; and he is not satisfied to obstruct and destroy spiritual government in leading souls astray by his lies and bringing them under his power, but he also prevents and hinders the stability of all government and honorable, peaceable relations on earth. There he causes so much contention, murder, sedition, and war also lightning and hail to destroy grain and cattle, to poison the air, etc. In short, he is sorry that any one has a morsel of bread from God and eats it in peace; and if it were in his power, and our prayer (next to God) did not prevent him, we would not keep a straw in the field, a farthing in the house, yea, not even our life for an hour, especially those who have the Word of God and would like to be Christians.

Behold, thus God wishes to indicate to us how He cares for us in all our need, and faithfully provides also for our temporal support. Although He abundantly grants and preserves these things even to the wicked and knaves, yet He wishes that we pray for them, in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His had, and may feel His paternal goodness toward us therein.

The Fifth Petition

“And Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

This part now relates to our poor miserable life, which although we have and believe the Word of God, and do and submit to His will, and are supported by His gifts and blessings is nevertheless not without sin. For we still stumble daily and transgress because we live in the world among men who do us much harm and give us cause for impatience, anger, revenge, etc. Besides, we have Satan at our back, who sets upon us on every side, and fights (as we have heard) against all the foregoing petitions, so that it is not possible always to stand firm in such a persistent conflict.

[This insight regarding our sinfulness is also rejected by many in the Church today. Among the charismatic and the so-called modern evangelical community is a negation of the reality of sin. Either some form of incipient perfectionism is taught {which gained a foothold in the Church today through that damnable heretic Charles Finney} or sin is simply not preached about because it is a “negative” confession. Luther correctly understood what it meant to be declared righteous in the sight of God and that our righteousness is in fact an alien righteousness, one that is reckoned to our account due to the work of Christ. Many, especially within the word of Faith cult, teach that the Christian actually becomes righteous and can attain sinless perfection in this life.]

Therefore there is here again great need to call upon God and to pray: Dear Father, forgive us our trespasses. Not as though He did not forgive sin without and ever before our prayer (for He has given us the Gospel, in which is pure forgiveness before we prayed or ever thought about it). But this is to the intent that we may recognize and accept such forgiveness. For since the flesh in which we daily live is of such a nature that it neither trusts nor believes God, and is ever active in evil and omission by which the conscience is thrown into unrest, so that it is afraid of the wrath and displeasure of God, and thus loses the comfort and confidence derived from the Gospel; therefore it is ceaselessly necessary that we run hither and obtain consolation to comfort the conscience again.

But this should serve God’s purpose of breaking our pride and keeping us humble. For in case any one should boast of his godliness and despise others, God has reserved this prerogative to Himself, that the person is to consider himself and place this prayer before his eyes, and he will find that he is no better than others, and that in the presence of God all must lower their plumes, and be glad that they can attain forgiveness. And let no one think that as long as we live here he can reach such a position that he will not need such forgiveness. In short, if God does not forgive without ceasing, we are lost.

It is therefore the intent of this petition that God would not regard our sins and hold up to us what we daily deserve, but would deal graciously with us, and forgive, as He has promised, and thus grant us a joyful and confident conscience to stand before Him in prayer. For where the heart is not in right relation towards God, nor can take such confidence, it will nevermore venture to pray. But such a confident and joyful heart can spring from nothing else than the [certain] knowledge of the forgiveness of sin.

But there is here attached a necessary, yet consolatory addition: As we forgive. He has promised that we shall be sure that everything is forgiven and pardoned, yet in the manner that we also forgive our neighbor. For just as we daily sin much against God and ye He forgives everything through grace, so we, too, must ever forgive our neighbor who does us injury, violence, and wrong, shows malice toward us, etc. If, therefore you do not forgive, then do not think that God forgives you; but if you forgive, you have this consolation and assurance, that you are forgiven in heaven, not on account of your forgiving, — for God forgives freely and without condition out of pure grace, because He has so promised, as the Gospel teaches, — but in order that He may set this up for our confirmation and assurance for a sign alongside of the promise which accords with this prayer, Luke 6:37: Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Therefore Christ also repeats it soon after the Lord’s Prayer, and says, Matt 6,14: For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, etc.

The Sixth Petition

“And Lead us not into temptation”

We have now heard enough what toil and labor is required to retain all that for which we pray, and to persevere therein, which, however, is not achieved without infirmities and stumbling. Besides, although we have received forgiveness and a good conscience and are entirely acquitted, yet is our life of such a nature that one stands today, and to-morrow falls. Therefore, even though we be godly now and stand before God with a good conscience, we must pray again that He would not suffer us to relapse and yield to trials and temptations.

Temptation, however, or (as our Saxons in olden times used to call it) Bekoerunge, is of three kinds, namely, of the flesh, of the world, and of the devil. For in the flesh we dwell and carry the old Adam about our neck, who exerts himself and incites us daily to in chastity, laziness, gluttony and drunkenness, avarice and deception, to defraud our neighbor and to overcharge him, and, in short, to all manner of evil lusts which cleave to us be nature, and to which we are incited by the society, example and what we hear and see of other people, which often would and inflame even an innocent heart.

Next comes the world, which offends us in word and deed, and impels us to anger and impatience. In short, there is nothing but hatred and envy, enmity, violence and wrong, unfaithfulness, vengeance, cursing, raillery slander, pride and haughtiness, with superfluous finery, honor, fame, and power, where no one is willing to be the least, but every one desires to sit at the head and to be seen before all.

Then comes the devil, inciting and provoking in all directions, but especially agitating matters that concern the conscience and spiritual affairs, namely, to induce us to despise and disregard both the Word and works of God to tear us away from faith, hope and love and bring us into misbelief, false security, and obduracy, or, on the other hand, to despair, denial of God, blasphemy, and innumerable other shocking things. These are indeed snares and nets, yea, real fiery darts which are shot most venomously into the heart, not by flesh and blood, but by the devil.

Great and grievous, indeed, are these dangers and temptations which every Christian must bear, even though each one were alone by himself, so that every hour that we are in this vile life where we are attacked on all side, chased and hunted down, we are moved to cry out and to pray that God would not suffer us to become weary and faint and to relapses into sin, shame, and unbelief. For otherwise it is impossible to overcome even the least temptation.

This, then is leading us not into temptation, to wit, when He gives us power and strength to resist, the temptation, however, not being taken away or removed. For while we live in the flesh and have the devil about us, no one can escape temptation and allurements; and it cannot be otherwise than that we must endure trials, yea, he engulfed in them; but we pray for this, that we may not fall and be drowned in them.

Therefore we Christians must be armed and daily expect to be incessantly attacked, in order that no one may go on in security and heedlessly, as though the devil were far from us, but at all times expect and parry his blows. For though I am now chaste, patient, kind, and in firm faith, the devil will this very hour send such an arrow into my heart that I can scarcely stand. For he is an enemy that never desists nor becomes tired, so that when one temptation ceases, there always arise others and fresh ones.

Accordingly, there is no help or comfort except to run hither and to take hold of the Lord’s Prayer, and thus speak to God from the heart: Dear Father, Thou hast bidden me pray; let me not relapse because of temptations. Then you will see that they must desist, and finally acknowledge themselves conquered. Else if you venture to help yourself by your own thoughts and counsel, you will only make the matter worse and give the devil more space. For he has a serpent’s head, which if it gain an opening into which he can slip, the whole body will follow without check. But prayer can prevent him and drive him back.

The Seventh Petition

“But Deliver Us From Evil”

In the Greek text this petition reads thus: Deliver or preserve us from the Evil One, or the Malicious One; and it looks as if He were speaking of the devil, as though He would comprehend everything in one so that the entire substance of all our prayer is directed against our chief enemy. For it is he who hinders among us everything that we pray for the name or honor of God, God’s kingdom and will, our daily bread, a cheerful good conscience, etc.

Therefore we finally sum it all up and say; Dear Father pray, help that we be rid of all these calamities. But there is nevertheless also included whatever evil may happen to us under the devil’s kingdom –poverty, shame, death, and in short, all the agonizing misery and heartache of which there is such an unnumbered multitude on the earth. For since the devil is not only a lair, but also a murderer, he constantly seeks our life, and wreaks his anger whenever he can afflict our bodies with misfortune and harm. Hence it comes that he often breaks men’s necks or drives them to insanity, drowns some, and incites many to commit suicide, and to many other terrible calamities. Therefore, there is nothing for us to do upon earth but to pray against this arch enemy without ceasing. For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from him even for an hour.

Hence you see again how God wishes us to pray to Him also for all the things which affect our bodily interests, so that we seek and expect help nowhere else except in Him. But this matter He has put last; for if we are to be preserved and delivered from all evil, the name of God must first be hallowed in us, His kingdom must be with us, and His will be done. After that He will finally preserve us from sin and shame, and besides, from everything that may hurt or injure us.

Thus God has briefly placed before us all the distress which may ever come upon us, so that we might have no excuse whatever for not praying. But all depends upon this, that we learn also to say Amen, that is, that we do not doubt that our prayer is surely heard and [what we pray] shall be done. For this is nothing else than the word of undoubting faith, which does not pray at a venture, but knows that God does not lie to him, since He has promised to grant it. Therefore, where there is no such faith, there cannot be ture prayer either.

It is, therefore, a pernicious delusion of those who pray in such a manner that they dare not from the heart say yea and positively conclude that God hears them, but remain in doubt and say, How should I be so bold as to boast that God hears my prayer? For I am but a poor sinner, etc.

The reason for this is, they regard not the promise of God, but their own work and worthiness, whereby they despise God and reproach Him with lying, and therefore they receive nothing. As St. James says [1,6]: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Behold, such importance God attaches to the fact that we are sure we do not pray in vain, and that we do not in any way despise our prayer.

I believe it is possible to spend many months mediating on this prayer and all its ramifications and Dr. Luther’s insights have certainly broadened my understanding and increased my appreciation of the Lord’s Prayer. Now during our Sunday services when we as a congregation pray the Lord’s Prayer it mean so much more to me and I hope that this brief exposition on it gie you a solid foundation upon which to build a rich life of prayer.

End Notes

1. Luther, Martin The Book of Concord, This text was prepared by Allen Mulvey for Project Wittenberg. The entire text is in the public domain and can be downloaded or read in its entirely at http://www.icinet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/catechism/web/cat-12.html.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid

Hey, Kenny, Where’s the Glory Fire?

Truth Matters Newsletters – December 2006 Vol. 11 Issue 12 – Hey Kenny, Where’s the Glory Fire? – by Rev. Robert S. Liichow

Discernment Ministries International

Hey Kenny, Where’s the Glory Fire ?

By Rev. Robert S. Liichow

Anyone’s who has been around the charismatic circus for any length of time knows that in the center ring is no less than Mr. Kenneth Copeland along with his capable assistant Mrs. Gloria Copeland.

I suppose it is only fair to those of our readers who are unfamiliar with the origins of Mr. Copeland and the Word of Faith Movement (WOF) (1) which he has become heir to due to the untimely (2) death of Mr. Kenneth E. Hagin Sr. to give a little background before we launch off into the deep.

In a nutshell the WOF movement believes that God created the universe by using a force called “faith.” He did not create the universe out of nothing (Ex Nihilo) because according to WOF dogma faith is something, an actual substance (Heb. 11:1). According to their teaching faith is a spiritual force that is released by words, hence the pejorative appellation “the Positive Confession movement.” God created man in His exact image and likeness in the Garden of Eden:

God’s reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself and in the Garden of Eden He did just that. (Adam) was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even…Adam is as much like God as you could get just the same as Jesus…Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh. (3)

“This eternal life He came to give us is the nature of God.” He then adds, “It is, in reality, God imparting His very nature, substance, and being to one human spirit…Zoe, then, means eternal life, or God’s life. This new kind of life is God’s nature,…Even many in the great body of Full Gospel people do not know that the new birth is a real incarnation…Jesus was first divine, and then He was human. So He was in the flesh a divine-human being. I was first human, and so were you, but I was born of God, and so I became a human-divine being!” (4)

Man was created as a god, and like God Adam could create reality by releasing faith filled words. According to WOF doctrine and Mr. Copeland Adam committed high treason by sinning. He lost his divine nature and partook of Satan’s nature thus in the fall of Adam, Satan became the “god” of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Mr. Copeland teaches that redemption did not take place on the cross, as the Church has taught for 2,000 years. Redemption took place in hell, after Jesus was tormented by Satan and demons for three days. God looked down and said it was enough and the Holy Spirit came back into the formerly sinful spirit of Jesus (you see WOF people believe Jesus did not bear our sins, but literally became a sinner on the cross) and then Jesus, as the first born-again MAN defeated Satan and demons and secured redemption for all who would make a decision to receive Him as their Lord. All of this can be read in the following book: What Happened From the Cross to the Throne, by E.W. Kenyon {the true Father of this apostate group}. Mr. Copeland’s blasphemous and damnable doctrine is still available from his web site on audio cassette for $5.00, “What Happened From the Cross to the Throne.” (5)

Kenyon, Hagin, Copeland, Duplantis, Savelle, Meyer, Hickey, Tilton, Capps, Price, Crouch, and a host of others seen on Television regularly teach that the redeemed person is basically in the same situation as Jesus was when He was in human flesh, we are in essence little gods. Their logic behind such beliefs is based upon a hodgepodge of biblical texts ripped from their contexts. Passages such as John 14:12 state that the believer shall do the works of Jesus and ever greater works. Copeland and others all stress that Jesus did nothing as Almighty God in flesh, He operated only as a man “anointed” with the Holy Spirit.

Now the charismatic Christian has also received the indwelling of the Spirit, just like Jesus, so it is only natural that we are expected and empowered to do His same works and greater works…assuming we know who we really are in Christ and whom it is that indwells us and how to release the Spirit to flow through us.  In order to gain access to such knowledge we need to listen to and follow men such as Mr. Copeland! This brings us to his most current revelation as set down in his monthly magazine The Believers Voice of Victory entitled “Ready to Reveal His Glory.”

Copeland begins to spin his twisted tail of “the glory” by citing a couple of Old Testament Theophanous Ezekiel 1:27-28 and Habakkuk 3:4. In these examples the Lord God appears as a glorious rainbow (Eze. 1:27-28) and then as One with lightening like power flowing out of His hand (Hab. 3:4). From there Kenny jumps into the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:14-16) which describes our risen Lord’s countenance like the shining sun. Maybe out of context, but Copeland has biblically-described our Lord as seen by a couple of the Old Testament Prophets and a New Testament Apostle.

Like Superman ®  Copeland leaps from one skyscraper to the next, exegetically speaking. He posits that since Jesus in His true nature (6) is a glowing power emitting spirit and He now indwells us that means we too can or should be working on manifesting the same type of glory as our risen Lord possesses. The goal of the overcoming Christian is to become literally glowing Holy Ghost empowered lords of this world, after all, Jesus is “Lord of lords,” and according to WOF dogma we are the lords Jesus is Lord over.

What is more, the charismatic aka “Spirit-filled” Christian is actually just like Jesus and then some! I quote Copeland’s article:

That image in itself is stunning enough. But what’s more astonishing is this: That blazing, all glorious King of Kings and Lord of lords with lightening-like power shooting out from His hands and the life of God Himself roaring in Him with such white-hot force that His very body glows with it, that Jesus is the One who is living inside us, our spirits have been recreated in His image. (7)

He anticipates his readers question of how can this glory be made manifest in our bodies as it was in Jesus. So he adds a rhetorical question:

But, Brother Copeland, how could that be? We’re still just flesh and blood. We live in earthy bodies. That kind of glory can’t shine through us! Yes it can. (8)

Before I allow Copeland to dig his exegetical grave deeper let me report that I have been hearing him teach this garbage since 1979. One would imagine that after almost thirty years of no manifestations of such confessions would make one stop proclaiming it. I believe Mr. Copeland is emphasizing this specific aspect of the Manifest Sons of God teaching (9) now because he is growing older, he turns 70 in January and he and Gloria among others have been faithfully confessing this to make it reality. They are so deceived in their minds that they really believe what they are saying must come to pass in order for Jesus Christ to return. You must understand that Jesus Christ CANNOT return to the earth UNTIL the restoration of ALL THINGS (Acts 3:20) which would have to include this manifestation of the shekinah or manifest glory of God shining literally from our spirits through our bodies.

Kenny begins by citing Moses as his initial example of what we are to experience as end-time believers:

In Exodus, when Moses went up on the mountain to receive the commandments for Israel from God, he spent so much time in God’s glory that his face shone with it. He had so much fire coming out of his face that he had to wear a veil over it to keep from killing people when they got close to him. (10)

His relating of this account is false in several areas. Yes Moses did go up and meet with the Lord God and received the commandments. Moses was even allowed to see a glimpse of the back of God who hid him in the cleft of the rock and covered Moses with His had as He passed by (Ex. 32:22). Moses was not up on the mountain with God just basking in His glory per se. The Bible plainly tells us that when he returned back wit the commandments he did not even know his face shone at all.

And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. Ex.34:29-33

Naturally when Moses returned and his face shone brightly it was frightening to Aaron, the leaders and the people. But READ what the text says (1) Moses was unaware of it, he did not seek to become a glory transmitter. (2) Moses called the leaders to come to him and “all the rulers returned unto him.” Nobody was killed by the reflected glory on Moses, nobody even got the sniffles from it. (3) Lastly, “all the children of Israel came nigh.” None of them were killed either and then Moses according to his own volition placed a veil over his face until he spoke with the Lord again (v.34). When he spoke to God he removed the veil and he left it off until he was done sharing the directives from the Lord to the people (v.35) so they could see his shining face Copeland’s statement regarding Moses is simply a fabrication and he embellished God’s Word (which is a sin) by making the text say more than it does.

But as we were fond of saying “let everything be established by two witnesses” Mr. Copeland brings forth his next witness concerning the glory we are supposed to be manifesting by appealing to the account of the transfiguration of Jesus:

…His earthly body was so transfigured by the fire of God’s glory that ‘His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them (Mark 9:3, NKJV).’ At that time Jesus’ body was just as natural, just as much flesh and blood as ours, yet it was totally lit up with the fire of God! (11)

The WOF cult has a long well documented history of demoting Jesus to a mere man and lifting sinful man up to the level of God. What Mr. Copeland seems to forget, if he ever knew it, was that Jesus’ body was not exactly like our bodies. Yes, His body was a real flesh and blood body with one significant difference; Jesus was without sin both body and soul. His was and is a sinless body. However we live in bodies that are sinful and subject to the ravages of this fallen world, sadly it decays daily (2 Cor. 4:16) just take a look in the mirror!

By now you have probably guessed where Copeland is leading the blind who follow him into this new revelation of glory. (12)

If that is not enough to convince you that God’s glory can shine through you, consider what happened in the book of Acts when the fire of God’s fell again…this time not just on a few special saints but on all 120 ordinary believers who had gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. (13)

Any careful exegete who examines the account of Pentecost originally set forth in Acts will easily determine that the 120 people cited by virtually all Pentecostal and CRM people falls apart, leaving only the 12 Apostles who initially received the endowment of Holy Ghost power. As in the above cited statements Mr. Copeland’s fevered mind continues to spin out of control:

The sound the 120 believers heard wasn’t an earthly wind at all. It was a sound from heaven. It was the sound of heaven pouring itself into earth, filling the atmosphere with God Himself. God left the throne and came to Jerusalem that day, and the roar that accompanied Him was so loud that everyone in the world heard it. (14)

God is omnipresent, how could God “fill” anything pre se in a philosophical sense? What texts state that God left his heavenly throne to pour Himself into the upper room? I guess Jesus was left sitting alone at the momentarily vacant throne to His immediate left. We know that the Holy Spirit’s “throne” (if He ever has one) was vacant because as Jesse Duplantis learned in his visit to heaven that the Holy Spirit is on earth and not in heaven! (15) The Bible never says that “everyone in the world heard it”? According to our research no ancient historians mention such a global sonic effect. Again we see Mr. Copeland off into la-la land. Sadly, he goes from bad to worse in this article alone:

Along with that heavenly sonic blast came the very fire of God’s glory…He sat on each of them, entering them in full power and glory and they absorbed it. They took into their reborn human spirit’s the blazing glory of the Holy Spirit Himself. (16)

The original twelve Apostles appear to have been able to absorb the full power and glory of God within their reborn human spirits. Does not the Bible teach us that the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). Oh sure, the text is referring to Christ, but are we not “in Christ now? The text in Acts says no such thing, this is fantasy on Copeland’s part. He asks another rhetorical question “what does all that have to do with you? Here comes the astounding answer, I hope you are sitting down because when you read this you’ll become shout’ in happy and probably do the Pentecostal two-step unless you restrain yourself!

