SPOTLIGHT COMMENTS ON THE MAP
The following are comments regarding certain “ports” along your voyage depicted on the Map. However, comments could have been made for every port since doctrinal distortion and perversion is common in American Christendom.
During the past two decades, error has escalated to epidemic proportions and pervaded just about every area in the Protestant church. Postmodernism with its foolish relativity has invaded the church. The grace and love of God has been perverted into what the apostle Paul said it must never be—a sin permissive Antinomianism. (The very thing the Apostle Paul warned against in Romans 7: the belief that a Christian can continue sinning because he’s covered by grace.) Truth has been twisted into error.
Most heartbreaking is how the Person of God is misrepresented. Everything a man believes can be ultimately traced back to his doctrine of God. What he believes about God determines what he believes about his life and this, in turn, affects how he lives.
The reason I have commented only on select ports of the voyage is because I felt God "spotlighting" these.
These comments are not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to introduce teachings imperative and vital to the believer. These comments address con-troversial issues and imbalances regarding major doctrines taught in churches today.
God is able to give you a life teeming with His love, joy and victory when you are biblically grounded and believing His promises. He wants us to have a faith-filled walk that is spiritually satisfying, doctrinally sound, salvation sure and eternally secure.
SPOTLIGHT COMMENTS ON THE MAP
The following are comments regarding certain “ports” along your voyage depicted on the Map. However, comments could have been made for every port since doctrinal distortion and perversion is common in American Christendom.
During the past two decades, error has escalated to epidemic proportions and pervaded just about every area in the Protestant church. Postmodernism with its foolish relativity has invaded the church. The grace and love of God has been perverted into what the apostle Paul said it must never be—a sin permissive Antinomianism. (The very thing the Apostle Paul warned against in Romans 7: the belief that a Christian can continue sinning because he’s covered by grace.) Truth has been twisted into error.
Most heartbreaking is how the Person
of God is misrepresented. Everything a
man believes can be ultimately traced back to his doctrine of God. What he believes about God determines what he believes about his life and this, in turn, affects how he lives.
The reason I have commented only on select ports of the voyage is because I felt God "spotlighting" these.
These comments are not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to introduce teachings imperative and vital to the believer. These comments address con-troversial issues and imbalances regarding major doctrines taught in churches today.
God is able to give you a life teeming with His love, joy and victory when you are biblically grounded and believing His promises. He wants us to have a faith-filled walk that is spiritually satisfying, doctrinally sound, salvation sure and eternally secure.
ERRORS FREQUENTLY FOUND AT THE
FOLLOWING PORTS
SEA OF SIN
Sin is neither seriously presented nor dealt with in most churches in America today. Sin is now called indiscretion and deceit a legitimate device to achieve selfish ends. When sin ceases to be sin, holiness ceases to be holiness, then who needs a Savior? Sin becomes watered down to become only human frailty. Confession of sin becomes "Lord, forgive us where, in our human frailty, we have failed You.” Infidelity becomes indiscretion and deceit becomes a legitimate device to achieve selfish ends. Teaching on sin needs to be scripturally presented and accountability called for. What about Jesus’ command to preach repentance and remission of sin (Luke 24:47)? Sin requires more than remorse, there must be repentance.
SHIP OF SALVATION
TRUE SALVATION
One of the most deathly departures from sound doctrine pertains to salvation. Over the past 50 years, especially the last ten, the way to true salvation has been so progressively twisted, so watered down, and its gate so widened that it scarcely resembles Jesus Christ’s true gospel of salvation.
This perilous perversion is a mockery. In the name of truth, it mocks the truth. And, God forbid we follow the greed driven “actor and comedian wannabes” with
their Madison Avenue tactics and nauseating ministries on so-called-Christian TV. Preachers have become performers and call themselves “under the anointing.”
The preaching of God’s true salvation cannot cater to making churches bigger,
finances fatter, salaries higher and sinners comfortable. True salvation cannot be sermons preached for “conversions” without conviction, sin without repentance, grace without accountability, love without holiness or faith without heart purity.
