Sola Scriptura
Until only a few weeks ago, I was a Protestant, Pentecostal, Charismatic, happy-clappy, Word-of-Faith, name-it-and-claim-it, stretch-out-your-tent-pegs, Seven-Mountain-Mandating, prophecy-wielding, signs-and-wonders-seeking Christian.
The only thing I really stopped short
of was flag-waving. Even though I’m a
dancer, or perhaps because I am one, I found flag-waving and
timbrel-playing, quite frankly, rather embarrassing.
Actually, it does go further than
that. I’ve been in Charismatic churches
since I was five, when my parents got saved, but I’ve always felt a bit
“wrong”. Part of that is because I’ve
never really found my tribe – a group of friends with similar outlooks and
interests – and part of it is my anarchistic streak, I think. I question everything. Why do we take communion the way we do? Surely Jesus actually meant for us to eat and
spend quality time together. Seeker-sensitive
services really get my goat: church
services are for saved people, not the unsaved.
Why do we send thousands of dollars overseas when people in our own
churches are going hungry or can’t buy their kids school shoes? Why do we care more about whether someone
wears makeup when they’re singing on stage than whether or not they need a ride
to church? Why do we say that God
doesn’t give us illnesses and troubles, when in the Bible He clearly did? Why did Paul tell Timothy to take a little
wine for his stomach ailments, rather than telling him the steps to take to “claim
his healing”? Why do people fall over
when they get prayed for? Why do we have
to abandon older songs that have good scriptural lyrics and sweet melodies,
just because they’re old? Why didn’t
that prophetic word come true? And don’t
even get me started on women’s conferences.
I used to describe church as
“whitewashed”. Everything had to look
pretty. We weren’t allowed to be real
people with real problems, because if we were, that meant we didn’t have enough
faith and we couldn’t be effective witnesses to the unsaved. After all, who would want to become a
Christian if they didn’t see us as being perfect, shiny, happy people?
Mainly, though, I just didn’t feel
things the way other people did – or seemed to.
I had no desire to jump up and down like a pogo stick during the song
service. I don’t even do that at gigs. I’d never been slain in the Spirit. I certainly didn’t hear God’s voice when I
prayed. I never got healed. And whenever the latest “fad pastor” came
through, I couldn’t feel excited about it, or them. Often, in fact, they gave me the
heebie-jeebies, as did the adoration thrown at them.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve
heard one of these visiting ministers “prophesy” that there’s a revival coming,
that we’re going to the next level or that a particular year is going to be a
year of breakthrough – well, I wouldn’t need my disability pension; that’s for
sure.
For a period during my teenage years,
I heard the same sermon every week, in church, in youth group and in school
chapel: you have a purpose and a
destiny. If you’re faithful in the
little things, God will promote you.
Dream big dreams. The Christian
life should be an adventure. We need
more – more, more, more!!
I watched these women around me who
were celebrated for doing it all. They
were gorgeous, with perfect hair and makeup.
They were good wives. They each
had 3.2 perfect children. They were slim
and fit. Their husbands’ businesses were
doing well. They could entertain and
throw perfectly decorated and catered parties.
They were DYNAMIC!
PROPHETIC! POWERFUL! PRAYERFUL!
I could cook an egg. I could just about put an outfit
together. I was a nerd. I struggled with my weight. I had health problems. I didn’t like planning things because nobody
showed up. My talents weren’t
acknowledged until someone needed something done. I couldn’t get a date. I worked my guts out on the little things and
people used me as a stepping stone.
Clearly, I was doing something wrong.
I mustn’t have been trying hard enough.
I must have been lazy. I mustn’t
really have any talent. People mustn’t
like me very much. The Proverbs 31
Woman, I ain’t.
I figured the reason God didn’t help
me make a single one of my dreams come true was because I’d missed it
somehow. There must have been something
I didn’t do, some opportunity I didn’t take, or some chance I’d completely
blown.
This opinion only grew as time went
on. Twenties . . . thirties . . . still
single, still dirt poor, still in a job that I learned had given me a form of
PTSD, still unwell and becoming more so, still struggling to feel intimate with
God . . .
. . . and still having
niggling feelings that something was wrong, either with the things I’d been taught
or with my implementation of them.