If you’re born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, that same fiery glory is in you right now. That’s right! The same glory that lit up Adam and Eve, the same glory that made Moses’ face to shine, the same glory that transfigured Jesus’ flesh-and-blood body on the Mount of transfiguration, the same fire that filled the upper room and launched the first disciples into a ministry of power, signs and wonders the likes of which the world had never seen…the same glory now resides in the spirit of every born-again, Holy Ghost-baptized believer. (17)

Pay close attention to whom it is that has this power, it is not every Christian. Charismatic believers have a two-tiered level of Christians. First, there are those who have received a second experience called being baptized in or filled with the Holy Spirit which is evidenced by them speaking in ecstatic speech (what they call other tongues). Then you have the less blessed, lower wattage Christians who have not received this second work. Copeland is referring specifically to “Spirit-filled” people not the Church universal. The charismatic Christian according to Copeland’s glory doctrine have within them the exact same glory that “lit up” Adam and Eve (I wonder what version of the Bible he uses to find these hitherto unknown facts, it must be the notes in the Finis Dake paraphrase), that was seen on Moses’ face and was unveiled in Christ before Peter, John and James.

What is appalling, beyond the fact that Copeland is deluding people on several levels simultaneously is that he has not got one shred of proof to back up his claims. I cannot find any examples in the N.T. or even in the writings of the ante-Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of where believers went around exuding effulgent glory as id Moses’ face for a period of time. Nor can I find any examples of disciples looking like our transfigured Lord. One would have to imagine that if what Mr. Copeland is teaching is true then it would be plainly set forth in the New Testament and probably alluded to by the Old Testament Prophets. Yet none of the sixty-six books of the Bible give such glory to believers.

The next glaring error in his comment is regarding the first “disciples” being launched into a ministry of power and signs and wonders. The common misconception of most charismatic people is that virtually all Christians were running around working miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. That simply is not the testimony of the Book of Acts. The Apostles did work genuine signs, wonders and miracles. Paul stated to those who were being misled regarding his status as an Apostle wrote “The things that mark an apostle-signs, wonders and miracles–were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Cor. 12:11). There are only a very few examples of non-Apostolic disciples being used to work any signs or wonders and those few who were used had been sent out specifically by the Apostles. According to Copeland that same glory resides within each Spirit-filled believer today, implying we ought to be doing these powerful signs and wonders too. Ok Mr. Copeland , “Where’s the Glory?”

Naturally he has an answer for this obvious power failure in the lives of the highly charged charismatic. The answer is that they have to learn how to operate in that kind of glory. He’ll give us the wisdom we need to do what Proverbs 4 says and guard our spirit above all so that nothing hinders the release of the glory that resides there. We’ll rid ourselves of devilish stuff like strife, envy and hatred because we know that trash will cause us to walk in darkness. It will keep the glory from shining through We’ll resist and rid ourselves of every trace of fear because that fear will pollute our spirits…We’ll walk in love–love for God and love for each other—not because we want to be religiously right but because we want to be gloriously bright. (18)

All the highly empowered ones need to do is open their hearts by faith (how does one do that?) and God will give them Gnostic insight that will cause them to learn how to release this inner glory and “shine” with His power. Again, I ask, if the Apostles and disciples of the early Church walked around like glowing lights why isn’t it recorded anywhere biblically or even by secular historians of the day who did write about the church? Peter, Paul, John James and all the Apostles at least should have walked in so much power visibly emanating from their spirits through their sanctified bodies that it boggles the mind as to how they could die as martyrs. After all, if just the glance Moses got of God’s back could have “killed” the Israelites, how much more so the FULLNESS of God’s glory and power that Copeland says flooded into them on Pentecost? How could any mere sinner get close enough to these walking powerhouses in order ot capture them, let alone kill them? Obviously, these initial Apostles and disciple failed. They must have gotten “religious” and turned out their glory lights. Thank goodness that God has once again restored prophets (profits?) and apostles (opossums?) back to the Church in these last days {I am joking here folks, ok?}.

Note the stress placed upon us in the former quote. Copeland is preaching sinless perfectionism through self-effort. We are the ones who will rid ourselves of various sins. We are the ones who will resist and rid ourselves of every trace of fear. We’ll be the ones to walk in love and not because it is the religiously correct thing to do, no, we’ll walk in love because we want to be gloriously “bright.” Jesus is never mentioned at all. There is no need to cry out to Him as the Savior from the weights and sins which so easily beset all of us. No, the super-saint can rid themselves of all these pesky devilish problems.

Even though the Church has failed and failed miserably to walk in this realm of supernatural glory and power for almost two thousand years, don’t despair my brothers and sisters. Copeland closes out with a great note of hope & victory:

That’s what true prosperity is all about! And we’re right in the middle of it now. We are grasping the revelation of this and becoming beacons of light— all of us shining together with the glory of Jesus Christ in the darkest times this earth has ever known. We are reaching out to others with hands filled with the lightning-like splendor of God’s power and finishing the job Jesus left us here to do. (19)

See my friends we are right in the middle of this new revealing of God’s glory and power. I’ve seen Mr. Copeland’s hands on television along with Benny Hinn’s, Joyce Meyer, Marilyn Hickey, Jesse Duplantis and others and I have yet to detect lightning-like splendor emanating from them.

Maybe this is the charismatic extremist version of what others call the “emerging church.” Maybe like God, we are in process of becoming what we truly are meant to be, little gods and as such finish the “unfinished” work Jesus has left us to do. All I can say to this utter nonsense is that it is far more akin to Luke Skywalker fighting the evil Emperor who has bolts of lightning-like splendor coming out of his hands than anything ever remotely resembling biblical Christianity.

DMI is very concerned about what is being taught by Copeland and others. We know that literally hundreds of thousands of people look to Mr. Copeland as a genuine prophet of God which means untold numbers of his followers are working hard (and failing) trying to reach this exalted level he declares is theirs for the taking, if they follow his directions exactly. There is no room for any margin of error within charismatic extremism. Any and all failure rests solely on the sagging shoulders of the one trying to grow closer to Jesus and be a vessel of honor for Him. Unless you’ve been on that pseudo-spiritual treadmill as I have you have no idea of the damage it does to people who try their hardest to work all the principles, to follow all the steps, to learn every formerly hidden key to Present Day Truth (2 Pet. 1:12) and to watch their every word so they can receive what has been promised to them by their blind guides. When people fail, and they always do fail at some point because their initial goal was not from God to begin with and no system of works righteousness has ever “worked.” They will not receive any compassion from their fellow drones, you see failure is simply not tolerated. When a leader fails there are multitudes of explanations and systems for restoration. Yet when a mere sheep fails, they get mercilessly kicked to the curb.  Our hearts grieve for our brothers and sisters on the treadmill today trying to become these glorious Christians Copeland has promised is just within their grasp.

It is because of what we have seen, taught and experienced that DMI keeps forging ahead. As I write this I am suddenly reminded of the words and image of Marlon Brando in the movie Apocalypse Now at the end when he says “the horror, the horror.” If by God’s grace I can spare one person the horror my wife and I experienced, then it is well worth all the sacrifice, pain, heartache and loss we’ve undergone in this small portion of His ministry.

I realize that possibly some of you reading this article may think that DMI is making a mountain out of a molehill regarding what Copeland has written. If he were the only squirrel in the pecan tree I might agree with you, but he is not.

Let me cite just ten of the newer books in print now and available in most Christian bookstores. All of these titles deal with the subject of tapping into God’s glory.

The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind 40-Day Devotional and Personal Journal by Bill Johnson:  “healing, deliverance, signs and wonders are the inheritance for all the followers of Jesus Christ…of a Transformed Mind teaches you how to remove the hinders of religious limitation to redeem the lost and transform communities.”

Miracle Workers, Reformers, and the New Mystics by John Crowder.

Secrets of the Ascended Life by Kelly Varner: “You are about to be infused with a fresh dose of resurrection life—His life—you are about to learn The Secrets of the Ascended Life.

Secrets of the Prophetic by Kim Clement.

The Fire of God by Joy Dawson: “The Fire of God unlocks the mysteries that surround the Fire of God, unveiling its significance in the life of the believer.”

Show Me the Glory by Bill Hart: …explores the current experiences associated with the presence of God.”

Dancing Into the Anointing by Aimee Kovacs: Miracles are happening as the Bride of Christ worships God in the dance.”

The Costly Anointing by Lori Wilke:“….boldly reveals God’s requirements for being entrusted with an awesome power and authority.”

How to Live the Supernatural Life in the Here and Now by Joe Ibojie

Return to Glory by Joel A. Freeman.

All of these books are published by Destiny Image which is located in Shippenburg, PA. The more bizarre the alleged revelation is or profound the mystical experience the more likely they are to publish them. It is important that you understand that Destiny Image does not just publish “flakes” per se, they also publish internationally know and respected (in their ever growing community) charismatic leaders such as T.D. Jakes, Myles Monroe, Tommy “God-Chaser” Tenney among a host of other heretics you can see on a regular basis on your local cable stations.

Every one of these books provide often conflicting keys, steps and principles that are supposed to enable the believer to enter into the promised land of the ascended Christian life. The poor charismatic runs from movement to movement seeking to put into action these keys to “open their hearts up to God.” Make no mistake about it these are dangerous, damaging and deceptive books that will only lead the readers further from Christ Jesus and not closer to Him. The “horror” is that the presence they may have “opened their hearts to” and coming to embrace will be that of a demonic entity masquerading as Jesus. Why do you think the Apostle John commands us to “test the spirits?”  (1 John 4:1)?   Is it really any wonder why all those smiling, seemingly healthy and very wealthy televangelists prove themselves by their very doctrines to be ministers of Satan (2 Cor. 11:14) disguising themselves as servants of righteousness? There are some of the people Paul warned the Ephesian elders against in Acts 20:29-31 when he said:

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also from your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Brothers and sisters if that text does not fit us today than which one does? I see Paul, like a Jeremiah warning these pastors about the danger to the Church from without and within for three years day and night and doing so weeping!

I cannot tell you how many pastors I and others, have warned about the dangers many of these men and woman present to the Church globally and their own congregations locally. Frankly, the usual response is rather blasé or one of  “well the Church has had these problems from the beginning.”   Yes, that is true but does that make the spiritual damage and shipwreck any less a disaster in the lives of their parishioners today? No ! Paul warned the elders so that they would in turn go back to their congregations and warn and educate their people concerning the false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, fake healers, liars and genuine pastors to recognize the dangers facing their people and boldly address it biblically in love but unapologetically too.  ♦

Copyright © 2006 Robert S. Liichow

End Notes:

1. I never cease to be amazed by pastors and other church leaders who simply “lump” all tongue-talking people as either Pentecostal believers or charismatic Christians. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are there massive doctrinal distinctions between classic Pentecostal denominations and the charismatic renewal movement (CRM) but there are great distinctions within the CRM itself. My wife and I were part of no less then five clearly defined aspects within the CRM. These five included: (1) The Word of Faith movement, aka “name it and claim,” fake it till you make it, or the health and wealth movement.” (2) The Discipleship movement aka the Shepherding Movement more or less started and run by the Florida Five [Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Don Basham, Charles Simpson, and Ern Baxter]. My exposure here was through the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, and later a nationwide campus group know as “Maranatha” stated Bob and Rose Weiner (3) The Prophetic movement then the (4) the Apostolic movement and lastly (5) the Signs and Wonders movement aka The Toronto Blessing/Holy Laughter, etc. There is some overlapping in belief and practice within these five I’ve mentioned (there are a few others, but my wife and I had no personal intimate experience with them, I guess you could cal them, “classic charismatic” congregations) but there are also major distinctions especially concerning the end times, the exact role of the restored prophet/apostle, global quasi-Calvinistic theocracy (Dominionism/ Kingdom Now) concepts among other issues. Few if any seminaries I am aware of teach their forthcoming pastors about not only the distinctions within the sign-gift community but the danger that these groups, especially the so-called Prophetic & Apostolic moves, pose to not only their local congregation but their denomination (s) as well.

2. I say untimely because the Word of Faith (WOF) movement Hagin helped propel to global status teaches that we are to live to be at least 120 years old, and then possibly longer. Hagin missed that mark by a good thirty years having passed away (due to illness of all things!) on September 23,2003.

3. Copeland, Kenneth Following the Faith of Abraham I, Side A, Fort Worth, Texas, K. Copeland Ministries, 1989, audiotape #01-3001. Underlining added for emphasis

4. Copeland Kenneth The Force of Righteousness, Fort Worth, Texas, K. Copeland Ministries, 1984, p. 12. Underlining added.

5. http://kem.org/usstore/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=cross+to+the+throne.

6. All WOF teachers make a false dichotomy between the physical body, the soul, and spirit of man. They teach man as a tripartite being yet they do not view man as a complete unit, in fact, the spirit of man is often referred to as the “real” person and the human body is merely our earth-suit which gives us authority on this planet (which is why God has to become a man in order to gain back our lost authority).

7. Copeland, Kenneth. The Believer’s Voice of Victory, Ready to Receive the Glory. Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, TX, 76192-0001, October 2006m p, 14

8. ibid. p. 14

9. The Manifest Sons of God were an extreme offshoot of a very extreme brand of the CRM known as “The New Order of the Latter Rain.” The Manifest Sons of God, which find their expression today in much of the teachings of the restored prophets and apostles teach that Christians can achieve sinless perfection but because of his or her sinless perfection they will even overcome physical death itself which is the last great enemy (1 Cor 15:26). Christianize the world and hand a perfected world back to the returning Lord Jesus Christ. These concepts are found throughout the writings of Franklin Hall (many of his books are out-of-print, but DMI has reproduced his major works in PDF format on CD), Earl Paulk, Rick Joyner, Mahesh Chavda and other authors can be purchased at your local Kristian bookstore.

10. BVOV, Oct 2006, p. 4

11. ibid p. 4 Underlining added.

12. Please understand that this man is no “lightweight” when it comes to proclaiming his heretical doctrines and blasphemous thoughts. His ministry is so vast that someone can hear Mr. Copeland anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is a huge broadcasting footprint. He is a force to be reckoned with openly rebuked and God’s people warned about this tare sown among the pure wheat of God.

13. BVOV , October 2006, p. 4

14. Ibid p. 5 Underlining added

15. Lest you think I am making this up, simply buy a used copy of Heaven, Close Encounters of the God Kind written by Jesse Duplantis. While in the throne room, he sees Jesus, whom Jesse tells us is a great preacher he sees the feet of got the Father but does not see the Holy Spirit and asks the angel who has escorted him into the throne room “where is the Holy Spirit?” The angel tells Jesse that He is on earth and then Jesse says he felt so “stupid” for asking such an obvious question. Obviously, such a concept of the Godhead is heretical and sadly demonstrates the overall biblical ignorance of multitudes of charismatic believers who not only purchased Duplantis’ book, but actually ALL the tall tales, lies, heresy and even blasphemy contained in it. I highly suggest any budding apologist to buy the book and have a field day tearing it apart doctrinally.

16. BVOV, October, 2006, p5

17. Ibid p. 5 Bold type added for emphasis.

18. Ibid p. 5 Bold type and underlining added for emphasis.

19. Ibid p. 5 Underlining added.

Azusa’s 100th Anniversary (The Truth Behind the Hype)

Truth Matters Newsletters – April 2006 – Vol. 11 Issue 4 – Azusa’s 100th Anniversary – by Robert S. Liichow

Discernment Ministries International

Azusa’s 100th Anniversary (The Truth Behind the Hype)

I want to add a few comments before getting into the heart of this article because I am aware that we have new readers each month that may not be as familiar with my background as some of our more seasoned readers. I was raised as a child in a Christian home by godly parents and was baptized a member of the United Presbyterian Church. Years later when I was at the University of Michigan, having wandered away from Father’s house like the prodigal son, I came into contact with a charismatic community called “The Word of God Community” (WOG). (1) WOG offered a six week course called “Life in the Spirit” and at the end of the lessons, hands were laid on the participants they were supposed to receive their heavenly prayer language, i.e. begin to speak in other tongues. I underwent the training and became a member of the Pentecostal Church of God. I left that very small congregation and joined a new group on campus led by a man who had just graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center called Greater Faith Christian Center. It was there that I met my wife and became part of the Word of Faith movement, leaving behind the Discipleship movement and classic Pentecostalism. Without going into a lot more detail, my wife and I ended up participating in the Prophetic movement which sort of “morphed into the Apostolic movement and at the very end before our doctrinal deliverance, the Signs and Wonders move. I say all this, to simply alert the reader that I am not writing about something I have not personally seen, heard, experienced and unfortunately, taught to others. I write this article from both an experiential point-of-view as well as a researched position.

100 Years of Revival?

This April is the celebration of the so-called “Azusa Street Revival” which is traditionally considered the official beginning of Pentecostalism in the United States.

The very word “Azusa” conjures up nothing but positive images in the minds of virtually all Pentecostal/charismatic believers. To them, it was a time of a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as was experienced in the Book of Acts. The “proof” of this outpouring was the evidence of seekers beginning to speak in what was termed other tongues. (2) Supernatural gifts long dormant in the Church were being imparted and restored. It was a time of worldwide evangelism and divine healing and miracles. The emphasis behind the evangelism was the belief that Jesus Christ was very quickly going to return and rapture the Church. Thus He needed to again supernaturally equip His saints to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel. Azusa was fertile soil from which many “famous” Pentecostal ministries were birthed.

This is what I called the “hype” surrounding the Azusa experience. Yet nothing happens in a vacuum. People did not suddenly begin to speak in tongues, prophesy, sing in other tongues, dance in the spirit, slain in the spirit, etc…due to some sovereign move of God at Azusa. There was over 100 years of “priming the pump” before the alleged outpouring at Azusa street occurred.

Some Historical Background Prior to Azusa

The first thing to always keep in mind when thinking about any Pentecostal or charismatic group is that they are at the core restorationalistic in their belief system. This simply means they believe the Church at some point lost its spiritual bearings and power and God has had to “restore” the supernatural gifts (tongues, prophesy, miracles, etc) and spiritual direction (now through restored prophets and apostles) back to the Church in order to bring Her to a state purity where the Lord can return for Her. The basic text cited is:

Acts 3:19-21 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

The mindset was and still is that God must send times of refreshing, i.e. revival to the Church. At some point the “big” revival will occur during which time God will restore everything lost to the Church and then Jesus can come for His Bride. Many groups prior to the Azusa experience claimed to be chosen ones to be used to restore the Church and bring back Jesus.