Churches in America need the true gospel presented, true salvation preached, genuine conversion experienced and the true love of Christ lived out. True salvation is more than simply a matter of the mind or a soulish massage to stir the emotions. True salvation is a willful, faithful, embracing of a heart that has been sovereignly moved on by the grace of a holy God.
GODLY REPENTANCE vs. WORLDLY REMORSE
The word “repentance” has either become obsolete or its meaning so skewed that it has become hollow empty rhetoric in most churches in America today. Sadly, repentance is confused with remorse. Repentance denotes a person’s conviction of sin toward God with godly sorrow and renunciation. Remorse is a worldly sorrow with only a realization of wrong actions and a sadness for their ensuing
consequences.
Remorse can lead to a mere mental assent or psychological appreciation for God, as well as a fearful apprehension of consequences. We often hear this described as salvation. Also, foreign spirits may try to mimic true salvation by accompanying this mental belief with other counterfeit emotional and spiritual experiences. Such counterfeiting can include supernatural, even seemingly miraculous, manifestations. The Bible tells us that this can all be so deceptive that, if possible, even God’s very elect would be deceived (Matthew 24:24). The elect will not be deceived because they have the Holy Spirit’s witness and anointing to discern truth to them. (I John 2:20) Jesus says there must be godly repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 24:47) and not worldly remorse. Salvation is more than mere mental assent, psychological apprehension, emotional or motivational lift.
Sin is neither seriously presented nor dealt with in most churches in America today. Sin is now called indiscretion and deceit a legitimate device to achieve selfish ends. When sin ceases to be sin, holiness ceases to be holiness, then who needs a Savior? Sin
becomes watered down to become only human frailty. Confession of sin becomes "Lord, forgive us where, in our human frailty, we have failed You.” Infidelity becomes indiscretion and deceit becomes a legitimate device to achieve selfish
ends. Teaching on sin needs
to be scripturally presented and accountability called for. What about Jesus’ command to preach repentance and remission of sin (Luke 24:47)? Sin requires more than remorse, there must be repentance.
SEA OF SIN
SHIP OF SALVATION
TRUE SALVATION
One of the most deathly departures from sound doctrine pertains to salvation. Over the past 50 years, especially the last ten, the way to true salvation has been so progressively twisted, so watered down, and its gate so widened that it scarcely resembles Jesus Christ’s true gospel of salvation.
This perilous perversion is a mockery. In the name of
truth, it mocks the truth.
And, God forbid we follow the greed driven “actor and comedian wannabes” with
their Madison Avenue tactics and nauseating ministries on so-called-Christian TV. Preachers have become performers and call themselves “under the anointing.”
The preaching of God’s true salvation cannot cater to making churches bigger,
finances fatter, salaries higher and sinners comfortable. True salvation cannot be sermons preached for “conversions” without conviction, sin without repentance, grace without accountability, love
without holiness or faith without heart purity.
Churches in America need the true gospel presented, true salvation preached, genuine conversion experienced and the true love of Christ lived out. True salvation is more than simply a matter of the mind or a soulish massage to stir the emotions. True salvation is a willful, faithful, embracing of a heart that has been sovereignly moved on by the grace of a holy God.
GODLY REPENTANCE vs. WORLDLY REMORSE
The word “repentance” has either become obsolete or its meaning so skewed that it has become hollow empty rhetoric in most churches in America today. Sadly, repentance is confused with remorse. Repentance denotes a person’s conviction of sin toward God with godly sorrow and renunciation. Remorse is a worldly sorrow with only a realization of wrong actions and a sadness for their ensuing
consequences.
Remorse can lead to a
mere mental assent or psychological appreciation for God, as well as a fearful apprehension of consequences. We often hear this described as salvation. Also, foreign spirits may try to mimic true salvation by accompanying this mental belief with other counterfeit emotional and spiritual experiences. Such counterfeiting can include supernatural, even seemingly miraculous, manifestations.