That’s when, one morning – at the age
of 36; living with my parents in a city I hated because I was too sick to live
alone; single; unemployed; hopeless – I woke up with a determination to head to
the Christian bookshop – for what, I had no idea. I wandered up and down the aisles, picking up
a book here, a book there (The Purpose Driven Life, Your Best Life
Now, Ten Keys for Financial Freedom, Raising Your Children Right, Five
Steps to a More Godly Marriage, It’s All In Your Mind!), until a
spine caught my eye: The Pressure’s
Off: Breaking Free From Rules and
Performance.
That was the beginning of two to three
years of brain re-arrangement by the Holy Ghost that has culminated in me
becoming – well, I’m not sure what I’d
call it, but let’s just say a sola scriptura Christian.
I AM NOT IN CONTROL, AND NEITHER ARE
YOU
The Pressure’s Off was written by Larry Crabb, a
Christian clinical psychologist who suffers from depression. He may as well have written the book for me. It addressed one thing in particular that hit
me hard and gave me so much freedom.
In my experience, Christians have this
illusion of control. Plainly and simply,
it’s a new version of the Law that we have written for ourselves, and it puts
so much pressure on people: if I do
all the right things, praying and reading my Bible daily, praying hedges of
protection around my loved ones, thinking positive thoughts, forgiving everyone
who hurts me, giving my time to the church, using my talents for God’s glory,
He can’t possibly let bad things happen to me.
He will honour me if I honour other people. If I work and give cheerfully, He will promote
me and make my life fabulous. If I do
everything I’m advised to do, I will live like a queen when I retire, with more
than enough money, surrounded by a loving, godly family, having good health and
vitality, blah blah blah blah blah.
In other words, if I do (a), (b) and
(c), I will get (d), (e) and (f).
That sounds more like witchcraft, to
me. In actual fact, it is. (I’ll get into that later.)
Life doesn’t work like that. I apologise in advance to anyone who gets
hung up on “swearing”, but I’m going to be blunt right now because I’m writing about
getting real. This idea completely
ignores what I call The Shit-Happens Factor.
You can do everything the experts
recommend when it comes to raising your child, and little Daisy can still turn
out to be an axe murderer. You can be
wise with your money, invest, be a dedicated employee, and still get fired and
lose your house. You can eat “clean”, go
to the gym until you look like Elle McPherson, diffuse essential oils, believe
anti-vaxx nonsense, do all the Daniel diets you want, and you can still die of
cancer. You can be 100% faithful in
doing everything you do for the Lord, and people will walk all over you on
their way to the top.
A lot of my health problems actually
come from trying too hard, from working my butt off and getting nowhere in
life, from constantly trying to “do the right thing”, live how I’m “supposed” to
live and think how I’m “supposed” to think, and from the endless, endless rounds
of negotiations with God.
I am a Generation Y-er. I was born in 1981, so my important teenage
years were the 90s. Everything we
watched, heard and experienced had the same message: “You can be anything you want to be. You have the power.” In fact, I’m pretty sure that was a soft drink
slogan at one point. It was the legacy,
I think, of the 80s’ “greed is good”. It
was the era of “I want it all”, “I’m fabulous”, Girl Power, Willpower and the
Hour of Power – because, yes, the same message was coming through the church;
it’s just that it was “Christianised”.
This message came at us from every
direction, and we believed it. It
continues today. You just need to have
enough willpower to lose weight, we’re told. Strengthen your will. Work hard on yourself. You can do and be anything you want to be. You are an empowered person.
I’ll tell you now, the damage I have
seen that message do is incredibly saddening. Many of my friends have had to work through
their disillusionment, and those who couldn’t work through it gave it all up as
a bad joke and walked away from God.
The pressure that is put on us, and
that we put on ourselves, to have a “successful” life, however that looks to each
of us, is enormous. If all those
hundreds – thousands – of books in the Christian bookshop about how to live out
our faith are correct, Jesus must have been joking when He said, “My yoke is
easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
I’m not usually a rah-rah feminist,
but I have to say here that this pressure seems to be especially strong on women. Women are constantly told that they really can
juggle having a career and raising children and running a charity and being an
amazing cook and organising phenomenal parties, all the while keeping their
house immaculate and beautifully decorated, staying fit and putting out a Paleo
cookbook. We are actually told that we
can be like the Proverbs 31 Woman. I’ve
got two words in response to that, but they’re unprintable.
Proverbs 31 is King Lemuel’s mother’s
advice to him, as a king, and she’s basically trying to warn him off the Delilahs
and Jezebels of this world, who would ruin him: “Don’t waste your strength on women, or your
time on those who ruin kings.” She then
proceeds to tell him some of the qualities of the type of women he should
associate with, and who would do him credit.