The Shaker Cult, America’s first Pentecostals

Ann Lee, the Founder of the United Society of Believers came to America in 1772 (a little over 130 years prior to Azusa). I have detailed their aberrant beliefs in my book “The Two Roots of Today’s Revival, of which we still have a few copies left. The Shakers were the first group in America to speak in other tongues, prophesy, sing in other tongues, manifest holy laughter, be slain in the spirit, dance in the spirit, shake, and become drunk in the spirit. All of this is fully detailed in my book and many places on the Internet. They believed they were the true Church and were very evangelistic due to believing the end of times was upon the world and also because they taught strict celibacy so numerical growth had to come from inducting new members into the cult.

The Cane Ridge “Revival”

Started around 1801 (just shy of 100 years before Azusa) as a gathering of Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist preachers who gathered to preach to the unconverted. Shaker evangelists also came to these meetings and brought with them their manifestations (the same ones we see in charismatic congregations today). The end result was that the Shakers imparted their gifts to many at the meetings and even gained some converts from Christian churches! Here are a few citations of the pandemonium brought on by the manifestations:

The first was held at Cabin-Creek. It began on the 22nd of May, and continued four days and three nights. The scene was awful beyond description; the falling, crying out, praying, exhorting, singing, shouting & exhibited such new and striking evidences of a supernatural power, that few, if any could escape without being affected. Such as tried to run from it, were frequently struck on the way, or impelled by some alarming signal to return, but there were moreover in the schismatic worship, a species of exercises of an involuntary kind, which seemed to have been substituted by the Great Spirit, in the room of the falling, &c. which had been among the New-Light. The principal of these, were the rolling exercise, the jerks, and the barks.

Still more demeaning and mortifying were the jerks. Nothing in nature could better represent this strange and unaccountable operation, than for one to goad another, alternately on every side, with a piece of red hot iron. The exercise commonly began in the head which would fly backward and forward, and from side to side, with a quick jolt, which the person would naturally labor to suppress, but in vain: and the more any one laboured to stay himself and be sober, the more he staggered, and the more rapidly his twitches increased. He must necessarily go as he was stimulated, whether with a violent dash on the ground and bounce from place to place like a foot-ball, or hop round with head, limbs and trunk, twitching and jolting in every direction, as if they must inevitably fly asunder. (3)

What these few examples tell us is that the people involved at Cane Ridge were overtaken by paranormal manifestations which included making animal noises (sound familiar?), jerking, spontaneous and uncontrollable physical movements along with spiritual drunkenness! All such manifestations were common to the Shaker cult and as I have been contending, this cult brought them into the religious gathering.

The end result of this revival? Schism and division occurred among true Christians. Ungodly manifestations were brought in by enthusiasts and the non-Christian Shaker cult. The defection of some former Christian pastors to join the Shaker cult. Many of the “holiness” denominations have their roots back at the Cane Ridge meetings. The holiness movement was another precursor to what was to become known as Pentecostalism. Some of these groups taught that there were various baptisms one must undergo with the goal of achieving sinless perfection. Some groups spoke in tongues, others practiced divine healing. All of this was transpiring almost 100 years before Azusa in the United States. Overseas other groups that predated Azusa were also active and laying groundwork for the Azusa experience.

Edward Irving, Founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church

In 1831 Irving began to establish his own denomination (which still exists today) after being excommunicated as a heretic by the London Presbyterian Church. Irving, like all the other schismatic’s and cults of his time, was a firm believer in the need for the sign-gifts to be restored to the Church in order for Christ to return:

Irving’s study of the Bible had also convinced him that all Christians should be baptized in the Holy Spirit and as evidence they would speak in tongues. There should also be prophecies and healings. (The general view was that these outward signs of power had ceased after the death of the apostles and the baptism was now limited to the inward gift of sanctification and fruitfulness.) During 1830 there were claims that people in the west of Scotland were manifesting these signs. After careful investigation, Irving was convinced they were genuine and that this was the start of the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit before the return of Jesus Christ.

Irving was particularly interested in prophecy. He predicted there would be a widespread outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that the Jews would return to their own land. These have both happened in the first half of this century. Irving thought it would be much sooner. He believed the Millennium would commence in 1867. For many people, his prophecies convinced them he was a “crank.”

Irving not only believed in Divine healing but also that sickness came as a consequence of sin. Three of his four children died at an early age. Irving had believed God would heal them but then decided it was judgment for his sin. (4)

Irving ordained twelve men to serve as restored “apostles” in his new sect, although he himself was not one of these men, nor was he viewed as a prophet. What convinced Irving that the gift of tongues had indeed been restored is when he investigated reports concerning two sisters who lived in Scotland:

There had been a legend that the spiritual gifts of earlier days would reassert themselves before the end, and here apparently was the forgotten gift of tongues coming back into the experience of mankind. It had begun in 1830 on the western side of Scotland, where the names of the sensitives, Campbell and MacDonald, spoke of that Celtic blood which has always been more alive to spiritual influences than the heavier Teutonic strain. The Albury Prophets were much exercised in their minds, and an emissary was sent from Mr. Irving’s church to investigate and report. He found that the matter was very real. The people were of good repute, one of them, indeed, a woman whose character could best be described as saintly. The strange tongues in which they both talked broke out at intervals, and the manifestation was accompanied by healing miracles and other signs of power. Clearly it was no fraud or pretence, but a real influx of some strange force which carried one back to apostolic times. The faithful waited eagerly for further developments….These were not long in coming, and they broke out in Irving’s own church. It was in July, 1831, that it was rumored that certain members of the congregation had been seized in this strange way in their own homes, and discreet exhibitions were held in the vestry and other secluded places. The pastor and his advisers were much puzzled as to whether a more public demonstration should be tolerated….The sounds came from both women and men, and consisted in the first instance of unintelligible noises which were either mere gibberish, or some entirely unknown language. “Sudden, doleful, and unintelligible sounds,” says one witness. “There was a force and fullness of sound,” said another description, “of which the delicate female organs would seem incapable.” “It burst forth with an astounding and terrible crash,” says a third. Many however, were greatly impressed by these sounds, and among them was Irving himself. (5)

Irving himself never spoke in other tongues, yet he did endorse and promote the experience. He and his sect were on the forefront of pre-millenarianism which later became part-and-parcel of American Pentecostalism. Like all of the others, Irving was firmly convinced that the manifestation of the original sign-gifts was proof that the return of Christ was at hand. His date setting proved false as did various prophetic utterances within his sect Later Pentecostals would have done well to learn from Edwards mistakes.

John Alexander Dowie, Founder of Zion, IL.

Dowie was educated in Edinburgh, Scotland and began his first pastorate in Australia in 1872 where he served over a Congregationalist church. While serving as a pastor disease hit his congregation and many of his members died. This drove Dowie to seek God concerning divine healing:

And there I sat with sorrow bowed head for my afflicted people, until the bitter tears came to relieve my burning heart. Then I prayed for some message, and oh, how I longed to hear some words from Him who wept and sorrowed for the suffering long ago, the Man of Sorrows an Sympathies. And then the words of the Holy Ghost inspired in Acts 10:38 stood before me all radiant with light, revealing Satan as the defiler and Christ as the Healer. My tears were wiped away, my heart was strong, I saw the way of healing, and the door thereto was opened wide, and so I said, ‘God help me now to preach that word to all the dying round, and tell them how ‘tis Satan still defiles, and Jesus still delivers, for He is just the same today. (6)

Dowie began to travel around the world proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Healer. His aspect of “restoration” can be summed up with the view of divine healing power being given back to the Church, especially through him. Eventually Dowie ended up in America preaching from coast to coast. While in Chicago he was deemed a fraud and a fake and was told to leave the city. In 1895 he founded an organization called “The Christian Catholic Church,” and eventually purchased land outside of Chicago where he began to build his version of the Kingdom of God on earth, know as Zion City.” His sycophants began to tell him that he was indeed Elijah who was to appear before the return of Christ. He began to believe their lies and shortly after proclaiming himself to be Elijah he suffered a massive stroke in 1906 and died in 1907. Many prominent Pentecostal leaders would come from Zion City, finding their way to the Azusa meetings. I guess with the death of “Elijah” it seemed pretty obvious to many people that the pillar of fire and cloud had moved on, this time to Los Angeles, CA.

The Keswick Movement, Total Sanctification Now!

This movement also had its roots in England and was also known as the “Higher Life” movement. It dates vary from as early as 1858 to as late as 1870, still a good 30 years prior to Azusa. Their main emphasis was the belief in a definite experience or work of grace they called “sanctification.”

The main idea of the Higher Life movement is that the Christian should move on from his initial conversion experience to also experience a second work of God in his life. This work of God is called “entire sanctification,” “the second blessing,” “the second touch,” “being filled with the Holy Spirit,” and various other terms. Higher Life teachers promoted the idea that Christians who had received this blessing from God could live a more holy, that is less sinful or even a sinless life. This teaching has its roots in John Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection. (7)

The importance of the Keswick Movement upon American Pentecostalism was the strong belief in a distinct experiential second work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. Without obtaining this experience, then the Christian could not progress on into deeper levels of godliness.

Pearsall Smith (1827-98) and Hanna Whitall Smith (1832 – 1911). This married couple became prominent higher life teachers who widened the popularity of Boardman’s teaching throughout Britain. The higher life movement reached it’s culmination through the labors of the Smiths. Out of their efforts in the early years of the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century grew the great Keswick Movement. The Smith’s “higher life meetings and conferences did much to set the pattern for the Keswick Movement. Their emphasis arose as the result of their own entry into deeper spiritual experiences.” Mrs. Pearsall Smith’s own account reveals that she was seized with wonder as to why spiritual victory was always out of reach. She finally identified the problem. She had stopped with the blessed truth of justification, but hadn’t gone on to the twin truth of sanctification by faith. She then learned that victory was by faith and “that there was an experience called the ‘second blessing,’ which brought one into a place of victory.  (8)

The reason why this specific movement was influential to fledgling Pentecostalism was because it was based on two concepts: (1) If there could be a “second blessing” or gift of grace from the Holy Spirit who had to say that blessing was sanctification? Also, if there could be a second blessing, why not a third or forth endowment with Holy Ghost power/fire/gifts/anointing? (2) It was based on individuals having a direct tangible experience. Early Pentecostalism and today’s charismatic groups are all extremely experiential in every respect.

The Welsh “Revival”

Wales has a history of revivalism but the one that most people are familiar with is the brief pre-Azusa revival of 1904-1906. The most prominent leader of this revival was a young man named Evans Roberts. Although he intended to attend school and obtain theological training he found himself at the beginnings of a massive outbreak of spiritual enthusiasm:

After his three months training at Newcastle Emlyn he was to return to Casllwchwr to start his ministry. He is said to have direct visions from the Holy Spirit; very specific visions such as the number 100,000 representing the souls God is to use him to save. As the revival unfolded Evan Roberts is said to depend more and ,more on what he considered the guiding of the Holy Spirit, thus neglecting the authority of the Scriptures. (9)

Roberts never obtained his theological education and as the citation notes, he depended more on what he considered the “guiding” of the Holy Spirit than the Scriptures. The revival meetings that Roberts held also included strange paranormal manifestations. These outbursts became so pronounced in the meetings that Roberts left the revival in disgust. Once he left his leadership role the revival sputtered out. After departing from what he saw as demonic activity in the meetings he worked on a book with another Welsh sister named Jessie Penn-Lewis. The book they wrote is titled War on the Saints. This book is in reprint, but if someone wants to purchase a copy I advise them to make sure and buy an unabridged version and not the redacted one that is most common. I would also put out a word of warning concerning Jessie Penn-Lewis, she herself was probably mentally unstable and most certainly theologically ignorant herself, however, what I find fascinating in her book is the portion where she and Roberts deal with how Satan counterfeit’s the genuine working of the Holy Spirit. As far as that portion of the book goes, she is “spot on” in my opinion. (10)

According to the revival reports 100,000 people are supposed to have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The revival was well publicized to such an extent that what was transpiring in Wales was well known among the holiness movement in America. The “revival” in Wales with its attending signs and wonders only further whetted the spiritual appetites of American restorationalists.

Expectancy of revival intensified in Los Angeles, California, when believers there heard about the remarkable revival in Wales, where from September 1904 to June 1905, 100,000 people were converted to Christ. For the evangelicals around the world who had been praying for the outpouring of the latter rain of the Spirit as promoted by the Old Testament prophet Joel (2:23-29), the spectacular results in Wales suggested that the great end-times revival had begun. The world could now be evangelized in the power of the Spirit before the imminent return of Christ and the impending judgment on the wicked. (11)

The underlined portion of this citation regarding the Welsh revival is exactly the theological position of American holiness preachers. They already believed and had experienced a “second blessing” from the Holy Spirit and it seemed to them that there was more power to be obtained from God, and, in fact, necessary to receive in order to evangelize the world before the return of Christ. This brings us back to the United States and the “father” of American Pentecostalism, Mr. Charles Fox Parham.

Without the Work of Mr. Parham there is good chance that Pentecostalism as we know it today would not have come into existence. The Azusa meetings were not started by Parham and he really had very little to do with those meetings in person. The Azusa experience and the subsequent development of American Pentecostalism can genuinely be considered the “child” of “father” Parham’s labor. However, like any parent, he or she bears some responsibility for the actions of their children. Accordingly, it behooves us to take some time and look at Mr. Parham and his ministry before we can even begin to consider what occurred a few years later at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, CA.

Charles F. Parham, Father of American Pentecostalism

To state that Mr. Parham was a man with a very checkered background is putting it mildly, Parham started out in the Methodist/holiness movement and became a preacher around the age of 14 or 15 (the Bible warns us about the danger of placing a novice in leadership positions, see  1 Tim 3:6).

Charles was converted in 1886 when he attended evangelistic meetings at a local Congregational church; a “Damascus road” experience that changed the direction of his life. Shortly afterward, Parham began attending a Methodist church where he taught Sunday school. At age 15, he began conducting revival services on his own. To further prepare himself for ministry, in 1890, he enrolled at Southwest Kansas College in Winfield. While a student, Parham “backslid” and decided to become a medical doctor. But following another bout with rheumatic fever, he recommitted himself to the ministry. Returning to evangelistic work, he obtained a minister’s license from the Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North….Parham’s relationship with his Methodist superiors became tense. His ambiguous attitude toward denominational affiliation did not warm their hearts. More importantly, Parham’s adoption of Wesleyan “holiness” theology with its crisis experience of sanctification branded him as a troublemaker. Holiness preachers declared that following conversion, believers should seek for this “second blessing” to purge the Adamic nature from their hearts. To Methodist leaders, this smacked of doctrinal aberration…At the annual Southwest Kansas district conference in 1895, Parham surrendered his license to preach and “left denominationalism forever.” Denouncing Methodism as spiritually bankrupt, he had a “world-wide parish,” free of the confines of a pastorate, with a lot of theater-going, card-playing, wine-drinking, fashionable, unconverted Methodists.” Though freedom from denominational restraints offered Parham the liberty he desired, it brought new problems, uncertainties, and hardships. (11)

What we can see in Parham’s life is that he never received a solid biblical education which left him susceptible to aberrant beliefs. One major belief he was the fountainhead of was the idea that denominations were basically not of God and that churches should be independent groups without any real structural leadership. This concept was trumpeted by William Branham and those who followed him as a prophet during the late 1940’s. The desire to destroy all denominational distinctions lives on today in the prophetic/apostolic movements.

Parham’s issues with the Methodist Church went far beyond just a young man chaffing under the spiritual oversight of others. Parham believed several heretical concepts including:

Parham, the founder of Pentecostalism, was riddled with doctrinal heresies. He believed in annihilation of the unsaved and denied the Bible doctrine of eternal torment. He taught that there were two separate creations, and that Adam and Eve were of a different race than people who allegedly lived outside of the Garden of Eden. The first race of men did not have souls, he claimed, and this race of unsoiled people was destroyed in the flood. Parham believed that those who received the latter days spirit baptism and spoke in tongues would make up the bride of Christ and would have a special place of authority at Christ’s return. He believed in a partial rapture composed of tongues speakers. Parham believed that physical healing is the Christian’s birthright. (13)

As far as research can determine he never recanted any of these beliefs. His aberrant beliefs concerning divine healing became part of the original doctrine of what is known today as the Church of God in Christ, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations (sorry Charles) in the world:

In spite of his teaching that it was always God’s will to heal and that medicine and doctors must be shunned, one of Parham’s sons died at age 16 of a sickness which was not healed. In October 1904 a nine-year-old girl named Nettie Smith died. Her father was an avid follower of Parham and refused medical treatment for his daughter. Nettie’s death turned local public opinion against Parham because the little girl’s sickness was treatable and the community therefore considered her death unnecessary. Parham himself suffered various sicknesses throughout his life and at times was too sick to preach or travel. For example, he spent the entire winter of 1904-05 sick and bedridden (James Goff r., Fields White Unto Harvest, p. 94), in spite of his own preaching that healing is guaranteed in the atonement. Parham was the first Pentecostal preacher to pray over handkerchiefs and mail them to those who desired his ministrations (Goff, p. 104) (14)

Do his beliefs strike a familiar ring with any of our former charismatic readers? The Word of Faith cult teaches it is always God’s will to heal. Dr. Hobart Freeman (now deceased) also taught the shunning of medicine; this only cost him close to 100 deaths in his congregation in northern Indiana, the location of his church “the Glory Barn.” To this day various sign-gift sects teach against using medicine or going to doctors. It can all be traced back to Parham. However, Goff is wrong in his comments about Parham being the “first Pentecostal preacher” to pray over handkerchiefs. The first Pentecostal” in America to use handkerchiefs for healing purposes was none other than Joseph Smith, the first restored prophet to the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (15) Again, to this day it is in Mormon doctrine that their Bishops can have the ability to speak in other tongues, and obviously the Mormon Church believes in restored prophets. (16) Keep in mind that the Mormon cult was founded in 1830, 76 years before the Azusa experience.

Parham’s main claim to fame comes from his “Bible” school which was located in Topeka, Kansas:

In plush surroundings at the former Stone mansion outside of Topeka, Kansas, the first Pentecostal revival of the century began on January 1, 1901. This revival would give rise to the most dynamic force for evangelism and missions in modern times.

The elegant setting, however, meant little to the band of 40 students of the Bethel Bible School that the 27-year-old Charles F. Parham had begun 3 months earlier in these rented facilities. Convinced that God had commissioned them as missionaries in the “last days,” they gathered to pray for the promised “latter rain” outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:23,28,29), to acquire the same spiritual power that marked the expansion of the Early Church. In this intense atmosphere of expectancy on New Year’s Day, student Agnes N. Ozman became the first to receive the sign of Spirit baptism: speaking in tongues. “Thus was the Church militant again permitted to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” mused Parham. With the great end-times revival beginning and the army of harvesters prepared for the mission fields, the clouds would soon part and “the Lord himself…descend from heaven” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). (17)

Parham had been teaching his students that they should expect the Lord to give them supernatural power to evangelize the world. The manner in which they would know that they had received this baptism of power (just as with the Holiness belief in a secondary experience) would be the evidence/experience of speaking in other tongues.

In the fall of 1900, after leading his students through a series of Bible studies on repentance; justification by faith, sanctification, and healing, Parham instructed them on Spirit baptism. By the end of December, they were prepared to encounter Acts 2 in a new way. After the revival commenced on New Year’s Day, he announced that the students had spoken many languages. He himself had received the capability of preaching in German and Swedish, Agnes Ozman in “Chinese,” and others in a variety of languages including Japanese, Hungarian, Syrian, Hindi, and Spanish. Parham noted that “cloven tongues of fire” appeared over the heads of speakers. Sometimes interpretations followed such as “God is love,: Jesus is mighty to save,” and “Jesus is ready to hear.” (18)

During the formative years of Pentecostalism in America Pentecostal people believed that speaking in other tongues was a genuine language not some “angelic” tongue or private ecstatic speech as sign-gift people teach today. There is no independent proof that Agnes Ozaman, Parham or anyone else actually received the biblical gift of other languages. In 1905 Parham moved his school and students to Houston, Texas which is where the “Azusa” connection is finally made.