The Bible tells us that this can all be so deceptive that,
if possible, even God’s very elect would be deceived (Matthew 24:24). The elect will not be deceived because they have the Holy Spirit’s witness and anointing to discern truth to them. (I John 2:20) Jesus says there must be godly repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 24:47) and not worldly remorse. Salvation is more than mere mental assent, psychological apprehension, emotional or motivational lift.
SAIL OF FAITH
Since the Bible tells us we are “saved through faith,” the “just shall live by faith” and that “without faith, it is impossible to please God,” we see faith is a front line essential of the Christian life. Biblical faith is not "have faith in yourself", "faith in your faith", "keep the faith”, "keep a positive attitude", "have the power of positive thinking", or "speak the positive word of faith.”
What is direly needed today is sound scriptural teaching
on what true faith is and how it works. Faith has nothing to do with faith in ourselves nor with “you do your best and God does the rest.” Faith has everything to do with continual trust in God, His Character, His power and His great faithfulness.
True faith in living the Christian life will depend on how real the faith was for initially receiving the Christian life. In other words, was a person’s avowed salvation only a profession of faith—or was it a profession of faith that brought about a possession of salvation? Did this person receive Christ with a wholehearted faith, a heart and life surrender to Christ as personal Lord and Savior? If this is what you have done, if you have been born again, now it is to be your life. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” (Colossians 2:6)
SAIL OF FAITH
Since the Bible tells us we are “saved through faith,” the “just shall live by faith” and that “without faith, it is impossible to please God,” we see faith is a front line essential of the Christian life. Biblical faith is not "have faith in yourself", "faith in your faith", "keep the faith”, "keep a positive attitude", "have the power of positive thinking", or "speak the positive word of faith.”
What is direly needed today is sound scriptural teaching
on what true faith is and how it works. Faith has nothing to do with faith in ourselves nor with “you do your best and God does the rest.” Faith has everything to do with continual trust in God, His Character, His power and His great faithfulness.
True faith in living the Christian life will depend on how real the faith was for initially receiving the Christian life. In other words, was a person’s avowed
salvation only a profession of faith—or was it a profession of faith that brought about a possession of salvation? Did this person receive Christ with a wholehearted faith, a heart and life surrender to Christ as personal Lord and Savior? If this is what you have done, if you have been born again, now it is to be your life. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” (Colossians 2:6)
PRAYER
LET US PRAY
Prayer should produce fire in every Christian’s heart. Prayer is especially the “coal tender” that supplies the fuel to every preacher’s ministry, the impetus to the Spirit’s fire in his bones and power in his preaching. His praying is actually his preaching in incubation. A survey has shown that the average minister sets aside fewer than ten minutes a day for prayer. A prayerless pastor will be powerless and the prayerless congregation
will be as well. Everywhere in America today, we see anemic churches and powerless preaching. We see churches of enormous size with highly educated pastors who deliver canned, mechanical messages with timed, predictable emphasis. These messages are further embellished with trained, flesh motivated, high school level drama.
Preachers and teachers who diminish and delete prayer from their prepara-
tion rob the souls who came to be genuinely fed. The pablum they present is a violation of God’s will and these souls. The majority of those they attract are usually looking for a religious “fix,” emotional entertainment, psychic lift, soulish massage, healing, or other miraculous manifestation. Not that miraculous manifestations aren’t part of the Lord’s ministry, they’re just not His focus.
PERSON OF GOD
DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
The most important doctrine in your Christian life is your doctrine of God. Every other doctrine hinges on this one. In fact, everything a man believes can be traced back to his doctrine of God.
As Christ’s Gospel is perverted, so is the Person and Character of God. God’s attributes are skewed to accommodate personal sin and unbalanced, faulty teaching. This may be due to unregeneration or awarped understanding of
the balance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. This issue, often defined by the terms Arminianism and Calvinism, when carried off into scriptural imbalance, leads to error. One extreme has God running behind man to stay abreast; the other has God conducting a puppet show. One makes God an inept architect; the other turns Him into an inequitable, cruel monster, all in the name of proclaiming His glory.