But, she prefaces her speech by warning, “Who can find a truly virtuous
woman who is and does all these things?”
In other words, what she’s telling him
is, “Be extra careful around women, because you’ll never find one like this. Don’t let them ruin you.” A bit of a buzzkill, to be sure, and clearly
she’s not too fond of her own sex, but then you’ve got to remember that she’s a
woman in a powerful position talking to a man in a powerful position, and she’s
well aware that powerful men attract Delilahs. The long and the short of it is that Proverbs
31 is not God’s expectation of Christian women. It is impossible to do and be all of those
things, and even if you could, you couldn’t sustain it. You’d burn out within weeks, probably days.
Many people think sufferers of
invisible illnesses such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (like me) are just lazy,
but the medical professionals I’ve talked to say that it’s actually the
opposite: people who are perfectionists
and who put all their effort into the things they do are the ones who end up
with CFS. That’s why so many professional athletes get it.
I’m definitely a perfectionist, and
I’ve always been a hard worker. I truly
believed that if I worked hard at everything I was given to do, even if I hated
doing it, sacrificing myself to help other people and all the rest of it, God
would take care of my vision to be a professional singer/songwriter; to have a
wonderful husband and five amazing kids; to own a really cool house where
people loved to just drop by and hang out and find emotional and spiritual
healing; and to be an effective witness, especially to people in the music
industry, many of whom are so broken. There was nothing essentially wrong with that
vision, except that I didn’t grow up in the right place or around the right
people, so, ultimately, I didn’t have the resources or the ability to make it
happen. I’m not discounting God working
miracles in people’s lives – not at all – and I’m not making excuses for
myself. What I’m saying is that, for
whatever reason (and I think I’m just beginning to understand what that reason
is), God didn’t bring what I needed into my life to make those dreams come
true.
So I hit 30, and now 38, without a
single one of my goals in life having come to pass.
Can you understand what that’s like
for a perfectionist? Because our
perfectionism doesn’t just apply to the work we do or the things we make; it
applies to our whole lives.
I have plans and goals. I’m organised. I’m good at stuff. I got brilliant grades. I seem to have done all the right things. I help people out with their projects, yet
nobody wants to help me out with mine. I
faithfully did a dead-end job that I hated for 14 years, and ended up with
nothing to show for it but a dearth of self-confidence and PTSD. I’ve taken every artistic opportunity, but
nothing has ever arisen from them. I’ve
done my best to budget, but I’m thousands of dollars in debt. I’ve worked so hard on my health, yet I’m now
the worst I’ve ever been. I’ve failed in
every possible way.
When I first realised that my dreams
weren’t even beginning to come true, which was probably in my mid-twenties, I
started this process of negotiation between God, life and myself. Actually, it started much earlier than that,
if I’m honest. I can remember doing it
as a child, although not to the same extent as later on.
If I can impress that guy by showing
him I’m interesting and talented and caring, he’ll like me. If I just study for another hour or maybe
two, I’ll do well in my exams. If
I can just get good grades, people will see I’m not as dumb as I sometimes
appear to be and I’ll gain some respect. If I can just work with that person, they’ll
see my potential and give me more opportunities. If I can just get away from my home town,
where I’m so limited (after all, a prophet isn’t respected in his home town),
I’ll meet new people and have new opportunities. If I can just pay off this debt, I’ll be OK
again financially. If I can just learn
to cook, I’ll be able to manage my weight better. If I can just feel well enough to get out
more, I’ll meet the right people and things will start to happen for me. If I can just get well enough to have the
energy, I can audition for some musicals and get into the entertainment industry
that way. If I just work that little bit
harder at work, they might overlook my illnesses and the fact that I’m a square
peg in a round hole. If I can just drop
back to working four days a week, I’ll feel better and be able to manage my
illnesses better. If I just give up work
and go to uni, I can start a new career as a writer and find more fulfilment
that way. If I can just find a
well-paying part-time job, I can write in my time off. If I just move back to Australia and have a
few weeks’ rest, I’ll feel better and be able to start over. If I can just get thin enough, I’ll be able
to wear the clothes I want to, and then I won’t look like a middle-aged librarian
any more, and then people will remember that I’m creative and might help me get
into the field I want to be in. If I can
just do this many hours of work, this much exercise, have a quiet time with
God, do a bit of writing, cook myself proper meals, do some stretching, do some
vocal/drums/guitar/piano practice and be content with where I’m at every day,
my health will start to improve. If I
can just be faithful in the little things, God will take care of the rest and
all my dreams will come true.