One of Parham’s students was a man named William J. Seymour, who can be considered the father of the Azusa experience. He was a black man and thus Parham would not allow Seymour to sit in the classroom, he had to sit in the hallway and listen through the door. It is worth noting that Mr. Parham was a racist and officially joined the KKK in 1910. (19) Nonetheless Seymour endured the humiliation. Seymour’s source for doctrinal education was a heretic, which explains why he too would later expound heretical concepts:

Seymour accepted Parham’s view of baptism in the Holy Spirit—the belief that in every instance, God would give intelligible languages—speaking in tongues to believers for missionary evangelism…Neeley Terry, an African-American and member of the new congregation led by Hutchinson in Los Angeles, visited Houston in 1905 and was impressed when she heard Seymour preach. Returning home, she recommended him to Hutchinson, since the church was seeking a pastor. As a result, Seymour accepted the invitation to shepherd the small flock. With some financial assistance from Parham, he traveled by train westward and arrived in Los Angeles in February 1906. (20)

Seymour, like Parham came from a holiness background and so was used to experiential religion. The Holiness view was that the “second blessing” of sanctification was the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Parham’s view was that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was proved by having the gift of tongues. All Pentecostal groups today hold to this belief. Back in 1906 such a concept was not well received among many Holiness groups:

Seymour immediately encountered resistance when just 2 days after arriving he began preaching to his new congregation that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. On the following Sunday, March 4, he returned to the mission and found that Hutchinson had padlocked the door. Condemnation also came from the Holiness Church Association of Southern California with which the church had affiliation. (21)

The congregation Seymour came to Pastor locked him out of the church building and this forced Seymour to take his “new message” regarding the baptism in the Holy Spirit elsewhere. Seymour stayed at a parishioner’s home and led Bible studies there regarding the “Pentecostal” baptism. After a short while several people began to speak in tongues. News of this spread through both the white and black holiness communities and many of their members began to pray to receive this new outpouring of the Holy Spirit (according to their paradigm). The crowds grew to a size where Seymour had to relocate. The group rented a former African Methodist Episcopal (AMI) building relocated at 312 Azusa Street Los Angeles, Ca. This address had become synonymous with the birth of American Pentecostalism.

Seymour called his organization the “Apostolic Faith” and for a couple of years published a sporadic newsletter under the same name. People began to hear of what was taking place on Azusa street and came seeking to receive the Pentecostal blessing with the evidence of speaking with tongues.

Most who visited the mission came to receive the empowerment of Spirit baptism and be equipped with intelligible new languages for gospel preaching overseas. This would enable them to bypass the nuisance of formal language study. The Apostolic Faith reported: “God is solving the missionary problem, sending out new-tongued missionaries on the apostolic faith line, without purse or scrip, and the Lord is going before them preparing the way.” Missionaries home on furloughs also attended and spoke in tongues and in a few instances identified the languages being spoken. The recipients, however, usually depended on the Lord to identify the languages they had received. (22).

People began to come to Azusa as word spread. There was the common belief that the return of Christ was imminent due to various millennial and rapture doctrines being propagated by various sects within the Church. It seemed logical to many people who already believed in subsequent distinct spiritual experiences apart from regeneration that God would once again restore the gift of other tongues to equip the saints for the last big world-wide missionary push.

African-Americans, Latinos, whites, and others prayed and sang together, creating a dimension of spiritual unity and equality, almost unprecedented for the time. It allowed men, women, and children to celebrate their unity in Christ and participate as led by the Spirit. Indeed, so unusual was the mixture of blacks and whites, that Bartleman enthusiastically exclaimed, “The color line was washed away in the blood.” He meant that in the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the sin of racial prejudice had been removed by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. (23)

Admittedly, it was unique for that time for a black man (and black women) to be laying hands on white men and women to receive healing and blessings. It was virtually unknown within the Church in America for a black man, Seymour, to be leading white men and women spiritually. The sad thing is that this sense of “unity” lasted only a short time and within 3 years racism reared its ugly head and along with various false doctrines divided the fledgling Pentecostal movement.

The “hype” concerning Azusa was that untold numbers of people were coming to Los Angeles to receive power from on high. The people were all in one accord and hundreds if not thousands were sent forth around the world to reap the end time harvest. God was working signs, wonders and miracles on a regular basis at Azusa and testimonies were pouring in from their missionaries from around the world. (24)

The “truth” concerning these meetings tells another story altogether. The revival meetings were not Spirit-led, nor were things being done decently and in order. William Seymour, for whatever reasons had virtually lost control over the meetings, who spoke, who attended and what transpired under his oversight.

The meetings began in the mornings and continued for at least 12 hours. There was no order of services and usually no one leading. People sang at the same time but “with completely different syllables, rhythms, and melodies” (Ted Olsen, “American Pentecost,” Christian History, Issue 58, 1998). The services were characterized by much confusion: dancing, jumping, up and down, falling, trances, slaying in the spirit, “tongues” jerking, hysteria, strange noises, and “holy laughter” One visitor described the meetings as ‘wild, hysterical demonstrations.” The seekers would be seized with a strange spell and commence a jibberish of sounds.” A Time reporter noted that the participants “work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal.” There was little or no order to the Azusa Street services. Whoever felt “moved by the spirit” to speak, would do so. Seymour rarely preached. Instead, much of the time he kept his head covered in an empty packing crate behind the pulpit. He taught the people to cry out to God and demand sanctification, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and divine healing (Synan, p. 99) (25)

Due to all of the chaos in the meetings Seymour wrote Charles Parham to please come to Azusa (he had not yet been to any of these meetings) and see if he could help establish order and decorum.

Seymour wrote several letters to Parham asking advice in dealing with spiritualists and mediums from occult societies, who were trying to conduct séances in the services. And the church publicly admitted that not everyone at the meetings felt the presence of the Spirit. (26)

Seymour wrote Parham who was visiting John A. Dowie at Zion, IL. Parham did make his way to Azusa street and the following are some of his impressions of what he saw taking place:

When Parham visited the meetings in October 1906, even he was shocked by the confusion of the services. He was dismayed by the “awful fits and spasms” of the “holy rollers and hypnotists.” He described the Azusa “tongues” as “chattering, jabbering and sputtering, speaking no language at all” (Synan, p. 102). The Azusa Street meetings were so wild that Parham condemned them with the term “Sensational Holy Rollers.” He testified that the Azusa Street meetings were largely characterized by manifestations of the flesh, spiritualistic controls, and the practice of hypnotism (Sarah Parham, The Life of Charles F. Parham, Joplin, MO: Tri-state Printing, 1930, p. 163). According to Parham, two-thirds of the people professing Pentecostalism in his day “are either hypnotized or spook driven (Parham, Life of Charles Parham, p. 164). In his writings about Azusa Street, Parham described men and women falling on one another in a morally compromising manner…When Parham arrived in Azusa Street in 1906, he began his first sermon by telling the people that “God is sick at his stomach” because of the things which were occurring at Azusa (Charles Shumway, A Study of the “Gift of Tongues,” A.B. thesis, University of California, 1914, pp. 178,179; cited by Goff, Fields White Unto Harvest, p. 131). He never changed his opinion. To the end of his life, Parham, often called “the father of Pentecostalism,” denounced Azusa Street as a case of “spiritual power prostituted.” Thus the “father of Pentecostalism” roundly rejected the Azusa Street meetings as phony, manipulated, and demonic, even though practically all Pentecostal denominations trace their heritage directly from those meetings! (27)

Parham was adamant that Seymour remove the spiritualists and occultists from the services. Seymour refused to remove anyone from the services citing that our Lord said to His worker to let the tares and wheat grow together and that at the end of the age they will be separated. The result of Parham’s visit was the first of countless “splits” within Pentecostalism. Parham and Seymour never ministered together again, nor were they ever reconciled. Parham was not the only person to denounce what was taking place in the Azusa meetings. (28) Here are some comments made by leading theologians of their day:

G. Campbell Morgan  described the Azusa Street activities as “the last vomit of Satan” H.A. Ironside said both the holiness and Pentecostal movements were “disgusting, delusions and insanities.” In 1912 he said of their meetings “pandemonium’s where exhibitions worthy of a madhouse or a collection of howling dervishes,” were causing a “heavy toll of lunacy and infidelity.” W.B. Godbey said of the Azusa Street participants “Satan’s preachers, jugglers, necromancers, enchanters, magicians, and all sorts of mendicants,” and he claimed the movement was the result of spiritualism. Clarence Larkin “But the conduct of those possessed, in which they fall to the ground and writhe in contortions, causing disarrangement’s of the clothing and disgraceful scenes, is more a characteristic of demon possession, than a work of the Holy Spirit. From what has been said we see that we are living in “Perilous Times,” and that all about us are “Seducing Spirits,” and that they will become more active as the Dispensation draws to its close, and that we must exert the greatest car lest we be led astray. (29)

The truth behind the Azusa meetings is that they were far less anointed than many Pentecostal and charismatic revisionists want the world to believe. People have a tendency to only remember the “good times” and forget about all the nastiness in life, and the Azusa meetings are proof of this tendency.

After the incident with Parham, Seymour’s own racist and sectarian attitudes came forth:

Along with the success, hurts and heartaches soon came to Azusa Street, Seymour and the faithful learned to expect criticism from newspapers and leaders of other churches–including the founder of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, P.F. Breese, who believed that Holiness people were already baptized in the Holy Spirit and that the Azusa tongues were not from God. But some of the harshest criticism came from inside the little mission, with the mother church splitting because of personality clashes, fanaticism, doctrinal differences, and racial separation. It was said that some whites left because the blacks had a lock on the leadership. Seymour proving that he was no more perfect than his critics, reportedly asked the Hispanics to leave, and later wrote by-laws that prevented anyone except African-Americans from holding office in the mission. The often-quoted line that “the color line was washed away in the blood” was true in practice for only a short time. (30)

Bartleman’s earlier exclamation “the color line was washed away in the blood” although theologically true, proved to be no more than excited ignorance when push came to shove in these meetings. As far as “race” was concerned the two earliest predominant Pentecostal denominations, i.e. The Assemblies of God in Christ (lily white) and The Church of God in Christ (African-American) formed specifically due to ethnicity versus doctrinal distinctions.

Building on the assumption that Azusa Street represents the moment in classical Pentecostalism’s past from which to chart decension, some have gone on to accuse the Assemblies of God of fostering racial division by separating in 1914 from the church of God in Christ. This line of reasoning celebrates the roles of black leaders and organizations in the formative stages of American Pentecostalism displaces Charles Parham, the white leader of the Topeka, Kansas, Pentecostal outpouring of 1901, with William Seymour, the black leader of Azusa Street; and maintains that at least since 1914 a steady process of white separation and domination has been under way. (31)

Actual confession and repentance of racism between these two denominations did not occur until 1994, almost 90 years after the Azusa “revival.” So much for the ‘love of God being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (see Rom. 5:5).

Apart from the ensuing splits, during the revival meetings themselves a great deal of error was taught and then disseminated around the world. Some of the errors included the belief that people were supernaturally being given other tongues, actual foreign languages (xenolalia) and when Seymour or whoever at the meetings told the individuals what language they had been given, these folks often went to that nation as missionaries. The results were often tragic because when the people got to their destination, often at great expense, they learned they did not really speak the indigenous tongue at all. This brought reproach on the Gospel, because those claiming to represent Christ were (and were no doubt sincere in their attempt) ended up looking very foolish. There is simply no independent evidence that anyone who received the “baptism” at Azusa ever spoke in a genuine foreign language on the missionary field.

Another error with dreadful results was Seymour’s stance on divine healing, which he learned from Parham. He forbade people to go to medical doctors or to use medicine. The aberrant reasoning behind this belief in that Parham and others taught that physical healing was part of the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Thus to go to doctors or use medicine was to deny the finished work of Christ (in their minds). Obviously, this resulted in countless deaths and much suffering.

The belief that Jesus Christ was retuning soon is the main reason people came to Azusa, they wanted Holy Ghost power to go preach the Gospel and “get” as many people saved as they could. As noble as their intentions were, they were predicated on a wrongheaded belief regarding the return of Christ. Various dates were given for His return, all of which failed to come to pass. One hundred years have now passed and Jesus has not yet returned.

The belief that there is a subsequent “infilling” or baptism with the Holy Spirit after salvation is erroneous. When anyone is converted they have the Spirit at that moment (See 1 Cor. 12:13) and all Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (See Eph. 4:30). The revivalists took Acts 2 to be normative for all Christians. They taught (and do teach) that all 120 people including the Apostles received the gifts of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Yet a careful reading of the text will prove that only the Apostles received the Spirit in such a dramatic manner. Furthermore, throughout the Book of Acts it is only the Apostles who are ever involved with imparting spiritual gifts, never lay people. Pentecostals must teach it was all 120 people because if they accept the biblical evidence of only the Apostles as stewards of the Spirit, if you will, then they know they are dead in the water. Acts 2 is not normative and the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled on that day. The Apostle Peter said “this is that “ (see Acts 2:16) and nothing in the Scriptures indicate that this experience is to be repeated time and time again 9as many neo-Montanist groups have been claiming over the last 2,000 years).

Apart from the fact that no real foreign languages were bestowed, there were also manifestations of occulist practices such as automatic writing and the ability to suddenly play musical instruments:

Also present among the alleged miracles was the not uncommon occult practice of “automatic writing” which, if we may recall, was practiced on occasion by the Irvingities, at Shiloh, and by Agnes Ozman. Also present among the “miraculous manifestations” was another phenomenon directly related to occult mediumship, the ability to play musical instruments without any prior musical training or perceived ability: The Lord has given the gift of writing in unknown languages, also the gift of playing on instruments. (The Apostolic Faith edition 1) Azusa Street was undoubtedly the vehicle for the propagation of this occult method of mediumism, and it proliferated far and wide, thanks, no doubt, to the international acclaim that the “revival” had by now acquired: “I am still talking and writing in tongues. A missionary interpreted what I have been writing in Syriac and Armenian. I was singing Chinese one night, a missionary said. I am busy every day and going from place to place. Strong opposition from many, but God gives the victory, Glory!” Andrew G. Johnson, Address, 48 Skofde, Sweden (ibid, edition 6) “I received the Holy Ghost in San Jose, in November, and came to Kelseyville, in December. And when I received the January paper and read what the Lord was doing in other places, the power of God came on me mightily. I was alone and was lifted to my feet and stood on tiptoe with both arms extended above my head, and began to speak in tongues and to interpret, which I never had done before except a very little. Since I came here, one lady has received the Holy Ghost with a tongue, also the gift of writing some unknown language and the deaf mute signs.” (ibid, 6) “One sister received the gift of writing and also the interpretation of her languages. She has spoken and interpreted the soon coming of Jesus.” – Elizabeth M. May, Whittier, Cal. (ibid,6) (32)

Brothers and sisters, the belief in being able to “write in tongues’ is nothing less than demonic deception. There is no such gift ever cited in the entire Bible! Yet it was commonly believed that people possessed this ability. For some strange reason we do not have any of these “writings” available to us today in order that they might be linguistically examined.

The Azusa “revival” lasted for only three years. Yet from this initial “root” of American Pentecostalism various forms of poisonous fruit have been borne over the years. For example, in spite of all the proclamation of how these “restored” gifts were uniting the Body of Christ, exactly the opposite occurred. One of the more egregious heresies to be spawned from Azusa was the restoration of the age old heresy of Modalism:

A more serious schism grew out of the “oneness’ or “Jesus only” controversy, which began in 1911 in Los Angeles. Led by Glen Cook and Frank Ewart, this movement rejected the teaching of the Trinity and taught that Jesus Christ was at the same time Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that the only biblical mode of water baptism was administered in Jesus’ name and then was valid only if accompanied with glossolalia. This movement spread rapidly in the infant Assemblies of God after 1914 and resulted in a schism in 1916, which later produced the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and the United Pentecostal Church. (33)

“Jesus Only” Pentecostal denominations are among the largest in the world and they are simply a cult. Apart from the Oneness groups other sign-gift cults have sprung up over the years, all of which trace their roots back to Azusa. Groups including: The Children of God, founded by restored prophet David Berg (Moses David): The Way International founded by Victor Paul Wierwille; House of Yahweh, founded by Buffalo Bill Hawkins; The Word of Faith cult, founded by E.W. Kenyon and Kenneth Hagin; various snake handling and poison drinking groups; The Local Church, founded by Witness Lee; the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (this Ugandan cult caused the death of 444 people); Faith Assembly, founded by Dr,. Hobart Freeman are just a few of the many examples of aberrant groups who can trace their heritage back to Azusa Street. Since the advent of American Pentecostalism there are several hundred Pentecostal denominations and sects in existence today, so much for unity!

Apart from aberrant sects and heretical cults some of the most ungodly behavior has been exposed in the lives of the “GIANTS” of Pentecostalism. (34) Charles Fox Parham was charged with child Sodomy, was a member of the KKK and a Mason. (35) John Alexander Dowie claimed to be Elijah. (36) Aimee Semple McPherson was twice divorced, an adulteress and died of a barbiturate overdose in 1944. She founded The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, a large Pentecostal denomination. (37)

Finis Dake, author of the Dake Bible (the standard Bible used by many Pentecostals), he was convicted of taking a 16 year old girl across state lines and sleeping in the same hotel room with her under an assumed name in 1937. (38) A.A. Allen, famous healing evangelist died of a drug and alcohol overdose in June of 1970. (39) Paul Cain, healing evangelist later returned as an internationally recognized –

End Notes

1. The Word of God Community got its initial start at Notre Dame as part of the Roman Catholic Charismatic renewal. By the time it had expanded to the U O M campus it had become ecumenical. In fact, to me a member of the “community” you had to belong to a local church {I believe now that that was part of their strategy to infiltrate non-charismatic congregations}. The WOG community was part of a distinct segment of the charismatic renewal called “The Discipleship” or “Shepherding” movement.

 

2. It is important to note that from the original writings of early Pentecostalism the gift of tongues was believed to be that of genuine foreign language, given to equip the believer for missionary work due to the belief in the soon return of Christ. Today’s charismatic movement believes that other tongues can be a foreign language but is generally an “angelic tongue” given for the private use of the believer in prayer and for personal edification.

3. Obtained from The Kentucky Revival or A Short History of The Late Extraordinary Out-Pouring of The Spirit of God, In The Western States of America, Agreeably To Scripture Promises, And Prophecies Concerning The Latter Day; With A Brief Account of The Entrance and Progress of What The World Call Shakerism Among The Subjects of The Later Revival in Ohio and Kentucky. Written by Richard M. Nemar in 1808 underlining added for emphasis.

4. Obtained from http://www.geocities.com/lasttrumpet_2000/timeline/irvingbio.html.

5. Obtained form http://ww.spiritismonline.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=65.

6. Obtained from http://www.truthinhistory.org/Dowie.htm Underlining added.

7. Obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_life_movment.

8. Obtained from http://www.frontlinemin.org/higherlife.asp. Underlining added.

9. Obtained from http://www.answers.com/main/intquery;jsessionid=a8fgk86otl80g?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=1904-1905+Welsh+Revival&curtab=1904-1905%20Welsh%20Revival. Underlining added.

10 If you want to learn more specifically about Jessie Penn-Lewis you might contact Pastor Dick Fisher or personal Freedom Outreach. He has done some research and writing about her background. The only place Dick and I agree to disagree is possibly when it comes to her views on the demonic counterfeits. DMI believes that Satan can does actually manifest himself and does use paranormal lying signs and wonders to deceive the Church and world. Some Christian apologists deny any spiritual reality to any and all manifestations, chalking them up to mere human emotionalism.