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There are doctrinal imbalances held by godly preachers and teachers that nonetheless inadvertently distort God’s divine attributes and mar His character. However, others may be moved by foreign spirits leading them to pervert the Character of God. Whichever the case, it is imperative believers seek a biblically balanced understanding of Who God is in order to present and represent His true Character.
FUNDAMENTALS OF SOUND DOCTRINE
A VANISHING BREED
Sound doctrine is rapidly vanishing. In the 21st Century, postmodernism denies absolute truth and spins philosophies of relativism and secular humanism. Scriptural Christianity is becoming more rare. Unsound, unbalanced doctrinal teaching increasingly pervades the postmodern church, which for the most part, is only nominally Christian. (i.e. A nominal church is one whose majority is made up of professors of Christianity but not possessors of Christ—not genuinely “born again”
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believers.)
In His Word, God tells us how imperative sound doctrine is to both the spiritual health of any church and well being of every soul. In 1 Timothy 4:16, the Apostle Paul admonished his beloved disciple, Timothy, to take heed to both sound doctrine and to himself. In essence, Paul told Timothy: Look to see that you yourself follow what is sound and look to yourself making sure you are an example of sound doctrine. In other words, “Timothy, study it, know it, practice it, preach it; by all means,
practice what you preach.”
Every church denomina-tion and non-denomination has its doctrines. Every preacher nests in some theological camp. Even if, in some ways, he feels he stands alone on the Word of God, he still adheres to particular theologies.
Theology simply means “to know God.” Every man has a theology—who he believes God is or isn’t. He may choose to distort, discount, or even deny God all together; nevertheless, his belief or philosophy denotes his position regarding theology.
ESSENTIAL TENENTS OF THE FAITH
There are many minor doctrinal differences that still fall within acceptable parameters of orthodox evangelical Christendom. But, there are certain essential tenets of the faith that a church or ministry should plainly state in its Statement of Faith. These
would include: the Person
of God; birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ; the true Gospel; true salvation; sin; holiness; repentance; grace; faith; and the inspired infallibility of the Word of God. Without these
essential biblical tenets, a church or ministry will be unsound. This means the lives of its members will be unsound. Depending on the degree of doctrinal deviation, the salvation of their members may be suspect or even false.
SOUND GOSPEL
“Sound” means “uncorrupted.” Yet, today, much of the “gospel” presented is corrupted and thus unsound. Everything imaginable has come to pass for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go in most churches in America or listen to Christian radio or TV and you will be hard pressed to
find even a vague
resemblance of the real
Gospel message that could be heard in a conservative, evangelical, church 75 years ago, even 50 years ago. This has become progressively grieving, especially in this last decade. Today’s churches in America are on an ever apostatizing divergence from the true Gospel. They are moving at breakneck speed toward
date with prophesied destiny, an appointed rendezvous with Anti-Christ. Churches in America are becoming flagrantly unsound and increasingly corrupted. God is calling to His “little flock” to continue in His way, obeying His Word, living and preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
BIBLICAL BALANCE
The cause of so much doctrinal error and confusion comes from failure to properly weigh Scripture, verse by verse, passage by passage, biblical principle with biblical principle. In other words, Scripture should interpret Scripture.
If any Scripture is held to the disregard of another, an unhealthy doctrinal imbalance will occur. Some of this has occurred with certain theological imbalances regarding weighing the sovereignty of God with the responsibility of man. It’s important to realize that any doctrinal imbalance is destined to transfer error into our own practical Christian life and walk.
Doctrinal imbalance ensues for various reasons. One could be that a person
could honestly believe an imbalanced position is correct. Another could be when a preconceived theological bias exists as part of a church denomination or theological camp and any disagreement with their doctrine would cause ostracism. Or, it could simply be that a person is unwilling to seek a biblically balanced understanding.
Most dangerous is when an imbalance becomes so extreme that it becomes heretical. Satan then places these into the sermons of false preachers and teachers.