I’ve written “to do” list after “to
do” list. I’ve written out my dreams and
goals and the steps towards them countless times. I’ve made myself up schedules, so I can fit
everything into my week, and then I’ve adjusted them, and adjusted them, and
adjusted them as I’ve failed to stick to them. I’ve read all the popular self-help/motivational
books. I’ve written up meal plans and
exercise plans. I’ve tried every
cognitive behavioural therapy technique in the book. I’ve talked and talked and cried and cried to GPs
and consultants and psychiatrists and psychologists. I’ve made resolution after resolution after
resolution. Frankly, I’m exhausted.
Many of these things are sensible,
wise, even righteous. “Well, of course you’re
not going to be able to do those things without firstly doing those other
things. It stands to reason. I mean, come on!”
Even so, I’ve realised that I cannot
do all I need to do to get my life looking like I want it to look. I am not a Proverbs 31 Woman. At the moment, I can’t do what I need to do
to get my body looking like I want it to, let alone my bank account, or my
career – or even just my kitchen. Most
days, it’s an achievement if I get out of bed and clean my teeth before
11 am, let alone stick to the numerous 6 am – 9 pm schedules I have
written up to make sure I fitted everything I was supposed to into my day. The reality is, I can’t work more than a
couple of hours a day at the moment. The
reality is, I have health problems and I’m not improving. The reality is, I needed a wheelchair to make
it through Christmas shopping this week.
The reality is, there are other areas in my life where I’ve tried to
change – tried over and over again not to do the wrong thing, and all the
trying doesn’t work, or at least not long term.
You will have found yourself cringing
while you read those last couple of paragraphs, because you’ve been conditioned to
think that admitting our failures is unhelpful, but you know what? I’m not “being negative”. It’s actually OK to admit that we suck at
life. It’s very freeing, in fact. Because we do. We all do.
My question is this: the secular world teaches the
empowerment/willpower/power-of-positive-thinking/do-(a)-to-get-(b) doctrine, so
why is the church teaching the same thing?
THE GOSPEL
The whole point of Jesus coming
to die on the cross is that we’re not good enough. We live in a fallen world. We have imperfect bodies and detrimental
mutations in our DNA. The people around
us have fallen natures, as do we. Life
throws all sorts of curveballs at us. Shit
happens. You have very little power to
make a “good life” for yourself.
YOU
CAN’T DO IT.
Ultimately, you are not in control. God is.
We don’t always get it, but He is sovereign.
Good thing, too.
Our hope is for the perfect Heaven
that awaits us, not in Our Best Life Now.
The gospel is, in a nutshell: We can’t, so Jesus did.
IDOLATRY AND WITCHCRAFT
What is witchcraft? One definition I’ve heard is that it’s using
the principles that God has set in place in the universe for one’s own ends. Another is, on a very practical level, doing
and saying certain things to try to manipulate the universe (or God) into
“giving us” certain results – into blessing us.
If I dance backwards around a cauldron
of boiling toads at midnight while twirling a stick with black ribbons tied to it
like so, this man will fall in love with me. If I understand The Secret and think
positive thoughts, I’ll manifest riches, my kids will suddenly become model
citizens, I’ll pass all my exams, my boss’s attitude towards me will
change . . . #blessed.
If I have an hour-long prayer time
every day and pray in this particular way and I attend church every week and I
volunteer there and I tithe and give offerings and I follow my Bible In A Year
reading guide and I make sure that I’ve forgiven everybody and I declare faith-filled,
positive things, then . . . #blessed.
Witchcraft is putting faith in our own
actions to get a desired outcome.
Christians will say that they’re
putting their faith in God, not in themselves, but how many times have you
heard someone say that such-and-such needs to grow her faith? That such-and-such has sin in his life and he
won’t get his healing until he’s dealt with it?
That such-and-such needs to give a “seed offering” to Kenneth Copeland Ministries
to get that new job? That Benny Hinn needs to fling his jacket around and make
whooshing noises for people to get healed?
That your mental health will improve if you take Joyce Meyer’s advice
and practise positive thinking? That if,
when you give, you are unwavering in your belief that cheques are coming in the
mail and promotions are on the horizon, you will reap one hundred fold and even
more?
God never promised us a good life. The Bible says, “In fact, everyone who wants
to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). If you’re seeking Him because you want Your
Best Life Now (I’m looking at you, Mr Osteen), you’re not seeking Him at all. What you want is a magic genie. You’re seeking after idols.