11. Obtained from http://www.ag.org/enrichmentjournal/199904/026_azusa.cfm. Underlining added.

12. McGee, Gary Tongues, The Bible Evidence The Revival Legacy of Charles F. Parham. Enrichment Journal, 1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO 65802. Underlining added.

13. Cloud, David. The Strange History of Pentecostalism. Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368. Underlining added.

14. Ibid.

15. Cullimore, James Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet Speeches, 218

University Press Building, Provo, Utah 84602

16. For more information go to http://www.josephsmith.net/portal/site/JosephSmith/menuitem.da0e1d4eb6d2d87f9c0a33b5f1e543a0/?vgnextoid=3b62982b9ab4201-VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD.

17. McGee, Gary. Tongues The Bible Evidence The Revival Legacy of Charles F. Parham. Enrichment Journal 1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO 65802.

18. Ibid. Bold type added.

19. Obtained from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Charles%20Fox%20Parham.

20. McGee Gary, William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival. Enrichment Journal, 1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO 65802. Underlining and bold type added.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. These reports were printed in the Apostolic Faith newsletters. DMI has all of the copies of these newsletters in our archives and they are available on CD rom for a nominal fee.

25. Cloud, David. The Strange History of Pentecostalism, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368. Underlining added.

26. Olsen, Ted. American Pentecost, the Story Behind the Azusa Street Revival. Underlining added.

27. Cloud, David, The Strange History of Pentecostalism, Way of Life Literture, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368. Underlining and bolding added.

28. It is easy for some people to ignore Parham’s comments because he was a racist. Nonetheless, his denunciation of the revival meetings was not based on ethnic issues, but on what even he recognized as occult practices, hynotism and demonic activity. Parham came t assist Seymour, but seeing what was transpiring in the meetings and Seymour’s unwillingness to address these excesses it led to an inevitable split. Parham’s comments about Azusa should not be ignored, after al, he is the “father” of America Pentecostalism.

29. All of these statements ere taken from “from Holy Laughter to Holy Fire” by Michael L. Brown, pages 197 &198. Michael Brown was one of the key leaders in the “Pensacola Outpouring” (American’s version of the Toronto Blessing).

30. Olsen, Ted. American Pentecost, the Story Behind the Azusa Street Revival. 31. Blumhofer, Edith L. Christian Century, April 27, 1994.

32. Obtained from http://www.unitypublishing.com/NewReligiousMovements/WhatSpirit8.html. Underlining added.

33. Obtained from http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/pentecos.htm. Underlining added.

 

34. Let there be no mistake in the readers mind, I am not saying that other denominations do have or have not had their share of fallen ministers. Yet it is the Pentecostal and charismatic leaders who claim to have received or achieved a higher level of spirituality than the “non-Spirit-filled” Christian, so their fall must be harder to explain away due to their claims of a higher anointing or closer walk with God than your general denominational leader.

35. McGee, Gary. Tongues. The bible Evidence The Revival Legacy of Charles F. Parham. Enrichment Journal 1445 Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO. 65802

36. Obtained from http://www.healing-ministries.net/etudes/men_women/alexander_dowie/default.html.

37. See http://www.who2.com/aimeesemplemcpherson.html for more information.

38. Spencer, Jeff. Dake’s/Dangerous Doctrines, 2004

39. Obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_A_Allen.

 

40. Obtained from http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c06.html.

41. Lobdell, William, Onward Christian Soldier, Los Angeles Times, 2002.

42. Personal Knowledge, plus tones of information on the Trinity website

43. Obtained from http://www.jesus21.com/portal/index.php?s=scandals. http://www.th-record.com/1998/10/04bakker.htm.

44. Obtained from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/2.19.html.

Choo’s Tall Tale of Heaven

Truth Matters Newsletters – March 2006 – Volume 11 Issue 3 – Choo’s Tall Tale of Heaven is to Touch to Swallow – by Robert S. Liichow

Discernment Ministries International

Choo’s Tall Tale of Heaven is to Touch to Swallow

Let me begin by saying thanks to Pastor Dick Fisher who gave me the initial clue to the existence of this latest book allegedly revealing heaven. For some time I have been slowly working on a book which compares all of the alleged visits to heaven and hell with the Bible and with each other, so I was interested to learn of the existence of this book and after I read it I was dumbfounded that anyone could possibly believe what is written in it.

I am not surprised that people have an interest in the afterlife. Every world religion, cult and sect has its version of what happens after we die and since there is still one death per person due to being sinners it comes as no surprise that the world desperately seeks answers. What does surprise me is how gullible and biblically illiterate multitudes of Christians are regarding this subject.

The vast majority of Christians who purchase these books fall into the category of sign-gift believers, i.e. people of the Pentecostal and charismatic persuasion. Coming from that background I can shed some light as to why these folks are more susceptible to this particular brand of deception. Many (not all) charismatic believers hold to the view that God is still revealing truth to His people, apart from the Bible. While claiming to believe that the Bible is the standard by which they judge all revelations, they readily admit that new revelations are still coming, usually through the so-called restored Apostles or Prophets. What they will not admit is that the Bible is a complete and totally sufficient revelation. According to them God has something more to say.

I remember confronting John Arnott, the Pastor of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship regarding the bizarre and unbiblical manifestations transpiring under his pastoral leadership. I challenged him to prove that what was taking place could be found within the context of Scripture. He responded by attempting to validate the manifestations by using fragments of biblical text without regard to their context. When I challenged him regarding his use of proof texts he switched gears and used what I have since termed the “John 21:25 Argument.” This text reads “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written Amen.” Arnott and the other charismatic extremists cite this text to answer those who question their new doctrines or practices. When forced into a corner exegetically they simply respond that what they are teaching or doing is part of the “many other things which Jesus did” that are not recorded for us in the Bible, but God in these last days is revealing them to us!

This is philosophically called – an argument from silence, there is no way of biblically validating such claims ergo we are told to accept them based on the sole authority of the person(s) making them. Thus the restored prophet or apostle becomes the authority over the new doctrines and practices and not the Bible. To question them is to doubt the work of God in the end times and to demand biblical precedents simply proves that we are undoubtedly of a Pharisaical spirit and are steeped in legalism.

All of the accounts regarding alleged visits to heaven and hell since the 1800’s in America have been written by either Pentecostal or charismatic believers. This most recent foray into the afterlife is no exception to this fact. The book we are going to consider has sold over 450,000 copies overseas, making it an international bestseller and with the recent full page story in Charisma magazine (whose publisher, Strang Communications, just happens to be owner of Creation House, the publisher of this book) it will no doubt quickly gather steam among the sign-seekers in our own nation.

Throughout this article I will be citing the page numbers in brackets versus using endnotes. The title is: Heaven Is So Real, Thomas, Choo, Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 2003.

Who Is Choo Thomas?

Isn’t it interesting that of all the accounts by people claiming to have given a personal tour of heaven (or hell) do not have any theological training whatsoever! In other words, Jesus does not choose someone like Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. H. Wayne House, Dr. Marquart or any other theologians to give a personal visit of the heavenly realms too. Instead, He chooses people with little to no biblical education or knowledge whatsoever, like Choo Thomas.

Mrs. Thomas is a Korean-American, her parents are deceased, and she is married and has two grown children (p1). She says she became a Christian in February, 1992 and from that moment on she began to skyrocket into the upper realms of personal holiness “I could only think about Jesus every waking moment,” (p.1). Two years later she says she received “the fire of the Holy Spirit” while she was praying at home in January, 1994. After this experience she had her first vision of Jesus sitting by the pulpit at her local Assembly of God in Tacoma, WA (p.2).

What Does Choo’s Jesus Look Like?

It is interesting but almost everybody’s heavenly encounter with our resurrected Lord differs as to their descriptions of what Jesus looks like. According to Choo this is how Jesus looks:

He was sitting by the pulpit. His legs were crossed, and I could see Him as clearly as a real person, except I couldn’t see His face. As I perceived Him, He had silky white hair and was wearing a pure white robe. His person was visible to me for almost five minutes. After seeing Him my body was on fire with unspeakable joy, and I became wholeheartedly committed to Jesus. (p.2)

Unfortunately, no one else saw “Jesus” during this service or any other time throughout her book. Being married to an African-American woman for over twenty years I can tell you I know the difference between silky (straight) and wooly (kinky hair. According to the Book of Daniel (Dan. 7:9) and the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ has hair “like as wool” (see Rev. 1:14) which any woman can tell you is far from silky. Beyond this minor detail what is troubling is that Jesus appears to this woman for no apparent reason, He is simply “there.” Every time the Lord appeared either in an Old Testament theophany or in the New Testament (Stephens stoning in Acts 7:59; Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:4; or John on Patmos in Rev. 1:12) it was for a specific purposes in the economy of God. As we shall see, Choo’s role is pivotal in God’s end-time redemptive plan. Beyond seeing this apparition and feeling her body of fire with joy nothing else transpired but 100% commitment to Jesus.

Before delving deeper into Choo’s delusion let me just say that there is no such thing biblically as a baptism of fire. She says she had some physical experience in 01-94 which she interpreted as “the fire of the Holy Spirit,” yet there is no support exegetically for such a claim. It is after this vision that things begin to become very bizarre in Mrs. Thomas’ life.

A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On aka Choo is Special!

As of Easter Sunday, 1995 Choo enters into (and she has not stopped to this day) the realm of charismatic extremist manifestations. While she and her family were attending their AOG church in Puget Sound she states:

…my whole body began to shake violently, and we had to stay for second service. I was experiencing the same phenomenon known among Quakers, Shakers and early Pentecostals. Since then, my body never stops shaking in church or during my prayer time at home. Two weeks after this Easter Sunday experience, I received the gift of tongues while at home and began to sing in the Spirit. While watching a Benny Hinn crusade on television, I stood up and lifted my hands in prayer. Then I fell on the floor for almost three hours. The anointing of God’s Holy Spirit was so strong that I couldn’t get up, and all I could do was sing and talk in tongues and laugh. During every worship service after that, I could see the presence of the Lord Jesus in church. (p2)

Please note that Mrs. Thomas is a very special person which she shall make abundantly clear to all of us as we progress. The church she was attending obviously had been involved in the Toronto Blessing aka The Pensacola Outpouring because neither the pastor nor anyone else thought her shaking was out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is that this shaking occurs whenever she is in a church service or even praying at home. She also claims to have received the gift of other tongues while alone at home. Apart from the debate as to the validity of this gift today, the general manner in which 99.9% of all Pentecostal and charismatic believers receive this gift is through the laying on of someone else’s hands or during a congregational meeting. Very few people attest to receiving this gift at home, and without dispute no one in the book of Acts received any of the spiritual gifts apart from the presence and/or the ministry of one or more of the Apostles.

Choo seems to indicate that she received this gift while watching a Benny Hinn crusade on television, this is very problematic considering the facts about Mr. Hinn since he is a false prophet, false teacher and proven liar. Also her statement about being slain in the spirit for almost 3 hours seems more demonic than divine. She states that she could not get up, something she stresses throughout her book, and all she could do was sing, talk in tongues and laugh. She attributes this experience to the anointing of the Holy Spirit being heavy upon her. As taught and practiced by today’s sign-gift believers there is biblically no such thing as being slain in the spirit. More importantly, the Holy Spirit gives us self-control (see Gal. 5:23 and 2 Peter 1:6). He does not possess us to the extent where we are physically paralyzed yet according to Choo this is exactly how the Spirit ministers to her. After this possession, which is what I consider it to be, her spiritual eyes are opened and from this point on she could see the presence the Lord in every worship service.

I will not go into the history of these aberrant “revivals” and their attending manifestations. I have covered them in the fullest detail avail in my 2 books “Blessing or Judgment” and “Two Roots of Today’s Revival.”

I urge all of our readers to purchase at some point the book “The Confusing World of Benny Hinn” published by the Personal Freedom Outreach (www.pfo.org). It is the definitive work exposing this dangerous charlatan for who and what he is.

DMI has a small, but very helpful book on this topic entitled “Does the Bible Support Being Slain in the Spirit.” She tries to biblically explain her palsied attacks as a preparatory work of the Holy Spirit; The Bible is replete with examples of people quaking and shaking in the presence of the Lord. Sometimes this manifestation is accompanied by fear, but most of the time it is preparatory; God is about to do a great work through a yielded vessel. (p7).

Obviously, Choo is the yielded vessel through whom God is about to do a great work, a theme she hammers home throughout her book. This preparatory work is ratcheted up by the Lord after her Easter 1995 experience. On January 19, 1996 the Lord wakes her in the early morning and personally visits her. Before each visit the Lord causes her body to shake and perspire for close to an hour, and then the apparition speaks and appears to her.

I turned my head on the pillow to look in the direction of the sound, and there, all aglow, was a figure dressed in white garments. The radiance that emanated from this unknown visitor was so brilliant that I could not see His face, but in my heart of hearts I knew that I had been blessed with a special visitation from the Lord. (p.7).

How did she know this was Jesus?  She “knew” in her heart of hearts. I guess she never was taught that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14) or that our Lord Himself warned that many will come saying “I am he Christ” (Matt. 24:5). This figure speaks the following words to her “My daughter, Choo Nam, I am your Lord, and I want to talk to you. You have been My special daughter for a long time,” (p.7). According to her own chronology she has been saved about 4 years when this occurs, not much of a “long time” in my book. Don’t lose sight of how Choo’s Jesus calls her His special daughter, Choo is special! He goes on to reveal to her “Daughter you are such an obedient child, and I want to give you special gifts. These gifts are going to serve Me greatly. I want you to be happy about these gifts,” (p.8). Because of her total obedience to the Lord, He has chosen to give her special gifts and He wants her to be “happy” about them.

I knew at that moment God was choosing me to do an important work for Him and that this must become my single-minded purpose…I have known since then that when my body begins to shake from the inside out that God will be speaking to me…God has chosen me for a specific work. It was too wonderful to imagine…(p.8).

The same experience happens again the next morning and this time as she shakes and sweats the Lord explains the reason He must do this to her: “You are my precious daughter…I am giving you the power that you will need for the work I’ve called you to do. I am preparing you to serve Me. Your body shakes as the power flows into you. I am giving you all the spiritual gifts. I am releasing your spirit so you will be completely free to serve Me. (p. 10).

Now we know when we see someone shaking and sweating it is because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We are witnessing God pouring His power into some one for a special purpose. He is working to release his or her spirit so that yielded vessel can serve Him! Choo explains it this way to us:

The shaking continued for twenty minutes. I began to view it as being like a spiritual transfusion. The power of the Holy Spirit was coursing through every nerve, sinew, muscle and organ of my body. It was setting me on fire with the power of God. (p.11).

He then explained the shaking in my body. “Your body shakes for a long time because you need power for this work. I want you to expect many surprises.” (p.17).

Shaking equals power in Choo’s world and few charismatic extremists would argue that point with her. The problem with these statements is that there is not one shred of biblical proof to backup such a claim. Everything in her book is based on her own subjective pseudo-spiritual experience. Choo does not make a strong appeal to the scriptures. Instead she continually points to herself as being Jesus’ “special daughter.”

“I know you do not know many things, but I see that you are pure-hearted. I know that you believe everything about Me. I’ve seen your obedience, and I know you fear My words. (p.80).

Because of her high degree of sanctification and her unwavering belief concerning everything about Himself He chooses her for this great end-time work.

“You are living your life completely for Me. Your heart has willingly given up all worldly things for Me. I now know that nothing brings satisfaction to you more than being in My presence. (p.84).

Choo has become totally heavenly-minded. She has reached sinless perfection because one would have to be totally sinless to live his or her life completely for Christ, without any thought of self. She has reached a level of perfection that even surpasses the Apostle Paul who said that he had not obtained (read Phil. 3:12) perfection and was still striving to reach it.

 “Whoever permits Me to control their life will be blessed. These are My obedient children. You are My special child.” (p.93).

Choo’s life is blessed because she is one of the obedient children, which makes her special.

“Daughter, you are special to Me…I choose My children who are pure and obedient — those who put Me first in their lives. (p.107).

She gets confused here because she stated earlier that the Lord had told her He had chosen her for this work before the foundation of the world. Yet now her Jesus reveals to her that He choose His children based on their purity of heart and obedience, people who put Jesus first in their lives. It is by our works, whether of personal sanctification or obedience to the law and putting Jesus first. (which in and of itself is fine) that determines the Lord choosing us or not.

If you were not such a special daughter, I could not bring you to heaven to show you all the things you have seen. (p.11).

Obviously Thomas is such a special daughter because if she was not then Jesus could not have brought her to heaven and shown her all these wonders. The inescapable inference is that the vast majority of Christians are not special to the Lord because He has not given them this foretaste of heaven. Choo is special, you and I are not.

…You are very special to Me. You must believe this. I had to choose the right daughter for this important work, and you are the one I’ve chosen. (p. 111).

I am not a psychologist, but it really seems that Choo suffers from delusion of grandeur because the quotes from Jesus deal with how special she is versus revealing unknown truth to the church. Choo is the right daughter for this work, she is the personally chosen one!

“This is one of the reasons I love you so much, My daughter.” (p.115).

“My daughter, I really enjoy being with you.” (p.125).

“You have beautiful hair.” (p. 125).

“You are beautiful, My daughter.” (p.125).

“Don’t be shy, My daughter,” the Lord counseled. The He lifted my face… (p.125).

Choo and Jesus are on a deserted beach and she is dancing and singing in front of the apparition. One of the reasons Jesus loves her is because of her yielded spirit and devotion, so now we know that Christ’s love is not unconditional, there are reasons why He loves us. Here again I believe we read about her deeply held insecurities because Jesus tells her how much He enjoys being with her, how beautiful her hair is, how beautiful she is! This specific encounter is one of the most sensual and frankly, disgusting of the entire book.

 “ I will bring many of My children to the Kingdom, but not every one will live in mansions like the one that had your name on the door. These mansions are for very special children.” (P.138).

There are 2 classes of Christians in heaven according to Choo’s Jesus. The lower wattage believers will not inherit palaces like Choo’s with her own name in gold on a nameplate on the door. These palaces are reserved for the, you guessed it, the very special children (more on the 2 classes a bit later on).

“I didn’t show you the kingdom and the pit of hell to bring you home now. I showed you all those things so you will help save the lost and let everyone know what it takes to enter the kingdom. (p.152).

After seeing her mansion and all the glories of heaven she does not want to go back to earth. Yet her Jesus tells her that He has shown her these things so Choo can help save the lost. What is more she is to let everyone know what it takes (WORKS) to enter the kingdom. Choo has a role in the redemption of the lost and is appointed to tell everyone what it takes to get to heaven. The problem is she does not tell anyone in the book exactly “what it takes.” She surely does not mention that salvation is the gift of God, or that what it takes is the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Nor does she point out that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone.

“My daughter, you are an End-Times prophetess.” The Lord told me, “and You are living proof of My Word and My prophecies. (p. 168).

Towards the end of the book we see her role in the Church revealed. She is an end-time prophetess (she told us she was special). She is living proof of the Word and His prophecies! The Bible is not enough “proof”…

“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31).

The fact that the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of God is also insufficient proof (see Rom. 8:16). Nope, we need living proof in the form of sister Choo to believe God’s Word.

“He took me to His throne and directed me to sit on a chair next to Him. This was the first time the Lord seated me next to Himself.” (p. 61).

While in heaven she entered into the throne room which is filled with the O.T. prophets and N.T. authors and directed by Jesus to sit next to Him on the throne! The mother of James and John must have really been livid upon finally discovering who the Father was granting the right to sit at Jesus’ right hand. Remember she tired to wheedle her boys into the right and left hand seats in the Kingdom (see Matt. 20:21). Sorry sister, very special Choo is seated next to Jesus not James or John.