We need to be especially careful of
erroneous doctrinal imbalances that occur when attempted theological corrections involve a “knee jerk” reaction causing an
extreme “pendulum swing” in the opposite direction. This results when an imbalanced “correction” causes the correction to become as bad, or worse than, the doctrine being corrected.
You may be thinking a particular theologian is so renowned, so respected, so godly, that he couldn’t be doctrinally off in a particular area? However, centuries of church history have proven otherwise. I have been personally acquainted with, as well as read writings of, notable, respected godly ministers who have contradicted one another, themselves and inadvertently Scripture.
The conclusion: Biblical balance is imperative to a scripturally sound Christian life.
SPIRIT-FILLED VICTORIOUS
CHRISTIAN LIFE
HOLINESS
Holiness is the “moral excellence of God.” Moral excellence is what God’s Word says is morally excellent. Every divine attribute of God is totally holy; His entire Being and everything He does is perfectly holy. By holy, we’re not implying legalism, such as legislated hair and sleeve length; we’re talking about heart purity. From this will arise convictions regarding dress and appearance.
Much being called “holy” today is not. For example, much being passed off as the love of God, is not holy
and therefore it is not God’s love. Much being called the Holy Spirit’s anointing and power is not holy and therefore not from the Holy Spirit. (Amos 5:23-24) Narcissistic preachers who strut like peacocks and reek with greed and selfish ambition are not holy. This kind of preaching has progressively perverted the true gospel into the watered down, corrupted imposter so prevalent in America today.
How strongly God regards holiness when He
anoints His preachers! Although ministers who God has greatly anointed and used to preach his gospel had varied theologies (within the boundaries of acceptable, orthodox, evangelical Christendom), they all had one thing in common—holiness! A case in point is George Whitfield and John Wesley. Even though their theologies widely differed, it was in this respect that John Wesley could say, “If your heart be as mine, give me your hand.”
SANCTIFICATION
I often use the term “experiential sanctification.” At salvation, we are justified (made legally acceptable to God) and “positionally” sanctified (set apart unto God positionally in heaven). But, while here on earth, each born again believer has the responsibility to scripturally and experien-tially walk out his own
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individual sanctification. Some call the distinction "positional" vs. "condi-tional."
Unfortunately this experiential responsibility is seldom taught or, when it is, is not properly taught, and thus is either being totally ignored, compromised, misunderstood or mis-applied.
If what is written here is unfamiliar to you, then you have either not experienced it or have not had a problem with it. In the first case, you've been privileged; in the latter case, heart perception and recognition is the issue which, in turn, makes the heart the problem and personal regeneration suspect.
K-R-Y
K-R-Y is an anachronism for Know-Reckon-Yield. This is the scriptural principle integral to Paul’s doctrinal treatise regarding death to self and the Spirit-filled, victorious Christian life found in Romans 6. [Know (vs. 6)-Reckon (vs. 11)-Yield (vs. 13)] Over the past 50
years, the biblical principles
of being dead to self and alive unto God have increasingly disappeared from preaching and teaching. They have been replaced by natural-minded, cookie cut messages, designed to be motivational and inoffensive to sinners
and financially rewarding to
preachers and churches. UHWM seeks to make this Know-Reckon-Yield (KRY) Life in Christ message available again to genuinely born again, hungry believers. This teaching is vital to having the genuine Spirit-filled, victorious Christian life.
SPIRIT'S FILLING/SPIRIT BAPTISM CONTROVERSY
Deeper life can
never be built on
dirty hearts.
First, let us say that it is imperative for a person to be genuinely born again if he or she is going to be able to understand anything about the Holy Spirit’s work and filling. Attempting to teach the Spirit’s filling to someone who is not born again is exhausting and futile. Deeper life can never be built on dirty hearts.