As former New-Ager (now apologist)
Melissa Dougherty says (and I paraphrase), “What if all you ever have is
Jesus? No blessings, no health, no
wealth, just a promise of forgiveness and the hope of eternity with Him in
Heaven. Would that be enough?”
SIGNS AND WONDERS AND STRANGE FIRE
Unfortunately, there are many, many
people out there who call themselves Christians – and they are growing in
number every day – who would answer that question with a bold and proud “No.”
We’ll deal with them shortly.
For some time I’ve been saddened by my
growing realisation that the New Age has not only infiltrated the church; it
has been happily embraced by her.
This year, I have been so unwell that
I haven’t been able to attend church on Sundays. Now – don’t get me wrong – the Bible is clear
that we should not forsake the gathering of the saints, but I do believe that
there are short seasons when God doesn’t mind us stepping back, and He will
even use them, as He has for me.
It began in 2018, actually, with a
strong desire for more in-depth theological teaching. I needed some meat. I was feeling a little anaemic. I searched everywhere for a Bible study group
that wasn’t doing Alpha or Just Walk Across the Room or something similar, but I
had trouble finding one.
So I turned to YouTube. It’s something I wouldn’t recommend unless
you’ve already got a strong grounding in the Word, because, boy, is there a lot
of garbage out there. Everything weird
and wonderful or just plain ridiculous, you can find.
By the grace of God, though, I
stumbled across a teacher by the name of Justin Peters. Justin is probably most widely known as the
guy who, when he confronted Todd Bentley about his false teaching, made him
squeal like a cornered pig and accuse Peters of trying to hit him with his
crutch (in the footage it’s clear he didn’t).
You also might know Justin Peters’ popular quote, “If you want to hear
God’s voice, read the Bible. If you want
to hear God’s voice audibly, read it out loud.”
Justin has a teaching series called Clouds
Without Water, which you can watch on YouTube, buy on his website or, if
you can’t afford it, write to him and ask for a free copy. His masters thesis was on the Word of Faith
movement – the Kenneth Hagins, Kenneth Copelands and Benny Hinns of this world
– in other words, the prosperity preachers.
I'd never fallen completely for the
prosperity gospel, and faith healers always made my stomach feel like I’d eaten
too much sugar. What I didn’t realise
was that I had still taken certain tenets of theirs on board because they had infiltrated
the Charismatic church worldwide (and even some more orthodox churches) so
stealthily, and had been doing so particularly since the 70s or 80s.
You’ll have noticed earlier that I
mentioned Justin Peters’ having a crutch.
In fact, he has two crutches, because he was born with cerebral palsy. As a child, he saw the look of horror on the
face of a faith healer when his father asked her to pray for Justin after a
meeting. Perhaps his sickness was too visible for her parlour
tricks to overcome.
Justin Peters is a cessationist. Growing up, I was taught that cessationists
didn’t understand the baptism and the power of the Holy Ghost and that they
denied that miracles happen today. That
is absolutely untrue. If they denied the
power of the Holy Ghost and miracles, they would have to deny that anyone can
get saved. They simply believe that the
“church offices” or the “ministries” or “positions” of faith
healer/prophet/apostle (the Apostolic gifts) no longer exist. In other words, because God is sovereign, He can
and does heal whenever and wherever He wants – yes, even in the middle of a
Benny Hinn crusade – but people do not have a “gift of healing” out of which
they can pray for whomever they want and see them healed if only they have
enough faith or if they “sow a seed”. I’m
cautious about the question of whether prophets exist today, but if they do, I’ve
yet to really come across one that fits the Biblical demand of 100% accuracy.
From Peters I learned that it’s
actually not my fault even if I am sick for the rest of my life. To some Christians, that is obvious. To me, that was a huge revelation and a huge
release. The pressure from people (both
Christian and non-Christian) to get well is intense. If one more person tells me that eating all
the “right” things will make me better, I’ll scream. (The moralisation of food and exercise that
goes on today is another matter, but it’s closely linked to idolatry, I
believe.)
You do not have to be a cessationist
to see the deception in the church, though.
Peters and many other Christians (and non-Christians) have exposed the
lies behind faith healers and prophets.
Costi Hinn, Benny’s nephew, is one of them, and he gives a fascinating view
from the inside, as he used to tour with Benny.
Steven Kozar is another – one who has specifically studied Todd White’s
theatrics and dodgy teachings and reveals one of his tricks in a wonderful
documentary called American Gospel, which is available online and which
I highly recommend.