There can be no doubt in the readers mind how special Choo Thomas is. It makes sense when you realize how important the work she has been given to do is according to God’s plan for the end-times. His great work for her is to complete the canon of Scripture.

Choo’s Book Is Divinely Authoritative

Choo told us she was special, so special in fact that what she has written for us are the exact words of Jesus Christ. If language means anything, then the revelations in Choo’s book are on the same level as the Holy Bible; in fact, we should cut out the pages and tape them into our Bibles. Keep in mind according to this woman, Jesus appears to her and directly tells her to remember and write down His exact words. If that does not mean her book is to be treated as divine revelation than I do not understand the concept at all. Here are only a few of the statements from her book which prove my point:

“I am your Lord, My daughter. I want you to hear and remember everything I tell you. When you write it down, use My exact words. You are sleepy, but do not miss any of the words I tell you. I will be visiting you many times in the future because I have important work for you to do. You are the child I am going to use to do this work for Me, so be prepared.” (p. 11).

Then He reiterated something He had commanded me to do several times before: Write down everything I show you and tell you. (p.21).

The Lord continued: I want you to remember everything I tell you and show you. Make sure you write everything down. I will make sure that everyone understands all the things I show and tell you. (p.28).

“I do not want you to miss anything I show or tell you,” He instructed. “Nothing more; nothing less. Everything has to be exactly as I reveal it to you.” (p.36).

“My daughter you have much work to do. I want you to write a book. This is an important book for the last days, and it will be translated into many languages. I chose you for this work before you were born, and this is why My Holy Spirit is always shaking your body—to pour My power into you. (p.47).

You do not need to know how to write the book. Just write down what I show you and tell you… (p.70).

“Now you know why, My daughter. I want you to concentrate on the book, with no interruptions. This book is very important to Me, and it will be a special blessing for My children. Whatever you do, I want you to talk to Me first. Everything about this book has to be My will. (p.79).

“Some people will not believe you, but you don’t need to worry about that. My daughter, I am simply using you for this book. It is My book and I will take care of it.” (p.80).

“Because you are what you are, I chose you for this work…This is My book and My responsibility… I want you to be happy because you are My special daughter. (p.80).

This book will help deliver many people who are in spiritual darkness…I notice that you have never been deliberately disobedient since you gave your heart to Me, an you always put Me first in your life. This is why I chose you as My special daughter and friend. (p.92).

Write this down, Choo Nam. I want all My children to know what awaits them in heaven. I know many of My children have questions about heaven. Some of them wonder if there will be food to eat in heaven. (p.100).

Why do you think I chose prophets to work for Me on earth? Like you, I’ve sent them in order to do My work. Without prophets, I would not have any way of communicating my desire to My children. Therefore, My daughter, do not miss writing about anything I show or tell you. Tell it all. It is because you are such an obedient daughter that I am able to use you. (p.102).

“I want My children to read this book, because so many of them have doubts about heaven. I want them to believe there is a heaven and to live pure and obedient lives so they can come into My kingdom. This book is about all My words and the Kingdom I have prepared for whoever wants to come. Everything is already prepared. This book must be written by a Spirit-filled person. My daughter, if you were not under the special power of my Holy Spirit, I could never use you for this work. (p.116).

I want you to write down exactly what I show you and tell you. Nothing more and nothing less. After this is done, you will receive special gifts to serve Me, and you will be a blessing to My people. I will also bless you more than you want. (p.120).

I want all of My children to come to My kingdom. Whoever reads this book, I want them to believe and realize how they have to live in the world in order to enter the kingdom. (p.131).

From these 15 citations (there are more in the book) it should be obvious to the reader that this book is no ordinary book. Choo, although very special to Jesus, was simply the vehicle through which the “Lord” gave the Church and world new insights. Her book is so powerful that God will use it to deliver people out of spiritual darkness and through its revelations teach people how to live in order to enter the Kingdom of God. According to her Jesus, everything in the book, including its title (p.120), comes directly from the revealed will of God. At no point does Choo’s Jesus direct her or her readers to read the Bible daily, or to study and show themselves approved of God (2 Tim. 2:15). This entity makes no statements regarding the centrality of the Bible; He does make quite a few comments about how important His book through her is!

Hitherto Unknown Heavenly Revelations – aka The Gospel According to Choo

Since you now understand the divine weight of the words in His book, it behooves us to look into the “deep’ insights Choo’s Jesus is sharing with the Church and World. According to Mrs. Thomas, our Lord took her to heaven on 17 occasions. Prior to each “lift-off” the paranormal pattern is as follows: It is early in the morning, between 1:00 and 3:00 AM. Choo’s body goes into the uncontrollable spasms and she sweats profusely. This shaking goes on from a half and hour to an hour. She refers to the cause of this experience using a variety of adjectives based on the root word “anointing.” Here are a few examples: “the anointing of the Lord’s presence,” (p.9), “the intense heat of His anointing,” (p.19), “The anointing was heavy upon me,” (p.59), “a special anointing,” (p.59), “by the anointing of heat,” (p.74), “I was praying intensely under a great anointing from the Holy Spirit,” (p.84), “I cried under the precious anointing,” (p.87), “I plan to give you a special anointing,” (p.121), “a very special anointing,” (p.121), “then the hot anointing and groaning began,” (p.137).

Then she hears a voice speaking to her and she sees the apparition. At this point she has an out-of-body experience where this being first takes her to a secluded beach on earth (location unknown), where they chat for awhile. While out of her physical body it reacts to everything she sees and experiences in her transformed spirit body. If she dances spiritually, then her body on the bed dances too, etc. From the beach they then travel to heaven. I will not detail all 17 trips, but I will cite the “new” information from her trips.

The Master again took me into a huge tunnel. Again—unlike most tunnels—it was bright and shiny…I reasoned this must be the tunnel that people who have near-death experiences frequently describe as the passageway from this life to the next. (p.24).

Unlike Duplantis who got a cable car ride to heaven, Choo goes through a bright tunnel and pops out on the other side in heaven. She has no Scripture to equate her experience to,  so she relies on the subjective alleged near-death experiences of others for validation.

Thomas and her apparition walk along a winding road, passing gorgeous flowers until they come to a white palace with beautiful stained glass windows. They walk in and she sees — The Lord’s glistening golden throne stood atop a raised, oval shaped platform. Beams of radiant glory streamed from the center of the room where this platform was located. I was directed by an angel to a little room on the side, and I was surprised to discover a powder room there. A full-length mirror covered the entire wall on the left side of this room, and many beautiful velvet chairs were neatly arranged in front of the mirror…The being opened a large, walk-in closet that contained many robes, gowns and crowns…After I was dressed, the angel escorted me back to the main room. The Lord was waiting for me. I noticed that He was wearing a gown and crown like mine. (p26).

Good news ladies there are powder rooms in heaven! Every time Choo gets ushered off to heaven she and her Jesus must first change into different robes than their normal spirit-body robes. Note that Jesus wears a crown and robe like Choo’s, as opposed to her being clothed in the robes of His righteousness, no Jesus is dressed like Choo.

What is fairly unique to Choo’s delusion is that she does not see many others in heaven, no multitudes, no throngs of joyous saints praising their Lord. She does mention briefly meeting Abraham, but basically her report is about her, she is the center of attention.

After walking over the beautiful bridge, the Lord led me to a place where babies and infants—many of whom looked as if they had just been born—were kept. It was a huge room, like a warehouse, and wasn’t fancy or pretty. It was filled with babies who were naked and lying close to one another…”There are the babies of mothers who did not want them.” (p.38).

Something doesn’t make sense, Duplantis saw babies and little children being taught by angels….Thomas on the other hand sees them laying in a drab building, naked with no one attending them. They are the aborted babies, whose mothers can have them back if they get saved. Robert LIARdon saw a warehouse in his trip to heaven, but his was filled with human body parts, not babies. Whose vision can we trust? After all, the Bible is silent about what happens to infants and none of the biblical accounts of heaven make mention of them.

The Lord took me to a barren site outside the gate of the Kingdom and showed me many people wearing sand colored robes were in this region, standing very close together, and I noticed that they looked forlorn and lonely even though they were in the midst of so many others. (p.39). I noticed multitudes of people who were wearing sand-colored robes roaming aimlessly in the vicinity of the pit’s yawning mouth. Their heads were hanging low, and they looked very dejected and hopeless. Who are these people, Lord? I asked. “They are disobedient Christians.” How long will they have to stay in this barren, lifeless place? “Forever, My daughter. The only ones who will enter My kingdom are the pure of heart—My obedient children.” (P.46).

He took me to another high mountain from which I could look down into another endless valley here a multitude of people dressed in grey-colored robes were wandering about in an apparent mood of dejection. Their robes reminded me of the gowns worn by hospital patients. The people looked weak and lost, and their grey faces matched the color of the robes they were wearing…This place was mostly men with just a few women. Who are these people Lord? “They are sinful Christians.” What is going to happen to them? I wondered aloud. “Most of them will go to the lake of fire after the judgment.” (p.58).

At least in this detail Choo stays the course with many of the other heavenly delusions in print. We can expect there to be 2 classes of people in heaven. Duplantis saw people in different colored robes, denoting their rank in heaven. Choo sees a class of Christians, some are disobedient and others are sinful. Her Jesus says some of these sinful Christians will end up in the lake of fire. Why not all of them? What did some of these sinful saints do in order to escape the fire? Choo attempts to back up her cockeyed notion by citing 2 Cor. 5:10 concerning the judgment seat. According to her revelation only those who attain sinless perfection in his life will be numbered among the justified in heaven. Again, her focus is on our works and our strivings as opposed to the work Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. If these are the lower class of Christian who are the “high class” super saints?

…I noticed many adults and children who were wearing white gowns, and some of them were wearing crowns. They were simply standing there with very happy looks on their faces. (p.40). As I turned in another direction, I noticed a beautiful river. Along the river was a rock wall, and magnificent dwellings were situated on the left side of the river. Many of these homes looked like castles where only the very wealthy might live. The Lord said, “They are houses for My special children.” (p.44).

These folks have worked really hard and because they are extra special to Jesus (no doubt because of their works), He has made castles for them. As we know all too well by now, Choo is “special” to this being so it only stands to reason that she should get to see her mansion in glory:

We approached one of the castles, and the Lord opened the door for me to enter…The walls were constructed of multicolored precious gems that glistened in a magical way…The Lord rested on a chair as I went up the winding staircase that was more massive and grand than the one shown in Gone With the Wind’s Tara plantation…I noticed that the carpeting was a plush white. I entered a huge powder room that had a very large, sparkling mirrors everywhere. They reflected the brightness of the room (p.55)…I was awestruck by the sparking stone walls that lined the corridor of my mansion. I loved the red-and-cream-colored carpet with its round pattern. The red velvet chairs—so classic and sophisticated—were like the ones I had always wanted in my home. The red draperies were the finest I’d ever seen…The bedroom was carpeted in pure white, and I noticed that the headboard of the bed was silver with blue stones embedded…The mirror on the dresser also had blue stones…The bathroom had a silver bathtub that was decorated with precious jewels of every color. (p.64).

Everybody who gets a pre-death trip to heaven gets to see their “mansion.” This is one problem with taking the Kings James version of the Bible at face value without doing a little grammatical digging. Robertson’s Word Pictures of the New Testament says the following about John 14:2:

John 14:2 – Mansions (monai). Old word from menw, to abide, abiding places, in N.T. only here and verse 23. There are many resting-places in the Father’s house (oikia). Christ’s picture of heaven here is the most precious one that we possess. It is our heavenly home with the Father and with Jesus. If it were not so of the verb (Mark 2:21; Re 2:5,16; Joh 14:11). Here a suppressed condition of the second class (determined as unfulfilled) as the conclusion shows. I would have told you (ejpon an u `min). Regular construction for this apodosis (an and aorist-second active–indicative). For I go (o`ti poreuomai). Reason for the consolation given, futuristic present middle indicative, and explanation of his words in 13:33 that puzzled Peter so (13:36f). To prepare a place for you (e `times topon u `min). First aoist active infinitive of purpose of e `toimazw, to make ready, old verb from e `toimoj. Here only in John, but in Mr 10:40 (Mt. 20:23). It was customary to send one forward for such a purpose (Nu 10:33). So Jesus had sent Peter and John to make ready (this very verb) for the Passover meal (Mr 14:12; Mt 26:17). Jesus is thus our Forerunner (prodromoj) in heaven (Heb 6:20).

These text says nothing about each saint having their own mansion. Her description sounds more like the TBN television set than something created by God! Also, think a moment, why will we need beds in heaven? Will we get tired of praising the Lord? There is no day or night there; the Christ himself is the light throughout heaven (Rev. 21:23). We will be in eternity, so time as we know it will not pass. We will be glorified and like Christ, so we will not get tired and need a “nap.” Choo is fixated on mirrors and powder rooms in her book. She does not describe a heavenly commode, but I assume there must be some since there are heavenly bathtubs (I wonder where the dirt will come from that needs to be cleansed off our bodies?). Thomas also noted a dresser in her bedroom, I guess that is to hold her gowns, maybe the saints “dress” for dinner. Furthermore, the obedient/special children on God will also possess vacation homes on the beach (p.102). When you get tired of all the hubbub in the New Jerusalem just pack up the kids in your chariot and go down to your beachfront vacation mansion for a little R&R!

Good news for pet owners!   Hot off the pages of the Gospel according to Choo: We hiked out of the garden, along a narrow, winding road that led to a mountain vista overlooking a lush green valley. I could see animals of all sorts galloping and playing among the trees. I particularly noticed a spectacular deer that looked so strong and healthy. I noticed that these animals, which would usually be considered wild, were playful with one another. (p44)…It is reassuring to know that animals will live with us in paradise. So many people wonder if their pets will be in heaven…where people and animals alike will never experience pain, hardship, death or suffering ever again. After our visit to the animal paradise, the Lord and I went back to the waterside…(p55).

Again, this is information that the Bible does not detail for us. The book of the Revelation does not mention any animals, there may or may not be animals in heaven, does it really matter? Thomas tells her readers that no animals will ever experience pain or death. Well, that is, except for fish!

Good news for Fishermen!   According to the revelation of Thomas we shall both catch and eat fish in heaven.

We descended the hillside and walked to the water where we saw all kinds of fish swimming in the river…It amused me to see fish in heaven, and I began to laugh…I reached down and grabbed a red, striped fish and lifted it out of the water. I was laughing so uncontrollably, so the fish jumped out of my hands and swam to safety…He began to participate in the action with me by reaching down and grabbing a large fish…It was so good to see the Lord enjoying the moment with me (p.88-89).

As we walked over it, I looked down and saw that the stream was filled with many different kinds of fish. What are the fish for? I asked. “This is food for the kingdom.” the Lord replied. It made me happy to know that we willl be eating fruit and fish in heaven. The fact that these are the primary foods of the kingdom suggests we should be eating more of them on earth. (p.97). …by wading into the water and grabbing a large, flat, white fish. It was about the size of my two hands together. I enjoyed watching the Lord do this for me, and I found the scene to be very amusing…Next, I walked with Him beyond the rocks, where I noticed many large cooking areas that had silver-colored ovens built into the rocks. Atop the oven were cooking grilles with oval-shaped plates and silver forks. The Lord simply pushed a button on the side of one oven and a fire began. He then assumed the role of a cook, right in front of me. He grilled the fish until both sides of it were brown. He seemed to be so happy doing this for me…When we finished eating, He took my plate and fork and put them into a silver container…It wasn’t because I ate the fish; it was because my Lord and Savior cooked the fish and we ate it together. (p.98).

PETA will not be happy to learn that Jesus is not a “vegan.” However, we have been given important information about our future diet in heaven, fruit and fish, ergo we are to be eating much more of these on earth now (I suppose we should walk around in gowns too). I suppose eating all this fruit and fish necessitate the need for “powder rooms” in glory.

Demonic Possession

I stated earlier in this article that it is my belief that Choo is demonically possessed, certainly under the control of a strong demonic delusion. Her own account bears witness to my belief:

“During the night of February 12, my body shook more violently then it ever had. I was almost hurled form the bed because it was so forceful. I tried to grab the sheets to steady myself, but I couldn’t because I had no control over my body. The shaking was unremittingly forceful, and I grew afraid. (p.17).

I began singing in the spirit. The songs come forth, and I have no control over them when I am with the Lord. (p119).

The unusual voice that accompanies the supernatural visions the Lord gives me came forth. (p.123).

The supernatural voice that accompanies the visions He imparts to me came forth, and I saw the cover of Heaven Is So Real. (p.128).

“After everything is done, I want you to build My church.” This statement called forth the voice that always accompanies the supernatural visions the Lord gives me. (p.132).

The vision-voice came forth from my spirit. It seemed to take control of me for a long time (p.134).

My vision-voice came forth as it usually does in preparation for a supernatural vision from the Lord (p.138,139).

By this time I was singing loudly, and my hands were moving around like fists swinging at a punching bag…My whole body was jumping up and down because of the anointing and the shaking. I felt as if I were flying…The excited movement of my body and my vision-voice were so loud that I’m sure the whole house could hear me. (p.139).

Since January 1996 the anointing has been so strong that I cannot even control the shaking and other physical manifestations…For example, as of this writing, I cannot even enter the room where Roger works on the computer because the Holy Spirit’s presence is so strong there…my body begins to jump for joy. This is a physical response that comes from the Lord, and I have no control over it. (p148).

During the periods of shaking I would read my Bible and pray. Then as I would get into bed, my body would undergo tremendous and violent shaking for five or ten minutes. In the process my stomach would tighten, and I would experience spasms in the abdominal region. All of this happens each evening before the Lord’s visit to my room…During these marvelous visits, the Lord speaks directly and personally to me. Then He began to preparatory work in my body. When this happens, I have no control over my body for a period of two to four hours. (p158).

It isn’t until the reader is almost half way through the book that Choo’s mentions that prior to the appearance of the apparition she begins to speak in an “unusual” vision-voice. This is not her usual voice, but something that comes upon her or from within her which signify the beginning of her visions. She admits time after time throughout the book that when this voice speaks through her she has no control over it. When her body shakes or she jumps up and down, again she has no control over it. During the duration of visit by her spirit-guide she is physically out of control. This simply is not the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not indicative of His fruit in our lives.

Galatians 5:22-24  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

1 Corinthians 14:32   The spirit of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.

Choo tells us that she is an end-time prophetess, why can’t she control her own spirit? Where is the self-control in her devotional life? By simple definition, when one is possessed then that individual is incapable of independent action apart from the controlling entity. Choo tells us she has no control during these times.

During the next portion of her book, Thomas goes on to reveal to the readers how “anointed” she is and exactly what the Lord did to her physically in what she refers to as her “body work.” “Each time before the preparatory work begins the Lord talks to me about my future. Then the body work commences…” (p.159). Sound creepy? Choo takes us to the “outer limits” and beyond in the next chapters:

The work involved with preparing my body for the ministry God has called me to do included my face, my hands, my head, my feet and my back. The Lord used my hands to touch every part of my body from my head to the bottom of my feet over and over again…The Holy Spirit directed me in all of this. I don’t really have control of my hands, or any part of my body, when the Holy Spirit is doing His anointed work on me and with me…On several of the nights the Lord poured oil upon me. This precious oil was in oval vessels that looked like small perfume bottles. The bottles were of many different colors. He would pour the oil upon me from head to toes, and on my back as well…I have found that He poured a total of eight-five bottles of anointing oil upon me…Before being bathed in the anointing oil each time an unusual vision-song would come forth. (p.160).