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There is much confusion and contradiction regarding the filling of the Holy Spirit. There’s ample preaching on the need to be more committed, have a higher level of Christian living, but it misses the scriptural mark of how to achieve it. Teachings overflow with motivational fluff and natural minded “how-to” steps, but never reach the biblically spiritual way to achieve the Spirit-filled, Spirit empowered Christian walk.
There certainly are definable works of the Holy Spirit following salvation. There can be crises, pro-cesses, fillings, anointings, Spirit out-pourings, etc. Some theological camps define these as a “second Spirit baptism” and some call such experiences “entire sanctification.”
Some persons are gen-uinely having a “second” experience whereby they are commit-ting themselves to trust Jesus to be Lord, just as they made Him Lord at salvation. Others are actually just being born again, for the first time, giving Jesus their whole heart and life,
surrendering to Him as Lord, Master, Savior. After salva-tion, they will continually learn and grow in His Lordship and their Christian walk. Unfortunately, they may be led to believe this monumental experience is a second “Spirit baptism” subsequent to an earlier,
but experientially
inconsequential, so-called “salvation” experience. This earlier so-called salvation experience is one about which they have little to say, except that it really didn’t change them. Tragically, sometimes a foreign spirit brings about a false, spiritual experience. (See “strange children” in Hosea 5:7)
The “Spirit’s filling” is what the Bible teaches. So, is the teaching on “Spirit baptism” false? Some may say it’s false, but we feel this conclusion is too extreme. We wouldn’t say it’s “false,” but “faulty.” The reason we say “faulty” is because “second spirit baptism” teachings do have certain scriptural merit.
In this “second spirit baptism” theological camp, there are various strains of
interpretation which have certain semantics describing their theological slant. (While this topic is too involved to dive into here, some of our books offered in our Studies and Bookstore and on Amazon deal extensively with this controversy.)
However, the “second spirit baptism” camp's faulty descriptions and definitions are dangerous and can lead to doctrinal distortion and ultimately to false doctrine.
We do agree that at Pentecost, when the New Testament church was officially born, the apostles were certainly filled with the Spirit and endued with power from on high to preach the Gospel.
The doctrine of the Spirit’s filling (rather than Spirit baptism) allows for multiple fillings, special anointing and empowerments for ministry callings. This scripturally follows and flows with K-R-Y (Know-Reckon-Yield as taught in Romans 6).
The scriptural errors in the classic Spirit baptism doctrine are often brought about by doctrinally misinterpreting a personal spiritual experience. This faulty interpretation results
from not weighing out Scriptures and sound doctrinal principles, in order to arrive at a correct doctrinal interpretation and scripturally balanced conclusion. (A common faulty approach is to draw doctrinal assumptions from the book of Acts which God has given us to show us the acts of the apostles. An example of this would be using Acts to build a doctrinal premise of Spirit baptism. This is especially faulty and even dangerous when a particular gift, such as tongues is claimed to validate this doctrine. Why try to assume doctrinal principles regarding the Spirit’s filling and anointing from the book of Acts, when God had the apostle Paul lay out its doctrinal treatise in great detail in Romans 6-8.) With some of this, sheer logic alone would shed light. Scripture must be balanced with Scripture, verse with verse, theological principle with theological principle—leading to sound scriptural conclusions. These scriptural conclusions should then define and interpret our spiritual experience—not vice versa! This proper balancing of Scripture to reach sound doctrinal interpretation is covered in the books, “Biblical Balance in a Day of Extremes,” “Understanding How To Interpret The Bible” (i.e. hermeneutical principles) and “Understanding What The Bible Really Teaches Concerning the Spirit’s Filling.” (All are available with our Studies in our Bookstore and on Amazon.)
There is a real danger in basing our life on unbalanced, faulty teachings; this includes building doctrine on mislabeled, personal experiences. These spiritual experiences can be very real, but wrongly defined and described. However, having said this, let me add that "it’s better to have a thing and call it wrong, than not have it and call it right.”
REVIVAL
Much is being called “revival” in churches across America that is not genuine revival. The vast majority of church-going folks in America have not been truly born again and therefore are not going to draw the lost to Christ with their contrived “revival” meetings. They cannot spiritually or subjectively understand true salvation, so neither can they properly present it.