Most Christians, I think, simply don’t
think about it or look into things well enough, and therefore don’t realise
what goes on, but anyone who paid attention for a moment to people like Todd
White couldn’t help but marvel at the absolute epidemic in cities like Dallas of people with one leg shorter than the other.
Contrary to what we’re told, the Bible
does not teach that it’s always God’s will to have us healthy, wealthy and
wise. Well, He does tell us to seek
wisdom, but not the other two. In the
circles I move in, it is taught that God doesn’t bring anything bad on us (and
certainly not sickness); He only allows stuff to happen sometimes so
that he can teach us something. Lately,
I’m frequently hearing that even that is not the case – that, actually, He
doesn’t want us sick or poor at all; that the cross bought us health and wealth
for the here and now, as well as salvation, so we should
be able to access them just as easily; that if we get or remain sick it’s our
fault, not God’s, because we haven’t used our faith; that the eternal Kingdom
of God is here and now on the earth, and that includes prosperity in every way.
None of that ever made sense to
me. I’d read the Bible and see God
sending the Angel of Death to kill the Egyptians. I’d see another of God’s angels completely
ruining Jacob’s hip to teach him humility – and him limping for the rest of his
life. I’d see Paul – an Apostle who did
have the ability to perform signs and wonders, no less – with a “thorn in his
flesh” that God refused to take away. I'd read Paul saying, “Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you
the Good News” (Galatians 4:13). I’d see
Paul’s co-worker, Trophimus, being
left behind in one town because he was sick (2 Timothy 4:20). I’d see Paul telling Timothy to use “a little
wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Timothy 5:23). There’s no mention of Paul, Trophimus or
Timothy not having enough faith to be healed.
In any case, the idea of us “not
having enough faith” to make something happen, in the light of the fact that it
only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to do miraculous things (Matthew
17:20 and Luke 17:6), is totally ridiculous.
Who knows what the disciples were up to when they tried to cast out the
demon in the boy? But I’d give good
money they were using their own efforts to perform some sort of ritual, or to
say just the right words, instead of simply praying in faith. Maybe Peter was waving his cloak about and
yelling “FIRE!!”, or maybe they were waiting for a Glory Cloud to appear
overhead and drop gold glitter and angel feathers all over them.
Faith is not some “energy” or “power”
that we wield to make things happen. That
is witchcraft. That is a New Age
teaching straight from Satan. Faith is a
simple trust that God is sovereign and will do what He knows is best. That’s it.
Unfortunately, this teaching that
signs and wonders will be the result of us wielding our faith and are necessary
to “bring God’s kingdom to earth” and get people converted has led to
incredible deception in the church today.
People are starting to believe that they can manifest things with the
power of positive thinking, that they can call on angels to do things for them,
that they can divine people’s futures and interpret omens – basically, that
they can “redeem” New Age practices for Jesus.
Yes, that is the blatant and unapologetic teaching of some of the
leaders of Bethel, Redding and other such mega-churches, especially in
Australia and the US. If you don’t
believe me, see Bethel’s book The Physics of Heaven for several examples
– and then do us all a favour and burn it.
A Pew Research study found that 61% of
Christians believe in at least one of four New Age beliefs: (1) psychics; (2)
that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects; (3) reincarnation; and (4)
astrology.[i] That is frightening and shows that Bible
illiteracy is rampant.
First of all, when the Pharisees asked
Jesus to show them a sign from Heaven, He replied, “A wicked and adulterous
generation looks for a sign” (Matthew 16:4).
In other words, seeking after signs and wonders is idolatry.
Secondly, Jesus notes that if people
won’t believe the word of the Lord straight from the Bible (in other words, the
Gospel, plain and simple), seeing signs and wonders will not help them to
believe. He tells the story of the rich
man and Lazarus to illustrate this (Luke 16:19–31): “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
listen to them,” says Abraham. “If they
do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.”
Thirdly, we cannot “redeem” New Age
practices, because they were never of God to begin with. Way back in Deuteronomy 18, God calls these
types of practices detestable; other translations say an abomination. He doesn’t tell the Israelites to “redeem”
the pagan practices of the Canaanites; He tells them to have nothing whatsoever
to do with them. Are we to “redeem”
child sacrifice for the Lord??
These “detestable” practices include
divination. Which brings me to Bethel
School of Supernatural Ministry and similar “supernatural schools” that are popping
up like weeds all over the world.