As He poured the anointing oil on my body, I would shake, jerk, perspire and become intently hot…Some nights, while the Lord would be working with my body and hand movements, my entire physical being would become black and cold… There were other occasions when my entire body would become invisible as the Lord was doing His preparatory work with me…During some sessions the Lord would both lift my body and lower it…Many times He would raise and lower my body forty-nine times a night (p.162).

Thomas goes on and on with more of the above. My brothers and sisters what she is describing has absolutely no relationship to the Bible whatsoever. She is describing perfectly what happens to an individual who has undergone what the Hindus call “Shaktipat initiation.” Those who practice Kundalini yoga (translated the serpent power) undergo what they term as an unlocking of their charkas. Charkas are alleged to be energy centers within the human body. The lowest charkas is at the base of the spine and is said to have the form of a coiled serpent (the Kundalini). There are 7 charkas, stopping at the top of the head. Kundalini yoga is considered to be one of the most dangerous forms of yoga and the most demonic gurus of our day have all practiced and taught it, i.e. Bhagwn Shree Rajneesh, Swami Muktananda, Sai Baba to name just a few to deceive multitudes in our own nation. When the serpent power is released in the body, the body goes into spontaneous “kriyas”:

Kriyas, literally “activities”, are spontaneous movements that occur after Kundalini awakening. These include bodily activities such as trembling, shaking, and spontaneous yoga postures; vocal activities such as yelling, or spontaneous chanting and mental activities such as visions. These Kriyas eliminate the blocks to kundalini rising within the spine or central channel.

” Then came the most wild of the kriyas. They continued day and night, but were most vigorous when I was lying down at rest. I hardly slept at all during this period. My body would jerk around in radical, spasmodic movements. These often involved very specific muscle groups, such as those in my feet, hands, stomach, back and so forth… then my arms would fly up and down in similar kind of rapid and rhythmic motion. My legs would kick up and down in the same way. These movements were hard and martial, as if I were practicing military marching while lying in bed… The arm movements were becoming more sinuous and complex. As these arm motions became more fast and furious, I went to a full length mirror to witness what was happening. All at once I had the most eerie feeling, as if my body was ‘remembering’ something. My hips, knees and legs began to sway and undulate as the intricate arm motions choreographed. I stared at the mirror in awe…My body was performing some kind of exotic dance. Then my arms came forward and my hands met, palms pressed together in a prayer-like pose, and drew up to the centre of my chest. A force pulled me over into a bow and held me there an instant. Then my knees buckled, and I found myself kneeling prostrate on the floor. The thought hit me; ‘I’m worshipping something, but worshipping what? Then I knew; I had just performed a sacred temple dance.

Once these “blocks” within the body are removed, then the serpent power can flow throughout the person and from them to others! This is precisely what Mrs. Thomas is undergoing and she has mistakenly attributed it to the work of the Holy Spirit! Choo, like the woman in the quote, mentions that her hands began to move at such a rapid rate they were almost a blur at times. She spends a great deal of time relating to the readers how she privately “dances” before the Lord on the beach. At least the woman in the above citation had the wherewithal to ask what she was worshipping? Choo never asks, just knows all of these experiences are of the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why on earth (or heaven) would the Lord have to work on her physical body in order to prepare her for ministry? No one else in the entire Bible has had to undergo such experiences, frankly, no orthodox Christian since the Apostles have had to undergo any such nonsense.

It was as if He were unlocking the potential within my body…He would cause my body to rise and kneel before Him in intervals of seven, over and over again…Thirty-three different time He “unlocked” the various parts of my body that needed His work of preparation. When He unlocked my hands, for instance, they shook so hard that I grew frightened…Each part of my body had a special reaction to the unlocking work…Each time the Lord pours the anointing oil on me or unlocks the locks of my body, my physical being responds with violent shaking, jerking, intense heat, groans and supernatural power that causes my body to be lifted up (p.165).

Thomas says her body literally levitates, at times becomes invisible, other times turns black and cold. She experiences intense heat and each part of her body (charka?) responds differently as it is unlocked, which is exactly what everything written about kundalini awakenings denotes.

She reports so many other bizarre occurrences during the 3 years of her spiritual transformation that I cannot describe them all. What is to me most disturbing is that close to half a million professing Christians have purchased her book! What shocks me is that Strang Communications, owners of Creation House, would deign to publish a book that is so completely off the charts biblically. From start to finish her novel is fill with unsupported statements and out rightly demonic manifestations. Why didn’t the Strang Editors pick up on this? Why didn’t they refuse to print her book and point Thomas to the Bible and the Jesus of the Bible, who sees all His children as special?

This book and its growing popularity prove to me that we are surely living in dark times. When people can give this balderdash any credence at all is beyond the scope of even my warped imagination. Her book does alert me, and now I hope you as well, to the desperate need that the Body of Christ has for Apologetic ministries. When hundreds of thousands of people can be deceived by such patently obvious fabrications we know that we have got a real battle for God’s truth on our hands. Please pray for Mrs. Thomas and ask God to grant repentance to Strang publications for being a tool in Satan’s hands to mislead multitudes.  ♦

Copyright © 2006 Robert S. Liichow

This is a video link that shows a comparison of the manifestations which are mentioned above in this article, and have also continued to be currently promoted in books, conferences and recent revivals such as the Lakeland Revival. 

Footnotes

1. I will not go into the history of these aberrant “revivals” and their attending manifestations. I have covered them in the fullest detail available in my 2 books “Blessing or Judgment” and “Two Roots of Today’s Revival.”

2. I urge all of our readers to purchase at some point the books “The Confusing world of Benny Hinn” published by the Personal Freedom Outreach (www.pfo.org ). It is the definitive work exposing this dangerous charlatan for who and what he is.

3. DMI has a small, but very helpful book on this topic entitled “Does the Bible Support Being Slain in the Spirit.”

4. Obtained from http://www.experiencefestival.com/krivas.

5. Obtained from http://www.eaglespiritministry.com/teaching/elcollie/eckm.htm.

6. The books written on heavenly trips have been by people without any seminary education. People like Mary K. Baxter, Jesse Duplantis, Robert Liardon, Howard Pittman, Richard Eby and others.

Sacred Cow Number Four – The Laws of Faith & Confession

Truth Matters Newsletter – May 2005 – Vol. 10 Issue 5 – Sacred Cow Number Four – The Laws of Faith & Confession – by Rev. Robert S. Liichow

Discernment Ministries International

Sacred Cow Number Four

The Laws of Faith & Confession

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is, the word of faith, which we preach.”    Romans 10:8

Using a little Aussie slang “let’s fire-up the Bar-b,” because we have another couple of Word of Faith (WOF) steaks to throw onto the flames! We began by considering some Christological errors propagated by the WOF preachers because they fall into the true category of heresy in that they deal specifically with the nature and work of Jesus Christ. How we shall begin to consider some other areas of error which cannot properly be considered heresies but fall into the category of false doctrine or as Paul calls them in his warning to his disciple Timothy—

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1 Timothy 4:1

Previously we have seen that there are only three sources of doctrine, the doctrine of God (Heb. 6:1); the doctrines of men (Col. 2:22); and lastly the docrines of devils as seen in the above text.

In this issue we will consider the WOF definition of faith and confession. After all, the cult is widely known as the “name-it-and-claim-it” movement. Some call it the “fake-it-till you make-it” movement, to others it is know as the “positive confession” movement. Regardless of what it is called, the real issue; is what they are teaching millions of people biblical or not?

The Word of Faith’s Concept of “Faith”

Since we are saved by grace through faith in Christ (Eph. 2:5,8) and we know that it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb. 11:6) it behooves us to properly understand what faith exactly is. Let us consider the words of the WOF cult’s true spiritual father, the heresiarch E.W. Kenyon:

Faith is giving substance to things hoped for. Faith is grasping the unrealities of hope and bringing them into the realm of reality. Faith grows out of the Word of God. It is the warranty deed that the things for which you have fondly hoped is at last yours. It is the “evidence of things not seen. (1)

According to Kenyon  (and the myriad of drones who have followed his errors) faith is a literal force which when released will give substance to the thing the individual has been hoping for. Kenyon goes on in his book to delineate faith into two types. The first is natural sense-knowledge based faith and then the real faith which comes by revelation to the spirit of an individual and it is not based on what is seen or felt.

Here are two kinds of faith in contrast. One is Sense Knowledge Faith, which is based upon physical evidence. We see and believe. We hear and believe. Jesus speaks of another kind of faith where they do not see, nor feel, nor hear, yet they believe. (2)

The faith that “counts” produces the hoped for results, i.e. Rolex watches, mansions, divine health, the man or woman of ones dreams, is the second type which is a mystical revelation directly from God’s Holy Spirit to your spirit. Kenyon is inconsistent in the prior quote because in many other instances he cites that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). Yet above he states that this biblical, supernatural faith does not hear! So which is it? Biblical faith comes hearing God’s Word ( DMI’s position) or does it come via supernatural means apart from hearing the Word of God? Kenneth E. Hagin (the Pretender to the WOF title of “father” of the cult) says:

Real faith in God—heart faith—believes the Word of God regardless of what the physical evidence may be. It’s believing with the inward man that causes it to be manifest in the outward man. (3)

We were taught that in order to obtain the results of what we believed for we had to receive a revelation of God’s Word from the Holy Spirit to our human spirits. From there our spirit man (the “real” us) had to renew our minds with this revealed knowledge which would eventually bring it to pass. The only way a person could know if they truly believed with their spirit versus mere mental assent was in obtaining the results. If a person received what they believed for, then they had exercised the second kind of faith, true biblical faith. If one failed to receive what they believed for, then either they had not yet renewed their mind sufficiently and the manifestation of their hope was in process, or they simply were using their soul and not their spirit. The important thing to remember is that results were the determining factor if one had faith or not.

The WOF cult makes a great dichotomy between the spirit of man and the physical body. In fact, they stress a belief that man is a tricheotomy, we are a spirit; we have a soul and live in a human body (which as we have already covered is what gives us authority in this earth realm). Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Fred Price (The “trinity” of the WOF cult) state this very plainly in what they teach regarding faith and the anthropology of man: Your body is not the real you, it is just the house you live in. If the body were you, Paul would have said, ‘I bring myself into subjection’ [Hagin is referring to 1 Cor. 9:27]. (4)

To be a powerful Christian your spirit, trained in the Word, must be in command of your mind and body. The chain of command is spirit (heart), soul (mind), body (flesh)…You are not bound to an ugly, sinful body and neither do you have two natures in you. God did not create you a spiritual schizophrenic. Your body is not you. Your spirit is you. You are a spirit, and you have a soul, and you live in a body. Do you have a human? No, you are a human. That body is not you. That body is where you live. If you will stand up on the inside, feed on the Word of God, and renew your mind, your stand up on the inside, feed on the Word of God, and renew your mind, your body will just tag along and do what it is told. (5)

God has created you a spirit being and it is only in the spirit that you can understand God. It is as your spirit is educated that your spirit can begin to educate your mind and your mind can learn how to act on God’s Word instead of acting on logic or human reasoning…God is a Spirit. Man is a spirit. He has a soul, and he lives in a body. God deals with man through his spirit nature… (6).

It is not heretical to believe man is a tri-part being, however, it’s a view that is not widely held by theologians today and has its origins in Platonic dogma and metaphysics. What is troubling about Hagin, Copeland and Price’s statements are that they do not view man as a totally integrated being.

Copeland adds that we do not have two natures in us, i.e. the WOF cult sees their followers as not possessing a sinful nature at all. They view themselves (wrongly) as becoming literally righteous in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). If the Christian still is not hindered by a fallen sinful nature then why does he still sin? How does Copeland explain   1 John 8-10?

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Also, how do they explain the text that urges Christians to cleanse ourselves of both the filthiness of the flesh AND spirit?

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1

A.T. Robertson, the Greek scholar says the following concerning the above text:

2 Cor. 7:1 – These promises . So many and so precious (2 Pe 2:4; Heb 11:39f.) Let us cleanse ourselves. Old Greek used (in N.T. only in Joh 15:2, to prune). In koine occurs in inscriptions for ceremonial cleansing (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 216f.) Paul includes himself in this volitive aorist subjunctive. From all defilement Ablative alone would have done, but with apo it is plainer as in Heb. 9:14. Is a late word meaning to stain (see on 1 Co 8:7). To pollute. In the LXX, Plutarch, Josephus. It includes all sorts of filthiness, physical, moral, mental, ceremonial, “of flesh and spirit.” Missionaries in China and India can appreciate the atmosphere of pollution in Corinth, for instance. Perfecting holiness. Not merely negative goodness (cleansing), but aggressive and progressive (present tense of holiness, not a sudden attainment of complete holiness, but a continuous process (1 Th 3:13; Ro. 1:4; 1:6)   (7)

If words mean anything (always keeping their context in mind) then it appears that the believer is not completely free from the fallen nature. We will consider their view of sinless perfection when we look into their doctrine of positive confession, which goes hand in hand with their beliefs about faith.

God is a faith God, we must always keep that in mind. We as Christians, are children of God. We are faith-children of a faith-God. We are not emotional children of an emotional God, but we are faith-children of a faith God. (8)

God has created certain spiritual laws by which His universe functions, laws that He himself is bound to. One of these laws is the “law of faith.” God uses the law of faith to created everything. According to WOF cosmology God created the universe by speaking (confessing) “faith-filled” words. God’s belief in His Words was complete and thus brought to pass exactly what He said. This argument is buttressed by many proof texts, I will cite just a few of them:

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light…And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters…And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. Gen. 1:3,6,9

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Mark 11:23

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Heb. 11:3

No true Christian doubts that God created the universe or that He literally spoke it into existence ex nihilo or out of nothing. Where the WOF cult errs is that they teach that God was using a spiritual law, the law of faith to create the universe. In fact I have heard WOF teachers say publicly that God did not create the universe out of nothing, He created out of faith and as we know faith is a “substance” (see Hebrews 11:1) it is tangible, it is something and not nothing.

Kenneth Copeland more cogently explains the WOF concept of spiritual law and the law of faith better than any other WOF teacher:

We need to realize that the spiritual world and its laws are more powerful than the physical world and its laws. Spiritual law gave birth to physical law. The world and the physical forces governing it were created by the power of faith— a spiritual force. God a Spirit, created all matter, and He created it with the force of faith… Faith is a spiritual force, a spiritual energy, a spiritual power. It is this force of faith which makes the laws of the spirit world function. When the force of faith is put to work, these laws of the spirit function according to the way God says they will. (9)

However, I must give credit where credit is due, the above concept did not originate with Copeland, he is simply parroting his spiritual father, the now deceased, Kenneth E. Hagin who twisted Mark 11:22 to say “have the faith of God” versus what it does say “have faith in God.” There is a HUGE difference in those two little words. Admittedly, some Bibles do translate Mark 11:22 using “of” versus “in,” but as Crenshaw rightly points out “it is a well established idiom of Greek to use ‘faith of God’ to mean ‘faith in God.” (11) However, Hagin takes this one word and weaves a tapestry of error from it saying that we too, as God’s children are to operate using the same type of faith as God uses: “This is the kind of faith that spoke the world into existence.”  (12)

Well, how does one come to the place where they can operate and use the God kind of faith (for now, we’ll assume there is such a thing)? To learn how to do this we must turn to a man Copeland considers one of the greatest living theologians today, Charles Capps to gain insight into how we can begin to actualize who we really are, little gods:

“God’s Word conceived in the heart, then formed with the tongue and spoken out of the mouth becomes a spiritual force releasing the ability of God. (13)

Capps is totally convinced that this is the principle by which we are to release the ability of God. He mentions it in almost every book he has written (and DMI has almost all of them). We saw that this was how God became a man, nothing miraculous about it, just Mary enacting the law of faith:

It was an act of the God-kind of faith that caused the miraculous conception…Mary conceived the Word of God in her heart; then she went to Elisabeth’s house and told her, ‘He hath done great things’…The Lord said to me, ‘My Word will get people healed and filled with the Holy Ghost the same way that the miraculous conception took place! Any believer can conceive My Word concerning healing in their spirits, and healing will manifest in their physical bodies! They can conceive My Word concerning prosperity of finances, and prosperity will manifest itself in their business affairs…The miraculous conception came through the God-kind of faith. The faith of God rose in Mary’s heart, and she received the Word. She conceived it in her spirit, and it manifested itself in her physical body. (14)

Before we launch off into seeing how this “God-kind of faith” is put into operation, let’s take a quick review of what we’ve covered thus far concerning the WOF cult teaching about faith.

1. God must use faith in order to create.

2. God has created us in His likeness and image, so we too must use the same spiritual law of faith in order to obtain God’s promises.

3. Faith is a literal force, a spiritual substance and a spiritual power.

4. The God-kind of faith only comes into manifestation when it has been conceived in the human spirit versus the human mind. The God-kind of faith never fails to produce the desired results.

5. The God-kind of faith must always be verbally expressed.

With these concepts in mind how do these pundits of power explain the following? Buddy Harrison  (Kenneth E. Hagin’s son-in-law) died of cancer. Buddy taught and practiced for over twenty years the WOF dogmas regarding faith, why wasn’t he healed? Mack Timberlake, another WOF televangelist got cancer and he died. Peggy Capps, Charles Capps wife got cancer and survived due to medical treatment (and God’s gracious mercy). Betty Price, Fred Prices wife, got cancer was medically treated and survived. Joyce Meyer, another WOF “maven” revealed on a televised broadcast that she had breast cancer and was going to believe God for her healing but her family urged her to obtain medical help and she did, she is cancer-free today. We all know of Jan Crouch and her bout with cancer (and medical treatment). Yet she is a very close friend of both Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn, two of the most widely acknowledged men who are allegedly used by God to heal multitudes, yet neither Benny or Oral could help Jan or any of the others I’ve mentioned. Tammy-Faye Bakker Mesner is well known for her various bouts with cancer and her medical treatment, successful thus far. None of the WOF leaders acknowledge that the true “father” of their cult, E.W. Kenyon  died of a cancerous tumor. (15) I could mention T.L. Osborn’s wife Daisy and her death from cancer. T.L. was one of my instructor’s at Tilton’s Bible School. All WOF preachers proclaim that the law of faith only works when the force of love is also enacted. After all, doesn’t the Bible teach that “faith worketh by love” (see Gal. 5:6)? Tilton even wrote a book entitled “God’s Royal Law of Love.” (16) In his book he shares various anecdotes on what happens when we operate in the God-kind of love and all the miracles of faith that transpire because of the power of love. He is on television today proclaiming himself a “prophet” of God and a man whose faith is so strong he can obtain whatever you need from God. Yet how can this be true when he has been divorced twice and is currently married to his third wife? If the law of faith is enacted by the law of love, then Tilton’s faith must not be active at all or he would not have gotten divorced from his first wife!!

It is shameless that these ministers teach a doctrine concerning faith and love that does not even work in their own lives! Not one of the people I mentioned (and I could mention many more) have received a manifestation of healing for themselves or their family members through using these so-called spiritual laws concerning the “God-kind of faith. It boggles my mind in the face of such as abysmal track record that people listen to them at all. If what they teach does not even work in their own lives and some of these people have been teaching these spiritual laws for over twenty-five years then what hope does the mere devotee have of obtaining the proffered results? NONE!