I was saved at age 36 (over 45 years ago). (For more, see Personal Background in Appendix.) I have seen my share of dead religion and people leaving it. At the time of my conversion, folks were flocking to the then-new Charismatic movement. I was excited about my new life in Christ, and these folks seemed to be excited about theirs too. I got on board. I saw true fire and wild fire. As I spent time in this circle, I came to realize that even though some neglected truths were being emphasized, many unfortunately were also being exaggerated. Even though I was a new Christian, I realized that somehow truth was being distorted and preached with unbalanced doctrine and practices. It soon became clear that truth out of balance is actually error and, carried to its extreme, can become heresy. Instead of producing true holiness and humility, I realized these teachings were producing a pseudo-spirituality with an air of arrogance.
On the heels of the charismatic movement came the mega-church with its “seeker friendly” methods, church campuses and TV satellite churches. Then came the 21st Century postmodern contemporary preaching accompanied by rock concert worship and community oriented service. Most of this, at best, was flesh.
I recognized whenever a minister tried to portray anointing but lacked
genuine holiness, there was a familiar earmark. If a
minister had given himself
over to a foreign spirit, it gave him a counterfeit look of “anointing” which frequently generated a peculiar "shine" on his face. This is a shine which masquerades, and tries to counterfeit, the Holy Spirit’s Shekinah glory. This subtle perversion of the genuine is repulsive to both genuine seeker as well as saint.
I’ve seen so many movements come and go: Fundamental, Restoration, Reformation, Reconstruct-ion, Latter Rain, Charismatic, Moral Majority, Mega Church, House Church and more. Have there been genuine believers and genuine worship in these movements? Certainly. Are there, today, in this 21st century postmodern, contemporary, “rethinking-the-church” movement, some genuinely born again believers? Certainly.
Of course, to the hungry, truly born again believer, given time, these move-ments and camps will wear thin and pass off the scene, just like those before them. (1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”) True believers involved in these movements will find themselves grieved, starved and spiritually anemic. Some who recognize what's going on may try to, for one reason or another, justify what they see as simply to be expected.
Don't be fooled; these movements are not a passing, but a progressing, thing. They’re evolving. We must realize that something is seriously wrong within these movements and camps. The enemy is a skillful tactician, strategist, and past master at
developing little faults into major errors with major consequences. We must understand that to recognize a problem exists, or even needs to be
corrected, is not a place to stop. We must make biblical decisions for ourselves, and help others to do so as well.
To realize, but never respond is to fall under the enemy’s tactic, which is part of his long term strategy.
However, it never ceases to amaze me how the Spirit of God moves even in the midst of spiritual error. It is both a marvel and a mystery to me how God’s Holy Spirit can penetrate a flesh generated worship service to reach just one who has a genuine heart, how He can anoint one song, one singer, one musician who truly knows Him, to glorify Himself while others on the same stage clatter around in a fleshly display. These are mysteries only understood by God.
In America, flaky preaching, teaching and worship has often been billed as the beginning of a mighty outpouring of end time revival. Believe it, if you will, but be prepared to be disillusioned and disappointed when its end is realized. For God’s true remnant, a God-sent revival will have a different message, a different Spirit and a different character. It will sound different, feel different, look different, and be different.
What does God have to say about all this which is calling itself the character of God, the love of God, the grace and mercy of God and, most repulsive of all, the holiness of God? God tells us in His Word that this kind of preaching and rock concert worship will occur where truth is distorted out of balance or outright false revival is billed as true.
Even when error is carried to such an extreme that it becomes heresy, we needn’t be hopelessly alarmed. God says there must be heresies among us so that true believers might be known (1 Cor. 11:19 “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”) What if God is allowing all of this to reveal the counterfeit so when the real comes, true believers will recognize the difference? (See our booklet, “His Way to a Living Church: What is a True God-Sent Revival?” available on Amazon.)
CONCLUSION
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