WELCOME TO HOGWARTS
If you’ve never heard of the sin of
Simony, chances are you have, nevertheless, read the passage of scripture (Acts
8:9–24) in which Simon the sorcerer comes to the disciples and offers them
money for the ability to lay hands on people and have them receive the Holy
Ghost. Peter strongly rebukes him: “May your money perish with you, because you
thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry,
because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord
in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.”
We cannot buy the gifts of God, but
there is a large sector of Christianity that is getting around this
inconvenience by charging to teach people how to “activate the gifts” that are
supposedly already inside them. A nice
little loophole, don’t you think?
Except that nowhere in the Bible does
it say we need to “activate” our spiritual gifts or “the anointing”. Nor do we need to “practise the presence” or learn
how to prophesy. When the prophets in
the Bible heard from God, there was no question about it: they knew it was Him. It was overwhelmingly powerful. Did Moses need to hang around burning bushes
until he finally heard the voice of the I Am?
Did Balaam’s donkey need to activate the gift of prophecy in herself?
Charismatic churches and “schools”
such as BSSM, otherwise known as Hogwarts (Yer a wizard, Harry!) are teaching
that a Christian can pray, look at someone, say the first thing that comes into
his or her head, and – hey presto! – we’re prophesying. Oh, as long as it’s a positive, encouraging
word, of course. That’s a sort of
control that has been put in place. If
anyone and everyone can prophesy, there’s the chance that what’s being said
doesn’t actually come from God, so, to make sure it’s all aboveboard, nobody is
allowed to say anything negative.
Clearly, nobody told the biblical
prophets that part. They were always
prophesying doom and gloom. Come to
think of it, nobody told Jesus, either. He
heavily criticised Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum and told them they would
be thrown down to Hades for their unrepentance (Matthew 11:20–24).
We’re also told that prophecy can be
wrong, because we’re all human and we make mistakes sometimes. Therefore, even if someone’s prophecy doesn’t
come true, it doesn’t mean they’re a false prophet. Yet the Bible sets out very clear guidelines
for prophets in Deuteronomy 18:21–22:
You may say to
yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by
the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of
the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message
the Lord has not spoken.
We’re so desperate to see signs and
wonders and to receive some sort of special, hidden knowledge from God that we’re
making all sorts of excuses for our carnal efforts. We have to be so very careful when we
attribute something to the Lord. I
cringe when I hear preachers saying right and left, “God told me” and
attributing words to Him as though He came and wrote them on the wall with a
disembodied finger.
What the Charismatic church today calls
“prophecy” or “a word of knowledge” – this stuff that Hogwarts and other
“prophecy schools” are teaching – has another name: divination.
When you enter the land
the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of
the nations there. Let no one be found
among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices
divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts
spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to
the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will
drive out those nations before you. You
must be blameless before the Lord your God.
(Deuteronomy 18:9–18.)
Former New Agers who are now saved,
such as the former queen of Angel Cards (tarot cards), Doreen Virtue, will tell
you that the techniques being taught by Kris Vallotton and co. at churches like
Bethel are exactly the same ones used by psychics, fortune-tellers and mediums. They’re not all just making stuff up or
performing cold readings. Many times
they’re completely accurate, too. That
doesn’t make it a good thing.
The excuse given by Christians who
practise is that it’s all about the spirit being contacted – the spirit behind
the practice. So New Agers and the like
are in contact with demonic spirits, but Christians are hearing from the Holy
Ghost. They’re guaranteed safety from
demons because they have the Holy Ghost in them.
That reasoning is faulty. If you’re pursuing practices that God clearly
and strictly forbids, why should He protect you from them? It follows, then, that if you are not
protected from interference by evil spirits, you cannot be sure that you’re not
being led astray by them. Remember that
they masquerade as angels of light. They
can be deadly accurate. They can make
you feel good . . . for a while.
I ask, where is
the evidence that all these supernatural happenings, as claimed by the
Charismatic mega-churches, are real? And
if they really are happening, why aren’t you going into hospital wards and
morgues and clearing them out? Why are
you letting hundreds or thousands die in hurricanes and landslides and earthquakes? Why aren’t you out there, flying around in
your private jets, ordering natural disasters to calm the heck down or get lost
before they hurt someone? (Yes, some
really do believe they can control the weather.) Why couldn’t you see that Todd Bentley was
having a full-on affair while you were prophesying glory and power over him? Why aren’t you predicting the stock market
and making tons of cash?
Where is the evidence for all these
modern-day signs and wonders and miracles?