 The little dirty secret is that these folks know what they are spewing forth does not really work. How can I say such a thing? Simple!  Because by now Copeland, Capps, Tilton, Price, Hinn, and all the other teachers should be giants of faith and power and yet they are not. Well, you might ask “why do they continue to teach things they know not to work or even be true?”  That is a bit harder to answer because it goes to motive, which really only God knows for sure. Yet there are some Scriptures that might indicate why they continue along this destructive path:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingered not, and their damnation slumbered not. 2 Peter 2:1-3.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 Timothy 4:1,2

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.  Titus 1:10,11

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 2 Tim. 3:13

The Church has always been plagued with false teachers and sadly, large numbers “polus” will follow them. These false teachers simply make merchandise of God’s gullible people for their own personal gain. One thing is certain, all WOF teachers are very wealthy and they got that way by appealing to their followers carnal desires for power and wealth in their own lives. So without a doubt some, not all, but some WOF leaders are in it merely for the money. Others have had their own consciences seared, burned shut to the truth of God’s Word because they have taught lies in hypocrisy, i.e. they knew what they taught was not the truth. It becomes a vicious circle as they deceive others they themselves fall further into deception. I am willing to admit that some of these folks may have started out really believing what they taught was the truth. Yet after the years of obvious failure in their lives and those of their followers it becomes very hard to reconcile that these people genuinely believe what they proclaim. At best they are deceived and at worst they are frauds. In either case God’s people are lead astray and further from the Lord and not closer to Him. This is evident in the manner in which they even have defined biblical faith!

What all of the WOF teachers miss is the simple biblical definition of what faith is really all about. In the Greek the word for faith is “pistis”, which means a confident reliance upon God. The WOF cult is not concerned with the object of our faith, God; they have turned faith into a spiritual law independent of God. Crenshaw sums it up in a neat package in the following statement:

Man controls, not God. (There is no providence, according to them.) Faith, therefore, according to the Word of Faith leaders originates within man; its nature is metaphysical; its object is the metaphysical laws to manipulate the ‘force’ for one’s desires; and its purpose is for selfish ends. In Scripture faith is created within by God (Phil 1:29; Acts 13:48; 16:14; 18:27), its nature is moral and submissive, its object is the Triune God, and its purpose is to glorify God and to serve Him. We could not have more contradictory concepts of faith.   (17)

Crenshaw is absolutely correct in his assessment. For example, Kenneth Hagin wrote a book entitled “Have Faith in Your Faith”:

Did you ever stop to think about having faith in your own faith? Evidently Jesus had faith in His faith, because He spoke to the fig tree, and what He said came to pass. In other words, having faith in your words is having faith in your faith. That’s what you’ve got to learn to do to get things from God: Have faith in your faith. (18)

Hagin does not say “have faith in God” or even “trust in God’s Word.” On the contrary, he tells us to have faith in ourselves and our abilities and the power of our spoken words. If we, like Jesus, who as we learned two months ago, ministered only as a man, spoke to the fig tree and did not doubt His words would come to pass and presto they did! We too can possess whatever we confess (if it has been conceived in our spirit first). This leads us to the other portion of the sacred cow of “faith.”

Positive Confession Brings Possession

A person is literally what he thinks and believes. His personality is the sum total of his thoughts. You are today what your thoughts, beliefs, and convictions have made you…. Our confession is, in the final analysis merely the vocal expression of what we think and believe. (19)

According to the cult your life consists of exactly what you have spoken into existence either through “faith-filled” words or “fear-filled” words. What you really believe is what you will speak forth and since you really believe those words (have faith in them) as one created in the “God-class” of being, like God your words will create reality for the better or worse. It is due to this belief that the cult is often referred to as the “Positive Confession “ movement.

What is especially troubling to me about the above citation, apart from it being patently false; is that it was written by Dr. Hobart Freeman, who at one point was an esteemed theologian and Professor at Grace Theological Seminary. Somehow he got spiritually off tract and became a true believer  (21)  in many of the WOF doctrines. What he stated is the WOF position to this day. Theologically such beliefs would fall into the category of a “theology of glory.” The question is how does a person get to the place of walking in victory over all the circumstances of living in a fallen world every day? Although, not specifically mentioned, logically this implies that WOF practitioners must include victory over their inherent sinfulness in order to achieve this type of living.

The spirit world is controlled by the Word of God. The natural world is to be controlled by must speaking God’s Words. The spoken Word of God is creative power…God’s Word is just as powerful today as it was the day He spake it.  Not one bit of power has left God’s Word. God’s creative power is still in His Word…This is the thing I want you to see. YOU CAN SPEAK GOD’S WORDS AFTER HIM AND THEY WILL WORK FOR YOU. But, they must be formed in your spirit. They must become a part of you. They must abide in you continually. (22)

Our confession will either imprison us or set us free. Our confession is the result of our believing, and our believing is the result of our right or wrong thinking… It is our confession….that creates the reality, and then it becomes real in our lives. (23)

Although different WOF leaders teach a variety of principles regarding how to manipulate the spiritual laws which govern the universe (which can prove quite frustrating to the devotee who is desperately trying to gain mastery over his life’s circumstances) the most commonly accepted method is the one I was taught years ago.

Since we now have the nature of God we are to begin to act like Him and do what He did, after all, Jesus said we would do even greater works than He did, right? Jesus went around speaking to fig trees,  speaking to dead bodies, speaking to the weather and He got exactly what He said. Not because He was God, but because as a man anointed with the Holy Spirit He operated the spiritual law of faith perfectly. When He spoke He believed what He said would come to pass and immediately it did. Out of the abundance of His heart (not His mind) His mouth spoke and it came to pass (see Luke 6:45).

We know Jesus was a Rabbi, and that from His youth He had been planting the Word of God into His spirit and (the “real” Jesus, remember we are not our bodies, nor our minds). We know that by the age of twelve (see Luke 2:47) He was astounding the doctors of the law with His answers.

Ergo, to begin to obtain the same results Jesus did as an anointed man, then we too must begin to plant the Word of God down into our spirits. This is accomplished via several avenues

(1) MEDITATION. Meditating on the Word of God, which according to Hagin and others means to ponder and mutter (confess) to the promises being studied. Keep in mind if you need money you mediate on financial promises. If healing, then mediate/plant healing verses into the soil of your spirit.

(2) VISUALIZATION   We learned firsthand from Paul Cho   (24)   that we must begin to see ourselves as possessing what we have been meditating on. Our congregation avidly studied his book “The Fourth Dimension” which goes into great detail concerning visualization and the power of dreaming.

(3) PRAYER “Never pray your problem.”  If you pray the problem, it will get worse.” (25)   We were taught to pray/verbalize to God only His Word and the desire result. For example, I would not pray, “Lord I have the flu, please be merciful and heal me.” Instead, I would declare boldly to the Lord “Your Word says that by His stripes I am healed and I confess that I am healed and I command my body to get in line with the Word of God. I command this sickness to leave me in the name of Jesus and I bind the powers of the evil one in Jesus name!.”  If someone came up to me and told me I did not look well or how was I feeling I would say something like “it doesn’t matter how I may look or how I fee, all that matters is what God says about me and He says I am healed and so I agree with Him.” Another very important ingredient in obtaining strong Christ-like faith and effectiveness is exercising (4) PATIENCE Remember we are in the process of planting the incorruptible seed God (see 1 Peter 1:23) You do not plant a tomato seed on Monday and get a harvest on Tuesday. It is through “faith and patience” that we inherit the promises of God (see Hebrews 6:12). The problem is that many of us undisciplined WOF’ers were constantly digging up the seeds we had planted by making negative confessions!  We planted confessed/visualized healing but one day after we had begun the process we’d slip up and say something like “I don’t feel very well,” or maybe even call into work “sick.” In doing this we nullified all our previous efforts and had to go back to the drawing board and start to re-plant the seeds.

….I have just planted a field of cotton. Now wouldn’t it be foolish if I went out the next morning and said, ‘Man, something is wrong. This cotton is not coming up. Let’s plow it up and plant it again.’ Then the next day the same thing happened. If I kept doing that, I could plant 365 days and still not produce any cotton. We need to become as smart in the spiritual realm as we are in the natural…Our prayers many times have held us in bondage, causing spiritual bankruptcy. No one would dare plant a garden and the next morning dig it up. It takes time for these things to happen. (26)

Can you see how much true bondage we were in because of this false doctrine?  Even though we were taught that fear cancels out faith, we were (we’d never admit it) afraid of saying the wrong words. We were held in captivity by our confessions.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

That being said it is easy to see the “out” the WOF teachers give themselves when what their followers confession does not come to pass in their lives. The answer is obvious, either they “dug up their seed” by speaking words contrary to what they had been confessing. Or, the promises they’d been endeavoring to manifest in their lives had never gotten past their minds and they only ere at the head knowledge plane and the Word had yet to get into their spirits and germinate. Never forget the only way any WOF person knows that the Word of God has gotten into their spirit is that when they confess that promise it comes to pass in their lives.

If what you believe for is not manifesting then it is YOUR fault. If you are sick, you confess healing verses and die…it was your fault (or maybe those around you had weakened your faith through their own unbelief). If you follow all the steps, principles and spiritual laws given to you and still fail to obtain the goal ( total victory over al the circumstances in life according to Dr. Freeman), guess what?  You are the one to blame.  As I have heard Kenneth Copeland say on many occasions “if you play the game right you will.” In other words, you work God’s laws properly and they will always produce the desire results. In this article I made passing mention of all the WOF giants and many times their wives got cancer and died. I guess Kenny these folks did not “play the game right.”

This brings me another favorite excuse we were taught concerning faith failures, the parallel between our faith and human muscles. It goes something like this: imagine coming up to a four hundred pound weight, and you, who’ve had no prior weight training attempts to bench pres it. What will happen? You will not be able to lift the weight. Why not? Because you muscles are not sufficiently developed to handle lifting that much weight. The same can be said of our faith, which like our muscles must be developed. If you go to the doctor and he says “ you have cancer” and you begin to immediately confess healing verses you may in fact be trying to lift the four hundred pound weight when you can only lift a fifteen pound barbell ! Fred Price uses this analogy often and even wrote a book which I’ve previously cited How to Obtain Strong Faith (Six Principles). In this book Fred details that there are many levels or degrees of faith, he mentions “weak faith”; “little faith”; “strong faith”; “unfeigned faith”; and “shipwrecked faith”. (27)

According to the WOF cult the key to obtaining victory is to begin to plant the seed of God’s Word deep in your spirit BEFORE the need for healing, a good marriage, blessed children and finances even arises. This planting is done through the power released when we speak God’s Word from our spirits and not our minds. Fred explains the problem with most Christians and why the vast majority of us (at least in the WOF cult’s eyes) are low wattage believers:

Too many Christians are trying to educate their minds first, and then let their minds educate their spirits. That is not the way God works. God works through the spirit of man. When man’s spirit is fed properly on the Word of God, then man’s spirit will educate man’s mind and man’s mind will bring man’s body into subjection to the will of God. (28)

Confused? You ought to be. Fred does not explain how God bypasses the human mind in order to get His Word directly into the spirit of man. Again, I ask rhetorically the question how does one know if he is hearing with his spirit man or his mind?  We know that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).  There is absolutely nothing in the Greek text which implies a spiritual hearing of the spoken Word of God as opposed to a normal sense of hearing anything spoken to us, i.e. we think about it with our minds!

Let me close down the grill by way of a short summation. According to this dangerous and very popular cult:

(1) faith is a spiritual force, one that even God Himself must use.

(2) Since faith is a spiritual force, man who is created in the image of God, must in essence by a spirit being who has a mind and lives in a body.

(3)  In order to properly use the spiritual law of faith it must come from our spirits and not our minds.

(4) Somehow our spirits are to educate our minds, which in turn will control our bodies.

(5) Basically this process is done through enacting another spiritual law, that of confession.

(6) Through mediation/muttering/confessing  God’s Word concerning many areas of our lives His Word mystically gets down into our spirits. Once we plant the seed, we water it by continued confession, visualization, dreaming about the end result we desire, confessing it to others and by being patient.

(7)  We will only know if we have genuinely believed with our hearts versus our heads when what we confess becomes a reality in our lives. We confess healing and the cancer leaves. We confess for a mate and we receive one. We confess increased finances and presto new jobs, raises at work, inheritances come our way. The proof is in the pudding as the old adage goes.

What’s wrong With This Picture?

I have already cited some errors regarding their concept of faith previously. Quite simply, biblical faith is a GIFT given by God upon redemption (see Eph. 2:8). As previously cited our faith is in God not in ourselves.  Our trust and complete reliance is in Christ Jesus and what He did for us. We look to Him and not our own alleged spiritual power.

Nowhere in the Bible is faith ever referred to as a “force” or a tangible spiritual substance by which we create and direct reality. WOF cultists love to cite Hebrews 11 and the many examples of what happened when individuals trusted in God (not the power of their own faith).  Yet they usually stop reading at the following point because it does not line up with their paradigm of victory:

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy: ) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11:36-38.

Today’s WOF SINisters would say these people lacked sufficient faith and did not understand how the laws of the spirit realm operate.  Obviously, they were confessing the problem and not the answer! Isn’t it funny how the Holy Spirit says that the world was not worthy of these apparent “losers.” In fact God says in v. 39 “And these all having obtained a good report through faith…” The issue was not whether some had stronger faith and received miracles and that others had weaker faith and were sawn asunder. All of those mentioned in the chapter had faith in God period. They looked to Him and trusted in Him to move in their lives according to the good pleasure of His will.

As to their view on confessing things into existence; it is nothing short of witchcraft which simply defined is manipulating reality through the use of spiritual power. The president of my first “Bible” School, Robert Tilton goes as far as to say that “You can tell God on the authority of His Word what we would like Him to do.” (29)  I distinctly remember Copeland telling us in a convention that God expected His children to tell Him what to do for us and even buttressed his statement with the following proof text ‘thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isa. 45:11)!   Copeland totally ignores the context of the chapter which has to do with the deliverance by Cyrus and he has not done any research into the source language. If he had he would have discovered that God is not actually telling us to command Him at all, quite the contrary.

MAURER translates, instead of “command,” Leave it to Me, in My dealings concerning My sons and concerning the work of My hands, to do what I will with My own. LOWTH reads it interrogatively, Do ye presume to question Me and dictate to Me (see Isa. 45:9,10) ? (30)

This gives a totally different understanding of the text than the one Copeland spews forth. That is the major problem with this whole issue of positive confession.; it takes away the sovereignty of God and makes man the determiner of his destiny.  God is reduced to merely being an errand boy whose role is to make sure the WOF cultist gets all the goodies they have confessed.

My dear brothers and sisters the WOF concept of “faith” is aberrant and non-biblical; its companion “positive confession” does not come from the Bible but from various non-Christian metaphysical cults.

Sadly there are millions of people who are deceived by this cult. Multitudes are desperately trying to build up the faith muscles and create better lives for themselves through the manipulation of spiritual laws and positive words. They are all headed away from God, because they are not trusting in Him and the work of His Son. Instead they are building their spiritual houses on the doctrinal quicksand of false teachers. Jesus said when the storm beats against their house (and it surely will) great will be the ruin thereof. I know, I write this from my own personal experience and I have watched people literally die before my eyes confessing they were healed! Pray that our merciful High Priest will open their eyes and lead them out of the bondage of error. ♦

Copyright © 2005  Robert S. Liichow

 

 

 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Kenneth Copeland (*But were Afraid to Ask) By Rev. Robert S. Liichow

This booket is Available Only from DMI Ministries – $15.00.

 

 

Our God has always taken a very dim view (to say the least) of anyone who practices any form of witchcraft. Yet today, many internationally know charismatic leaders are practicing a form of witchcraft called “sympathetic magick,”

In this powerful radio interview names are “named” and the truth behind the use of point-of-contact items is revealed for what it really is,  a simple money-making scheme used by people who are seeking only to enrich themselves at the expense of God’s gullible saints.  This is a lively and very informative program!  (Available from DMI ministry)

End Notes:

1. Kenyon E.W., the Two Kinds of Faith (Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, 1969), p. 7

2. Ibid. pp. 11,12 Underlining added for emphasis.

3. Hagin, Kenneth, The Real Faith (Tulsa, OK : Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1978). p. 13 Underlining added.

4. Ibid. p. 14 ‘

5. Copeland, Kenneth, The Force of Faith (Fort Worth, TX : KC Publications. 1983); pp.2,4 Underlining added.

6 Price, Frederick, How to Obtain Strong Faith (Six Principles) Tulsa, OK; Harrison House, 1977) p.28 Underlining added.

7. Robertson A.T. Word Pictures of the New Testament (BibleWorks ver. 4.0.035 1995)

8. Price, Frederick, How to Obtain Strong Faith (Six Principles) Tulsa, OK; Harrison House 1977) p. 28 Underlining added

9. In the cult we were told that this verse meant that God created the worlds through faith. The proper understanding is that it is we who believe God creted the worlds, we the creature are the ones exercising “faith” and not God.

10. Copeland, Kenneth, The Laws of Properity (Forth Worth, TX: KCP, 1974), pp. 18-19 Bold type and underlining added.

11. Crenshaw, Curtis I, Man as God the Word of Faith Movement (Memphis, TN: Footstool Publishers, 1994) p. 205

12 Kenneth E. Hagin, Faith Edition Bible (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1990) pp.lxxiv,lxxv.

13. Capps, Charles, The Dynamics of Faith & Confession (Tulsa OK: Harrison House 1987) p. 33

14. Capps, Charles, Authority Special Edition, Word of Faith Bible School (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1984), pp. 80-84. This “special Edition” was one of my text books as a student at Robert Tilton’s Word of Faith Bible School in the mid 1980’s. Underlining added.

15. Kenneth Hagin used to tell a story how Kenyon ate lunch, went into his living room, sat in his rocking chair, his daughter walked in and Kenyon exclaimed “there’s Jesus good-bye” and entered into heaven. However, DMI obtained a previously unpublished thesis by Geir Lie, a Norwegian, on Mr. Kenyon which detailed his death, proving Mr. Hagin a liar and Kenyon’s concept of faith false and non-workable in his own life.

16. Tilton, Robert, God’s Royal Law of Love (Dallas,TX; Robert Tilton Ministries, 1989

17. Crenshaw, Curtis, I, Man as God the Word of Faith Movement (Memphis TN: Footstool Publication, 1994), p.73 Bold type added.

18. Hagin, Kenneth, Have Faith in Your Faith (Tulsa, OK; Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1988) pp. 4-5 Underlining added

19. Freeman, Hobart, Positive Thinking and Confession (Warsaw, IN : Faith Publication), p.8 underlining added.

20. Ibid. p.7

21. I say “true believers” because Dr. Freeman actually believed the lies of the WOF cult. He did not teach one thing and live another. For example he did not preach divine healing and then make use of doctors and medicine of any kind. Over 90 people died in his church because of the fact he really believed the WOF doctrines concerning faith and divine healing.  In the end, he died also from an easily treatable aliment. He established several congregations, some of which still exist today and they still adhere to his aberrant beliefs. I must admit out of all these heretics, I respect Freeman, to a degree because he had a genuine conviction of what he taught. DMI has several of his books and many of his tapes.

22. Capps, Charles, The Tongue A Creative Force (Tulsa, OK; Harrison House, 1976), pp.9,12

23. Hagin, Kenneth, Right and Wrong Thinking (Tulsa, OK; Kenneth Hagin Ministries 1989) p.7

24. Paul Cho is the pastor of the largest church in the world of close to a million people. He is a giant within the WOF cult. I mention this because I want you, the reader, to understand that what DMI and other ministries are combating is a vast global plague of error and blasphemy which is spreading rapidly and is impacting the spiritual lives of millions of people.

25. Capps, Charles, Releasing the Ability of God through Prayer (Tulsa, OK; Harrison House, 1978), p.39

26. Ibid. p.41

27. Price, Fredrick, Ho to Obtain Strong Faith (Six Principles) Tulsa, OK; Harrison House 1977) p.27

28. Ibid. p.9 Underlining added.

29. Tilton, Robert, God’s Miracle Plan for Man (Tulsa, OK; Robert Tilton Ministries 1989) p.36

30. Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, obtained from http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries  on 05-03-05.