Doreen Virtue’s analogy of it all as being a vast MLM/pyramid scheme is
so apt. We want to get people all
excited about what we’re selling (i.e. signs and wonders and Your Best Life Now),
so that they buy into it and both the church and the size of its coffers
increase. But there is no actual
product, so we have to keep prophesying that it’s coming (I’ve been hearing
that for 30 years), or claiming that it’s beginning to happen in deepest
darkest Africa, and providing new courses and types of training for those who
“aren’t yet operating in their gifts”. Once they’re hooked and convinced (i.e. deceived and self-deceived),
they recruit new people, who then get hooked and recruit new people, and – voila! We have a mega-church filled with people
barking and shaking and screaming in tongues and manifesting and making
declarations and convincing themselves that feelings are truth.
If I see one more person selling
“prophetic pants” or “prophetic jewellery”, I’ll puke.
LITTLE GODS
All of these ideas come out of
deception – the oldest deception of them all.
What exactly did Satan tempt Eve with?
You shall be like God.
It’s the sin he himself committed.
This idea of becoming like God is at
the root of all New Age beliefs, but it hasn’t stayed there, unfortunately. If you’ve ever heard Kenneth Copeland or
Creflo Dollar speak, you’ll have heard this idea of humans being “little gods”. Todd White teaches that we can and should live
without sin, just like Jesus, once we’re saved and that he, in fact, does
exactly that. I guess he forgot about
the sin of pride.
Oops – that’s right, we’re not
supposed to “touch God’s anointed” or “judge”, are we? Are we?
Take another look at the scriptures, in context. The Bible doesn’t say that at all. It tells us to call out false teachers and
avoid them.
This teaching that we are little gods
and that we can do whatever Jesus did on earth, because we are just like Him – i.e.
human – is an extension of an idea called kenosis. Bill Johnson of Bethel teaches kenosis,
although he’ll twist his own words to assure you that he doesn’t – that is, if he’ll even deign to speak to you.
Kenosis is the belief that Jesus put aside His divinity when he came to
earth and that He did not perform any of His miracles as God, but as a man
under the power of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore, believes Johnson (and many others in the New Apostolic
Reformation and Word of Faith movements), we can too.
I won’t get into all that, as it gets really
complicated. Suffice it to say that
kenosis is a heresy, and all this striving to perform signs and wonders,
command angels and tornados, hear new revelations from the Spirit (or any
spirit, really) and speak things into existence is a symptom of the desire to
be like God – the foundational sin.
We are wretched beings, and we deserve
nothing but hellfire. By His grace He
has granted us eternity in Heaven with Him, free of sin and sickness. We have no intrinsic worth or goodness, no
power to save ourselves, but He loves us enough that He suffered a horrific,
torturous death for us.
THE BIBLE SAYS WHAT?
The fruit of the Holy Ghost is
self-control. I’m not seeing that in
hyper-charismatic churches. I’m seeing
self-indulgence. I’m seeing carnality
and spiritism. I’m seeing what Matt
Redman calls “consumer worship”. I’m
seeing a desire for hidden knowledge, manifestations of power and new
revelations instead of intent study of the scriptures – the revealed Word of
God that is inerrant, active and sufficient. I’m seeing Gnostic and New Age ideas hidden behind
cherry-picked verses in sermons and books.
I’m seeing a distain for people who adhere to orthodox theology. I’m hearing the mocking of people who worship
God with all their minds, and constant encouragement to turn off our brains and
not get “bogged down” by doctrine and theology.
I’m hearing people who question these practices being told that they are
pharisees or that they have a religious spirit.
Most of all, I’m seeing biblical
illiteracy. I recognise it, because I’ve
been ignorant myself. This sickness has
given me the time to seek the truth – to turn to the Bible and investigate
those niggling feelings I’ve long had that what I’ve been taught isn’t right –
and for that I am very thankful.
Let’s go back to teaching the Bible
verse by verse, instead of ripping verses and phrases out of context to back up
our pop, feel-good messages. Let’s teach
people what the Bible really says about who God is, not what Joel Osteen or
Bill Johnson or Rick Warren or Oprah says.
Let’s help them to understand that, even if our fleeting time here on
earth is a complete dumpster fire, we have hope for a healthy and happy life in
Heaven for eternity because of what He has done for us. But let’s seek Him, not what we think He can
give us – not power, nor secret knowledge, nor miraculous healings. If He chooses to grant one to us – great, but it's merely an added bonus.
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name
perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from
me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
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